.

A
NEW AND REVISED EDITION

AN ENCYCLOP.AnDIA
OF

FREEMASONRY
AND

ITS KINDRED SOIENOES

COMPRISING

THE WHOLE RANGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND LITERATURE

AS CONNECTED WITH THE INSTITUTION
BY

ALBERT G. M.A.OKEY, M.D., 33

A.UTBOR 011 "TIIll HISTORY OJII li'REBHABONRY, ,, "LEXICON 011' FIUI:Bil'ASONBY. ,, "A TBXT-BOOX 01'
liUJIONIO JUIUSPBUDBliO&," "SYKBOLIBlll OF FKEmiASONBY," lll'l'O., liTO.

THIS NEW ...<\..ND REVISED EDITION

PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION, AND WITH
THE ASSISTANCE, OF THE LATE

Wl.LLI.AM J. HUGHAN, 32e

P.lST GRAND DEACON (ENGLAND), PAST GRAND 'WARDEN (IIGYPT), PAST GRAND 'WARDEN (IOWA), PAST
ASSISTANT GRAND SOJOURN&R (ENGLAND), ONE OF THE FOUND&RS QUATUOR CORONATI
LODG& (LONDON); AUTHOR OF "&NGLISH IIASONIO BIT&," "OLD OHARGIIS," &TOo

BY

EDW .A.RD L. HAWKINS, M.A., 30

PROVo 8. G. 'W. (SUSSEX), P. PBOV. 8. G. 'W. (OXFORDBHIR&), lo!EHBER QUATUOB CORONATI
LODGB (LONDON), AUTHOR OF "CONCISE OYCLOPA!lDIA OF FRKBIIASONRY"

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME I
PUBLISHED BY

THE MASONIC HISTORY COMPANY

NEW YORK AND LONDON
1914.

_, i

....

CoPYRIGHT, 1873 AND 1878, BY Moss & Co. AND A.

G.

MACKEY

REVISED EDITION, WITH ADDENDUM, COPYRIGHT, 1884, BY L. H. EVERTS &

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY, COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY L. H. EVERTS

COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY LOUIS

H: EVERTS &

Co.

CoPYRIGHT, 1909. BY THE MASONIC HISTORY CoMPANY

CoPYRIGHT, 1912, BY THE MASONIC HISTORY CoMPANY

Co.

---

--~--~-------

----

PREF.AOE
I ONCE delivered an address before a Lodge on the subject of the external
changes which Freemasonry had undergone since the period of its revival in
the commencement of the eighteenth century. The proper treatment of the
topic required a reference to German, to French, and to English authorities,
with some of which I am afraid that many of my auditors were not familiar.
At the close of the address, a young and intelligent brother inquired of me how
he could obtain access to the works which I had cited, and of many of which he
confessed, as well as of the facts that they detailed, he now heard for the
first time. It is probable that my reply was not altogether satisfactory~ for
I told him that I knew of no course that he could adopt to attain that knowledge except the one that had been pursued by myself, namely, to spend his
means in the purchase of Masonic books and his time in reading them.
But there are few men who have the means, the time, and the inclination
for the purchase of numerous books, some of them costly and difficult to be obtained, and for the close and attentive reading of them which is necessary to
master any given subject.
It was this thought that, years ago, suggested to me the task of collecting
materials for awork which would furnish every Freemason who might consult
its pages the means of acquiring a knowledge of all matters connected with the
science, the philosophy, and the history of his Order.
But I was also led to the prosecution of this work by a higher consideration. I had myself learned, from the experience of my early Masonic life,
that the character of the Institution was elevated in every one's opinion just in
proportion to the amount of knowledge that he had acquired of its symbolism,
philosophy, and history.
If Freemasonry was not at one time patronized by the learned, it was
because the depths of its symbolic science and philosophy had not been sounded.
If it is now becoming elevated and popular in the estimation of scholars, it
owes that elevation and that popularity to the labors of those who have studied
its intellectual system and given the result of their studies to the world.
The scholar will rise from the perusal of Webb's Monitor, or the Hieroglyphic
Chart of Cross, with no very exalted appreciation of the literary character of

PREFACE

the Institution of which such works profess to be an exponent. But should he

have met with even Hutchinson's Spirit of Masonry, or Town's Speculative
Masonry, which are among the earlier products of Masonic literature, he will
be conscious that the system which could afford material for such works must
be worthy of investigation.
Oliver is not alone in the belief that the higher elevation of the Order is
to be attributed "almost solely to the judicious publications on the subject of
Freemasonry which have appeared during the present and the end of the
last century." It is the press that is elevating the Order; it is the labor of
its scholars that is placing it in the rank of sciences. The more that is published by scholarly pens on its principles, the more will other scholars be attracted to its investigation.
At no time, indeed, has its intellectual character been more justly appreciated than atthe present day. At no time have its members generally cultivated its science with more assiduity. At no time have they been more zealous
in the endeavor to obtain a due enlightenment on all the topics which its system
comprehends.
It was the desire to give my contribution toward the elevation of the
Order, by aiding in the dissemination of some of that light and knowledge
which are not so easy of access, that impelled me years ago to commence the
preparation of this work-a task which I have steadily toiled to accomplish,
and at which, for several years, I have wrought with unintermitted labor
that has permitted but little time for other occupation, and none for recreation.
And now I present to my brethren the result not only of those years of toil,
but of more than thirty years of study and research-a work- which will, I
trust, or at least I hope, supply them with the materials for acquiring a knowledge of much that is required to make a Masonic scholar. Encyclopedic learning is not usually considered as more than elementary. But knowing that but
few Freemasons can afford time to become learned scholars in our art by an
entire devotion to its study, I have in important articles endeavored to treat the
subject exhaustively, and in all to give that amount of information that must
make future ignorance altogether the result of disinclination to learn.
I do not present this work as perfect, for I well know that the culminating
point of perfection can never be attained by human effort. But, under many
adverse circumstances, I have sought to make it as perfect as I could. Encyclopedias are, for the most part, the res11lt of the conjoined labor of many
writers. In this work I have had no help. Every article was written by
myself. I say this not to excuse my errors-for I hold that no author should
wilfully permit a.u error to pollute his pages-but rather to account for those

PREFACE

that may exist. I have endeavored to commit none. Doubtless there are some.
If I knew them, I would correct them; but let him who discovers them remember that they have been unwittingly committed in the course of an exhaustive
and unaided task.
For twelve months, too, of the time in which I have been occupied upon
this work, I suffered from an affection of the sight, which forbade all use of
the eyes for purposes of study. During that period, now happily passed, all
authorities were consulted under my direction by the willing eyes of my daughtet;s--,-all writing was done under my dictation by their hands. I realized for
a time the picture so often painted of the blind bard dictating his sublime
verses to his daughters. It was a time of sorrow for the student who could
not labor with his own organs in his vocation; but it was a time of gladness
to the father who felt that he had those who, with willing hearts, could come
to his assistance. To the world this is of no import; but I could not conscientiously close this prefatory address without referring to this circumstance so
gratifying to a parent's heart. Were I to dedicate this work at all, my dedication should be-To FILIAL AFFEOTION.
ALBERT G. MACKEY, :M.D.

;!...

\.

REVISER'S PREFACE
revision of this most comprehensive Encyclopedia has been a most
anxious and laborious task. I have endeavored to preserve as much as possible
of Dr. Mackey's work untouched, but at the same time to correct statements
which later investigations have shown to be unfounded; thus I have left all of
Dr. Mackey's opinions and theories unaltered.
All completely new articles, or old ones with many alterations, I, have
marked with my initials and I must take all responsibility for them, though
as far as possible they were submitted to Bro. Hughan for his approval.
I have to return hearty thanks for kind aid to the late Bro. Henry Sadler,
Librarian of the Grand Lodge of England; to Bro. W. J. Songhurst, Secretary
of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, London, England, for valuable advice and assistance on many points; to Bro. the Rev. M. Rosenbaum, P. Prov. G.
Chaplain of Northumberland, for help with Hebrew words; to Bro. John
Yarker, P. G. Warden of Greece, for information about the Antient and Primitive Rite; and to Bro. A. C. Powell, P. Prov. G. Sup. of Works of Bristol, for
the article on the Baldwyn Encampment.
EnwARD L. H.A.WKINS, M. A.
THE

St. Leonards-on-Sea, England, 1912.

PUBLISHERS' NOTE
IN presenting to the Fraternity this new and revised edition of The En~
oyclopedia of Freemasonry, we, also, wish to return hearty thanks to Bro. Edward E. Cauthorne, A. B., A. M., Brooklyn, N. Y., for his articles on Aitchison's-Haven Lodge, Catacombs, Comacine Masters, Como, etc., and to Bro.
A. G. Pitts, P.M. Detroit, Michigan; Bro. Robert A. Shirrifs, 33, of Elizabeth,
N.J.; Bro. Wm. J. Allen, G. H. G. L. of New York; Bro. Charles A. Brockaway, P. M. New York City, for their articles on Freemasonry in the United
States and Mexico; and to Bro. Will H. Whyte, 33, P. G. M. of Canada, ,for
his articles on Freemasonry in Canada.
T. M. H. Co.

A. (N, Aleph.) In the Accadian, Greek

Etruscan, Pelasgian, Gallic, Samaritan, and
Egyptian or Coptic1. of nearly the same formation as the English letter. It originally
meant with or together, but at present signifies
one. In most languages it is the initial letter
of the alphabet; not so, however, in the Ethiopian, where it is the thirteenth. The sacred
Aleph has the numerical value of one, and is
composed of two Yods, one on either side of
an inclined Vau. It is said to typify the
Trinity in Unity. The word Aleph signifies
"ox," from the resemblance to the head and
horns of that animal. The Divine name in
Hebrew connected with this letter is M"MN,
AHIH.
Aaron. Hebrew l'11"1N, Aharon, a word of
doubtful etymology, but generally supposed to
signify a mountaineer. He was the brother of
Moses1 and the first high priest under the Mosaic dispensation, whence the priesthood established by that lawgiver is known as the
"Aaronic." He is alluded to in the English
'lectures of the second degree, in reference to a
certain sign which is said to have taken its
origin from the fact that Aaron and Hur were
present on the hill from which Moses surveyed
the battle which Joshua was waging with the
Amalekites, when these two supported the
weary arms of Moses in an upright posture,
because upon his uplifted hands the fate of the
battle depended. See Exodus xvii. lQ-12.
Aaron is also referred to in the latter section
of the Royal Arch degree in connection with
the memorials that were deposited in the ark
of the covenant. In the degree of " Chief of
the Tabernacle," which is the 23d of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, the presiding officer
represents Aaron, and is styled " Most Excel. lent High Priest." In the 24th degree of the

AB

same Rite, or " Prince of the Tabernacle," the

second officer or Senior Warden also person
ates Aaron.
Aaron's Band. A degr~~ instituted in 1824,
in New York City, mainly :for social purposes,
and conferred in an independent body. Its
ceremonies were not dissimilar to tliose of
High Priesthood, which 3aused the Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the State to take urn
brage, and the small gathering dispersed.
Aaron's Bod. The method by which Moses
caused a miraculous iudgment as to which
tribe should be invested with the priesthood1 is
detailed in the Book of Numl;>ers (ch. xvh.).
He directed that twelve rods should be laid up
in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, one
for each tribe; that of Aaron;., of course, represented the tribe of Levi. un the next day
these rods were brought out and exhibited to
the people, and while all the rest remained dry
and withered, that of Aaron alone budded and
blossomed and yielded fruit. There is no
mention in the Pentateuch of this rod having
been placed in the ark but only that it was
put before it .. But a8 St. Paul, or the author
of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews ix. 4),
asserts that the rod and the: pot of manna were
both within the ark, Royal Arch Masons have
followed this later authori1;y. Hence the rod
of Aaron is found in the ark; but its import is
only historical, as if to identify the substitute
ark as a true copy of the original, which had
been lost. No symbolical instruction accompanies its discovery.
Ab. :at L The 11th month of the Hebrew civil year and col'lresponding to the
months July and August, beginning with the
new moon of the former. 2. It is also a Hebrew word, signifying father, and will be readily recognized by every Mason as a compo1

ABACISCUS

ABBREVIATIONS

nent part of the name Hiram Abif, which

A.. and A:. Ancient and Accepted.
literally means Hiram his father. (See Abif.)
A:. and A:. S:. R:. Ancient and AeAbaclscus. The diminutive of Abacus, cepted Scottish Rite.
and, in architecture, refers to the squares of
A.. and A.. R. . Ancient and Accepted Rite
the tessellated pavement or checkered flooring as used in England.
A:. F:. M:. Ancient Freemasons.
of the ground floor of the Solomonian Temple.
Abacus. A term which has been erroneA:. F:. and A:. M:. Ancient Free and
ously used to designate the official staff of the Accepted Masons.
Grand Master of the Templars. The word has
A:. Inv:. Anno Inventionis. In the Year
no such meaning; for an abacus is either a of the Discovery. The date used by Royal
table used for facilitating arithmetical calcu- Arch Masons.
lations1 or is in architecture the crowning plate
A.. L. . Anno Lucia. In the Year of Light.
of a column and its capital. The Grand Mas- The date used by Ancient Craft Masons.
ter's staff was a baculus, which see.
A:. L:. G:. D:. G:. A:. D:. L'U:. A la
Abaddon. A Hebrew word 11,::JN, signify- Gloire du Grand Architecte de l' Univers. To
ing destruction. By the Rabbis it is interpreted the Glory of the Grand Architect of the
as the place of destruction, and is the second of Universe. (French.) The usual caption of
the seven names given by them to the refP.on French Masonic documents.
of the dead. In the Apocalypse (ix. 11) 1t is
A:. L'O:. A l'Orient. At the East.
rendered by the Greek word 'A7ro'M.60J,, A poll- (French.) The seat of the Lodge.
yon, and means the destroyer. In this sense it
A:. M:. Anno Mundi. In the Year of the
is used as a significant word in the high de- World. The date used in the Ancient and
grees.
Accepted Rite.
Abazar. The title given to the Master of
A:. 0:. Anno Ordinis. In the Year of
Ceremonies in the Sixth Degree of the Modem the Order. The date used by Knights
French Rite.
Templars.
Abbreviations. Abbreviationsoftechnical
A:. Y:. M:. Ancient York Mason.
terms or of official titles are of very extensive
B.. A.. Buisson Ardente. Burning Bush.
use in Masonry. ',I'hey were, however, but
B:. Bruder. (German for Brother.)
B.. B.. Burning Bush.
rarely em}!loyed in the earlier Masonic publications. For instance, not one is to be foimd
B'n:. Brudern. (German for Brethren.)
in the first edition of Anderson's ConstituC:. C:. Celestial Canopy.
tions. Within a comparatively recent period
C.. H.. Captain of the Host.
they have greatly increased, especially among
D:. Deputy.
D:. G:. G:. H:. P:. Deputy General
French writers, and a familiarity with them is
therefore essentially necessary to the Masonic Grand High Priest.
student. Frequently, among English and alD:. G:. H:. P:. Deputy Grand High
ways among French authors, a Masonic ab- Priest.
breviation is distinguished bythreepointsh:.,
D:. G:. M:. Deputy Grand Master.
inatriangularformfollowingtheletter,w ich
D:. Prov:. G:. M:. DeputyProv. Grand
peculiar mark was first used, according to Master.
Ragon, on the 12th of August, 1774, by the . Dis:. D:. G:. M:. District Deputy Grand
Grand Orient of France, in an address to its Master. (England.)
subordinates. No authoritative explanation 1 D. D. G. M. (America.)
of the meaning of these points has been given,
E.. Eminent; Excellent.
but they may be supposed to refer to the three
E.. A.. Entered Apprentice or E.. A.. P..
lights around the altar, or perhaps more genE:. C:. Excellent Companion.
erally to the number three1 and to the triangle,
Ec:. Ecossaise. (French.) Scottish; beboth important symbols m the Masonic sys- longing to the Scottish Rite.
tern.
E:. G:. C:. Eminent Grand CommlllJ.der.
Before proceeding to give a list of the prinE:. V:. Ere Vulgaire. (French.) Vulgar
cipal abbreviations, it may be observed that Era; Year of the Lord.
the doubling of a letter is mtended to express
F:. Frere. Brother. (French.)
the plural of that word of which the single letF.. C.. Fellow-Craft.
ter is the abbreviation. Thus, in French.z...F:.
F:. M:. Freemason. Old Style.
signifies "Frere," or "Brother" and .I''F:.
G:. Grand.
"Freres," or "Brothers." And in English
G:. A:. S:. Grand Annual Sojourner.
L:. is sometimes used to denote "Lodge,'1 G:. A:. 0:. T:. U:. Great Architect of the
and LL:. to denote" Lodges." This remark is Universe.
made once for all, because I have not deemed
G.. C.. Grand Chapter; Grand Council.
it necessary to augment the size of the list of
G:. Com:. Grand Commandery; Grand
abbreviations by ins!lrting these P.lurals. If Commander.
the reader finds S:. G:. I:. to signify" SoverG:. D:. Grand Deacon.
eign Grand Inspector," he will be at no loss to
G:. D:. C:. Grand Director of Cereknow that SS:. GG:. II:. must denote " Sov- monies.
ereign Grand Inspectors."
G:. E:. Grand Encampment Grand East.
A:. Dep:. Anno Depositionis. In the Year
G:. G:. C:. General Grand 6hapter.
of the Deposit. The date used by Royal and
G:. G:. H:. P:. General Grand High
Select Masters.
Priest.

-------------~-----------------

'"'

~>'11"1<

.;< ,.,__

ABDIEI,

ABBREVIATIONS

-----

--- - - - - - - - -

G:. H:. P:. Grand High Priest.

R:. L:. or R:. CJ :. Respectable Loge.
G:. L:. Grand Lodge.
(French.) Worshipful Lodge.
G:. M:. Grand Master.
R:. S:. Y:. C:. S:. Rosy Cross (in the
G:. N:. Grand Nehemiah.
Royal Order of Scotland).
G:. 0:. Grand Orient; Grand Organist.
R:. W:. Right Worshipful.
G:. P:. Grand Pursuivant.
S:. Scribe.
G:. P:. S:. Grand Past Sojourner.
S:, C:. Supreme Council.
G:. R:. Grand Registrar.
S:. G:. I:. G:. Sovereign Grand Inspector
G:. R:. A:. C:. Grand Royal Arch Chap- General.
ter.
S:. P:. R:. S:. Sublime Prince of the Royal
G:. S:. Grand Scribe; Grand Secretary.
Secret.
G:. S:. B:. Grand Sword Bearer; Grand
S:. S:. Sanctum Sanctorum or Holy of
Standard Bearer.
Holies.
,
G:. T:. Grand Treasurer.
S:. S:. S:. Troi8 fois Salut. (French.)
H.. A.. B.. Hiram Abif.
Thrice _greeting. A common caption to
H.. E.. Holy Empire.
French Masonic circulars or letters.
H:. K:. T:. Hiram, King of Tyre.
S:. W:. Senior Warden.
H:. R:. D:. M:. Heredom.
T:. C:. F:. Tres Chere Frere. (French.)
Ill:. Illustrious.
Very Dear Brother.
I:. N:. R:. I:. Jesus Nazarenus, Rex
T:. G:. A:. 0:. T:. U:. The Great ArchiJudreorum. (Latin.) Jesus of Nazareth, King teet of the Universe.
oftheJews.
V:. or Ven:. Venerable. (French.) WorI:. P:. M:. Immediate Past Master. shipful.
(English.)
V:. D:. B:. Very Dear Brother.
I:. T:. N:. 0:. T:. G:. A:. 0.. T:. U:.
V:. D:. S:. A:. Veut Dieu Saint Amour,
In the Name of the Great Architect of the or Vult Dei Sanctus Animus. A formula
Universe. Often forming the caption of used by Knights Templar.
Masonic documents.
V:. L:. Vraie lumiere. (French.) True
J:. W:. Junior Warden.
light.
K:. King._ _
V:. W:. Very Worshipful.
K-H:. Kadosh, Knight of Kadosh.
W:. Worshipful.
K:. H:. S:. Knight of the Holy Sepulcher.
W:. M:. Worshipful Master.
K:. M:. ~ght of Malta.
CJ :. Lodge.
K. . S. . Kmg Solomon.
,
cJ .. Lodges.
K.. T.. Knights Templar.
Prefixed to the signa,ture of a Knights
L. . Lodge.
Templar or a member of the A. and A.
LL. . Loages.
Scottish Rite below the Thirty-third Degree.
Prefixed to the signature of a Grand
L. . R. . London Rank. A distinction inor Past Grand Commander of
troduced in England in 1908.
M:. Mason.
Knights Templar or a Mason of the
M:. C.. Middle Chamber.
Thirty-third Degree in the Bcottish Rite.
M:. E:. Most Eminent; Most Excellent.
Prefixed to the signature of a Grand
M:. E:. G:. H:. P:. Most Excellent Grand
or Past Grand Master of Knights
Higl:t Priest.
Templar and the Grand. ComM. . E.. G.. M. . Most Eminent Grand mander of the Supreme Council of the Ancient
Master (of Knights Templar).
and Accepted Scottish Rite.
M:. L:. Mere Loge. (French.) Mother
Abda. A word used in some of the high
Lodge.
degrees. He was the father of Adoniram.
M:. M:. Master Mason.
(See 1 Kings iv. 6.) Lenning is wrong in sayM:. M:. Moi8 Mar;onnique. (French.) ing that he is represented by one of the officers
Masonic Month. March is the first Masonic in the degree of Master in I!lrael. He has conmonth among French Masons.
founded Abda with his son. (Encyc. der
M:. W:. Most Worshipful.
Freimaur.)
M:. W:. S:. Most Wise Sovereign.
Abdamon. The name of the orator in the
0. . Orient.
Fourteenth Degree of the Rite of Perfection, or
OB:. Obligation.
the Sacred Vault of James VI. It means a serP:. Past.
vant, from ahad, "to servE>.," although someP:. G:. M:. Past Grand Master.
what corrupted in its transmission into the
P:. M:. Past Master.
rituals. Lenning sar,s it is the Hebrew HabProv. . Provincial.
damon, " a servant '; but, there is no such
Pro:. G:. M:. Pro-Grand Master.
word in Hebrew.
Prov:. G:. M:. Provincial Grand Master.
Abdiel. (Reb., Servant of God.) The
P:. S:. Principal Sojourner.
name of an angel mentioned by the Jewish
R:. A:. Royal Arch.
Kabbalists. He is represented in Milton's
R:. C:. orR:. t:. Rose Croix. Appended Paradise Lost, Book V., a.s one of the serato the signature of one having that degree.\ phim, who, when Satan triied to stir up a reR:. E:. Right Eminent.
volt among the angels subordinate to his
R:. F:. Respectable Frere. (French.) Wor- authority, alone and boldly withstood his
shipful Brother.
traitorous designs:

ABDITORIUM

ABIF

Among the faithless, faithful only he;

Among innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his lo~e, his zeal. (S94-7.)
The name Abdiel became the synonym of
honor and faithfulness.
Abdltorlum. A secret place for the deposit
of records-a Tabularium.
Abelltes. A secret Order which existed
about the middle of the 18th century in Germany, called also" the Order of Abel." The
o:ganization was in possession of peculiar
Blgns, words, and ceremonies of initiation,
but, according to Giidicke (Freimaurer Lexicon), it had no connection with Freemasonry.
According to Clave! the order was founded at
Griefswald in 1745.
Abercorn, Earl of. James Hamilton, Lord
Paisley, w~. named Grand Master of England
by the retiTmg G. Master, the Duke of Richmond, in 1725. He was at that time the
Master of a Lodge, and had served on the
Committee of Charity during that year. He
succeeded his father as Earl of Abercorn in
1734.
Abercorn, Duke of. Grand Master of Ireland 1874-85.
Aberdour, Lord. Grand Master of Scotland, 1755-6. Also of England 1757-61.
Ablb. The original name of the Hebrew
month Nisan, nearly corresponding to the
month of March the first of the ecclesiastical
1
year. Abib is trequently
mentioned in the
Sacred Scriptures, and signifies green ears of
corn or fresh fruits.
Ablbale. The name of the first Assassin in
the Elu of the Modern French Rite.
Derived most probably from the Hebrew
abi and balah, ~:JN and l';::l, which mean father
of destruction, though it is said to mean "le

ia to be considered simply as an appellative or

meurtrier du Pere."
Abide by. See Stand to and abide by.
Ablf (or Abl1r, or perhaps more correctly

Ablv). An epithet which has been applied in

Scripture to that celebrated builder who was
sent to Jerusalem by King Hiram, of Tyro to
superintend the construction of the Temple.
The word, w~ich in the original Hebrew is
,,:JN, and which may be pronounced Abiv or
Abif, is compounded of the noun in the construct-state '::lN, Abi, meaning "father"
and t~e pronominal su~x ,, which, with the
precedillg vowel sound IS to be sounded as iv
or if, and which means 1' his"; so that the word
thus compounded Abif literally and grammaticap.y signifies." hi~ father.-" The word is
found ill 2 Chrorucles IV. 16, ill the following
sentence: "The pots also, and the shovels
and the flesh hooks, and all their instruments'
did Huram his father make to King Solomon.' I
The latter part of this verse is in the original
as follows:
;,~;~
..,;~;
,~:lN
...
t

Bhelomoh

lamelech

'"'

Abif

.,,n

Huram

:'l!Z)l)
-gnasah

surname, he preserves the Hebrew form his

tr~slation being as follows: " Machte H~ram
~bif ~em Konige Salomo." The Swedish version IS equally exact, and, instead of " Hiram
his ~ather," gives us" Hyram Abiv." In the
Latm Vulgate, as in the English version the
words are rendered " Hiram pater ejus l. I
have little doubt that Luther and the Sw~dish
translator were correct in treating the word
Abif as an appellative. In Hebrew, the word
ab, or ~father," is often used, honoris causa,
as. a title of respe~t, and may then signify
fnend, _counselor1 unse man, or something else
of eqmva:Ient character. Thus, Dr. Clarke,
commentmg on the word abrech in Genesis
xli. 43, says: "Father seems to 'have been a
name of office, and probably father of the king
or father of Pharaoh might signify the same as
the king's minister among us." And on the
very passage in which this word Abif is used
he says: ":JN, father, is often used in H~
brew t? signify ma~ter, int!entor, chief operator."
Geseruus, the distmgmshed Hebrew lexico~apher, gives to this word similar significat10ns, such as benefactor, master teacher
!lll~ says that in the Arabic and the 'Ethiopi~
It IS spoken of one who excels in anything
This Idiomatic custom was pursued br, th~
later Hebrews, for Buxtorf tells us, in his ' Talmudic Lexicon," that " among the Talmudists
abba, father, was always a title of honor"
and he quotes the following remarks from' a
treatise of the celebrated Maimonides who
when speaking of the grades or ranks int~
which the Rabbinical doctors were divided
says: "The first class consists of those each
of .whom bears his own name, without any
title Gf honor; the second, of those who are
called Rabbanim; and the third, of those who
are called Rabbi, and the men of this class also
receive the cognomen of Abba, Father."
_Again, in 2 Chro~icles ii. 13, Hiram, the
Kmg of Tyre, referrmg to the same Hiram
the widow's son, who is spoken of subse~
quently in reference to King Solomon as " his
fat~er," or Abif in the passage already cited,
writes to Solomon: "And now I have sent a
cunning man, endued with understanding of
H?-ram my f~ther's." The only difficulty in
this sentence 18 to be found in the prefixing of
the letter lamed;, before Huram, which has
caused our translators, by a strange blunder
to render the words l' H uram abi as meaning
"of Huram my father's," *'instead of
"Huram my father." Luther has again taken
the correct view of this subject, and translates
the word as an appellative: "So sende ich
nun einen weisen Manni. der Berstand hat
H_uram Abif"; that is, " ~::So now I send you ~
Wise man who has understanding Huram
Abif." The truth, I suspect, is, altho~gh it has.
~sca~ed all the commentators, that the lamed
m this passage is a Chaldaism which is sometimes used by the later Hebrew writers, who

Luther has been more literal in his version

* It may be remarked that this could not be
of this passage than the English translators the true meaning, for the father of King Hiram
and appearing to suppose that the word Abij was not another Hiram, but Abibal.

ABIRAM

AB0RIGIN1~S

incorrectly employ ;, the sign of the dative

for the accusative after transitive verbs.
Thus, in Jeremiah (xl. 2), we have such a construction: vayikach rab tabachim l'Yremjjahu,
that is, literally, " and. the captain of the
guards took for Jeremiah," where the~. l, or
for, is a. Chaldaism and redundant, the true
rendering being, " and the captain of the
guards took Jeremiah." Other similar passages are to be found in Lamentations iv. 5,
Job v. 2 etc. In like manner I suppose the'
before Huram, which the English translators
have rendered by the preposition "of," to be
redundant and a Chaldaic form, the sentence
should be read thus: "I have sent a cunning
man, endued with understanding, Huram my
father"; or, if considered as an appellative,
as it should be, " Huram Abi.''
From all this I conclude that the word Ab,
with its different suffixes, is always used in the
Books of Kings and Chronicles, in reference to
Hiram the Builder, as a title of respect. When
King Hiram speaks of him he calls him " my
father Hiram" Hiram Abi; and when the
writer of the Book of Chronicles is speaking of
him and King Solomon in the same passage,
he calls him "Solomon's father'-" his
father" Hiram Abif. The only difference is
made by the different appellation of the pronouns my_ and his in Hebrew. To both the
kings of Tyre and of Judah he bore the honorable relation of Ab, or" father," equivalent to
friend, counselor, or minister. He was "Father
Biram." The Masons are therefore perfectly
correct in refusing to adopt the translation of
the English version, and in preserving, after
the example of Luther, the word Abif as an
appellative, surname, or title of honor and distmction bestowed upon the chief builder of
the Temple, as Dr. James Anderson sugges~s
in his note on the subject in the first edition (1723) of the Constitutions of the Free[E. L. H.]
masons.
A.blram. One of the traitorous craftsmen,
whose act of perfidy forms so important a part
of the Third Degree, receives in some of the
high degrees the name of Abiram Akirop.
These words certainly have a Hebrew look;
but the significant words of Masonry have1 in
the lapse of time and in their transmissiOn
through ignorant teachers, become so corrupted in form that it is almost impossible to
trace them to any intelligent root. They may
be Hebrew or they may be anagrammatized
(see Anagram); but iii is only chance that can
give us the true meaning wh1eh they undoubtedly have. The word "Abiram" means
"father of loftiness," and may have been
chosen as the name of the traitorous craftsman with allusion to the Biblical story of
Korah, Dathan and Abiram who conspired
against Moses and Aaron. (Numbers xvi.) In
the French ritual of the Second Elu it is F.laid
to mean murderer or assassin, but this would
not Beem to be correct etymologically.
Able. There is an archaic use of the word
able to signify suitable. Thus, Chaucer says
of a monk that" he was able to ben an abbot,"

that is, suitable to be an abbot. In this sense

the old manuscript Constitutions constantly
employ the word, as when they say that the
apprentice should be " able of Birth that is
ffree borne." (Lansdowne !VIS.)
Ablution. A ceremonial purification by
washing, much used in the Ancient Mysteries
and under the Mosaic dispensation. It is
also employed in some of the high degrees of
Masonry. The better technical term for this
ceremony is lustration, which see.
A.bnet. The band or apron, made of fine
linen, variously wrought, and worn by the
Jewish priesthood. It seems to have been
borrowed directly from the Egyptians upon
the representations of all of whose gods is to
be found a similar girdle. Like the zennaar,
or sacred cord of the Bra.hms~ns, and the white
shield of the Scandinavians, it is the analogue
of the Masonic apron.
Aborigines. A secret soctety which existed
in England about the year 1~783, and of whose
ceremony of initiation the folllowing acoount is
contained in the British Magazine of that date.
The presiding officer, who was styled the Original, thus addressed the candidate:
Original. Have you fahh enough to be
made an Original?
Candidate. I have.
Original. Will you be conformable to all
honest rules which may support steadily the
honor, reputation, welfare, nnd dignity of our
ancient undertaking?
Candidate. I will.
.
Original. Then, friend, promise me that
you will never stray from the paths of Honor,
Freedom, Honesty, Sincerity, Prudence, Modesty, Reputation, Sobriety, and True Friendship.
Candidate. I do.
Which done, the crier of the court commanded silence, and the ne~w member, being
uncovered, and dropping on his right knee,
had the following oath administered to him by
the servant, the new member laying his right
hand on the Cap of Honor, and Nimrod holdin~ a staff over his head:
' You swear by the Cap of Honor, by the
Collar of Freedom, by the Coat of Honesty, by
the Jacket of Sincerity, by the Shirt of Prudence, by the Breeches of Modesty, by the
Garters of Reputation, by the Stockings of
Sobriety, and by the Steps of True Friendship,
never to depart from these laws."
Then rismg, with the staff resting on his
head, he received a copy of the laws from the
hands of the Grand Original, with these words,
"Enjoy the benefits hereof."
He then delivered the copy of the laws to
the care of the servant, after which the word
was given by the secretary to the new member, viz.: Eden, signifying the garden where
ADAM, the great aboriginal, was formed.
Then the secretary invested him with the
sign, viz.: resting his right hand on his left
side, signifying the first conjunction of harmony.
It had no connection with Freemasonry,
but WIIB simply one of thoue numerous imita-

ABRAC

ABRAXAS

tive societies to which that Institution has

given rise.
Abrac. In the Leland MS. it is said that
the Masons conceal " the wey of ~ge
the facultye of Abrac." Mr. Locke (if it was
he who wrote a commentary on the manuscript) says1 "Here I am utterly in the dark."
It means srmply " the way of acquiring the
science of Abrac." The science of Abrac is
the knowledge of the power and use of the
mystical abraxas, which see; or very likely
" Abrac " is merely an abbreviation of Abracadabra.
Abracadabra. A term of incantation which
was formerly worn about the neck as an amulet against several diseases, especially the tertian ague. It was to be written on a triangular piece of parchment in the following form:
ABRACADABRA
ABRACADABR
ABRACADAB
ABRACADA
ABRACAD
ABRACA
ABRAC
ABRA
ABR
AB
A
It is said that it first occurs in the Carmen
de Morbi& et Remediis of Q. Serenus Sammonicus, a favorite of the Emperor Severus in the
2d and 3d centuries, and is generally supposed
to be derived from the word abraxas.
Abraham. The founder of the Hebrew nation. The patriarch Abraham is personated
in the degree or Order of High Priesthood,
which refers in some of its ceremonies to an
interesting incident in his life. After the
amicable separation of Lot and Abraham,
when the former was dwelling in the plain in
which Sodom and its neighboring towns were
situated, and the latter in the valley of Mamre
near Hebron, a king from beyond the Euphrates, whose name was Chedorlaomer, invaded lower Palestine, and brought several of
the smaller states into a tributary condition.
Amo~ these were the five cities of the plain,
to which Lot had retired. As the yoke was
borne with impatience by these cities, Chedorlaomer, accompanied by four other kings
who were probably his tributaries, attack;!
and defeated the kings of the plain, plundered
their towns, and carried their people away as
slaves. Among those who sUffered on this
occasion was Lot. As soon as Abraham
heard of these events, he armed three hundred
and eighteen of his slaves, and, with the assistance of Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, three
Amoritish chiefs, he pursued the retiring invaders, and having attacked them near the
Jordan, put them to flight, and then returned
with all the men and goods that had been recovered from the enemy. On his way back he
was met by the King of Sodom, and also by
Melchizedek, King of Salem, who was, like
Abraham~ a worshiper of the true God.
Melchizeaek refreshed Abraham and his peo-

pie with bread and wine, and blessed him. The

King of Sodom wished Abraham to give up the
persons, but retain the goods that he had recovered; however, Abraham positively refused
to retain any of the spoils, although, by the
customs of the age, he was entitled to them:
and declared that he had sworn that he woula
not take " from a thread even to a shoelatchet." (Genesis xiv.) Although the conduct
of Abraham in this whole transaction was of
the most honorable and conscientious character, the incidents do not appear to have been
introduced into the ritual of the High Priesthood for any other reason except that of their
connection with Melchizedek, who was the
founder of an Order of Priesthood.
Abraham, Antoine Firmin. A Mason
who made himself notorious at Paris, in the beginning of the present century1 by the manufacture and sale of false Masomc diplomas and
by trading in the higher degrees, from which
traffic he reaped for some time a plentiful harvest. The Supreme Council of France declared, in 1811, all his diplomas and charters
void and deceptive. He is the author of
L'Art du Tuileur, dedie d tous les M~ons
des deux hhnisphlres, a small volume of 20
pages, 8vo, printed at Paris in 1803, and he
published from 1800 to 1808 a periodical work
entitled Le Miroir de la verite, dedie d tous les
Mar;ons, 3 vola., 8vo. This contains many
interestin~ details concerning the history of
Masonry m France. In 1811 there was published at Paris a Circulaire du Supr2me Conseil du 33e degre, etc., relative d la vente, par
le Sieur Abraham de grades et cahiers Mar;onniques (8vo, 15 pp.), from which it is evident
that Abraham was nothing else but a Masonic
charlatan.
Abraxas. Basilides, the head of the Egyptian sect of Gnostics, taught that there were
seven emanations, or reons, from the Supreme
God; that these emanations engendered the
angels of the highest orderi that these angels
formed a heaven for thmr habitation, and
brought forth other angels of a nature inferior
to their own; that in time other heavens were
formed and other angels created, until the
whole number of angels and their respective
heavens amounted to 365, which were thus
equal to the number of days in a year; and,
finally,thatoveralltheseanomnipotentLordinferior, however, to the Supreme God-presided, whose name was Abraxas. Now this
word Abraxas, in the numerical force of its
letters when written in Greek, ABPA!i!A:::!l,
amounts to 365, the number of worlds in the
Basilidean system, as well as the number of
days in the year, thus: A, 1.:_:, B, 2 .. , P, IOO ..l
A, 1.., E:, 60 .. , A, 1.., :::!l 200 - 365. The goa
Abraxas was therefore a type or symbol of the
year, or of the revolution of the earth around
the sun. This mystical reference of the name
of a god to the annual period was familiar to
the ancients, and is to be found in at least two
other instances. Thus, among the Persians
the letters of the name of the god Mithrasl
and of Belenus among the Gauls, amountea
each to 365.

ACACIA

ABRAXAS
M= 40
5
10
9
=100
1
l = 200 = 365

E
I
8
p
A

B
H
A
E
N
0

2
8
30

50
70
= 200 = 365

The word Abraxas, therefore, f:r;om this

mystical value of the letters of which it was
composed, became talismanic, and was frequently inscribed, sometimes with and sometimes without other superstitious inscriptions,
on stones or gems as amulets, many of which
have been preserved or are continually being
discovered, and are to be found in the cabinets
of the curious.
There have been many conjectures among
the learned as to the derivation of the word
Abraxas. Beausobre (Histoire du Manicheisme, vol. ii.) derives it from the Greek,
'Af3cpos la,.,, signifying "the ma~ficent Saviour, he who heals and preserves. ' Bellermann
(Essay on the Gems of the Ancients) supposed
it to be compounded of three Coptic words
signifying " the holy word of blis.\t.' Pignorius
and Vandelin think it is composed of four
Hebrew and three Greek letters, whose numerical value is 365, and which are the initials of
the sentence: "saving men by wood, i.e. the
cross."
Abraxas Stones. Stones on which the
word Abraxas and other devices are engraved,
and which were used by the Egyptian Gnostics as amulets.
Absence. Attendance on the communications of his Lodge, on all convenient occasions,
is considered as one of the duties of every
Mason, and hence the old charges of 1722 ( ch.
iii.) say that " in ancient Times no Master or
Fellow could be absent from it [the Lodge]
especially when warn'd to appear at it, without incurring a severe censure, until it appear'd to the Master and Wardens that pure
Necessity hinder'd him." At one time it was
usual to enforce attendance by fines1 and the
By-Laws of the early Lodges contam lists of
fines to be imposed for absence, swearing and
drunkenness, but that usage is now discontinued, so that attendance on ordinary communications is no longer enforced by any sanction of law. It is a duty the discharge of
which must be left to the conscientious convictions of each Mason. In the case, however, of a positive summons for any express
purpose, such as to stand trial, to show cause,
etc., the neglect or refusal to attend might be
construed into a contempt, to be dealt with
according to its magnitude or character in
each particular case.
Acacia. An interesting and important
symbol in Freemasonry. Botanically, It is the
acacia vera of Tournefort, and the mimosa
nilotica of Linnreus, called babul tree in India.
It grew abundantly in the vicinity of Jerusalem} where it is still to be found, and is familiar m its modem use as the tree from which the
gum arabic of commerce is derived.
Oliver, it is true, says that " there is not the

smallest trace of any tree of the kind ~wing

so far north as Jerusalem" (Lrzndm.,ii., 149);
but this statement is refuted
by the authority of Lieutenant
Lynch, who saw it growing in
great abundance in Jericho,
and still farther north. (Exped. to Dead Sea, p. 262.) The,
Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, who
is excellent authority, says:
" The Acacia ( Shittim) tree,
AI Sunt, is found in Palestine
of different varieties; it looks
like the Mulberry tree, attams
a great height, and has a hard
wood. The gum which is obtained from it is the gum
arabic." (Descriptive Geography and Historical Sketch of Palestine.!. p. 308, Leeser's translation. Phila., 1850.) J::Schwarz was for sixteen
years a resident of Palestine, ~rn.d wrote from
personal observation. The testimony of Lynch
and Schwarz should, therefor~, forever settle
the question of the existence of the acacia in
Palestine.
The acacia is called in the Bible Shittim,
which is really the plural of Shittah 1 which
last form occurs once only in Isaiah xli.
19. It was esteemed a sacreil wood among
the Hebrews, and of it Moses was ordered
to make the tabernacle, the ark of the
covenant, the table for the shewbread, and the
rest of the sacred furniture. (Exodus xxv.xxvii.) Isaiah ( l. c.) in recounting the promises
of God's mercy to the Israelite!! on their return
from the captivit:y,~, tells them that1 among
other things, he wiu plant in the wilderness,
for .their relief and refreshment, the cedar, the
acacia (or, as it is rendered iin our common
version, the shittah), the fir, a:nd other trees.
The first thing, then, that we notice in this
symbol of the acacia, is that it had been always
consecrated from among the Q1Gher trees of the
forest by the sacred purposes to which it was
devoted. By the Jew, the tJree from whose
wood the sanctuary of the tabernacle and the
holy ark had been constructed would ever be
viewed as more sacred than ordinary trees.
The early Masons, therefore, very naturally
appropriated this hallowed plant to the equally
sacred purpose of a symbol, which was to teach
an important divine truth in aU ages to come.
Having thus briefly disposed of the natural
history of this plant, we may :now proceed to
examine it in its symbolic relations.
First. The acacia, in the mythic system of
Freemasonry, is preeminently the symbol of
the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUJ:r-that important doctrine which it is the great design of the
Institution to teach. As the evanescent nature
of the flower, which " cometh forth and is
cut down," reminds us of the transitory nature of human life, so the perpetual renovation
of the evergreen plant, which lminterruptedly
presents the appearance of youth and v1gor1 IS
aptly compared to that spiritual life in wh1ch
the soul, freed from the corruptible companionship of the body, shall eri,joy an eternal
spring and an immortal yc:n~th. R~nce. ill

ACACIA

ACACIA

the impressive funeral service of our Order, it

is said that " this evergreen is an emblem of
our faith in the immortality of the soul. By
this we are reminded that we have an immortal part within us, which shall survive the
grave, and which shall never, never, never
die." And again, in the closing sentences of
the monitorial lecture of the Third Degree, the
same sentiment is repeated, and we are told
that by " the ever-green and ever-living
sprig " the Mason is strengthened " with confidence and composure to look forward to a
blessed immortality." Such an interpretation
of the symbol is an easy and a natural one;
it suggests itself at once to the least reflective
mind; and consequently, in some one form or
another, is to be found existing in all ages and
nations. It was an ancient custom-which
is not, even now, altogether disused-for
mourners to carry in their hands at funerals a
sprig of some evergreen, generally the cedar or
the cypress, and to deposit it in the grave of
the deceased. According to Dalcho, * the
Hebrews always planted a sprig of the acacia
at the head of the grave of a departed friend.
Potter tells us that the ancient Greeks " had a
custom of bedecking tombs with herbs and
flowers." t All sorts of purple and white flowers were acceptable to the deadi but principally the amaranth and the myrt e. The very
name of the former of these plants, which signifies" never fading," would seem to indicate
the true symbolic meaning of the usage, although archeologists have generally supposed
it to be simply an exhibition of love on the part
of the survivors. Ragon says that the ancients
substituted the acacia for all other plants because they believed it to be incorruptible, and
not liable to injury from the attacks of any
kind of insect or other animal-thus symbolizing the incorruptible nature of the soul.
Hence we see the propriety of placing the
sprig of acacia, as an emblem of immortality,
among the symbols of that degree, all of whose
ceremonies are intended to teach us the great
truth that " the life of man regulated by morality, faith, and justice, ;ID be rewarded at its

closing hour by the prospect of Eternal

Bliss."* So, therefore, says Dr. Oliver, when
the Master Mason exclaims " my name is
Acacia," it is equivalent to saying, " I have
been in the grave--l have triumphed over it
by rising from the dead-and being regenerated in the process, I have a claim to life everlasting." (See Landmarks, ii.,151, note 27.)
The sprig of acacia, then, in its most ordinary signification, presents itself to the Master
Mason as a symbol of the immortality of the
soul, being intended to remind him, by its
ever-green and unchanging nature, of that
better and spiritual part within us1 which, as
an emanation from the Great Architect of the
Universe can never die. And as this is the
most ordinary, the most generally accepted
signification, so also is it the most important;
for thus, as the peculiar symbol of immortality, it becomes the most appropriate to an
Order all of whose teachings are intended to
inculcate the great lesson that " life rises out
of the grave." But incidental to this the acacia.
has two other interpretations which are well
worthy of investigation.
,
Secondly, then, the acacia is a symbol of
INNOCENCE. The symbolism here is of a peo
culiar and unusual character, depending not
on any real analogy in the form or use of the
symbol to the idea symbolized, but simply on
a double or compound meaning of the word.
For lllc""l" in the Greek language, signifies
both the plant in question and the moral quality of innocence or purity of life. In this sense
the symbol refers, primarily1 to him over
whose solitary grave the acaCia was planted,
and whose virtuous conduct, whose integrity
of life and fidelity to his trusts have ever been
presented as patterns to the craft, and consequently to all Master Masons, who, by this
interpretation of the symbol, are invited to
emulate his example.
Hutchinson1 indulging in his favorite theory
of Christianizmg Masonry, when he comes to
this signification of the SlJDbol, thus enlar~es
on the interpretation: "We Masons, descrlhing the deplorable estate of religion under the
Jewish law, speak in figures:-' Her tomb was
in the rubbish and filth cast forth of the temple, and ACACIA wove its branches over her
monument;' a~e~~~tle~ being the Greek word
for innocence, or being free from sin; implying
that the sins and corruptions of the old law,
and devotees of the Jewish altar, had hid religion from those who sought her, and she was
only to be found where INNOCENCE survived,
and under the banner of the divine Latnb;
and as to ourselves profeBBing that we were
to be distinguished by our ACACY, .or as true
ACACIANS in our religious faith and tenets." t
But, lastly, the acacia is to be considered as
the symbol of INITIATION, This is by far the
most interesting of its interpretations, and was,
we have every reason to believe, the primary
and original; the others being but incidental.
*Dr. Crucefix, MS. quoted by Oliver. Lafld.

* "This custom among the Hebrews arose

from this circumstance. Agreeably to their
laws, no dead bodies were allowed to be interred
within the walls of the City; and as the Cohens,
or Priests, were prohibited from crossing a grave,
it was necessary to place marks thereon, that
they might avoid them. For this purpose the
Acasia was used." (Dalcho, Srut Oration, p. 23,
note.) I object to the reason assigned by Dalcho,
but of the existence of the custom there can be no
question, notwithstanding the denial or doubt
of Dr. Oliver. Blount (Travel8 in the Levant,
p. 197) says, speaking of the Jewish burial customs, "those who bestow a marble stone over
any [grave} have a hole a yard long and a foot
broad, in which they plant an ever(l?'een, which
seems to grow from the body and is carefully
watched." Hasselquist (Travel8, p. 28) confirms
his testimony. I borrow the citations from
Brown (Antiquitie8 of the Jews, vol. ii., p. 356),
but have verified the reference to Hasselquist.
The work of Blount I have not been enabled to marks, ii., 2.
oonsult.
t Hutchinson's Spirit of MaW1J. Leot.
t ..tnnquitiel of Greece, p. 669.
p. 160, ed. 1776.

IX.~

ACACIAN

ACADEM1i!

It leads us at once to the investigation of the

significant fact that in all the ancient initiations and religious mysteries there was some
plant peculiar to each, which was consecrated
by its own esoteric meaning1 and which occupied an important position m the celebration
of the rites, so that the plant, whatever it
might be, from its constant and prominent use
in the ceremonies of initiation, came at length
to be adopted as the symbol of that initiation.
Thus, the lettuce was the sacred plant which
assumed the ~lace of the acacia m the mysteries of Adorns. (See Lettuce.) The lotus was
t.hat of the Brahmanical rites of India, and
from them adopted by the Egyptians. (See
Lotus.) The Egyptians also revered the erica
or heath; and the mistletoe was a mystical
~lant among the Druids. (See Erica and Mistletoe.) And, lastly1 the myrtle performed the
same office, of symoolism in the mysteries of
Greece that the lotus did in Egypt or the mistletoe among the Druids. (See Myrtle.)
In all of these ancient mysteries, while the
sacred plant was a symbol of initiation, the
initiation itself was symbolic of the resurrection to a future life, and of the immortality
of the soul. In this view, Freemasonry is to us
now in the place of the ancient initiations, and
the acacia is substituted for the lotus, the erica,
the ivy, the mistletoe, and the myrtle. The
lesson of wisdom is the same-the medium
of imparting it is all that has been changed:
Returning, then, to the acacia, we find that
it is ca{>able of three e:q>lanations. It is a sym
bol of unmortality, of mnocence, and of initiation. But these three significations are closely
connected, and that connection must be observed, if we desire to obtain a just interpretatio.n of the symbol. Thus, in this one symbol, we are taught that in the initiation of life,
of which the initiation in the Third Degree is
simply emblematic, innocence must for a
time lie in the grave, at length, however, to be
called, by the word of the Great Master of the
Universe, to a blissful immortality. Combine
with this the recollection of the place where
the sprlg of acacia was planted-Mount
Calvary-the place of sepulture of him who
" brought life and immortality to light," and
who, in Christian Masonry, is designated, as
he is in Scripture, as " the lion of the tribe of
Judah"; and remember, too, that in the mystery of his death, the wood of the cross takes
the place of the acacia, and in this little and
apparently insignificant symbol, but which is
really and truly the most important and significant one in Masonic science, we have a
beautiful suggestion of all the mysteries of
life and death, of time and eterruty, of the
present and of tne future.
Acactan. A word introduced by Hutchinson, in his Spirit of Masonry, to designate
a Freemason m reference to the akakia, or innocence with which he was to be distinguished,
from the Greek word ateatcl<&. (See the precedinl' article.) The Acacians constituted an
heret1cal sect in the primitive Christian
Church, who derived their name from Acacius, Bishop of Cresareaj and there was sub

sequently another sect of the same name

Acacius, Patriarch of Constantinople. But it
is needless to say that the Hutchinsonian ll-P
plication of the word Acacian to signify a
Freemason has nothing to do with the theological reference of the term.

Academle des Wumlnes d'Avlgnon. A

Hermetic system of philosophy, created in 1785.

Academy. The Fourth Degree of the
Rectified Rose Croix of Schroeder.

Academy of Ancients or of Secrets.

( Academie des Secreta.) A I!O(liety instituted at

Warsaw, in 1767, by M. Thoux de Salverte,

and founded on the principles of another

which bore the same name., and which had
been established at Rome, ltbout the end of
the 16th century1 by John Baptiste Porta.
The object of the Institution was the advancement of the natural sciences and their application to the occult philosophy.
Academy of Sages. An order which existed in Sweden in 1770, deriving its origin from
that founded in London by Blias Ashmole, on
the doctrines of the New Aaantis of Bacon. A
few similar societies were subBequentlyfounded
in Russia and France, one eEipecially noted by
Thory (Act. Lat.) as having been established
in 1776 by the mother Lodge of Avignon.
Academy of Secrets. Bee Academy of
Ancients.

Academy of SubUme Ml,sters of the Luminous Bing. Founded in France, in 1780,

bT Baron Blaerfindy, one of 1;he Grand Officers

o the Philosophic Scotch Rite. The Academy

of the Luminous Ring was dedicated to the
philosophy of Pythagoras, and was divided
mto three degrees. The first and second were
principally occupied with the history of Freemasonry, and the last with 1;he dogmas of the
Pythagorean school, and their application to
the highest grades of science. The historical
hypothesis which was sought to be developed
in this Academy was that Pythagoras was the
founder of Freemasonry.
Academy of True Masons. Founded a~
:Montpelier, in France, by Dom Pernetty in
1778, and occupied with in:structions in hermetic science, which were developed in six
degrees, vis.: 1. The True MasonL ~- The
True Mason in the Right Way; 3. Knight of
the Golden Key ; 4. Knight of Irisj 5.
Knildlt of the Argonauts; 6. Knight ot the
Golden Fleece. The de~ees thus conferred
constituted the Philosophic Scotch Rite, which
was the system adopted by the Academy. It
afterward changed its name to that of RussoSwedish Academy, which circumstance leads
Thory to believe that it wB~ connected with
the Alchemical Chapters w:hich at that time
existed in Russia and Sweden. The entirely
hermetic character of the Academy of True
Masons may readily be perceived in a few paragraphs cited by Clavel (p. 172, 3d ed., 1844)
from a discourse by Goyer de Jumilly at the
installation of an Academy in Martinique.
"To eeil'le," says the orato:r, "the graver of
Hermes to engrave the da<rn.rines of natural
philosophy on your column1~; to call Flamel,
the Philalete, the Q)emopolite, a.nd our other

10

ACADEMY

ACCEPTED

masters to my aid for the purpose of unveiling

the mysterious principles of the occult sciences,-these, illustrious knights, appear to be
the duties imposed on me by the ceremony of
your installation. The fountain of Count
Trevisan, the pontifical water, the peacock's
tail, are phenomena with which you are fam illar. "
Academy, Platonic. Founded in 1480 by
Marsilius Ficinus, at Florence, under the patronage of Lorenzo de Medicis. It is said by
the Masons of Tuscany to have been a secret
society, and is supposed to have had a Masonic
character, because in the hall where its members held their meetings, and which still remains, many Masonic symbols are to be found.
Clavel (p. 85, 3d ed., 1844) supposes it to have
been a society founded by some of the honorary members and patrons of the fraternity
of Freemasons who existed in the Middle
Ages, and who, havin~ abandoned the material design of the institution, confined themselves to its mystic character. If his suggestion be correct, this is one of the earliest
instances of the separation of Speculative
from Operative Masonry.
Acanthus. A plant, described by Dioscorides, with broad, flexible, prickly leaves,
which perish in the winter and sprout again at
the return of spring. It is found in the Grecian islands on the borders of cultivated fields
or gardens, and is common in moist, rocky situations. It is memorable for the tradition
which assigns to it the origin of the foliage
carved on the capitals of Corinthian and Composite columns. Hence, in architecture, that
part of the Corinthian capital is called the
Acanthus which is situated below the abacus,
and which, having the form of a vase or bell, is
surrounded by two rows of leaves of the acanthus plant. Callimachus, who invented this
ornament, is said to have had the idea suggested to him by the following incident. A
Corinthian maiden who was betrothed, fell ill,
and died just before the appointed time of her
marriage. Her faithful and grieving nurse
placed on her tomb a basket containing many
of her toys and jewels, and covered it with a
flat tile. It so happened that the basket was
placed immediately over an acanthus root,
which afterward grew up around the basket
and curled over under the superincumbent
resistance of the tile, thus exhibiting a form of
foliage which was, on its being seen by the
architect1 adopted as a model for the capital of
a new oraer; so that the story: of affectiOn was
perpetuated in marble. Dudley (Naology, p.
164) thinks the tale puerile, and supposes that
the acanthus is really the lotus of the Indians
and Egyptians, and is symbolic of laborious
but effectual effort applied to the support of the
world. With him, the symbolism of the acanthus and the lotus are identical. See Lotus.
Accepted. The Worshipful Company of
Masons of the City of London-a flourishing
Guild at the present day-possesses as its earliest document now existing an account book
headed

The Accompte of James Gilder Mr (Master) William Ward c! John Abraham wardens
of the Company of ffremasons wthin the Citie
of London beginninge the first day of Julie
1619 And endinge the
day of Julie }.620
of all receite & payment for & to the use the
same company as ffolloweth, viz."
From the entries in this book it appears
that besides the ordinary Freemen and Liverymen of this Company there were other members who are termed in the books the " Accepted Masons," and that they belonged to a
body known as the "Accepcon," or Acception, which was an Inner Fraternity of Speculative Masons.
Thus in the year 1620 the following entry is
found:
" They charge themselves also wth Money
Receyued of the Psons hereafter named for
theyr gratuitie at theyr acceptance into the
Lyvery viz" (here follow six names); and
among the accounts for the next year (1621)
there is an entry showing sums received from
several persons, of whom two are mentioned
in the entry of 1620, " Att the making masons," and as all these mentioned were already
members of the Company something further
must be meant by this.
In 1631 the following entry of the Clerk's
expenses occurs: "Pd in goeing abroad & att
a meeteing att the hall about ye Masons yt
were to bee accepted VIs VId."
Now the Company never accepted its members; they were always admitted to the freedom either by apprenticeship, patrimony, or
redemption. Thus the above entries suggest
that persons who were neither connected with
the trade nor otherwise qualified were required, before being eligible for election on the
livery of the Company, to become " Accepted
Masons," that is, to join the Lodge of Speculative Masonry that was held for that purpose
in the Company's Hall.
Thus in the accounts for 1650, payments are
entered as made by several persons " for coming on the Liuerie & admissiOn uppon Acceptance of Masonry," and it is entered that Mr.
Andrew Marvi!:iu1~~ present warden, and another paid 20 gs each " for coming on
the Accepcon"; while two others are entered
as/aying 40 shillings each "for the like,"
an as the names of the last two cannot be
found among the members of the Masons
Company it would seem as if it was possible
for strangers to join " the Accepcon " on
paying double fees.
Unfortunately no books connected with
this Acception, or Lodge, as it may be called,
have been preserved: but there are references
to it in several places in the account books
which show that the payments made by newly
accepted Masons were paid into the funds of
the Company, that some or all of this amount
was spent on a banquet and the attendant
expenses, and that any further sum required
was paid out d the ordinary funds of the
Company, proving that the Company had
entire control of the Lodge and its funds.
Further evidence of tho existence of this

"1620.

ACCEPTED
Symbolical Lodge within the Masons Company is given by the following entry in an inventory of the Company's property made in
1665:
"Item. The names of the Accepted Masons in a faire inclosed frame with lock and
key"; and in an inventory of 1676 is found:
a Item. One book of the Constitutions of
the Accepted Masons.*
"A frure large table of the Accepted Masons." And proof positive of its existence
is derived from an entry in the diary of
Elias Ashmole-the famous antiquary-who
writes:
"March lOth. 1682. About 5 p.m. I received a summons to appear at a Lodge to be
held next day at Masons Hall London.
March 11th. Accordingly I went and
about noon were admitted into the Fellowship
of Free Masons: Sir William Wilson Knight,
Capt. Rich Borthwick, Mr Will Woodman,
Mr Wm Grey, Mr Samuell Taylour, and Mr
William Wise. t
I was the Senior Fellow among them (it
being 35 years since I was admitted)."
He then mentions the names of nine others
who were present and concludes: "We all
d,Y.Ded at the halfe Moone Taverna in Cheapestde1 at a noble dinner prepaired at the charge
of tne New-Accepted Masons."
All present were members of the Masons
Company except Ashmole himself, Sir W.
Wilson and Capt. Borthwick and this entry
proves conclusively that side by side with the
Masons Company there existed another organization~ which non-members of the Company were admitted and the members of which

were known as "Accepted Masons."

It may here be mentioned that Ashmole
has recorded in his diary that he was made a
Freemason at Warrington in Lancashire on
October 16, 1646. In that entry the word
"Accepted" does not occur.
No mention is made of the Accepted Masons
in the accounts of the Masons Company after
1677, when 6-the balance remaining of the
last Accepted Masons' money-was ordered
to be laid out for a new banner; and it would
seem that from that time onward the Lodge
kept separate accounts1 for from the evidence
of Ashmole's diary we know it was at work in
1682; but when and why it finally ceased no
evidence is forthcoming to show. However,
it may fairly be assumed that this Masons
Hall Lodge had ceased to exist before the Revival of Freemasonry in 1717, or else Anderson would not have said in the Constitutions of
1723 {J?. 82) : "It is generally believ' d that
the Sala Company (i.e. the London Company
of Freemen Masons) is descended of the an-

*No doubt this was a cop;r of one of the

Old
.

Charges.

tIn the edition of Ashmole's diary published

in 1774 this was changed into "I went, and about
noon was admitted . . . by Sir William Wilson
&c." an error which has misled many Masonic
historians. See Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol. xi.,
p. 6, for a facsimile of the entry as in the original
diary.

ACCEPTED

11

cient Fraternity; and that in former Timee no

Man was made Free of that Company until
he was install'd in some Lodge of Free and
Accepted Masons as a necessary Qualification. But that laudable Practice seems to
have been long in Desuetude," which passage
would indicate that he was awf~e of some tradition of such a Lodge as has been described
attached to the Masons Company admitting
persons in no way operatively connected with
the craft, who were called "Accepted Masons" to distinguish them from the Operative
or Free Masons. (Conder's Hole Craft and
Fellowship of Masonry and A1'8 Quatuor Coronatorum, vol. ix.)
Anderson in the 1738 Constitution& quotes
from a copy of the old Constitution& some regulations which he says were made in 1663, and
in which the phrases accepted a Free Mason
and Acceptation occur several times. These
regulations are found in what iis known as the
Grand Lodge MS. No.2, whilch is supposed
to have been written about the middle of
the 17th century, so that Anderson's date in
which he follows the Roberts Old Constitution&
printed in 1722 as to the y~~ar, though he
changes the day from December 8th to December 27th, may quite possibly be correct. And
Bro. Conder (Hole Craft 1 p. 11) calls special attention to these regulatiOns oil account of the
singular resemblance that one of them bears
to the rules that govern the Masons Company,
The extracts g1ven above from the books of
the Masons Company, the 1663 Regulations
(if that date be accepted), and the quotation
from Ashmole's diary, are the earliest known
instances of the term "Accepted" Masons
for although the Inigo Jones MS. is head;!
"The Antient Const1tutions of the Free and
Accepted Masons 1607," yet there is a consensus of opinion among experts that such date
is impossible and that the MS. is really to be
referred to the end of the 17th century or even
the beginning of the 18th; a11d the next instance of the use of the term is in 1686 when
Dr. Plot in The Natural Hislmy of Staffordshire wrote with reference to the secret signs
used by the Freemasons of his time "if any
man appear, though altogether unknown, that
can shew any of these signee to a Fellow of the
Society whom they otherwise call an Accepted Mason, he is obliged preeently to come
to him from what company or place soever he
be in, nay, though from the top of steeple."
Further, in 1691, John Aubrey, author of
The Natural History of Wilt8hire, made a
note in his MS. "This da.:y (May 18, 1691) is a.
great convention at St. Paull! Church of the
fraternity of the free Mason~s," in which he
has erased the word free and substituted aocepted, which, however, he chartged into adopted
in his fair copy.
In the "Orders to be obsened by the Company and Fellowship of Fl'i~ma.sons att a
Lodge held at'Alnwick, Septr . 29, 1701 being
the Genll Head Meeting Da.y,"we find:' 1There
shall noe apprentice after he have 861'Ved
seaven years be admitted or ac~t~ but
upon the Feast of St. Michael1~he Ar
gell,"

12

ACCLAMATION

ACHISBAR

And from that time onward the term Accepted Masons becomes common, usually in
connection with Free: the term Free and Acce~ted Masons thus signifying both the Operative members who were free of their 2iilld
and the Speculative members who had been
accepted as outsiders. Thus the Roberts Print
of 1722 is headed, " The Old Constitutions belonging to the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons," and in
the Constituti<ms of 1723 Anderson speaks of
wearing " the Badges of a Free and Accepted
Mason" (p. 48) and uses the phrase in Rule
27, though he does not use the phrase so frequently as in the 1738 edition in which " the
Charges of a Free-Mason " become " the old
Charges of the Free and Accepted Masons,"
the " General Regulations " become " The
General Regulations of the Free and Accepted Masons, and regulation No.5." "No
man can be made or admitted a Member "
becomes "No man can be accepted a Mem
ber," while the title of the book is " The new
book of Constitutions of the Antient and
Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted
Masons " instead of " The Constitutions of
the Free-Masons," as in the earlier edition.
[E. L. H.]
Acclamation. A certain form of words
used in connection with the battery. In the
Scottish rite it is hoshea; in the French vivat;
in Adoptive Masonry it was Eva; and in the
rite of Misraim, hallelujah. (See Battery.)
Accolade. From the Latin ad and collum,
around the neck. It is generally but incorrectly supposed that the accolade means the
blow given on the neck of a. newly created
knight with the flat of the sword. The best
authorities define it to be the embrace1 accom
panied with the kiss of peace, by wnich the
new knight was at his creation welcomed into
the Order of Knighthood by the sovereign or
lord who created him. (See Knighthood.)
Accord. We get this word from the two
Latin ones ad cor, to the heart, and hence it
means hearty consent. Thus in Wiclif's translation we find the phrase in Philippians, which
in the Authorized Version is " with one accord," rendered " with one will with one
heart." Such is its signification in the Masonic
formula, " free will and accord," that l!lJ "free
will and hearty consent." (See Free will and

erally held that an unaffiliated Mason is no

more competent to prefer charges than a profane.
In consequence of the Junior Warden being
placed over the Craft during the hours of refreshment, and of his being charged at the
time of his installation to see " that none of
the Craft be suffered to convert the purposes
of refreshment into those of intemperance and
excess," it has been very generally supposed
that it is his duty1 as the prosecuting officer of
the Lodget to preler charges against ant:=
ber who, oy his conduct, has made
lf
amenable to the penal jurisdiction of the
Lodge. We know of no ancient regulation
which imposes this unpleasant duty upon the
Junior Wardenj but it does seem to be a very
natural deduction, from his peculiar prerogative as the custos morum or guardian of the
conduct of the Craft, that in all cases of violation of the law he should, after due efforts
toward producing a. reform, be the proper
officer to bring the conduct of the offending
brother to the notice of the Lodge.
Aceldama, from the S_yro-Chaldaic, meaning field of blood, so called because it was purcha.Bed With the blood-money which was Qaid
to Judas Iscariot for betraying his Lord. It is
situated on the slope of the hills beyond the
valley of Hinnom and to the south of Mount
Zion. The earth there was believed, by early
writers, to have possessed a corrosive q_uality,
by means of which bodies deposited in It were
quickly consumed; and hence it was used by
the Ciusaders, then by the Knights Hospital
ers, and afterward by the Armenians, as a.
place of sepulture, and the EmpreBB Helena is
said to have built a charnel-house in its midst.
Dr. Robinson (Biblical Researches, i. p. 524)
says that the field is not now mark;;i by any
boundary to distinguish it from the rest of the
field, and the former charnel-house is now a.
ruin. The field of Aceldama is referred to in
the ritual of the Knights Templars.
Acerrellos, B. S. A nom de plume a.BBumed
by Carl RoBBler, a. German Masonic writer.

Accord.)

Accuser. In every trial in a Lodge for an

offense against the laws and regulations or the
principles of Masonry any Master Mason may
be the accuser of another, but a profane can
not be permitted to prefer charges against a.
Mason. Yet, if circumstances are known to a
profane upon which charges ought to be predicated, a Master Mason may avail himself of
that information, and out of it frame an a.ccusation to be presented to the Lodge. And
such accusation will be received and investigated, although remotely derived from one
who is not a member of the Order.
It is not neceBBary that the accuser should
be a member of the same Lodge. It is suffi
cient if he is an affiliated Mason; but it is gen-

(See ROssler.)
Achad. One of the names of God. The
word ,MN, Achad, in Hebrew signifies one or
unity. It has been adopted by the Masons as
one of the appellations of the Deity from the
passage in Deuteronomy (vi. 4): "Hear, 0
Israel: the Lord our God is (Achad) one
Lord"; which the Jews wear on their phylacteries, and pronounce with great fervor as a
confession of their faith in the unity of God.
Speaking of God as Achad, the Rabbis say,
"Godisone(Achad) andmanisone(Achad).
Man, however, is not purely one, because be is
made up of elements and has another like himRelf; but the oneneBB of God is a oneneBB that
has no boundary."
AcharonSchllton. InHebrew)~;v l,.,MN,
signifying the new kingdom. Significant worda
in some of the high degrees.
Achlas. A corruption of the Hebrew Achijah, the brother of Jab; a. significant word in
some of the high degrees.
Achlshar. Mentioned in 1 Kings (iv. 6)

ACHTARIEL
under the name of Ahiahar, and there described as being " over the household " of
King Solomon. This was a situation of great
importance in the East, and equivalent to the
modern office of Chamberlain. The Steward
in a Council of Select Masters is said to represent Achiahar.
Achtarlel. A Kabbalisticname of God belonging to the Crown or first of the ten seyhiroth; and hence signifying the Crown or God.
Acknowledged. When one is initiated into
the degree of Most Excellent Ma ter1 he is
technically said to be " received and ac.tmowledged" as a Most Excellent Master. This
expression refers to the tradition of the degree
which states that when the Temple had been
completed and dedicated, King Solomon received and acknowledged the most expert of
the craftsmen as Most Excellent Masters.
That is, he received them into the exalted rank
of perfect and acknowledged workmen, and
acknowledged their right to that title. The verb
to acknowledge here means to own or admit, to
belong to, as, to acknowledge a son.
Acousmatlcl. The primary class of the
disciples of Pythagoras, who served a five
years' probation of silence, and were hence
called acousmatici or hearers. According to
- Porphyry, they received only the elements of
intellectual and moral instruction, and, after
the expiration of their term of probation, they
were advanced to the rank of Mathematici.
(See Pythagoras.)
Acquittal. Under this head it may be
proper to discuss two questions of Masonic law.
1. Can a Mason, having been acquitted by the
courts of the country of an offense with which
he has been charged, be tried by his Lodge for
the same offense? And, 2. Can a Mason, having been acquitted by his Lodge on insufficient evidence, be subjected, on the discovery
and production of new and more complete
evidence, to a second trial for the same offense? To both of these questions the correct
answer would seem to be in the affirmative.
1. An acquittal of a crime by a temporal
court does not relieve a Mason from an inquisition into the same offense by his Lodge;
for acquittals may be the result of some technicality of law, or other cause, where, although
the party is relieved from legal punishment,
his guilt IS still manifest in the eyes of the community; and if the Order were to be controlled
by the action of the courts, the character of
the Institution might be injuriously affected
by its permitting a man, who had escaped
without honor from the punishment of the
law, to remain a member of the Fraternity.
In the language of the Grand Lodge of Texas,
" an acguittal by a jury, while it may, and
should, m some circumstances, have its influence in decidin~ on the course to be pursued,
yet has no binding force in Masonry. We decide on our own rules, and our own view of the
facts." (Proc. G. L. Tex., vol. ii., p. 273.)
2. To come to a correct apprehension of the
second question, we must remember that it is
a long-settled principle of Masonic law, that
every offense which a Mason. commits is an

ACTA

13

injury to the whole Fraternity, inasmuch as

the bad conduct of a single member reflects
discredit on the whole Instituttion. This is a
very old and well-established frinciple of the
Institution; and hence we fine the Old Conatitutians declaring that Masone1 " should never
be thieves nor thieves' mainta.iners." (Cooke
MS., 1. 916.) The safety of the Institution
requires that no evil-disposed member should
be tolerated with impunity in bringing disgrace on the Craft. And, therefore, although
it is a well-known maxim of thcl common lawnemo debet bis puniri pro uno delicto-that is,
"that no one should be twice placed in peril of
punishment for the same crime," yet we must
also remember that other and fundamental
maxim-salus populi suprema lex-which
may, in its application to Masonry, be well
translated, " the well-being of the Order is
the first great law." To this everything else
must yield; and, therefore, if a member, having been accused of a heinous offense and tried,
shall, on his trial, for want of sufficient evidence, be acquitted, or, being convicted, shall,
for the same reason, be punished by an inadequate penalty-and if he shall thus be perrmtted to remain in the Institution with the
stigma of the crime UJ??n him., "whereby the
Craft comes to shame, ' then, if new and more
sufficient evidence shall be subsequently discovered, it is just and right that a new trial
shall be had, so that he may, on this newer
evidence, receive that punishment which will
vindicate the reputation of 1;he Order. No
technicalities of law, no plea of autrefois acquit1
nor mere verbal exceP.t10n, should be allowea
for the escape of a gmlty member; for so long
as he lives m the Order, every man is subject
to its discipline. A hundred wrongful acquittala of a bad membei', who still bears with him
the reproach of his evil life, can never discharge the Order from its paramount duty of
protecting its own good fame and removing
the delinquent member from its fold. To this
great duty all private and individual rights
and privileges must succumb, for the wellbeing of the Order is the first great law in
Masonry.

Acta Latomorum,ou Chronologie de l'Histoire de Ia Franche;-Ma9onnerie fran9aise et

etrangere, etc. That is: "'l~he Acts of the
Freemasons, or a chronological history of
French and Foreign Freemasonry, etc." This
work, written or compiled by Claude Antoine
Thory, was published at Paris, in 2 vola., Svo,
in 1815. It contains the most remarkable
facts in the history of the Inst:itution from obscure times to the year 1814; 1.he succession of
Grand Masters; a nomenclature of rites, degrees, and secret associations in all the countries of the worlc!J a bibliography of the principal works on .l'l'eemasonry published since
1723; and a supplement in which the author
has collected a variety of rare and important
Masonic documents. Of this work, which has
never been translated into English, Lenning
says (Encycl. der Freimaurt'f'ei) that it is,
without dispute, the most sciientific ,work on
Freemasonry that French literature has ever

14

ACTING

ADAM

produced. It must, however, be confessed that human race, and, therefore, the type of bu..

m the historical portion Thory has committed manity, that the presiding officer in a Council of

man}' errors in respect to English and AmeriFreemasonry1 and therefore if ever tran.s.
la.ted, the work will require much emendation.
(See Thory.)
ActlnK Grand Master. The Duke of Cumbermnd (gl:andson of George II., brother of
George III.) having in April, 1782, been
elooted Grand Mter of England, it was resolved by the Grand Lodge "that whenever a
prince of the blood did the society the honour
to accept the office of Grand Master, he should
be at liberty to nominate any peer of the
realm to be the acting Grand Master." (Con8litu.tiom of G. L. of England, ed. 1784, p. 341.)
The officer thus provided to be appointed was
subsequently called in the Constitutions of the
G. Lodge of England, ed. 1841, and is now
called the Pro Grand Master.
In the America.n system, the officer who per
forms the duties of Grand Ma.ster in case of
the removal, death, or inability of that officer,
is known as the Acting Gra.nd Master. For
the regulations which prescribe the proper
l!e.rson to perform these duties see Grand
<ltm

Maater.

Active Lodge. A Lodge is said to be active

when it is neither dormant nor suspended, but
r~arly meets and is occupied in the labors
of Masonry.
Active Member. An a.ctive member of
a Lodge is one who, in contradistinction to an
bonorl!J'y member, assumes all the burdens of
membership, such as contributions, arrears
and pa.rticipation in its labors, and is invested
with all the rights of membership, such as
speaking, voting, and holding office.
Actual Past Masters. This term is sometimes apiJlied to those who have actually
served as Master of a. Craft Lodge in order to
distinguish them from those who have been
made "Virtual Past Masters," in Chapters
of the United States, or "Past Masters of Arts
and Sciences," in English Chapters, as a preliminary to receiving the Royal Arch degree.
(See Past Master.)
Adad. The name of the principal god
among the Syrians, and who, as representing
the sun, had, according-to Macrobius (SahsrnaZ, i., 23), an ilnae;e surrounded by rays.
Macrobius, however, 1s wrong, as Selden has
shown (De Diis Syris, i., 6), in confounding
Adad with the Hebrew Achad, or one-a.
name, from its signification of unity, applied
to the Great Architect of the Universe. The
error of Macrobius, however, has been perpetua.ted by the inventors of the high degrees of
Ma.sonry;, who have incorporated Adad, as a
name of ltod..l. among their significant words.
Adam. The name of the first man. The
Hebrew word C.,X ADaM, signifies man in
a. generic sense, the human species collectively,
and is said to be derived from ill:l,N,
ADaMaH, the ground, because the first man
was made out of the dust of the earth, or from
ADa.M, to be red, in reference to his ruddy
complexion. It is most probably in this collective sense, as the representative of the whole

Knights of the Sun the Twenty-eighth Degree

of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, is
called Father Adam, and is occupied in the investigation of the great truths which so much
concern the interests of the race. Adam, in
that degree, is man seeking after divine truth.
The Kabbalists and Talmudists have invented
many things concerning the first Adam, none
of which are, however, worthy of preservation.
(See Knight of the Sun.)
Adam. The Entered Apprentice degree
symbolizes the creation of man and his first
perception of light. In the Elohist form of the
Creation we read, " Elohim said, ' Let us
make ma.n in our image, according to our like
ness, and let him ha.ve dominionover the fishes
of the sea, over the fowls of the air, over the
cattle, ana over all the earth, s,nd over every
reptile that creeps upon the earth! ' And Elo
him created man in his image; in the image of
Elohim he created him; male and female he
created them... AndYahvehElohimformed
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
in his nostrils the breath of life, and man was
made a living being." Without giving more
than a passing reference to the speculative
origin and production of man and to his spontaneous genera.tion ( Principe Gemrateur)
as set forth by the Egyptians, when we are told
that " the fertilizing mud left by the Nile, and
exposed to the vivifying action of heat induced
by the sun's rays, brought forth germs which
spring up as the bodies of men," accepted cosmogonies only will be hereinafter mentioned;
thus in that of Peru, the first man, created by
the Divine Omnipotence is called Alpa Camasca, " Animated earth.' 1 The Mandans, one
of the North American tribesJ. relate that the
Great Spirit molded two ngures of clay,
which he dried and animated with the breath
of his mouth, one receiving the name of First
Man, and the other that of Companion.
Taeroa, the god of Tahiti, formed man of the
red earth, say the inhabitants; and so we
might continue. But as Franc;ois Lenorma.nt
remarks in the Beginnings of History, let us
confine ourselves to the cosmogony offered by
the sacred traditions of the great civilized
nations of antiquity. "The Chaldeans call
Adam the man whom the earth produced.
And he lay without movement, without life,
and without breath, just like an image of the
heavenly Adam, until his soul had been given
him by the latter." The cosmogonic account
peculil!J' to Babylon, as given by Berossus,
says: "Belos, seeing that the earth was unin
habited, though fertile, cut off his own head,
and the other gods, after kneading with earth
the blood that flowed from it, formed men,
who therefore are endowed with intelligence,
and share in the divine thought," eto. The
term employed to designate " man/' in his
connection with his Creator, is admu, the
Assyrian counterpart of the Hebrew Adam.
(G. Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesi3.)
*This article is by C. T. McClenaohan.

lo

ADAM

ADAR

Lenormant further says, that the fragments of

BeroBBus give Adoros as the name of the first
patriarch, and Adiuru has been discovered on
the cuneiform inscriptions.
Zoroaster makes the creation of man the
volUntary act of a personal ~od, distinct from
primordial matter, and h1s theory stands
alone among the learned religions of the ancient world.
According to Jewish tradition in the Targumim and the Talmud, as also to Moses Maimonides, Adam was created man and woman
at the same time, having two faces, turned in
two opposite directions, and that during a
stupor the Creator separated Havvah, his feminine half, from him, morder to make of her a
distinct person. Thus were separated the primordial androgyn.
With Shemites and Mohammedans Adam
was symbolized in the Lingam, whilst with the
Jews Seth was their Adam or Lingam, and succeBBively Noah took the place of Seth, and so
followed Abraham and Moses. The worship of
Adam as the God-like idea, succeeded by
Seth, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, through
the symbolism of pillars, monoliths, obelisks,
or Matsebas (images), gave rise to other symbolic images, as where Noah was adored under
the emblems of a man, ark, and serpent, signifying heat, fire, or passion.
Upon the death of Adam, says traditional
history, the pious Gregory declared that the
" dead body &hould be kept above ground, till a
fulneBB of time should come to commit it to
the middle of the earth by a priest of the most
high God." This traditional prophecy was fulfilled, it is said, by the body of Adam having
been preserved in a chest until about 1800
n.c., when "Melchizedek buried the body in
Salem (formerly the name of Jerusalem),
which might verr well be the middle of the
habitable world.'
The Sethites used to say their prayers daily
in the Ark before the body of Adam. J. G. R.
Forlong, in h1s Rivers of Life, tells us that " It
appears from both the Sabid Aben Batric and
the Arabic Catena, that there existed the following 1 short litany said to have been conceived by Noah.' Then follows the prayer of
Noah, which was used for so long a period by
the Jewish Freemasons at the opening of the
Lod,e:
" 0 Lord, excellent art thou in thy truth,
and there is .nothing great in comparison of
thee. Look upon us with the eye of mercy and
compassion. Deliver us from this deluge of
waters, and set our feet in a large room. By
the sorrows ot Adam, the first made man;
by the blood of Abel, thy holy one; by the
righteousness of Seth, in whom thou art well
pleased; number us not amongst those who
have transgressed thy statutes, but take us
into thy merciful care, for thou art our Deliverer, and thine is the praise for all the works of
thy hand for evermore. And the sons of
Noah said, Amen, Lord.'"
The Master of the Lodge would omit the
reference to the deluge and add the following
the prayet: "But Fant1 we beseeQh theet

that the ruler of this lodge may be endued

with knowled~e and wisdom to instruct us
and explain h1s secret mysteries, as our holy
brother Moses did (in his lodge) to Aaron, to
l.i:Ieazar, and to Ithamar (the sons of Aaron),
and the several elders of Israel."
Adam Kadmon. In the Kabbalistic doctrine, the name given to the first emanation
from the Eternal Fountain. It signifies the
first man, or the first production of divine
ener~1 or the son of God, and to it the other
and mterior emanations are subordinate.
Adams, John Quincy, the sixth President
of the United States, who served from1825 to
1829. Mr. Adams, who has been very properly described as " a man of strong points and
weak ones of vast reading and wonderful
memory, of great credulity and strong prejudices/' became notorious in the latter years of
his life for his virulent opposition to Freemasonry. The writer already quoted, who had
an excellent opportunity of seeing intimately
the workings of the spirit of anti-Masonry,
says of Mr. Adams: "He hated Freemasonry,
as he did many other thing11, not from any
harm that he liad received from it or personally knew respecting it, but because his credulity had been wrought upon and his prejudices excited against it by dishonest and selfish
politicians, who were anxious, at any sacrifice
to him, to avail themselves of the influence
of his commanding talentEI and position
in public life to sustain them in the disreputable work in which they were enlisted. In
his weakness, he lent himsellr to them. He
united his energies to theirs in an impracticable and unworthy cause." (C. W. Moore,
Freemasons' Mag.,vol.vii.,p.814.) Theresult
was a series of letters abusive of Freemasonry1
directed to leading politicians, and publishea
in the public journals from 1831 to 1833. A
year before his death they we:re collected and
published under the title of Letters on the
Masonic ln6titution, by John Quincy Adams.
(Boston, 1847, 8vo, pp. 284.) Some explanation of the cause of the virulence with which
Mr. Adams attacked the Masonic Institution
in these letters may be found in the following
paragraph contained in an anti-Masonic work
written by one Henry Gassett, and affixed to
his Catalo(!Ue of Books on the Masonic
Institution. (Boston, 1852.) "It had been
asserted in a newspaper in Boston, edited by
a Masonic dignitary, that John Q. Adams was
a Mason. In answer to an inquiry from a person in New York. State, whether he was so1
Mr. Adams replied that 1 he was not, ana
never should be.' These few words, undoubtedly, prevented his election a second time a&
President of the United States. His competitor
Andrew Jackson, a Freemason, was elected.' 1
Whether the statement contained in the ital
icized words be true or not, is not the question. It is sufficient that Mr. Adams was led
to believe it, and hence his ill-will to an association which had, as he supposed, inflicted
this political evil on him, and baflied his ambitious views.
Al' l{ebrew1 .,,Nj the sixth mQPtb 9f

16

ADAREL

ADDRESSES

the civil and the twelfth of the ecclesiastical

year of the Jews. It corresponds to a part of
February and of March.
Adarel. Angel of Fire. Referred to in the
Hermetic degree of Knight of the Sun. Probably from ,,N, Adr, splendor, and ;N, El,
God, i, e., the splendor of God or Divine splendor.
Addresses, Masonic. Dr. Oliver, speaking
of the Masonic discourses which began to be
p\}blished soon after the reorganization of
Masonry, in the commencement of the eighteenth century, and which he thinks were ineti~ated by the attacks made on the Order, to
which they were intended to be replies, says:
"Charges and addresses were therefore delivered by brethren in authority on the fundamental principles of the Order, and they were
printed to show that its morality was sound,
and not in the slightest degree rel?ugnant to
the precepts of our most holy relig10n. These
were of sufficient merit to insure a wide circulation among the Fraternity, from whence
they spread into the world at large and
proved decisive in fixing the credit of the Institution for solemnities of character and a
taste for serious and profitable investigations."
There can be no doubt that these addresses,
periodically delivered and widely published,
have continued to exert an excellent effect in
behalf of the Institution, by exJ?laining and
defending the principles on which 1t is founded.
The first Masonic address of which we have
any notice was delivered on the 24th of June,
1721, before the Grand Lodge of England, by
the celebrated John Theophilus Desaguliers,
LL.D. and F.R.S. The Book of Constitutions (ed. 173~1 .p. 113) 1 under that date, says
" Bro. Desagwiers maae an eloquent oration
about Masons and Masonry." Dr. Oliver
(Revelations of a Square, p. 22) states that
this address was issued in a printed form, but
no copy of it now remains-at least it has es.caped the researches of the most diligent Masonic bibliographers.
On the 20th of May, 1725, Martin Folkes,
then Deputy Grand Master, delivered an address before the Grand Lodge of England,
which is cited in the Freemason's Pocket Companion for 1759, but no entire copy of the address is now extant.
The third Masonic address of which we have
any knowledge is one entitled "A Speech delivered to the Worshipful and Ancient Society
of Free and Accepted Masons, at a Grand
Lodge held at Merchants' Hall, in the city of
York, on St. John's Day, Dec. 27, 1726, the
Right Worshipful Charles Bathurst, Esq.,
Grand Master. By the Junior Grand Warden.
Olim meminisse juvabit. York: Printed br,
Thomas Gent, for the benefit of the Lodge. '
The author was Francis Drake, M.D., F.R.S.,
who was appointed Junior Grand Warden of
the Grand Lodge of All England at York on December 27, 1725. (See Drake, Francis.) The
first edition of the SJ?OOCh bears no date, but
was probably issued m 1727, and it was again
published at London in 1729, and a second

London edition was published in 1734, which

has been reprinted in Hughan's Masonic
Sketches and Reprints (American edition,
p. 106). This is, therefore, the earliest Masonic addreBB to which we have access. It
contains a brief sketch of the history of Masonry, written as Masonic history was then
written. It is, however, remarkable for advancing the claim of the Grand Lodge of York
to a superiority over that of London, and for
containing a very early reference to the three
degrees of Craft Masonry.
The fourth Masonic address of whose existence we have any knowledge is " a Speech
Deliver'd to the Worshipful Society of Free
and Accepted Masons, at a Lodge, held at the
Carpenters Arms in Silver-Street, Golden
Square, the 31st of December, 1728. B:y the
Right Worshipful Edw. Oakley, Architect,
M.M., late Provincial Senior Grand Warden
in Carmarthen, South Wales." This speech
was reprinted by Cole in his Ancient Constitutions at London in 1731.
America has the honor of presenting the
next attempt at Masonic oratory. The fifth
address, and the first American, which is extant, is one delivered in Boston., MaBB.bon
June 24, 1734. It is entitlea "A
issertation upon Masonry, delivered to a Lodge
in America, June 24th.,~..1734. Christ's Regm."
It was discovered by tiro. C. W. Moore in the
archives of the Grand Lodge of Massachusett~
and published by him in his magazine in 1849~
This address is well written, and of a symbolic
character, as the author allegorizes the Lodge
as a type of heaven.
And, sixthly, we have " An Address made to
the body of Free and Accepted Masons assembled at a Quarterly Communication, held
near Temple Bar, December 11, 1735, by_Martin Clare, Junior Grand Warden." Martin
Clare was distinguislled in his times as a
Mason, and his address, which Dr. Oliver has
inserted in his Golden Remains, has been considered of value enough to be translated into
the French and German languages.
Next, on March 21, 1737, the Chevalier
Ramsay delivered an oration before the Grand
Lodge of France, in which he attributed the
origm of Freemasonry to the Crusaders and
traced an imaginary history of its course
through Scotland and England into France.
which was to become the center of the re'
formed Order. The best report of this speecl:
is to be found in the Histoire &c. de la tr.
ven. Confraternite des F. M. &c. Traduit pal
le Fr. de la Tierce. Franrjort1 1742; and an
English version of it is given m Gould's His
tory of Freemasonry (iii., 84-9). (See Ram
say.)
Mter this period, Masonic addresses rapidly
multipli~ so that it would be impossible to
record therr titles or even the names of their
authors.
What Martial (i., 17) says of his own epi
grams, that some were good, some bad, and s
great many middling, ma;v- with equal pro
priety and justice, be s&a1 of Masonic ad
dresses. Of the thousands that have been de

17

ADELPH

ADJOURNMENT

livered, many have been worth neither printing

nor preservation.
One thing, however1 is to be remarked: that
within a few ~ tne literary character of
these productions has greatly improved. Formerly, a Masonic address on some festal occasion of the Order was little more than a homilr on brotherly love or some other Masonic
virtue. Often the orator was a clergyman, selected by the Lodge on account of his moral
character or his professional ability. These
clergymen were frequently among the young. est members of the Lodge, and men who had
no opportunity to study the esoteric construction of Masonry. In such 088('.8 we will find
that the addresses were generally neither more
nor less than sermons under another name.
They contain excellent general axioms of conduct, and sometimes encomiums on the laudable design of our Institution. But we look in
vain in them for any ideas which refer to the
history or to the occult philosophy of Masonry. They accept the definition that" Freemasonry is a science of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, 1' only in part.
They expatiate on the science of morality, but
ther say nothing of the symbols or the allegories. But, as has been already said, there
has been an evident improvement within a few
years, in America especially~ for the reform
has not equally extended to .t!jngland. Many
of the addresses now delivered are of a higher
order of Masonic literature. The subjects of
Masonic history, of the origin of the Institution, of its gradual development from an
operative art to a speculative science, of its
symbols1 and of its peculiar features which
distinguish it from all other associations, have
been ably discussed in many recent Masonic
addresses, and thus have the efforts to entertain an audience for an hour become not only
the means of interesting instruction to the
hearers, but also valuable contributions to
the literature of Freemasonry.
. It is in this way that Masonic addresses
should be written. All platitudes and old
truisms should be avoided; sermonizingl.~hich
is good in its place, is out of place here. No one
should undertake to deliver a Masonic address
unless he knows something of the subject on
which he is about to speak, and unless he is
capable of saying what will make every Mason
who hears him a wiser as well as a better man,
or at least what will afford him the opportunity of becoming so.
A.delph. From the Greek AleN~>ds (a
brother). The first degree of the order of the
Palladium (q._v.). Reghellini says that there
exists in the Masonic archives of Douai the ritual of a Masonic Society, called Adelphsl
which has been communicated to the Grana
Orient, but which he thinks is the same as the
Primitive Rite of Narbonne.
Adept. One fully skilled or well versed in
any art; from the Latin word "Adeptus,"
having obtained, because the Adept claitD.ed to
be in the possession of all the secrets of his
peculiar mystery. The Alchemists or Hermetic philosophers assumt.d the title of Adepts.

(See Alchemy.) Of the Hermetic Adepts, who

were also sometimes called Rosicrucians,
Spence thus writes, in 1740, to his mother:
"Have you ever heard of the people called
Adepts? They are a set of philosophers superior to whatever appeared among the Greeks
and Romans. The three great points they drive
at, are, to be free from poverty, distempers,
and death; and, if you believe them, they have
found out one secret that is capable of freeing
them from all three. There are never more
than twelve of these men in the whole world at
a time; and we have the happiness of having
one of the twelve at this time in Turin. I am
very well acquainted with him, and have often
talked with him of their secrets, as far as he is
allowed to talk to a common mortal of them."
(Spence'B Letter to hiB Mother, in Singer'B AnecdoteB, p. 403.) In a similar allusion to the
possession of abstruse knowledge, the word is
applied to some of the high degrees of Masonry.
Adept, Prince. One of the names of the
28th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. (See Knight of thE: Sun.) It was
the 23d degree of the System of the Chapter of
Emperors of the East and West of Clermont.
Adept, the. A Hermetic degree of the collection of A. Viany (q. v.). His also the 4th
degree of the Rite of Relaxed Observance, and
the 1st of the high degrees of the Rite of
Elects of Truth. " It has much analogy,"
says Thoryi " with the degree of Knight of
the Sun." tis also called "Chaos disentangled."
Adeptus AdoptatUII The 7th degree of
the Rite of Zinnendorf, consisting of a kind of
chemical and pharmaceutical instruction.
Adeptus Coronatus. Called also Templar
Maater of the Key. The 7th degree of the
Swedish Rite (q. v.).
Adeptus Exemptus. The 7th degree of the
system adopted by those German Rosicrucians who were known as the " Gold und Rosenkreutzer," or the Gold and Rosy Cross,
and whom Lenning Sl!J>poses t4> have been the
first who engrafted Rosicrucianism on Masonry.
Adhering Mason. Those Masons who,
during the anti-Masonic excitElment in America, on account of the supposed abduction
of Morgan, refused to leave their Lodges and
renounce Masonr~1 were so called. They
embraced among tneir number some of the
wisest, best, and most influential men of the
country.
Adjournment. C. W. Moore (FreemasonB'
Mag., xii., p. 290) says: "We suppose it to be
generally conceded that Lodges cannot.properly be adjourned. It has been so decided
by a large proportion of the Grand Lodges in
America, and tacitly, at least, (lOncurred in by
all. We are not aware that there is a dissenting voice among them. It is, therefore,
safe to assume that the settled policy is against
adjournment." The reason which he assigns
for this rule, is that adjournment is a metliod
used only in deliberative bodies, such as legislatures and courts, and as Lodges do not par

ADMIRATION

ADMONITION

take of the character of either of these, adjournments are not applicable to them. The
rule which Bro. Moore lays down is undoubtedly correct, but the reason which he assigns
for it is not sufficient. If a Lodge were permitted to adjourn by the vote of a majority of
its members, the control of the labor would be
placed in their hands. But according to the
whole spirit of the Masonic system, the Master
alone controls and directs the hours of labor.
In the 5th of the Old Charges, approved in
1722, it is declared that " All Masons shall
meekly receive their Wages without murmuring or mutiny, and not desert the Mast.er till the
Lord.' a wqrk is finish' d." Now as the Master
alone can know when "the work is finished,"
the selection of the time of 'closing must be
vested in him. He is the sole judge of the
J>roper period at which the labors of the Lodge
should be terminated, and he may suspend
business even in the middle of a debate, if he
supposes that it is expedient to close the Lodge.
Hence no motion for adjournment can ever be
admitted in a Masonic Lodge. Such a motion
would be an interference with the prerogative
of the Master, and could not therefore be entertained.
The Earl of Zetland, when Grand Master
of England, ruled on November 19, 1856, that
a Lodge has no power to adjourn except
to the next regular day of meeting. He said:
"I may . . say that Private Lodges are governed by much the same laws as Grand Lodges,
and that no meeting of a Private Lodge can
be adjourned; but the Master of a Private
Lodge may and does, convene Lodges of
1 (freemasons' Magazine, 1856,
Emergency.'
p. 848.)
This prerogative of opening and closing his
Lodge is necessarily vested in the Master, because, by the nature of our Institution, he is
responsible to the Grand Lodge for the good
conduct of the body over which he presides.
He is charged, in those questions to which he
is required to give his assent at his installation, to hold the Landmarks in veneration, and
to conform to every edict of the Grand Lodge;
and for any violatiOn of the one or disobedience of the other by the Lodge, in his presence, he would be answerable to the supreme
M~onic authority. Hence the necessity that
an arbitrary power should be conferred upon
him, by the exercise of which he may at any
time be enabled to prevent the adoption of
resolutions or the commission of any act
which wo:;iid be subversive of, or contrary to,
those ancient laws and usages which he has
sworn to maintain and preserve.
Admiration, Sign or. A mode of recognition alluded to in the Most Excellent Master's
Degree, or the Sixth of the American Rite. Its
introduction in that place is referred to a Masonic legend in connection with the visit of the
Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, which states
that!.mo-:~ by the wide-spread reputation of
the .lSra.elitish monarch, she had repaired to
Jerusalem to inaJ'OOt the magnificent works of
which she had heard so many encomiums.
Upon am:vini there, and beholdine; for the

first time the Temple, which glittered with

gold, and which was so accurately adjusted
in all its parts as to seem to be comJ?osed of
but a single piece of marble, she raised her
hands and eyes to heaven in an attitude of
admiration, and at the same time exclaimed,
" Rabboni! " equivalent to saying, " A most
excellent master hath done this! " This action
has since been rerpetuated in the ceremonies
of the degree o Most Excellent Master. The
legend is, however, no doubt apocryphal, and
is really to be considered only as allegorical,
like so many other of the legends of Masonry.
(See Sheba, Queen o.f.)
Admission. Although the Old Charges,
approved in 1722, use the word admitted as
applicable to those who are initiated into the
mysteries of Freemasonry, yet the General
Regulations of 1721 employ the term admission in a sense different from that of initiation.
By the word making they imply the reception
of a profane into the Order, but by adm'Msion
they designate the election of a Mason into a
Lodge. Thus we find such expressions as these
clearly indicating a difference in the meaning
of the two words. In Reg. v.-" No man can
be made or admitted a member of a particular
Lodge." In Reg. vi.-" But no man can be
entered a brother in any particular Lodge, or
admitted to be a member thereof." And more
distinctly in Reg. viii.-" No set or number of
brethren shall withdraw or separate them.
selves from the Lodge in which they were made
brethren or were afterwards adniitted members." This distinction has not always been
rigidly preserved by recent writers; but it,is
evident that, correctly speaking, we should
always say of a profane who has been initiated
that he has been made a Mason, and of a
Mason who has been affiliated with a Lodge,
that he has been admitted a member. The
true definition of admission is, then, the reception of an unaffiliated brother into membership. (See Affiliated Mason.)
A.dnionltlon. According to the ethics of
Freemasonry, it is made a duty obligatory
upon every member of the Order to conceal the
faults of a brother1 that is, not to blazon
forth his errors and mfirmities, to let them be
learned by the world from some other tongue
than his, and to admonish him of them in private. So there is another but a like duty or
obliltation, which instructs him to whisper
good counsel in his brother's ear and to warn
him of approaching danger. And this refers
not more to the danger that is without and
around him than to that which is within him;
not more to the peril that springs from the
concealed foe who would waylay him and
covertly injure him, than to that deeper peril
of those faults and infirmities which lie within
his own heart, and which, if not timely crushed
by good and earnest resolution of amendment,
will, like the ungrateful serpent in the fable,
become warm with life only to sting the bosom
that has nourished them.
Admonition of a brother's fault is, the~l the
duty of every Mason, and no true one wiu, for
eith~ felj.!: 9r favor, n~ect its perfon:nAA~,

18

ADONAI

ADONHIRAMITE

But as the duty is Masonic, so is there a Masonic way in which that duty should be discharged. We must admonish not with selfsufficient pride in our own reputed goodnessnot in imperious tones, as though we looked
down in scorn upon the degraded offendernot in language that, by its harshness, will
wound rather than win, will irritate more than
it will reform; but with that persuasive gentleness that gains the heart-with the allsubduing influences of'' mercy unrestrained''
-with the magic might of love-with the language and the accents of affection, which mingle grave displeasure for the offense with grief
and~'ty for the offender.
T and this alone, is Masonic admonition.
am not to rebuke my brother in anger,
for I, too, have my faults, and I dare not draw
around me the folds of my garment lest they
should be polluted by my neighbor's touch;
but I am to admonish in private, not before
the world, for that would degrade him; and I
am to warn him, perhaps from my own example, how vice ever should be followed by sorrow, for that goodly sorrow leads to repen
tance, and repentance to amendment, and
amendment to joy.
.&.donal. In Hebrew, "~"lN, being the plural
of exoellenoe for Adon, and signifying the
Lord. The .Jews, who reverently avoided the
pronunciation of the sacred name JEHOVAH,
were accustomed, whenever that name occurred, to substitute for it the word Adonai in
reading. As to the use of the plural form instead of the singular the Rabbis say, " Every
word indicative of dominion, though singular
in meaning, is made plural in form.'' This is
called the " pluralis excellential." The Tal
mudists also say (Buxtroff Lex. Talm.) that
the tetragrammaton is called Shem hamphorash, the name that is explained, because it is
explained, uttered, and set forth by the word
A.donai. (See Jehovah and Shem Hamphorasch.) Adonai is used as a significant word
in several of the high degrees of Masonry, and
may almost always be considered as allusive
to or symbolic of the True Word.
A.donhlram. This has been adopted by the
disciples of Adonhiramite Masonry as the
spelling of the name of the person known in
Scripture and in other Masonic systems as
A.doniram (which see). They correctly derive the word from the Hebrew Adon and
hiram, si.lmifying the ma~~ter who is exalted,
which is the true meaning of Adoniram, the i'1
or h being omitted in the Hebrew by the coal
eaoence of the two words. Hiram Abif has also
sometimes been called Adonhiram, the Adon
having been bestowed on him by Solomon, it is
11aid, as a title of honor.
Adonblramlte Masolll'f. Of the numerous
controversies which arose from the middle to
near the end of the eighteenth century on the
Continent of Europe, and especially in France,
among the students of Masonic philosophy,
and which so frequently resulted in the in
vention of new degrees and the establishment
of new rites, not the least prominent was that
which related to the person and character of

the Temple Builder. The q_uestion, Who was

the architect of King Solomon's Tem_ple?
was answered differently by different theorists, and each answer gaVE! rise to a new system, a :fact by no means surprising in those
times, so fertile in the production of new Masonic systems. The general theory was then,
as it is now, that this architect was Hiram
Abif, the widow's son, who had been sent to
King Solomon by Hiram, King of Tyre, as a
precious ~ift, and " a curious and cunning
workman. ' This theory was sustained by the
statements of the Jewish Scriptures, so far as
they threw any light on the Masonic legend.
It was the theory of the English Masons from
the earliest times; was enunciated as historically correct in the first edition of the Book
of Constitutions, published in 1723 W ll)i
has continued ever since 1;o be the opmion of
all English and American Masons; and is, at
this day, the only theory entertained by any
Masbn in the two countri4~S who has a theory
at all on the subject. This, therefore, is the
orthodox faith of Masonry.
But such was not the case in the last cenM
tury on the Continent of Europe. At first
the controversy arose not as to the man himself, but as to his proper appellation. All parties agreed that the architect of the Temple
was that Hiram, the widow's son, who is described in the 1st Book of Kings, chapter vii.1
verses 13 and 14, and in the 2d Book ot
Chronicles, chapter ii., verses 13 and 14, as
having come out of Tyre with the other workmen of the Temple who had been sent by King
Hiram to Solomon. But one party called him
Hiram Abij, and the other, admitting that
his original name was Hiram, supposed that
in consequence of the skill he had displayed
in the construction of the Temple, he liad received the honorable affix of Adon, simifying
Lord or Master, whence -his name oecame
Adonhiram.
There was, however, at the Temple another
Adoniram, of whom it will be necessary in
passing to say a few words, :for the better understanding of the present subject.
The first notice that we have of this Adoniram in Scripture is in the, 2d Book of Samuel
chapter xx., verse 24, where, in the abbreviated
form of his name Adoram, he is said to have
been "over the tribute "in the house of David;
or1 as Gesenius translates it, " prefect over the
tnbute service," or, as we might say in modern
phrase, principal collector of the taxes. Seven
years afterward, we fibd him exercising the
same office in the household of Solomon; for it
is said in 1 Kings iv. 6 that Adoniram, " the
son of Abda\ ~as over the tribute." And lastly,
we hear of nim still occuJ>ying. the same station in ~he household of King Rehoboam, the
successor of Solomon. Forty-seven years after
he is first mentioned in the Book of Samuel, he
is stated Uij,der the name of Adoram (1 Kings
xii. 18), or Hadoram (2 Chron. x. 18), to have
been stoned to death, while in the discharge of
his duty, by the people, who were justly in~ant at the oppressions of his master.
'!'he legends a,nd traditions of Muonry

19

ADONHIRA.MITE

ADONHIRAMITE

which connect this Adoniram with the Temple

at Jerusalem derive their support from a single
passage in the 1st Book of Kings (v. 14)
where it is said that Solomon made a levy of
thirty thousand workmen from among the Israelites; that he sent these in courses of ten
thousand a month to labor on Mount Lebanon, and that he placed Adoniram over these
as their superintendent.
The ritual-makers of France, who were not
!ill Hebrew scholars, nor well versed in Biblical
history, seem, at times, to have confounded
two important personages, and to have lost all
distinction between Hiram the Builder, who
had been sent from the court of the King of
Tyre, and Adoniram_, who had always been an
officer in the court ot King Solomon. And this
error was extended and facilitated when they
had prefixed the title Adon, that is to say,
lord or master, to the name of the former,
making him Adon Hiram, or the Lord Hiram.
Thus, in the year 1744, one Louis Travenol
published at Paris, under the pseudonym of
Leonard Gabanon, a work entitled Catechisme
des Francs M ~ons, ou Le Secret des M ar;ons in
which he says: "Besides the cedars of Lebanon, Hiram made a much more valuable gift to
Solomon, in the person of Adonhiram, of his
own race, the son of a widow of the tribe of
Naphtali. His father, who was named Hur,
was an excellent architect and worker in metals. Solomon, knowing his virtues, his merit,
and his talents, distinguished him by the most
eminent position, intrusting to him the construction of the Temple and the superintendence of all the workmen." (Recueil Precieux, p. 76.)
From the language of this extract, and from
the reference in the title of the booktoAdoram,
which we know was one of the names of Solomon's tax-collector, it is evident that the author of the catechism has confounded Hiram
Abif, who came out of Tyre, with Adoniram,
the son of Abda, who had always lived at Jerusalem; that is to say, with unpardonable ignorance of Scripture history and Masonic tradition, he has supposed the two to be one and
the same person. Notwithstanding this literary blunder, the catechism became popular
with many Masons of that day, and thus arose
the first schism or error in relation to the
legend of the Third Degree. In Solomon in
all His Glory, an English exposure published
in 1766, Adoniram takes the place of Hiram,
but this work is a translation from a similar
French one, and so it must not be argued that
ED.Jdish Masons ever held this view.
At length, other ritualists, seeing the inconsistency of referring the character of Hiram,
the widow's son, to Adoniram1 the receiver of
taxes, and the impossibility ot reconciling the
discordant facts in the life of both, resolved to
cut the Gordian knot by refusing any Masonic
position to the former, and making the latter,
alone, the architect of the Temple. It cannot
be denied that Josephus (viii. 2) states that
Adoniram, or, as he calls him, Adoram was,
at the very beginning of the labor, plac;i over
the workmen who prepared the materials on

Mount Lebanon, and that he speaks of Hiram,

the widow's son, simply as a skilful artisan
especiall~a: metals, who had only made ;Ji
the mec
'cal works about the Temfle according to the will of Solomon. (viii. 3. This
apparent color of authority for their opinions
was readily claimed by the Adoniramites, and
hence one of their most prominent ritualists,
Guillemain de St. Victor (Recueil Precieux
de la Mar;onnerie Adonhiramite, pp. 77, 78),
propounds their theory thus: "We all agree
that the Master's degree is founded on the architect of the Temple. Now, Scripture says
very positively, in the 14th verse of the 5th
chapter of the 3d Book of Kings,* that the
person was Adonhiram. Josephus and all the
sacred writers say the same thinf5t.. and undoubtedly distinguish him from Hiram the
Tyrian1 the worker in metals. So that it is
Adonhiram, then, whom we are bound to
honor."
There were, therefore, in the eighteenth
century1 from about the tniddle to near the
end of It, three schools among the Masonic
ritualists, the members of which were divided
in opinion as to the proper identity of this
Temple Builder:
1. Those who supposed him to be Hiram,
the son of a widow of the tribe of N aphtali,
whom the King of Tyre had sent to King Solomon, and whom they designated as Hiram
Abif. This was the original and most popular school, and which we now suppose to have
been the orthodox one.
2. Those who believed this Hiram that came
out of Tyre to have been the architect, but
who supposed that, in consequence of his excellence of character, Solomon had bestowed
upon him the appellation of Adon, " Lord " or
"Master," calling him Adonhiram. As this
theory was wholly unsustained by Scripture
history or previous Masonic tradition, the
school which supported it never became prominent or popular, and soon ceased tol exist,
although the error on which it is based is
repeated at intervals in the blunder of some
modern French ritualists.
3. Those who, treating this Hiram, the
widow's son, as a subordinate and unimportant character, entirely ignored him in their
ritual, and asserted that Adoram, or Adoniram, or Adonhiram, as the name WIIB spelled
by these ritualists, the son of Abda, the collector of tribute and the superintendent of the
levy on Mount Lebanon, was the true architect of the Temple, and the one to whom all
the legendary incidents of the Third Degree of
Masonry were to be referred. This school, in
consequence of the boldness with which, unlike the second school, it refused all compromise with the orthodox party and assumed a
wholly independent theory, became, for a
time, a prominent schism in MIIBonry. Its
disciples bestowed upon the believers in Hiram
Abif the name of H iramite Masons, adopted
as their own distinctive appellation that of

20

* In the LXX the two books of Samuel are

called the 1st and 2d of Kings.

ADONHIRAMITE
Adonhiramites, and, havin~ developed the system which they practised mto a peculiar nte,
called it Adonhiramite Masonry.
Who was the original founder of the rite of
Adonhiramite Masonry, and at what precise
time it was first established1 are questions
that cannot now be answereu with any certainty. Thory does not attempt to reply to
either in his Nomenclature of Rites, where, if
anything was known on the subject, we would
be most likely to find it. Ragon, it is true, in
his Orthodoxie M ~onnique, attributes the rite
to the Baron de Tschoudy. But as he also assigns the authorship of the Recueil Precieux
(a work of which we shall directly speak more
fully) to the same person, in which statement
he is known to be mistaken, there can be but
little doubt that he is wrong in the former as
well as in the latter opinion. The Chevalier
de Lussy, better known as the Baron de
Tschoudy, was, it is true).. a distinguished ritualist. He founded the urder of the Blazing
Star, and took an active part in the OI>erations
of the Council of Emperors of the East and
West; but we have met with no evidence, outside of ~on's assertion, that he established or
had anything to do with theAdonhiramite Rite.
We are disposed to attribute the development into a settled system, if not the actual
creation, of the rite of Adonhiramite Masonry
to Louis Guillemain de St. Victor, who published at Paris, in the year 1781, a work entitled Recueil Precieux de laM~onnerie Adonhiramite1 etc.
As this volume contained only the ritual of
the first four degrees, it was followed1 in 1785,
by another, which _embraced the higher degrees of the rite. No one who peruses these
volumes can fail to perceive that the author
writes like one who has invented, or, at least,
materially modified the rite which is the subject of his labors. At all events, this work furnishes the only authentic account that we possess of the organization of the Adonhiramite
system of Masonry.
The rite of Adonhiramite Masonry consisted of twelve degrees, which were as follows, the names being given in French as well
as in English:
1. AI>prentice-Apprentif.
2. Fellow-Craft--Compagnon.
3. Master Mason-Mattre.
4. Perfect Master-MaUre Parfait.
5. Elect of Nine-Premier Elu, ou L' Elu
des Neuf.
6. Elect of Perignan-Second Elu nomme
Elude Perignan.
7. Elect of Fifteen-Troisieme Elu nomme
Elu des Quinze.
8. Minor Architect-Petil Architecte.
9. Grand Architect, or Scottish FellowCraft-{irand Architecte, ou Compagnon Ecossois.
10. Scottish Master-Mattre Ecossois.
11. Knight of the Sword, Knight of , the
East, or of the Eagle-Chevalier de l' Epee
surnomme Chevalier de l'Orient ou del' Aigle.
12. Knight of Rose Croix-Chevalier Rose
Croix.

ADONIRAM

21

This is the entire list of Adonhiramite degrees. Thory and Ragon have both erred in
wving a thirteenth degree, namely, theNoachtte, or Prussian Knight. They have fallen
into this mistake because Guillemain has inserted this degree at the end of his second
volume, but simply as a Masonic curiosity,
having been translated, as he says, from the
German by M. de Berage.. It has no connec-
tion with the preceding series of degrees, and
Guillemain positively declares that the Rol!le
Croix is the ne plus ultra (2nde Ptie1 p. 118),
the suntmit and termination, of his nte.
Of these twelve degrees, the first ten are occupied with the transactions of the first Temple; the eleventh with ma.ttersrelating to the
construction of the second 'l'empleb and the
twelfth with that Christian sym olism of
Freemasonry which is peculiar to the Rose
Croix of every rite. All of the degrees have
been borrowed from the Ancient and Acce_pted
Rite, with slight modifications, which have
seldom improved their c:haracter. On the
whole, the extinction of the Adonhiramite Rite
can scarcely be considered as a loss to Masonry.
Before concluding, a few words may be said
on the orthography of the title. As the rite
derives its peculiar characteristic from the fact
that it founds the Third Degree on the assumed
legend that Adoniram, the son of Abda and
the receiver of tribute, was the true architect
of the Temple, and not Hiram, the widow's
son, it should properly have been styled the
Adoniramite Rtte, and not the Adonhiramite;
and so it would probably have been called if
Guillemain, who gave it form, had been acquainted with the Hebrew language, for he
would then have known that the name of his
hero was Adoniram and not Adonhiram. The
term Adonhiramite Masons should really have
been applied to the second school descnbed in
this article whose disciples admitted that
Hiram Abif was the architect of the Temple,
but who supposed that Solomon had bestowed the prefix Adon upon him as a mark of
honor, calling him Adonhiram. But Guillemain having committed the blunder in the
name of his Rite, it continued to be repeated
by his successors, and it would perhaps now be
inconvenient to correct the error. Ragon,
however1 and a few other recent writers, have
ventureu to take this step, and in their works
the system is called Adoniramite Masonry.
Adonlram. The first notice that we have of
Adoniram in Scripture is in the 2d Book of
Samuel (xx. 24), where, in the abbreviated
form of his name Adoram, he is said to have
been " over the tribute" in the house of
David or, as Gesenius translates it, " prefect
over the tribute service, tribute master," that
is to say, in modem phrase, he was the chief
receiver of the taxes. Clarke calls him "Chancellor of the Exchequer:" Seven years afterward we find him exercising the same office
in the household of Solomon, for it is said
(1 Kings iv. 6) that "Adoniram the son of Abda
was over the tnbute." And lastly, we h~ar of
him still occupying the same station in the

22

ADONIRAM

ADONIS

household of King Rehoboam, the successor

Adoniram, in Hebrew, C.,.,~.,N compounded
Forty-seven years after he is ofj,N,ADON,Lord,andt::.,:"',HiliaM,altitude,
first mentioned in the Book of Samuel, he is signifies the Lord of altitude. It is a word of
stated under the name of Adoram (1 Kings great importance, and frequently used among
xii. 18), or Hadoram (2 Chron. x. 18)J to have the sacred words of the high degrees in all the
been stoned to death, while in the <tischarge Rites.
of his duty, by the people, who were justly
Adonlramite Masonry. See Adonhiramindignant at the oppressions of his master. ite Masonry.
Although oo~mentators have bee~ at a loss
Adonis, Mysteries of. An investigation
to determine whether the tax-receiver under of the mysteries of Adonis peculiarly claims the
David, under Solomon and under Rehoboam attention of the Masonic student: first, bewas the same person, there seems to be no rea- cause, in their symbolism and in their esoteric
son to doubt it; for, as Kitto says, "It ap- doctrine, the religious object for which they
pears very unlikely that even two persons of were instituted, and the mode in which that
the same name should succeBBively bear the object is attained, they bear a nearer analogisame office, in an age when no example occurs cal resemblance to the Institution of Freeof the father's :name being given to his son. masonry than do any of the other mysteries or
We find, also1 that not more than forty-seven systems of initiation of the ancient world; and,
years elapse oetween the first and last men- secondly, because their chief locality brings
tion of the Adoniram who was ' over the trib- them into a very close connection with the
ute'i and as this, although a long term of early history and reputed origin of FreeserVIce, is not too long for one life, and as the masonry. For they were principally celeperson who held the office in the beginning of brated at Byblos, a city of Phoomcia, whose
Rehoboam's rei_gn had served in it long enough Scriptural name was Gebal, and whose inhabto make himself odious to the people, it ap- itants were the Giblites or Gebalites, who are
pearshon the whole, most probable that one referred to in the 1st Book of KinJr (chap. v.
and t e same ~son is intended throughout." 18) as being the " stone-equarers employed
(Encyc. Bib. Lit.)
by King Solomon in building the Temple. See
Adoniram plays an important r6le in the Gebal and Giblim. Hence there must have eviMasonic system, especially in the high de- dently been a very intimate connection, or at
grees, but the time of action in which he ap- least certainly a very frequent intercommunipea.rs is confined to the period occupied in the cation, between the workmen of the first Ternconstruction of the Temple. The legends pie and the inhabitants of Byblos the seat of
and traditions which connect him with that the Adonisian mysteries, and the place whence
edifice derive their support from a single pas- the worshipers of that rite were ilisseminated
sage in the 1st Bock of Kings (v. 14), where it over other regions of country.
is said that Solomon made a levy of thirty
These historical circumstances invite us to
thousand workmen from among the Israelites; an examination of the system of initiation
that he sent these in courses of ten thousand a which was practised at Byblos, because we
month to labor on Mount Lebanon, and that may find in it somethin~ that was probably
he placed Adoniram over these as their super- suggestive of the symbolic system of instrucintendent. From this brief statement the tion which was subsequently so prominent a
Adoniramite Masons have deduced the theory, feature in the system of Freemasonry.
as may be seen in the preceding article, that
Let us first examine the myth on which the
Adoniram was the architect of the Temple; Adonisiac initiation was founded. The mythwhile the Hiramites, aBBignin$ this important ological legend of Adonis is, that he was the
office to Hiram Abi, still believe that Adoni- son of Myrrha and .Cinyras, King of Cyprus.
ram occupied an important part in the con- Adonis was poBBessed of such surpaBSing
struction of that edifice. He has been called beauty, that Venus became enamored of him,
" the first of the Fellow Crafts"; is said in one and adopted him as her favorite. Subsetradition to have been the brother-in-law of quently Adonis, who was a great hunter, died
Hiram Abif, the latter having demanded of from a wound inflicted by a wild boar on
Solomon the hand of Adoniram's sister in Mount Lebanon. Venus flew to the succor of
marriage; and that the nuptials were honored her favorite, but she came too late. Adonis
by the kings of Israel and Tyre with a public was dead. On his descent to the infernal
celebration; and another tradition, preserved regions, Proserpine became, like Venus, so atin the Royal Master's degree informs us that tracted by his beauty, that notwithstandhe was the one to whom the tb.;ee Grand Mas- ing the entreaties of the goddess of love, she
ters had intended first to communicate that refused to restore him to earth. At length
knowledge which they had reserved as a fitting the prayers of the desponding Venus were
reward to be bestowed upon all meritorious listened to with favor by Jupiter, who reconcraftsmen at the completiOn of the Temple. ciled the dispute between the two goddesses,
It is I!!Carcely necessary to say that these and and by whose decree Proserpine was commany other Adoniramic legends, often fanci- pelled to consent that Adonis should spend
ful, and without any historical authority, six months of each year alternately with herare but the outward clothing of abstruse sym- ' self and Venus.
bois, some of which have been preserved, and l This is the story on which the Greek poet
otherl lost in the lapse of time and the igno- i Bion founded his exquisite idyll entitled the
ranoe and corruptions of modern ritualists. IEpitaph of Adonis, the beginning of which has
of Solomon.

ADONIS

ADOPTION

been thus rather inefficiently" aone mto English":

"I and the Love~ Adoni$ dead deplore:
The beautiful Adonie is indeed
Departed, parted from us. Sleep no more
In purple, Cypris! but in watchet weed,
All wretched! beat thy breast and all areadAdonis is no more.' The Loves and I
Lament him. 'Ohl her grief to see him bleed,
Smitten by white tooth on whiter thigh, '
Out-breathing life'a faint eiah upon the mountain high."'

quent joy thereon. And 011 these facte are

founded the Adonisian mysteries whioh were
established in his honor.
While, therefore, we may_grant the pouibility that there was originally some connection between the Sabean woriiliip of the sun
and the celebration of the Adonisian festival,
we cannot forget that these mysteries, in common with all the other sacred mitiations of the
ancient world, had been originally established
to promulgate among the initiates the once
hidden doctrine of a future life. The myth of
Adonis in Syria, like that of Osiris in Egypt, of
Atys in Samothrace, or of Dionysus in Greece,
presented, symbolically, the two great ideas
of decay and restoration: sometimes figured
as darkness and light, sometimes as winter and
summer, sometimes as death and life, but al
ways maintaining, no matter what was the
framework of the allegory, the inseparable
ideas of something that was lost and afterward recovered, as its interpretation, and so
teaching, as does Freemasonry a.t this day, by
a similar system of allegorizing, that after the
death of the body comes th' eternal life of the
soul. The inquirmg Freemason will thus readily see the analogy in the symbolism that
exists between Adonis in the mysteries of the
Gebalites at Byblos and Hiram the Builder in
his own institution.
Adoption, Masonic. The adoption by
the Lodge of the child of a Mason is practised,
with peculiar ceremonies, in some of the
French and German Lodges, and has been recently introduced, but no1; with the general
approbation of the Cr!Lft;. into one or two
Lodges of this country. l)lavel, in his Hi$toire Pittoresque de la Franc-Ma~onnerie
(p. 40, 3d ed.), gives the following account of
tne ceremonies of adoption.
" It is a custom, in many Lodges, when the
wife of a Mason is near the period of her confinemenf:, for the Hospitaller, if he is a J>hyeician, an<l if not, for some other brother who is,
to visit her, inquire after her health, in the
name of the Lodge, and t<> offer her nis .P.fDfeSBional services, and even pecuniary alii if
he thinks she needs it. Nine days after the
birth of her child, the Muster and Wardens
call upon her to congratulate her on the happy
event. If the infant is a boy, a special communication of the Lodge ia convened for the
purpose of proceeding to its adoption. The
hall is decorated with flowers and foliage, and
censers are prepared for burning incense.
Before the commencement, of labor, the child
and its nurse are introduced into an anteroom.
The Lodge is then opened, and the Wardens,
who are to act as godfp,then~, repair to the infant at the head of a depu1;ation of five brethren. The chief of the deputation, then ad
dressing the nurse, exhor1r.s her not ooly to
watch over the health of the child tha.t has
been intrusted to her carE!, but also to cultivate his youthful intellect, and to instruct him
with truthful and sensible conversation. The
child is then taken from the nurse, placed by
its father upon a cushion, and carried by the
deputation into the Lodge room. The pro-

It is evident that Bion referred the contest

of Venus and Proserpine for Adonis to a period
subseq_uent to his death, from the concluding
lines, m which he says: "The Muses, too,
la.ment the son of Cinyra.s, and invoke him in
their song; but he does not heed them, not beca.use he does not wish, but because Proserpine will not release him." This was, indeed,
the favorite form of the myth, and on it wa.s
framed the symbolism of the ancient mystery.
But there are other Grecian mythologues
that relate the tale of Adonis differently. According to these, be was the product of the
incestuous connection of Cinyras and his
daughter Myrrha. Cinyras subsequently, on
discovering the crime of his daughter, pursued
her with a drawn !lword, intending to kill her.
Myrrha entreated the gods to m~tke her invisible, and they changed her into a myrrh
tree. Ten months !Lfter the myrrh tree
opened, and the young Adonis was born.
This is the form of the myth that has been
adopted by Ovid, who gives it with all its moral
horrors in the tenth book (298-559) of his
Metamorphoses.
Venus, whowas delighted with theextraordin~try be~tut~ of the boy, put him in a coffer,
unknown to au the gods, and gave him to Pro&o
erpine to keep and to nurture in the under
world. But Proserpine had no sooner beheld
him than she became enamored of him and
refused when Venus apf!lied for him, to surrender him to her rival. The subject was then
referred to Jupiter, who decreed that Adonis
should have one-third of the year to himself,
should be another third with Venus, and the
remainder of the time with Proserpine. Adonis
gave his own portion to Venus, and lived happily with her till1 having offended Diana, he
was killed by a wild boar.
The mythographer Pharnutus gives a still
different story1 and says that Adonis was the
grandson of Cinyras, and fled with his father,
Ammon, into Egypt,_ whose people he civilized,
tp,ught them agriculture, and enacted many
wise laws for their government. He subs~r
quently passed over into S~a, and was
wounded in the thi~h by a Wild boar while
hunting on Mount Lebanon. His wife, 1Bis1
or Astarte, and the people of Phcenicia an<l
Egypt, supposing that the wound was mortal,
profoundly deplored his death. But he afterward recovered and their grief was replaced
by transports of joy. All the myths, it will be
seen, agree in his actual or supposed death by
violence, in the grief for his loss, in his recovery or restoration to life, and in the conse-

24

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

which was established in France for the initiation of females, has been called by the French
"Mal}onnerie d'Adoption," or Adoptive Masonry, and the societies in which the initiations
take place have received the name of "Loges
d'Adoption," or Adoptive Lodoes. This appellation is derived from the fact that every
female or Adoptive Lodge is obliged, by the
regulations of the association; to be, as it were,
adopted by, and thus placea under the guardianship of, some regular Lodge of. Freemasons.
As to the exact date which we are to assign for the first introduction of this system of
female Masonry, there have been several theories, some of which, undoubtedly, are wholly
untenable, since they have been founded, as
Masonic historical theories too often are, on an
unwarrantable mixture of facts and fictionsof positive statements and problematic conjectures. Mons. J. S. Boubee, a distinguished
French Mason, in his Etudes Mal}onniques,
places the origin of Adoptive Masonry in the
17th centurr, and ascribes its authorship to
Queen Henr1etta Maria, the widow of Charles
I. of England; and he states that on her return to France, after the execution of her husband, she took pleasure in recounting the
secret efforts made by the Freemasons of
England to restore her family to their position
and to establish her son on the throne of his
ancestors. This, it will be recollected, was
once a prevalent theory, now exploded, of the
origin of Freemasonry-that it was established
by the Cavaliers, as a secret political organization, in the times of the English civil war between the king and the Parliament, and as an
engine for the support of the former. M. Boubee adds that the queen made known to the
ladies of her court, in her exile, the words and
signs employed by her Masonic friends in
England as their modes of recognition, and by
this means instructed them in some of the
mysteries of the Institution, of which, he says,
she had been made the protectress after the
death of the king. This theory is so full of
absurdity, and its statements so fiatly contradicted by well-known historical facts, that
we may at once reject it as wholly apocryphal.
Others have claimed Russia as the birthplace of Adoptive Masonry; but in assigning
that country and the year 1712 as the place
and time of its origin, they have undoubtedly
confounded it with the chivalric Order of
Saint Catharine, which was instituted by the
Czar, Peter the Great, in honor of the Czarina
Catharine, and which, although at first it
consisted of persons of both sexes, was
subsequently confined exclusively to females.
But the Order of Saint Catharine was in no
manner connected with that of Freemasonry.
It was simply a Russian order of female
knililithood.
The truth seems to be that the regular
Lodges of Adoption owed their existence to
(See Lewis.)
those secret associations of men and women
A.doptlye Masonry. An organization which sprang up in France before the middle
which bears a very imperfect resemblance to of the 18th century, and which attempted
Freemasonry in its forms and ceremonies, and in all of their organization, except the

cession advances beneath an arch of foliage to

the pedestal of the east, where it stops.
"'Whom bring you here, my brethren?'
says the Master to the godfathers.
" ' The son of one of our brethren whom the
Lodge is desirous of adopting,' is the reply of
the Senior Warden.
" ' What are his names, and what Masonic
name will you give him? '
" The Warden replies, adding to the baptismal and surname of the child a characteristic name, such as Truth, Devotitm., Benevolence, or some other of a similar nature.
" The Master then descends from his seat,
approaches the louveteau or lewis (for such is
the appellation given to the son of a Mason) ,
and extending his hands over its head, offers
up a prayer that the child may render itself
worthy of the love and care which the Lodge
intends to bestow upon it. He then casts
incense into the censers, and pronounces the
Apprentice's obligation, which the godfathers
repeat after him in the name of the louveteau.
Afterwards he puts a white apron on the infant,
proclaiming it to be the adopted child of the
Lodge, and causes this proclamation to be
received with the honors.
"As soon as this ceremony has been performed, the Master returns to his seat1 and
having caused the Wardens with the child to
be placed in front of the north column, he recounts to the former the duties which they
have assumed as godfathers. After the Wardens have made a suitable response, the deputation which had brought the child into the
Lodge room is again formed, carries it out,
and restores it to its nurse in the anteroom.
" The adoption of a louveteau binds all the
members of the Lodge to watch over his education, and subsequently to aid him, if it be
necessary, in establishing himself in life. A
circumstantial account of the ceremony is
drawn up, which having been signed by all the
members is delivered to the father of the child.
This document serves as a dispensation, which
relieves him from the necessity of passing
through the ordinary preliminary examinations when, at the proper age, he is desirous of
participating in the labors of Masonry. He is
then only required to renew his obligations."
In the United States, the ceremony has
been recently practised by a few Lodges, the
earliest instance being that of Foyer Ma~on
nique Lodge of New Orleans, in 1859. The
Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction1. Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, has
published the ritual of Masonic Adoption for
the use of the members of that rite. This
ritual under the title of " Offices of Masonic
Baptism, Reception of a Louveteau and Adoption," is a very beautiful one, and is the
composition of Brother Albert PI'ke. It is
scarcely necessary to say that the word Baptitnn there used has not the slightest reference
to the Christian sacrament of the same name.

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

25

admission or female members, to imitate the rowed from the Carbonari. The reunions of
Institution of Freemasonry. Clavel, who, in the" Wood-Cutters" enjoyed the prestige of
his Histoire Pittoresque de la Franc-Mar;on- the highest fashion in Paris; and the society
nerie an interesting but not always a trust- became so popular that ladies and gentlemen
worthy work, adopts this theory, says that of the highest distinction in France united
female Masonry was instituted about the year with it, and membership was considered an
1730) p. iii., 3d ed.); that it made its first ap- honor which no rank, however exalted, need
pearance in France, and that it was evidently disdain. It was consequently succeeded by
a product of the French mind. No one will be the institution of many other and similar andisposed to doubt the truth of this last senti- drogynous societies, the very names of which it
ment. The proverbial gallantry of the French would be tedious to enumerate. (Clavel, pp.
Masons was most ready and willing to extend 111, 112.)
to women some of the blessin~s of that. InstiOut of all these societies--which resembled
tution, from which the churlishneBB, as they Freemasonry only in their secrecy, their bewould call it, of their Anglo-Saxon brethren nevolence, and a sort of rude imitation of a
had excluded them.
symbolic ceremonial-at lust arose the true
But the Masonry of Adoption did not at Lodges of Adoption, which so far claimed a
once and in its very beginning assume that pe- connection with and a dependence on Masonry
culiarly imitative form of Freemasonry whwh as that Freemasons alone were admitted
it subsequently presented, nor was it recog- among their male members-a regulation
nized as having any connection with our own which did not prevail in the earlier organizaOrder until more than thirty years after its tions.
first establishment. Its progress was slow
It was about the middle of the 18th cenand gradual. In the course of this progreBB it tury that the Lodges of Adoption began to
affected various names and rituals, many of attract attention in France, whence they
which have not been handed down to us. It speedily spread into other countries of Europe
was evidently convivial and gallant in its na- -into Germany, Poland, and even Russia;
ture, and at first seems to have been only an England alone, always conservative to a fault,
imitation of Freemasonry, inasmuch as that steadily refusing to take :my cognizance of
it was a secret society, having a form of initia- them. The Mas~ns, says !Jlavel (p. 112),
tion and modes of recognition. A specimen of embraced them With enthusiasm as a pracone or two of these secret female aBBociations ticable means of giving to their wives and
may not be uninteresting.
daughters some share of the pleasures which
One of the earliest of these societies was they themselves enjoyed in their mystical asthat which was established in the r,ear 1743, semblies, And this, at least, may be said of
at Paris, under the name of the ' Ordre des them, that they practised with commendable
Felicitaires," which we mi~ht very appropri- fidelity and diligence the greatest of the
ately translate as the ' Order of Happy Masonic virtues, and that the banquets and
Folks." The vocabulary and all the em- balls which always formed an important part
blems of the order were nautical. The sisters of their ceremonial were distinguished by
made symbolically a voyage from the island of numerous acts of charity.
Felicity, in ships navigated by the brethren.
The first of these Lodges of which we have
There were four degrees, namely, those of any notice was that established in Paris, in
Cabin-boy, Captain, Commodore, and Vice- the year 1760, by the Count de Bemouville.
Admiral, and the Grand Master, or presiding Another was instituted at Nimeguen, in Hoiofficer, was called the Admiral. Out of this land, in 1774, over which the Prince of Walsociety there sprang in 1745 another, which deck and the PrinceBB of Orange presided. In
was called the "Knights and Ladies of the 1775, the Lodge of Saint Antome at Paris,
Anchor," which is said to have been somewhat organized a dependent Lodge of Adoption1 of
more refined in its character, although for the which the Duchess of Bourbon was installea as
most part it preserved the same formulary of Grand Mistress and the Duke of Chartres,
reception.
then Grand Master of French Masonry, conTwo years afterward, in 1747, the Cheva- ducted the business. In 1777, there was an
lier Beauchaine, a very zealous Masonic ad- Adoptive Lodge of La Candeur, over which the
venturer1 and the Master for life of a Parisian Duchess of Bourbonpresided, aBBisted by such
Lodge, InBtituted an androgynous system noble ladies as the DucheBB of Chartres, the
under the name of the " Ordre des Fendeurs," Princess Lamballe, and the MarchioneBB de
or the "Order of Wood-Cutters," whose cere- Genlis; and we-hear of auothergoverned by
monies were borrowed from those of the well- Madame Helvetius, the wife of the illustrious
known political society of the Carbonari. All philosopher; so that it will. be perceived that
parts of the ritual had a reference to the sylvan fashion, wealth, and liter:~ture combined to
vocation of wood-cutting, just as that of the give splendor and influence to this new order
Carbonari referred to coal-burning. The of female Masonry.
place of meeting was called a wood-yard, and
At first the Grand.Orien1G of France appears
was supposed to be situated in a forest; the to have been unfavorably disposed to these
presiding officer was styled Pere MaUre, pseudo-Masonic and androgynous a.BBociawhich might be idiomatically interpreted as tions, but at length they became so numerous
Goodman Master; and the members were\ and so popular that a persistence in opposi~
designated as COW!im, a practise evidently bor- tion would have evidently been impolitic, if it
1

26

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

did not actually threaten to be fatal to the

interests and permanence of the Masonic
Institution. The Grand Orient, thereforei
}'ielded its objections, and resolved to avai
Itself of that which it could not suppress. Accordingly, on the lOth of June, 1774, it issued
an edict by which it assumed the protection
and control of the Lodges of Adoption. Rules
and regulations were provided for their government, among which were two: first, that no
males except regular Freemasons should be
permitted to attend them; and, secondly,
that each Lodge should be placed under the
charge and held under the sanction of some
re~ularly constituted Lodge of Masons, whose
Master, or, in his absence, his deputy, should
be the presiding officer, assisted by a female
President or Mistressii and such has since been
the organization of a Lodges of Adoption.
A Lodge of Adoption, under the regulations
established in 1774, consists of the following
officers: a Grand Master, a Grand Mistress,
an Orator (dressed as a Capuchin), an Inspector, an lnspectress, a Male and Female
Guardian, a Mistress of Ceremonies. All of
these officers wear a blue watered ribbon over
the shoulder, to which is suspended a golden
trowel, and all the brothers and sisters have
aprons and white gloves.
The Rite of Adoption consists of four degreesii whose names m French and English are
as fo ows:
1. Apprentice, or Female Apprentice.
2. Compagnone, or Craftswoman.
3. M attresse or Mistress.
4. Parfaite Mw;onne or Perfect Mason.
It will be seen that tfte degrees of Adoption,
in their names and their apparent reference to
the gradations of employment in an operative
art, are assimilated to those of legitimate Freemasonry; but it is in those respects only that
the resemblance holds good. In the details
of the ritual there is a vast difference between
the two Institutions.
There was a fifth degree added in 1817-br,
some modern writers called " Female elect '
-Bublime Dame Ecossaise, or Sovereign Illustrious Dame Ecossaise; but it seems to be a
recent and not ~t;enerally adopted innovation.
At all events, 1t constituted no part of the
original Rite of Adoption.
The firs!,,~,!emale Apprentice's degree, is
simply pr ary in its character, and is
intended to prepare the candidate for the more
important lessons which she is to receive in
the succeeding degrees. She is presented
with an apron and a pair of white kid gloves.
The a.Jl!on is given with the followin~ charge,
in whichhas in all the other ceremomes of the
Order, t e Masonic system of teaching by
symbolism is followed:
" Permit me to decorate you with this
apron; kings, princes, and the most illustrious princesses have esteemed, and will ever
esteem it an honor to wear it, as being the symbol of virtue."
On receiving the gloves, the candidate is
thus addressed:
" The color of these gloves will admonish

you that candor and truth are virtues inseparable from the character of a true Mason.
Take your place among us, and be pleased to
listen to the instructions which we are about
to communicate to you."
The following charge is then addressed to the
members by the Orator:
"My DEAR SrsTERS:-Nothing is better calculated to assure you of the high esteem our society
entertains for you, than your admission as a member. The common herd, always unmannerly
full of the most ridiculous prejudices, has d~
to spn..kle on us the black poison of calumny
but what judgment could it form when depriv;J
of the light of truth, and unsble to feel all the
blessings which result from its perfect knowledge?
'' You alone, my dear sisters, having been repulsed from our meetings, would have the right
to think us unjust; but with what satisfaction do
you learn to-day that Masonry is the school of
propriety and of virtue, and that by its laws we
restrain the weaknesses that degrade an honourable man, in order to return to your side more
worthy of your confidence and of your sincerity.
However whatever pleasure these sentiments
have enabled us to taste, we have not been able
to fill the void that your absence left in our midst;
and I confess, to your glory, that it was time to
invite into our societies some sisters who, while
rendering them more respectable will ever make
of them pleasures a:nd delights. We call our
Lodges Temples of Virtue, because we endeavor
to practise it. The mysteries which we celebrate therein are the grand art of conquering the
passions and the oath that we take to reveal nothing is to prevent self-love and pride from entering
at all into the good which we ought to do.
"The beloved name of Adoption tells you sufficiently that we choose you to share the happiness that we enjoy, in cultivating honour and
charity; it is only after a careful examination
that we have wished to share it with you, now
that you know it we are convinced that the light
of wisdom will illumine all the actions of your
life, and that you will never forget that the more
valuable things are the greater is the need to preserve them; it is the principle of silence that we
observe, it should be inviolable. May the God
of the Universe who hears us vouchsafe to i,ve
us strength to render it so."
It will be seen that throughout this cha.rlre
there runs a vein of gallantry1 which gives tlie
true secret of the motives which led to the organization of the society, and which, however
appropriate to a Lodge of Adoption, would
scarcely be in place in a Lodge of the legitimate Order.
In the second degree, or that of CMnpq,.
gnone, or " Craftswoman," corresponding to
our Fellow-Craft, the Lodge is made the symbol of the Garden of Eden, and the candidate
passes through a mimic representation of the
temptation of Eve, the fatal effects of which,
culminating in the delu~e and the destruction
of the human race, are unpressed upon her in
the lecture or catechism.
Here we have a scenic representation of the
circumstances connected with that event, as
recorded in Genesis. The candidate plays the
r"le of our common mother. In the center of
the Lodge, which represent.s the garden, is
placed the tree of life, from which ruddy apples
are suspended. The serpent, made with the-

---~~---------~-~---

27

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

atrical skill to represent a living reptile, embraces in its coils the trunk. An apple pluckPd
from the tree is presented to the recipient, who
is persuaded to eat it by the promise that thus
alone can she prepare herself for receiving a
knowledge of the sublime mysteries of Freemasonry. She receives the fruit from the
tempter, but no sooner has she attempted to
bite it, than she is startled by the sound of
thunder; a curtain which has separated her
from the members of the Lodge is suddenly
withdrawn, and she is detected in the commission of the act of disobedience. She is sharply
reprimanded by the Orator, who conducts her
before the Grand Master. This dignitary
reproaches her with her fault, but finally, with
the consent of the brethren and sisters present, he pardons her in the merciful spirit of
the Institution, on the condition that she will
take a vow to extend hereafter the same clemency to the faults of others.
All of this is allegorical and very pretty, and
it cannot be denied that on the sensitive imaginations of females such ceremonies must produce a manifest impression. But it is needless to say that it is nothing like Masonry.
There IS less ceremony, but more symbolism, in the third degree, or that of " Mistress."
Here are introduced, as parts of the ceremony,
the tower of Babel and the theological ladder
of Jacob. Its rounds, however, differ from
those peculiar to true Masonry, and are said
to equal the virtues in number. The lecture
,or catechism is very long, and contains some
very good points in its explanations of the
symbols of the degree. Thus, the tower of
Babel is said to signify the pride of man-its
base, his folly-the stones of which it was
composed, his passions-the cement which
united them, the poison of discord-and its
spiral form, the devious and crooked ways of
the human heart. In this manner there is an
imitation, not of the letter and substance of
legitimate Freemasonry, for nothing can in
these respects be more dissimilar, but of that
mode of teaching by symbols and allegories
which is its peculiar characteristic.
The fourth degree, or that of " Perfect Mistress," corresponds to no degree in legitimate
Masonry. It is simply the summit of the Rite
of Adoption, and hence is also called the " Degree of Perfection." Although the Lodge, in
this degree, is supposed to represent the Mosaic tabernacle in the wilderness, yet the ceremonies do not have the same reference. In one
of them, however, the liberation, by the candidate, of a bird from the vase in which it had
been confined is said to symbolize the liberation of man from the dominion of his passions; and thus a far-fetched reference is made
to the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian
bondage. On the whole, the ceremonies are
very disconnected, but the lecture or catechism contains some excellent lessons. Especially does it furnish us with the official definition of Adoptive Masonzy, which is in these
words:
"It is a virtuous amusement by which we
recall a part of the mysteries of our religion;

and the better to reconcile humanity with the

knowledge of its Creator, after we have inculcated the duties of virtue, we deliver ourselves
up to the sentiments of a pure and delightful
friendship by enjoying in our Lodges the
pleasures of society-pleasure!! which among
us arc always founded on reason, honor, and
innocence."
Apt and appropriate description of an associatiOn, secret or otherwise1 of agreeable and
virtuous well-bred men ana women, but having not the slightest application to the design
or form of true Freemasonry.
Guillemain de St. Victor, the author of
Manuel des Franches-Mar;onnes, ou La Vraie
M at;onnerie d' Adoption (which forms the 3d
part of the Recueil Precieux) who has given
the best ritual of the Rite and from whom the
preceding account has been taken, thus briefly
sums up the objects of the IllBtitution:
" The first degree contains only, as it ought,
moral ideas of Masonry; the second is the initiation into the first mysteries, commencing
with the sin of Adam, and concluding with the
Ark of Noah as the first favor which God
granted to men; the third fiJld fourth are
merely a series of types and figures drawn
from the Holy Scriptures, by which we e:K!>lain
to the candidate the virtues which she ought to
practise." (P. 13, ed. 1785.)
The fourth degree, being the summit of the
Rite of Adoption, is furnished with a " tablelodge," or the ceremony of a banquet, which
immediately succeeds the closing of the Lod~e1
and "which, of course, adds much to the somal
pleasure and nothing to the instructive character of the Rite. Here, also, there is a continued imitation of the ceremonies of the
Masonic Institution as they are practised in
France, where the ceremoniously conducted
banquet, at which Masons only are present, is
always an accompaniment of the Master's
Lodge. Thus, as in the banquets of the regular
Lodges of the French Rite, the members
always use a symbolical language by which
they designate the various implements of the
table and the different articles of food and
drink, calling, for instance, the knives
"swords," the forks "jickaxes," the dishes
"materials," and brea a "rough ashlar";*
so, in imitation of this custom, the Rite of
Adoption has established in :its banquets a
technical vocabulary, to be used only at the
table. Thus the Lod~e room is called" Eden,"
the doors " barriers ' the minutes a " ladder "
a wineglass is styl~d a "lamp," and its co~
tents " oil"-water being "white oil" and
wine "red cil." To fill your glass is "to trim
your lamp," to drink is "to extinguish your
lamp," with many other eceentriC expressions. t
Much taste, and in some instances1 magnificence, are displayed in the decorations of
the Lodge rooms of the Adoptive Rite. The
apartment is separated by curtains into different divisions, and contains ornaments and
decorations which of course vary in the differ-

* Clavel, Hist. Pitt., p. 30.

t Clave!, p. M.

28

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

ent degrees. The orthodox Masonic idea that

the Lodge is a symbol of tlie world is here retained, and the four sides of the hall are said
to represent the four continents-the entrance
bei~ called "Europe," the right side "Africa, ' the left "America," and the extremity,
in which the Grand Master and Grand Mistress are seated, "Asia." There are statues
representing Wisdom, Prudence, Strength,
Temperance, Honor, Charity, Justice, and
Truth. The members are seated along the
sides in two rows, the ladies occupying the
front one, and the whole is rendered as beautiful and attractive as the taste can make it.*
The Lodges of Adoption flourished greatly
in France after their recognition by the Grand
Orient. The Duchess of Bourbon, who was the
first that received the title of Grand Mistress,
was installed with great pomp and splendor,
in May, 1775, in the Lodge of St. Antoine, in
Paris. She presided over the Adoptive Lodge
Le Candeur until 1780, when it was dissolved.
Attached to the celebrated Lodge of the Nine
Sisters, which had so many distinguished men
of letters among its members, was a Lodge of
Adoption bearing the same name, which in
1778 held a meeting at the residence of Madame Helvetius in honor of Benjamin Franklin,
then our ambassador at the. French court.
During the reign of terror of the French Revolution, Lodges of Adoption, like everything
that was gentle or humane, almost entirely
disappeared. But with the accession of a
regular government they were resuscitated,
and the Empress Josephine presided at the
meeting of one at Strasburg in the year 1805.
They continued to flourish under the imperial
dynasty, and although less popular, or less
fashionable, under the Restoration, they subsequently recovered their popularity, and are
still in existence in France.
As interesting appendages to this article, it
may not be improper to insert two accounts,
one, of the installation of Madame Cesar
Moreau, as Grand Mistress of Adoptive Masonry, in the Lodge connected with the regular Lodge La Jerusalem des V allees Egyptiennes, on the 8th of July, 1854, and the other,
of the reception of the celebrated Lady Morgan, in 1819, in the Lodge LaBelle etBonne, as
described by her in her Diary.
The account of the installation of Madame
Moreau, which is abridged from the FrancMar;on, a Parisian periodical, is as follows:
The fete was most interesting and admirably arranged. After the introduction in due
form of a number of brethren and sisters, the
Grand Mistress elect was announced, and she
entered, preceded by the five lights of the
Lodge and escorted by the Inspectress, Depositress, Oratrix, and Mistress of Ceremonies. Mons. J. S. Boubee, the Master of the
Lodge La Jerusalem des ValUes Egyptiennes,
conducted her to the altar, where, having installed her into office and handed her a mallet
as the symbol of authority, he addressed her
in a copy of verses, whose merit will hardly

claim for them a repetition. To this she made

a suitable reply, and the Lodge then proceeded
to the reception of a young lady, a part of the
ceremony of which is thus described:
" Of the various trials of virtue and fortitude to which she was subjected, there was one
which made a deep impression, not only on
the fair recipient, but on the whole assembled
company. Four boxes were placed, one before
each of the male officers; the candidate was
told to open them, which she did, and from the
first and second drew faded flowers.' and soiled
ribbons and laces, which being plaCed in an
open vessel were instantly consumed by fire,
as an emblem of the brief duration of such
objects; from the third she drew an apron, a
blue silk scarf, anrl a pair of gloves; and from
the fourth a basket containing the working
tools in silver gilt. She was then conducted to
the altar, where, on opening a fifth box, several birds which had been confined in it escaped, which was intended to teach her that
liberty is a condition to which all men are
entitled, and of which no one can be deprived
without injustice. After having taken the
vow, she was instructed in the modes of recognition, and having been clothed with the
apron, scarf, and gloves, and presented with
the implements of the Order, she received
from the Grand Mistress an esoteric explanation of all these emblems and ceremonies.
Addresses were subsequently delivered by the
Orator and Oratrix, an ode was sung, the poor
or alms box was handed round, and the labors
of the Lodge were then closed."
Madame Moreau lived only six months to
enjoy the honors of presiding officer of the
Adoptive Rite, for she died of a pulmonary
affection at an early age, on the 11th of the
succeeding January.
The Lodge of Adoption in which Lady
Morgan received the degrees at Paris, in the
year 1819, was called La Belle et Bonne. This
was the pet name which 1ong before had been
bestowed by Voltaire on his favorite, the Marchioness de Villette, t under whose presidencv
and at whose residence in the Faubourg St.
Germaine the Lodge was held, and hence the
name with which all France, or at least all
Paris, was familiarly acquainted as the popular designation of Madame de Villette.
Lady Morgan, in her description of the
Masonic fete, says that when she arrived at
the Hotel la Villette, where the Lodge was
held, she found a large concourse of distinguished persons ready to take part in the ceremonies. Among these were Prince Paul of
Wurtemberg, the Count de Cazes, elsewhere
distinguished in Masonry, the celebrated
Denon, the Bishop of Jerusalem, and the illustrious actor Talma. The business of the evening commenced with an installation of the
officers of a sister Lodge, after which the
candidates were admitted. Lady Morgan describes the arrangements as presentingl when
the doors were opened, a spectacle ot great
magnificence. A profusion of crimson and

* Recueil Precieux, p. 24.

t Clave!, p. 114.

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29

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

gold, marble busts, a decorated throne and

altar, an abundance of flowers, and incense of
the finest odor which filled the air, gave to the
whole a most dramatic and scenic effect.
Music of the grandest character mingled its
harmony with the mysteries of initiation,
which lasted for two hours, and when the
Lodge was closed there was an adjournment
to the hall of refreshment, where the ball was
opened by the Grand Mistress with Prince
Paul of Wurtemberg. Lady Morgan, upon
whose mind the ceremony appears to have
made an impression, makes one remark worthy
of consideration: "That so many wo'men,"
she says, " young and beautiful and worldly,
should never have revealed the secret, is among
the miracles which the much distrusted sex
are capable of working." In fidelity to the
vow of secrecy, the female Masons of the
Adoptive Rite have proved themselves fully
equal to their brethren of the legitimate Order.
Notwithstanding that Adoptive Masonry
has found an advocate in no less distinguished
a writer than Chemin Dupontes, who, in the
Encyclopedie M a9onnique, * calls it " a luxury
in Masonry, and a pleasant relaxation which
cannot do any harm to the true mysteries
which are practised by men alone," it has
been very generally condemned by the most
celebrated French, German, English, and
American Masons.
Gaedicke, in the Freimaurer Lexicon, speaks
slightingly of it as established on insufficient
grounds, and expresses his gratification that
the system no longer exists in Germany.
Thory, in his Histor11 of the Foundation of
the Grand Orient (p. 361 ), says that the introduction of Adoptive Lodges was a consequence
of the relaxation of Masonic discipline; and
he asserts that the permitting of women to
share in mysteries which should exclusively
belong to men is not in accordance with the
essential principles of the Masonic Order.
The Abbe Robin, the author of an able work
entitled Recherches sur les Initiations Anciennes et Modernes, maintains (p. 15) that
the custom of admitting women into Masonic assemblies will perhaps be, at some
future period, the cause of the decline of
Masonry in France. The prediction is not,
however, likely to come to pass; for while
legitimate Masonry has never been more popular or prosperous in France than it is at this
day, it 1s the Lodges of Adoption that appear
to have declined.
Other writers in other countries have spoken
in similar terms, so that it is beyond a doubt
that the general sentiment of the Fraternity is
against this system of female Masonry.
Lenning is, however, more qualified in his
condemnation, and says1 in his Encyclopadie
der Freimaurerei, that wnile leaving it undecided whether it is prudent to hold assemblies
of women with ceremonies which are called
Masonic, yet it is not to be denied that in
these female Lodges a large amount of charity
has been done.

Adoptive Masonry has its literature, although neither llxtensive nor important, as it
comprises only books of songs, addresses, and
rituals. Of the latter the most valuable are:
1. La Maronnerie des Femmes, published in
1775, and containing only the first three degrees, for such was the system when recognized by the Grand Orient of France in that
year. 2. La Vraie Maronnerie d'Adoption,
printed in 1787. This work1 which is by GuiDemain de St. Victor, is _pernaps the best that
has been published on the subject of the Adoptive Rite, and is the first that introduces the
Fourth Degree,of which Guillemain is supposed
to have been the inventor, since all previous
rituals include only the three degrees. 3. M a9onnerie d' Adoption pour les Femmes, contained in the second part of E. J. Chappron's
Necessaire Maronnique, and printed at Paris
in 1817. This is valuable because it is the first
ritual that contains the Fifth Degree. 4. La
Franc-Ma9onnerie des Femmes. This work,
which is by Charles Monselet, is of no value
as a ritual, being simply a t11le founded on
circumstances connected with Adoptive Masonry.
In Italy, the Carbonari, or "WoodBurners," a secret political society, imitated
the Freemasons of France in instituting an
Adoptive Rite, attached to their own association. Hence, an Adoptive Lodge was founded
at Naples in the beginning of this century,
over which presided that friend of Masonry,
Queen Caroline, the wife of Ferdinand II.
The members were styled Giardiniere, or Female Gardeners; and they called each other
Cugine, or Female Cousins, in imitation of the
Carbonari, who were recognized as Buoni
Cugini, or Good Cousins. The Lodges of
Giardiniere flourished as long as the Grand
Lodge of Carbonari existed at Naples.
Adoptive Masonry, American. The
Rite of Adoption as practised on the continent
of Europe, and es{lecially in France, has never
been introduced mto Ameriea. The system
does not aceord with the manners or habits of
the people, and undoubtedly never would become popular. But Rob. Morris attempted, in
18551 to introduce an imitation of it, which he
had mvented, under the name of the " American Adoptive Rite." It consisted of a ceremony of initiation which was intended as a
preliminary trial of the candidate, and of five
degrees, named as follows: 1. Jephthah's
Daughter, or the daughter's degree. 2. Ruth,
or the widow's degree. 3. Esther or the wife's
degree. 4. Martha, or the sister1s degree. 5.
Electa, or the Christian Martyr's degree. The
whole assemblage of the five degrees was called
the Eastern Star.
The objects of this Rite, as expressed by
the framer, were " to associate in one common
bond the worthy wives, widows, daughters,
and sisters of Freemasons, so :1s to make their
adoptive privileges available for all the purposes contemplated in Mason:ryi to secure to
them the advantages of their c:la1m in a moral:
social, and charitable point of view, ana
from them the performance of corresponding

*Published in Paris in 4 vola., 1819-25.

ADOPTIVE

ADORATION

duties." Hence, no females but those holding

the above recited relations to Freemasons were
eligible for admission. The male members
were called " Protectors "; the female, " Stellre "; the reunions of these members were
styled " Constellations "; and the Rite was
presided over and governed by a " Supreme
Constellation." There is some ingenuity and
even beauty in many of the ceremonies, although it is by no means equal in this respect
to the French Adoptive system. Much dissatisfaction was, however, expressed by the
leading Masons of the country at the time of
its attempted organization; and therefore,
notwithstanding very strenuous efforts were
made by its founder and his friends to establish it in some of the Western States, it was
slow in winning popularity. It has, however,
within a few years past, gained much growth
under the name of "The Eastern Star."
Bro. Albert Pike has also recently printed, for
the use of Scottish Rite Masons, The Masonry
of Adoption. It is in seven degrees, and is a
translation from the French system, but
. greatly enlarged, and is far superior to the
original.
The last phase of this female Masonry to
which our attention is directed is the system
of androgynous degrees which are practised
to some extent in the United States. This
term " androgynous " is derived from two
Greek words, &vnp (lv1ipos ), a man, and -yvvf,,
a woman, and it 1s equivalent to tne English
compound, masculo-feminine. It is applied
to those " side degrees " which are conferred
on both males and females. The essential regulation prevailing in these degrees, is that
they can be conferred only dn Master Masons
(and in some instances only on Royal Arch
Masons) and on their female relatives, the
peculiar relationship differing in the different
degrees.
Thus there is a degree generally called the
" Mason's Wife," which can be conferred only
on Master Masons, their wives, unmarried
daughters and sisters, and their widowed
mothers. Another degree, called the "Heroine
of Jericho," is conferred only on the wives and
daughters of Royal Arch Masons; and the
third, the only one that has much pretension
of ceremony or ritual, is the " Good Samaritan," whose privileges are confined to Royal
Arch Masons and tlieir wives.
In some parts of the United States these
degrees are very popular, while in other places
they are never practised, and are strongly
condemned as modern innovations. The fact
is, that by their friends as well as their enemies these so-called degrees have been greatly
misrepresented. When females are told that
in receiving these degrees they are admitted
into the Masonic Order, and are obtaining
Masonic information, under the name of
"Ladies' Masonry," they are simply deceived.
When a woman is informed that, by passing
through the brief and unimpressive ceremony
of any one of these degrees, she has become a
Mason, the deception is still more gross and
inexcusable. But it is true that every woman

who is related by ties of consanguinity to a

Master Mason is at all times and under all
circumstances peculiarly entitled to Masonic
protection and assistance. Now, if the recipient of an androgynous degree is candidly
instructed that, by the use of these degrees,
the female relatives of Masons are put in possession of the means of making their claims
known by what may be called a sort of oral
testimony, which, unlike a written certificate,
can be neither lost nor destroi':ed; but that, by
her initiation as a " Mason s Wife " or as a
"Heroine of Jericho," she is brought no nearer
to the inner portal of Masonry than she was
before--if she is honestly told all this, then
there can hardly be any harm, and there may
be some good in these forms if prudently bestowed. But all attempts to make Masonry
of them, and especially that anomalous thing
called " Female Masonry," are reprehensible,
and are well calculated to produce opposition
among the well-informed and cautious members of the Fraternity.
Adoptive Masonry, Egyptian. A system
invented by Cagliostro. (See Cagliostro.)
Adoration. The act of paying divine worship. The Latin word adorare is derived from
ad, "to," and os, oris, "the mouth," and we
thus etymologically learn that the primitive
and most general method of adoration was by
the application of the fingers to the mouth.
Hence we read in Job (xxxi. 26): " If I beheld
the sun when it shined, or the moon walking
in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly
enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, th1s
also were an iniquity to be punished by the
judges; for I should have denied the God that
is above." Here the mouth kissing the hand is
an equipollent expression to adoration, as if
he had said, " If I have adored the sun or the
moon." This mode of adoration is said to have
originated among the Persians, who, as worshipers of the sun, always turned their faces
to the east and kissed their hands to that luminary. The gesture was first used as a token of
respect to their monarchs, and was easily
transferred to objects of worship. Other additional forms of adoration were used in various countries, but in almost all of them this
reference to kissing was in some degree preserved. It is yet a practice of quite common
usage for Orientals to kiss what they deem
sacred or that which they wish to adore--example, Wailing Place of the Jews at Jerusalem.
The marble toes of the statue of St. Peter in
the Cathedral of St. Peter's at Rome have been
worn away by the kissings of Catholics and
have been replaced by bronze. Among the ancient Romans the act of adoration was thus
performed: The worshiper, having his head
covered, applied his right hand to his lips,
thumb erect, and the forefinger resting on-it,
and then, bowing his head, he turned round
from right to left. And hence Apuleius
(Apolog.) uses the expression " to apply the
hand to the lips," manum labris admovere, to
express the act of adoration. The Grecian
mode of adoration differed from the Roman in
having the head uncovered, which practise

30

ADVANCED
was adopted by the Christians. The Oriental
nations cover the head, but uncover the feet.
They also express the act of adoration by prostrating themselves on their faces and applying
their foreheads to the ground. The ancient
Jews adored by kneeling, sometimes by prostration of the whole body, and by kissing the
hand. This act, therefore, of kissing the
hand was an early and a very general symbol
of adoration. But we must not be led into
the error of supposing that a somewhat similar
gesture used m some of the high degrees of
Freemasonry has any allusion to an act of
worship. It refers to that symbol of silence
and secrecy which is figured in the statues of
Harpocrates, the god of silence. The Masonic idea of adoration has been well depicted
by the medieval Christian painters, who represented the act by angels prostrated before a
luminous triangle.
Advanced. This word has two technical
meanings in Masonry.
1. We speak of a candidate as being advanced when he has passed from a lower to a
higher degree; as we say that a candidate is
qualified for advancement from the Entered
Apprentice's degree to that of a Fellow-Craft
when he has made that " suitable proficiency
in the former which, by the regulations of the
Order, entitle him to receive the initiation into
and the instructions of the latter." And when
the Apprentice has thus been promoted to the
Second Degree he is said to have advanced in
Masonry.
2. However, this use of the term is by no
means universal, and the word is peculiarly
applied to the initiation of a candidate into the
Mark Degree, which is the fourth in the modification of the American Rite. The Master
Mason is thus said to be " advanced to the
honorary degree of a Mark Master," to indicate either that he has now been promoted one
step beyond the degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry on his way to the Royal Arch, or to express the fact that he has been elevated from
the common class of Fellow-Crafts to that
higher and more select one which, according
to the traditions of Masonry, constituted, at
the first Temple, the class of Mark Masters.
(See Mark Master.)
Advancement Hurried. Nothing can be
more certain than that the proper qualifications of a candidate for admission into the
mysteries of Freemasonry, and the necessary
proficiency of a Mason who seeks advancement to a higher degree, are the two great
bulwarks which are to protect the purity and
integrity of our Institution. Indeed, we know
not which is the morfi) hurtful-to admit an
applicant who is unworthy, or to promote a
candidate who is ignorant of his first lessons.
The one affects the external, the other the internal character of the Institution. The one
brings discredit upon the Order among the
profane, who already regard us, too often,
with suspicion and dislike; the other introduces ignorance and incapacity into our ranks,
and dishonors the science of Masonry in our
own eyes. The one covers our walls with im-

ADVANCEMENT

31

perfect and worthless stones, which mar the

outward beauty and impair the strength of our
temple; the other fills our interior apartments
with confusion and disorder, and leaves the
edifice, though externally strong, both inefficient a~d inappropriate for its destined uses.
But, to the candidate himself, a too hurried
advancement is often attended with the most
disastrous effects. As in geometry, so in Masonry, there is no " royal road " to perfection.
A knowledge of its principles and 1ts science,
and consequently an acquaintance with its
beauties, can only be acquired by long and
diligent study. To the careless observer it
seldom offers, at a hasty glance, much to attract his attention or secure his interest. The
gold must be deprived, by careful manipulation, of the dark and worthless ore which surrounds and envelops it, before its metallic
luster and value can be seen and appreciated. ,
Hence, the candidate who hurriedly passes
through his degrees without a due examination of the moral and intelleetual purposes of
each, arrives at the summit of our edifice without a due and necessary appreciation of the
general symmetry ru;td connection that pervade the whole system. The candidate, thus
hurried through the elements of our science,
and unprepared, by a knowledge of its fundamental principles, for the reception and comprehension of the corollaries which are to be
deduced from them, is apt to view the whole
system as " a rude and indigested mass " of
frivolous ceremonies and puerile conceits,
whose intrinsic value will not adequately pay
him for the time, the trouble, and expense that
he has incurred in his forced initiation. To
him, Masonry is as incomprehensible as was
the veiled statue of Isis to its blind worshipers, and he becomeshin consequence, either a'
useless drone in our ive, or speedily retires in
disgust from all participation in our labors.
But the candidate who by slow and painful
steps has proceeded through each apartment
of our mystic Temple, from its porch to its
sanctuary, pausing in his progress to admire
the beauties and to study the uses of each
learning, as he advances, " line upon line, and
precept upon precept/' is gradually and almost imperceptibly rmbued with so much
admiration of the Institution, so much love
for its principles, so much just appreciation of
its design as a conservator of divine truth, and
an agent of human civilization, that he is inclined, on beholding, at last, the whole beauty
of the finished building, to exelaim, as did the
wondering Queen of Sheba: "A Most Excellent Master must have done all this!"
The usage in many jurisdictions of the
United States, when the question is asked in
the ritual whether the candidate has made
suitable proficiency in his preoeding degree, is
to reply, " Such as time and circumstances
would permit." We have no doubt that this
was an innovation originally invented to evade
the law, which has always required a due proficiency. To such a question no other answer
ought to be given than the positive and unequivocal one that "he has." Neither "time

32

ADVANCEMENT

ADVANCEMENT

nor circumstances " should be permitted to

interfere with his attainment of the necessary
knowledge, nor excuse its absence. This, with
the wholesome rule, very generally existing,
which requires an interval between the conferring of the degrees, would go far to remedy
the evil of too hurried and unqualified advancement, of which all intelligent Masons
are now complaining.
After these views of the necessity of a careful examination of the claims of a candidate
for advancement in Masonry, and the necessity, for his own good as well as that of the
Order, that each one should fully prepare himself for this promotion, it is proper that we
should next inquire into the laws of Masonry,
by which the wisdom and experience of our
predecessors have thought proper to guard as
well the rights of those who claim advancement as the interests of the Lodge which is
called upon to grant it. This subject has been
so fully treated in Mackey's TextBook of Masonic Jurisprudence (b. iii., ch. i. 1 p. 165 et
seq.) that we shall not hesitate to mcorporate
the views in that work into the present article.
The subject of the petition of a candidate
for advancement involves three questions of
great importance: First, how soon, after receiving the First Degree, can he apply for the
Second? Secondly, what number of black balls
is necessary to constitute a rejection? And
thirdly, what time must elapse, after a first
rejection, before the Apprentice can renew his
application for advancement?
1. How soon, after receiving a former degree,
can a candidate apply tor advancement to the
next? The necessity o a full comprehension
of the mysteries of one degree, before any attempt is made to acquire those of a second,
seems to have been thoroughly appreciated
from the earliest times; thus the 13th Article
in the Regius MS., which is the oldest Masonic
document now extant, provides that " if the
master a prentice have, he shall teach him
thoroughly and tell him measurable points,
that he may know the craft ably, wherever
he goes under the sun." Similar direction
is found in most all the MS. But if there
be an obligation on the part of the Master
to instruct his Apprentice, there must be,
of course, a correlative obligation on the part
of the latter to receive and profit by those instructions. Accqrdingly, unless this obligation is discharged, and the Apprentice makes
himself acquainted with the mysteries of the
degree that he has already received, it is, by
general consent, admitted that he has no right
to be entrusted with further and more important information. The modern ritual sustains this doctrine, by requiring that the candidate, as a qualification in passing onward,
shall have made "suitable proficiency in the
preceding degree." This is all that the general
law prescribes. Suitable proficiency must have
been attained, and the period in which that
condition will be acquired must necessarily
depend on the mental capacity of the candidate. Some men will become proficient in a
shorter time than others, and of this fact the

Master and the Lodge are to be the judges.

An examination should therefore take place in
open Lodge, and a ballot immediately following will express the opinion of the Lodge on the
result of that examination, and the qualification of the candidate. [Such ballot, however,
is not usual in Lodges under the English Constitution.]
Several modern Grand Lodges, looking with
disapprobation on the rapidity with which the
degrees are sometimes conferred upon candidates wholly incompetent, have adopted special regulations, prescribing a determinate
period of probation for each degree. [Thus
the Grand Lodge of England requires an interval of not less than four weeks before a
higher degree can be conferred.] This, however, is a local law, to be obeyed only in those
jurisdictions in which it is in force. The
general law of Masonry makes no such determinate provision of time, and demands only
that the candidate_shall give evidence of "suitable proficiency."
2. What number of black balls is necessary
to constitute a rejection? Here we are entirely
without the guidance of any express law, as
all the Ancient Constitutions are completely
silent upon the subject. It would seem, however, that in the advancement of an Apprentice or Fellow-Craft, as well as in the election
of a profane, the ballot should be unanimous.
This is strictly in accordance with the principles of Masonry, which require unanimity
in admission, lest improper persons be intruded, and harmony impaired. Greater qualifications are certainly not required of a profane applying for initiation than of an initiate seeking advancement; nor can there be
any reason why the test of those qualifications
should not be as rigid in the one case as in the
other. It may be laid down as a rule, therefore, that in all cases of balloting for advancement in any of the degrees of Masonry, a single black ball will reject.
3. What time must elapse, after a first rejection, before the Apprentice or Fellow-Craft can
renew his application for advancement to a
higher degree? Here, too, the Ancient Constitutions are silent, and we are left to deduce
our opinions from the general principles and
analogies of Masonic law. As the application
for advancement to a higher degree is founded
on a right enuring to the Apprentice or FellowCraft by virtue of his reception into the previous degree--that is to say, as the Apprentice, so soon as he has been initiated, becomes
invested with the right of applying for advancement to the Second-it seems evident
that, as long as he remains an Apprentice "in
good standing," he continues to be invested
with that right. Now, the rejection of his
petition for advancement by the Lodge does
not impair his right to apply again, because it
does not affect his rights and standing as an
Apprentice; it is simply the expression of the
opinion that the Lodge does not at present
deem him qualified for further progress in
Masonry. We must never forget the difference between therightof applying for advance-

ADYTUM
ment and the right of advancement. Every
Apprentice possesses the former, but no one
can claim the latter until it is given to him by
the unanimous vote of the Lodge. And as,
therefore, this right of application or petition
is not impaired by its rejection at a particular
time, and as the Apprentice remains precisely
in the same position in his own degree, after
the rejection, as he did before, it seems to foll<..w, as an irresistible deduction, that he may
again apply at the next regular communication, and, if a second time rejected, repeat his
applications at all future meetings. The Entered Apprentices of a Lodge are comi>etent,
at all regular communications of their Lodge,
to petition for advancement. Whether that
petition shall be granted or rejected is quite
another thing, and depends altogether on the
favor of the Lodge. And what is here said of
an Apprentice, in relation to advancement to
the Second Degree, may be equally said of a
Fellow-Craft in reference to advancement to
the Third.
This opinion has not, it is true, been universally adopted, though no force of authority, short of an opposing landmark, could
make one doubt its correctness. For instance,
the Grand Lodge of California decided, in
1857, that" the application of Apprentices or
Fellow Crafts for advancement should, after
they have been once rejected by ballot, be
governed by the same principles which regulate the ballot on petitions for initiation, and
which require a probation of one year."
This appears to be a singular decision of
Masonic law. If the reasons which prevent
the advancement of an Apprentice or FellowCraft to a higher degree are of such a nature
as to warrant the delay of one year, it is far
better to prefer charges against the petitioner,
and to give him the opportunity of a fair and
impartial trial. In many cases, a candidate
for advancement is retarded in his progress
from an opinion, on the part of the Lodge,
that he is not yet sufficiently prepared for
promotion by a knowledge of the preceding
degree-an objection which may sometimes be
removed before the recurrence of the next
monthly meeting. In such a case, a decision
like that of the Grand Lodge of California
would be productive of manifest injustice. It
is, therefore, a more consistent rule, that the
candidate for advancement has a right to
apply at every regular meeting, and that
whenever any moral objections exist to his
taking a higher degree, these objections should
be made in the form of charges and their
truth tested by an impartial tri;J. To this,
too, the candidate is undoubtedly entitled, on
all the principles of justice and equity.
Adytum. The most retired and secret
part of the ancient temples, into which the
people were not permitted to enter, but which
was accessible to the priests only, was called
the adytum. And hence the derivation of
the word from the Greek privative prefix
a, and 1J6ew, to enter = that which is not to be
entered. In the adytum was generally to be
found a Td.t#los, or tomb, or some relics or sa-

AFFILIATED

33

cred images of the god to whom the temple

was consecrated. It being supposed that
temples owed their origin to the. superstitious
reverence paid by the ancients to their deceased friends, and as most of the gods were
men who had been deified on account of their
virtues, temples were, perh!tps, at first only
stately monuments erected in honor of the
dead. Hence the interior of the temple was
originally nothing more than a cavity regarded
as a place for the reception of a person interred, and in it was to be found the a'op&s, or
coffin, the Ta<f>os, or tomb, or, among the
Scandinavians, the barrow or mound grave. In
time, the statue or image of a god took the
place of the coffin; but the reverence for the
spot as one of peculiar sanctity remained, and
this interior part of the temple became, among
the Greeks, the a'7J1Cbs, or chapel, among the
Romans the adytum, or forbidden place, and
among the Jews the kodesh hakodashim, the
Holy of Holies. (See Holy of Holies.) "The
sanctity thus acquired," savs Dudley (N aology, p. 393), "by the cell ol interment might
readily and with propriety be assigned to any
fabric capable of containing the body of the
departed friend, or the relic, or even the symbol, of the presence or existence of a divine
personage." And thus it has happened that
there was in every ancient temple an adytum
or most holy place. The adytum of the small
temple of Pompeii is still in excellent preservation. It is carried some steps above the level
of the main building, and, like the Jewish
sanctuary, is without light.
Allneid. Bishop Warburton (Div. Leg.) has
contended, and his opinion has been sustained by the great majority of subsequent
commentators, that Virgil, in the sixth book of
his immortal Epic, has, under the figure of the
descent of lEneas into the infernal regions,
described the ceremony of initiation into the
Ancient Mysteries.
Allon. This word, in its original Greek,
alc.>v, signifies the age or duration of anything.
The Gnostics, however, used it in a peculiar
mode to designate the intelligent, intellectual,
and material powers or natures which flowed
as emanations from the Bv8bs, or Infinite
Abyss of Deity, and which were connected
with their divine fountain as rays of light are
with the sun. (See Gnostic.,,)
Allra Archltectonica. This is used in
some modern Masonic lapidary inscriptions to
designate the date more commonly known as
annus lucis, the year of light.
Amllate, Free. The French gave the
name of " free affiliates " to those members of
a Lodge who are exempted from the payment of
dues, and neither hold office nor vote. Known
among English-speaking Masons as " honorary members."
There is a quite common use of affiliate in "
Lodges of the United States to designate one
who has joined a Lodge by demit.
Amllated Mason. A Mason who holds
membership in some Lodge. The word affiliation is derived from the French affilier, wliich
Richelet (Diet. de la langue Franr;aise) defines,

34

AFRICA

AFFIRMATION

," to communicate to any one a participation Grand Master on the Coast of Mrica and in

in the spiritual benefits of a religious order," the Islands of America, excepting such places
and he says that such a communication is where a Provincial Grand .Master is already
called an " affiliation.". The word, as a tech- deputed." However, in spite of these apnical term, is not found in any of the old Ma- pointments having been made by the Grand
sonic writers, who always use admission in- Lodge of England, there is no trace of the esstead of affiliation. There is no precept more tablishment of any Lodges in West Mrica
explicitly expressed in the Ancient Constitu- until 1792, in which year a Lodge numbered
tions than that every Mason should belong to 586 was constituted at Bulam, followed in
a Lodge. The foundation of the law which 1810 by the Torridzonian Lodge at Cape
imposes this duty is to be traced as far back as Coast Castle. There are now on the West
the Regius MS., which is the oldest Masonic Coast of Africa fourteen Lodges warranted
document now extant, and of which the " Se- by the Grand Lodge of England, one holding
cunde poynt " requires that the Mason work an Irish warrant, one under the Grand Lodge
upon the workday as truly as he can in order of Scotland and two German Lodges; and in
to deserve his hire for the holiday, and that the Negro Republic of Liberia a Grand Lodge
he shall " truly labour on his deed that he may was constituted in 1867, with nine daughter
well deserve to have his meed." (Lines 269- Lodges subordinate to it.
274.) The obli~ation that every Mason should
In the North of Mrica there is the Grand
thus labor is Implied in all the subsequent Lodge of Egypt at Cairo with 47 subordinate
Constitutions, which always speak of Masons Lodges; both England and Scotland have
as working members of the Fraternity, until we established District Grand Lodges in Egypt
come to the Charges approved in 1722, which by consent of the former, while Italy, France
explicitly state that "every Brother ought and Germany have Lodges at Alexandria and
to belong to a Lodge, and to be subject to its Cairo. In Algeria and Morocco French influence is predominant, but in Tunis there is
By-Laws and the General Regulations."
Afllrmatlon. The question has been an independent Grand Lodge, established in
mooted whether a Quaker, or other person 1881.
having peculiar religious scruples in reference
Masonry was introduced into South Mrica
to taking oaths, can receive the degrees of by the erection of a Dutch Lodge(" De Goede
Masonry by taking an affirmation. Now, as Hoop") at Cape Town in 1772, followed by
the obligations of Masonry are symbolic in another under the same jurisdiction in 1802,
their character, and the forms in which they and it was not until nine years later that the
are administered constitute the essence of the first English Lodge was established there,
symbolism, there cannot be a doubt that the which was gradually followed by others, the
prescribed mode is the only one that ought to Dutch and English Masons working side by
be used, and that affirmatiOns are entirely in- side with such harmony that the English
adlnissible. TheLondonFreemason'sQuarterly Provincial Grand Master for the District who
(1828, p. 286) says that "a Quaker's affirma- was appointed in 1829 was also Deputy
tion is binding." This is not denied: the only Grand Master for the N etherla,nds. In 1860
question is whether it is admissible. Can the a Scotch Lodge was set up at Cape Town,
obligations be assumed in any but one way, and 35 years later one was erected at Johanunless the ritual be entirely changed? And can nesburg under the Grand Lodge of Ireland,
any "man or body of men" at this time make so that there are four different Masonic bodies
such a change without affecting the universal- , exercising jurisdiction and working amicably
ity of Masonry? Bro. Chase (Masonic Digest, together in South Mrica, viz., the Grand
p. 448) says that " conferring the degrees on Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland,
il.ffirmation is no violation of the spirit of Free- and the Grand Orient of the Netherlands.
masonry, and neither overthrows nor affects a Under the Grand Lodge of England there
landmark." And in this he is sustained by were at the last issue of the Masonic Yearthe Grand Lodge of Maine (1823); but the Book, 155 subordinate Lodges arranged in
only other Grand Lodges which have expressed . 5 Districts, viz., Central, Eastern and Westan opinion on this subject-n!lmely, those of ern South Africa, Natal and the Transvaal.
Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Delaware, At the same time there were 16 Lodges
Virginia, and Pennsylvania-have made an , owing allegiance to the Grand Lodge of Ireopposite decision. The entire practise of I land, 76 under the Scotch Constitution, diLodges in America is also against the use vided among the Districts of Cape Colony,
of an affirmation. But in England Quakers ! Cape Colony Western Province, Natal, Orhave been initiated after affirmation, the ' ange River Colony, Rhodesia and the Transprinciple being that a form of 0 B.. which the vaal, and 28 under the jurisdiction of the
candidate accepts as binding will suffice.
Grand Orient of the Netherlands, besides two
Africa. Anderson (Constitutions, 1738, p. German Lodges at Johannesburg.
195) has recorded that in 1735 Richard
On the East Coast of the Dark Continent
Hull, Esq., was appointed " Provincial Grand there are two Lodges at Nairobi, one of them
Master at Gambay in West Mrica," that in being English and the other Scotch, and there
1736 David Creighton, M.D., was appointed .' is also an English Lodge at Zanzibar.
" Provincial Grand Master at Cape Coast
[E. L. H.]
Castle in Africa," and that in 1737 Capt. WillMrlca. In the French Rite of Adoption,
iam Douglas was appointed " Provincial 1 the south of the Lodge is called Africa.
'I

AGATE

AFRICAN
African Architects, Order of. Sometimes called African Builders; French, Architectes de l' Afrique; German, Ajricanische Bauherren.
Of all the new sects and modern degrees of
Freemasonry which sprang up on the continent of Europe during the eighteenth century,
there was none which, for the time, maintained so high an intellectual position as the
Order of African Architects, called by the
French Architectes de l' Afrique, and by the
Germans Africanische Bauherren. A Masonic
sect of this name had originally been established in Germany in the year 1756, but it
does not appear to have attracted much attention, or indeed to have deserved it; and
hence, amid the multitude of Masonic innovations to which almost every day was giving
birth and ephemeral existence, it soon disappeared. But the society which is the subject of
the present article, although it assumed the
name of the original African Architects, was of
a very different character. It may, however, be
considered, as it was established only eleven
years afterward, as a remodification of it.
They admitted to membership those possessing high intellectual attainments rather
than those possessing wealth or preferment.
There was probab1y no real connection between this order and Freemasonry of Germany, even if they did profess kindly feelings
for it. They based their order on the degrees
of Masonry, as the list of degrees shows, but
their work began in the Second Temple.
While they had a quasi-connection with Freemasonry, we cannot call them a Masonic body
according to the present day standards.
The degrees were named and classified as
follows:
FIRST TEMPLE

1. Apprentice.
2. Fellow-Craft.
3. Master Mason.
SECOND TEMPLE

4. Architect, or Apprentice of Egyptian

secrets [or Bosonien (ActaLatomorum, i., 297)].
5. Initiate into Egyptian secrets [or
Alethophilote (Acta Latomorum, i., 292)].
6. Cosmopolitan Brother.
. 7. Christian Philosopher [Thory calls this
the Fourth Degree (A. L., i., 332)].
8. Master of Egyptian secrets.
9. Squire of the Order.
10. Soldier of the Order.
11. Knight of the Order.
The last three were called superior degrees,
and were conferred only as a second or higher
class, with great discrimination, upon those
wh6had proved their worthiness of promotion.
The assemblies of the brethren were called
Chapters. The central or superintending
power was styled a Grand Chapter, and it
was governed by the following twelve officers:
1. Grand Master.
2. Deputy Grand Master.
3. Senior Grand Warden.

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

35

Junior Grand Warden.

Drapier.
Almoner.
Tricoplerius, or Treasurer.
Graphiarius, or Secretary.
Seneschal.
Standard-Bearer.
MarshaL
Conductor.

The African Architects was not the only

society which in the eighteenth century sought
to rescue Masonry from the impure hands of
the charlatans into which it had well-nigh
fallen.
Mrlcan Brother. One of the degrees of
the Rite of the Clerks of Strict Observance,
according to Thory (ActaLatomorum, i., 291);
but it is not mentioned in other lists of the
degrees of that Rite.
Mrlcan Brothers. One of the titles
given to the African Architects, which see.
Mrican Builders. (See African Architects.)
Mrlcan Lodge. (See Negro Lodges.)
Agapre. The agapre, or love-feasts, were
banquets held during the first three centuries
in the Christian Church. They were called
"love-feasts," because, after partaking of the
Sacrament, they met, both rich and poor, at a
common feast-the former furnishing the provisions, and the latter, whe had nothing, being
relieved and refreshed by their more opulent
brethren. Tertullian (Apologia, cap. xxxix.)
thus describes these banquets: " We do not
sit down before we have first offered up prayers
to God; we eat and drink only to satisfy
hunger and thirst, remembering still that we
are to worship God by night: we discourse as
in the presence of God, knowing that He hears
us: then, after water to wash our hands, and
lights brought in, every one is moved to sing
some hymn to God, either out of the Scripture, or, as he is able, of his own composing.
Prayer again concludes our feast, and we depart, not to fight and quarrel, or to abuse those
we meet, but to J!Ursue the same care of
modesty and chast1ty, as men that have fed
at a supper of philosophy and discipline,
rather than a corporeal feast."
Dr. August Kestner, Professor of Theolo~,
published in Jena, in 1819, a work in which
he maintains that the agapre, established at
Rome by Clemens, in the reign of Domitian,
were mysteries which partook of a Masonic,
symbolic, and religious character.
In the Rosicrucian degrees of Masonry we
find an imitation of these love-feasts of the
primitive Christians; and the ceremonies of
the banquet in the degree of Rose Croix of the
Ancient and Accepted Rite, especially as practised by French Chapters, are arranged with
reference to the ancient agapre. Reghellini,
indeed, finds an analogy between the tablelodges of modern Masonry and these lovefeasts of the primitive Christians.
Agate. A stone varying in color, but of
great hardness, being a variety of the flint.
The agate, in Hebrew ,::ll!.', SHeBO, was the
center stone of t4e third row in the breastplate

36

AGATE

AGNOSTUS

of the high priest. Agates often contain

representations of leaves, mosses, etc., depicted by the hand of nature. Some of the
representations on these are exceedingly singular. Thus, on one side of one in the possession of Velschius was a half moon, and on the
other a star. Kircher mentions one which
had a representation of an armed heroine;
another, in the church of St. Mark in Venice,
which had a representation of a king's head,
adorned with a diadem; and a third which
contained the letters I. N. R.I. (Oliver's Historical Landmarks, ii., 522.) In the collections
of antiquaries are also to be found many gems
of agate on which mystical inscriptions have
been engraved, the significations of which are,
for the most part, no longer understood.
Agate, Stone of. Among the Masonic
traditions is one which asserts that the stone
of foundation was formed of agate. This,
like everything connected with the legend of
the stone, is to be mystically interpreted. In
this view, agate is a symbol of strength and
beauty, a symbolism derived from the peculiar
character of the agate, which is distinguished
for its compact formation and the ornamental
character of its surface. (See Stone ofFoundation.)
Agathopades. A liberal ecclesiastical
order founded in Brussels in the sixteenth
century. Revived and revised by Schayes in
1846. It. had for its sacred sign the pentastigma
Age, Lawful. One of the qualifications
for candidates is that they shall be of " lawful
age." What that age must be is not settled
by any universal law or landmark of the Order.
The Ancient Regulations do not express any
determinate number of years at the expiration
of which a candidate becomes legally entitled
~o apply for admission. The languag~ used
1s, that he must be of " mature and discreet
age." But the usage of the Craft has differed
in various countries as to the construction of
the time when this period of maturity and
discretion is supposed to have arrived. The
sixth of the Regulations, which are said to
have been made in 1663, prescribes that " no
person shall be accepted a Freemason unless
he be one and twenty years old or more"; but
the subsequent Regulations are less explicit.
At Frankfort-on-the-Main, the age required
is twenty; in the Lodges of Switzerland, it has
been fixed at twenty-one. The Grand Lodge
of Hanover prescribes the age of twenty-five,
but permits the son of a Mason to be admitted
at eighteen. (See Lewis.) The Grand Lodge
of Hamburg decrees that the lawful age for
initiation shall be that which in any country
has been determined by the laws of the land
to be the age of majority. The Grand Orient
of France requires the candidate to be twentyone, unless he be the son of a Mason who has
performed some important service to the Order,
or unless he be a young man who has served
six months in the army, when the initiation
may take place at the age of eighteen. In
Prussia the required age is twenty-five.

Under the Grand Lodge of England the Con

stitutions of 1723 provided that no man should
be made a Mason under the age of twenty-five
unless by dispensation from the Grand Master, and this remained the necessary age until
it was lowered in the Constitutions of 1784 to
twenty-one years, as at present, though the
" AnCient " Masons still retained tlie requirement of twenty-five until the Union of
1813. Under the Scotch Constitution the age
was eighteen until 1891, when it was raised
to twenty-one. Under the Irish Constitution
the age was twenty-one until 1741, when it
was raised to twenty-five and so remained
until 1817, when it was lowered again to
twenty-one. In the United States, the usage
is general that the candidate shall not be less
than twenty-onedears of age at the time of
his initiation, an no dispensation can issue
for conferring the degrees at an earlier period.
Age, Masonic. In some Masonic Rites a
mystical age is appropriated to each degree,
and the initiate who has received the degree
is said to be of such an age. Thus, the age of
an Entered Apprentice is said to be three
years; that of a Fellow-Craft, five; and that
of a Master Mason, seven. These ages are
not arbitrarily selected, but have a reference
to the mystical value of numbers and their
relation to the different degrees. Thus, three
is the symbol of peace and concord, and has
been called in the Pythagorean system the
number of perfect harmony, and is appropriated to that degree, which is the initiation
mto an Order whose fundamental principles
are harmony and brotherly love. Five is the
symbol of active life, the union of the female
principle two and the male principle three, and
refers in this way to the active duties of man
as a denizen of the world, which constitutes
the symbolism of the Fellow-Craft's degree;
and seven, as a venerable and perfect number,
is symbolic of that perfection which is supposed to be attained in the Master's degree.
In a way similar to this, all the ages of the
other degrees are symbolically and mystically
explained.

The Masonic ages are-and it will thus be

seen that they are all mystic numbers--3, 5,
7, 9, 15, 27, 63, 81.
Agenda. A Latin word meaning " things
to be done." Thus an" Agenda Paper" is a
list of the matters to be brought before a
meeting.
Agla. One of the Kabbalistic names of God,
which is composed of the initials of the words
of the following sentence: ~J.,X c;l'; .,:I~ iiMX,
Atah Gibor Lolam Adonai, " thou art mighty
forever, 0 Lord." This name the Kabbalists
arranged seven times in the center and at the
intersecting points of two interlacing triangles,
which figure they called the Shield of David,
and used as a talisman, believing that it would
cure wounds, extinguish fires, and perform
other wonders. (See Shield of David.)
Agnostus, Jrenreus. This is supposed by
Kloss (Bibliog., Nos. 2442, 2497, etc.) to have
been a nom de plume of Gotthardus Arthusiuf!,
a co-rector in the Gymnasium of Frankfort-

37

AGNUS

AHlMAN

on-the-Main, and a writer of some local

celebrity in the beginning of the seventeenth
century. (See Arthusius.) Under this assumed name of Iremeus Agnostus, he published, between the years 1617 and 1620, many
works on the subject of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, which John Valentine Andrea had
about that time established in Germany.
Among those works were the Fortalicium
Scientire, 1617; Clypeum Veritatis, 1618;
Speculum Constantice, 1618; Fons Gratice,
1619;FraternonFrater, 1619; Thesaurus Fidei,
1619; Portus TranquiUitatis, 1620, and several
others of a similar character and equally
quaint title.
Agnus Del. The Agnus Dei, Lamb of God,
also called the Paschal Lamb, or the Lamb
offered in the paschal sacrifice, is one of the
jewels of a Commandery of Knights Templar
m America, and is worn by the Generalissimo.
The lamb is one of the earliest symbols of
Christ in the iconography of the Church, and
as such was a representation of the Savior,
derived from that expression of St. John the
Baptist (John i. 29 ), who, on beholding Christ
exclaimed, " Behold the Lamb of God.' 1
"Christ" says Didron (Christ. Iconog. 1 i.,
318), "shedding his blood for our redemptiOn,
is the Lamb slain by the children of Israel, and
with the blood of which the houses to be preserved from the wrath of God were marked
with the celestial tau. The Paschal Lamb
eaten by the Israelites on the night preceding
their departure from Egypt is the type of that
other divine Lamb of whom Christians are to
partake at Easter, in order thereby to free
themselves from the bondage in whicll. they
are held by vice.''
The earliest representation that is found in
Didron of the Agnus Dei is of the sixth century,
and consists of a lamb supporting in his right
foot a cross. In the eleventh century we find
a banneret attached to this cross, and the
lamb is then said to support " the banner of
the resurrection." This iS the modern form
in which the Agnus Dei is represented.
: Ahabath Olam. Two Hebrew words signifying eternal love. The name of a prayer
which was used by the Jews dispersed over
the whole Roman Empire during the times of
Christ. It was inserted by Dermott in his
Ahiman Rezon (p. 45, ed. 1764) and copied
into several others, with the title of "A
Prayer repeated in the Royal Arch Lodge at
Jerusalem." The prayer was most probably
adopted by Dermott and attributed to a Royal
Arch Lodge in consequence of the allusion in
it to the "holy, great, mighty, and terrible
name of God."
Ahlah. So spelled in the common version
of the Bible (1 Kings iv. 3 ), but according to
the Hebrew orthography the word should be
spelled and pronounced Achiah. He and Elihoreph (or Elichoreph) were the sopherim,
scribes or secretaries of King Solomon. In
the ritual of the Seventh Degree of the Ancient
and Accepted Rite according to the modern
American ritual, these personages are represented by the two Wardens.

Ahlman Bezon. The title given by Dermott to the Book of Constitutions of the
Grand Lodge of " Ancient " Masons in England, which was established about the middle
of the eighteenth century in opposition to the
legitimate Grand Lodge and its adherents,
who were called the " Moderns," and whose
code of laws was contained in Anderson's
work known as the Book of Constitutions.
Many attempts have been made to explain the
significance of this title; thus, according to Dr.
Mackey, it is derived from three Hebrew words,
!:l'Ml!t1 ahim, " brothers"; n~~. manah, " to
appomt," or" to select" (in the sense of being
placed in a peculiar class, see Isaiah !iii. 12);
and j~"', ratzon, " the will, pleasure, or meaning"; and hence the combination of the three
words in the title, Ahiman Rezon, signifies
"the will of selected brethren "-the law of a
class or society of men who are chosen or
selected from the rest of the world as brethren.
Dr. Dalcho (Ahim. Rez. of South Carolina, p.
159, 2d ed.) derives it from ahi, "a brother,"
manah, " to prepare " and rezon, " secret "; so
that, as he says, (, Ahiman Rezon literally
means the secrets of a prepared brother." But
the best meaning of manah is that which conveys the idea of being placed in or appointed
to a certain, exclusive class, as we find in
Isaiah (liii. 12) " he was numbered (nimenah)
with the transgressors," plaeed in that class,
being taken out of every other order of men.
And althou?,h rezon may come from ratzon, " a
will or law, ' it can hardly be elicited by any
rules of etymology out of the Chaldee word
raz, " a secret," the termination in on being
wanting; and besides the book called the
Ahiman Rezon does not contain the secrets,
but only the public laws of Masonry. The
derivation of Dalcho seems therefore inadmissible. Not less so is that of Bro. W. S.
Rockwell, who (A him. Rez. of Georgia, 1859,
p. 3) thinks the derivation may be found in
the Hebrew ,,~lit, amun, " a builder " or
" arehitect,' 1 and jt"', rezon, as a noun
"prinee," and as an adjective, "royal," and
hence, Ahlman Rezon, according to this etymology, will signify the "royal builder," or,
symbolically the " Freemason." But to derive ahiman from amun, or rather amon, which
is the masoretic pronunciation, is to place all
known laws of etymology at defiance. Rockwell himself, however, furnishes the best argument against his strained derivation, when he
admits that its correctness will depend on the
antiquity of the phrase, which he acknowledges
that he doubts. In this, he is right. The
phrase is altogether a modern one, and has
Dermott, the author of the first work bearing
the title, for its inventor. Rockwell's conjectural derivation is, therefore, for this reason still more inadmissible than Dalcho's.
But the most satisfactory explanation is as
follows: In his prefatory address to the reader,
Dermott narrates a dream of his in which the
four men appointed by Solomon to be porters
at the Temple (1 Chron. ix. 17) appear to him
as sojourners from Jerusalem, and he tells
them that he is writing a history of Masonry;

38

AHlMAN

AHlMAN

upon which, one of the four, named Ahlman,

says that no such history has ever yet been
composed and suggests that it never can be.
It is clear, therefore, that the first word of the
title is the name of this personage. What
then does " Rezon " signify? Now the
Geneva or " Breeches " Bible, published in
1560, contains a table giving the meanings of
the Bible names and explains Ahiman as " a
prepared brother " or " brother of the right
hand" and Rezon as "a secretary," so that
the title of the book would mean " Brother
Secretary." That Dermott used the Geneva
Bible is plain from the fact that he quotes
from it in his Address to the reader, and
therefore it may fairly be assumed that
he selected these names to suit his purpose
from the list given in it, especially as he
styles himself on his title-page merely " Secretary."
But the history of the origin of the book is
more important and more interesting than the
history of the derivation of its title.
The premier Grand Lodge of England was
established in 1717 and ruled the Masons of
London and the South of England without opposition until in 1751 when some Irish Masons
established another body in London, who professed to work " according to the old institutions," and called themselves "Antient"
Ma.sons and the members of the older Grand
Lodge " Moderns " maintaining that they
alone preserved the ancient usages of Masonry.
The former of these contending bodies, the
Grand Lodge of England, had, in the year
1722, caused Dr. James Anderson to collect
and compile all the statutes and regulations
by which the Fraternity had in former times
been governed; and these, after having! been
submitted to due revision, were published in
1723, by Anderson, with the title of The Constitutions of the Freemasons. This work, of
which several other editions subsequently
appeared, has always been called the Book
of Constitutions, and contains the foundations of the written law by which the Grand
Lodge of England and the Lodges deriving
from it, both in that country and in America,
are governed. But when tke Irish Masons
established their rival Grand Lodge, they
found it necessary, also, to have a. Book of
Constitutions; and accordingly, Laurence
Dermott, who was at one time their Grand
Secretary, and afterward their Deputy
Grand Master, compiled such a work, the first
edition of which was published by James Bedford, at London, in 1756, with the following
title: Ahiman Rezon: or a Help to a Brother;
showing the Excellency of Secrecy, and the first
cause or motive of the Institution of Masonry;
the Principles of the Craft; and the Benefits
from a strict Observance thereof, etc., etc.; also
the Old and New Regulations, etc. To which is
added the greatest collection of Masons' Songs,
etc. By Bro. Laurence Dermott, Secretary. 8vo,
209 pp.
A second edition was published in 1764
with this title: Ahiman Rezon: or a help to

all that are or would be Free and Accepted

Masons; containing the Quintessence of all
that has been published on the Subject of Freemasonry, with many Additions, which renders
this W orlc more useful than any other Book of
Constitution now extant. By Lau. Dermott, Secretary. London, 1764. 8vo. 224 pp.
A third edition was published in 1778, with
the following title: Ahiman Rezon: or a Help
to all that are or would be Free and Accepted
Masons, (with many Additions.) By Lau. Dermott, D.G.M. Printed for James Jones, Grand
Secretary; and Sold by Peter Shatwell, in the
Strand. London, 1778. 8vo, 232 pp.
Five other editions were published: the 4th,
in 1778; the 5th in 1787; the 6th in 1800; the
7th in 1801; the 8th in 1807, and the 9th
in 1813. In this year, the Ancient Grand
Lodge was dissolved by the union of the two
Grand Lodges of England, and a new Book of
Constitutions having been adopted for the
united body, the Ahiman Rezon became useless, and no subsequent edition was ever published.
The earlier editions of this work are ,among
the rarest of Masonic publications, and are
highly prized by collectors.
In the year 1855, Mr. Leon Hyneman, of
Philadelphia, who was engaged in a reprint of
old standard Masonic works (an enterprise
which should have received better patronage
than it did), republished the second edition,
with a few explanatory notes.
As this book contains those principles of
Masonic law by which, for three-fourths of a
century, a large and intelligent portion of the
Craft was governed; and as it is now becoming rare and, to the generality of readers, inaccessible, some brief review of its contents may
not be uninteresting.
In the Preface or Address to the reader,
Dermott pokes fun at the History of Freemasonry as written by Dr. Anderson and
others, and wittily explains the reason why
he has not published a history of Freemasonry.
There is next a " Philacteria for such Gentlemen as may be inclined to become Freemasons." This article, which was not in the
first edition, but appeared for the first time in
the second, consists of directions as to the
method to be pursued by one who desires to
be made a Freemason. This is followed by an
account of what Dermott calls " Modern
Masonry," that is, the system pursued by the
original Grand Lodge of England, and of the
differences existing between it and " Ancient
Masonry," or the system of his own Grand
Lodge. He contends that there are material
differences between the two systems; that of
the Ancients being universal1 and that of the
Moderns not; a Modern being able with
safety to communicate all his secrets to an
Ancient, while an Ancient cannot communicate his to a Modern; a Modern having no
right to be called free and accepted; all of
which, in his opinion, show that the Ancients
have secrets which are not in the possession of
the Moderns. This, he considers, a convinc~

39

AHlMAN

AHlMAN

ing proof that the Modem Masons were innovators upon the established system, and
had instituted their Lodges and framed their
ritual without a sufficient knowledge of the
arcana of the Craft. But the Modem Masons
with more semblance of truth, thought that
the additional secrets of the Ancients were
only innovations that they had made upon
the true body of Masonry; and hence, they
considered their ignorance of these newly invented secrets was the best evidence of their
own superior antiquity.
In the later edit10ns'Dermott has published
the famous Leland MS., together with the
commentaries of Locke; also the resolutions
adopted in 1772 by which the Grand Lodges
of Ireland and Scotland agreed to maintain a
" Brotherly Connexion and Correspondence "
with the Grand Lodge of England (Ancients).
The Ahiman Rezon proper, then, begins
with twenty-three pages of an encomium on
Masonry, and an explanation of its principles.
Many a modern Masonic address is better
written, and contains more important and
instructive matter than this prefatory discourse.
Then follow " The Old Charges of the Free
and Accepted Masons," taken from the 1738
Edition of Anderson's Constitutions. Next
come " A short charge to a new admitted
Masont" "'The Ancient manner of constituting a odge," a few prayers, and then the
"General Regulations of the Free and Accepted Masons." These are borrowed mainly
from the second edition of Anderson with a
few alterations and additions. After a comparison of the Dublin and London " Regulations for Charity," the rest of the book, comprising more than a hundred pages, consists
of "A Collection of Masons' Songs," of the
poetical merits of which the less said the better
for the literary reputation of the writers.
Imperfect, however, as was this work, it for
a long time constituted the statute book of the
" Ancient Masons"; and hence those Lodges
in America which derived their authority from
the Dermott or Ancient Grand Lodge of England, accepted its contents as a true exposition
of Masonic law; and several of their Grand
Lodges caused similar works to be compiled
for their own government, adopting the title
of Ahiman Rezon, which thus became the
peculiar designation of the volume which contained the fundamental law of the "Ancients,"
while the original title of Book of Constitutions continued to be retained by the "Modernst to designate the volume used by them
for tne same purpose.
Of the Ahiman Rezons compiled and published in America, the following are the principal:
1. Ahiman Rezon abridged and digested;
as a help to all that are or would be Free and
Accepted Masons, etc. Published by order
of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania; by William Smith, D.D. Philadelphia, 1783. A new
Ahiman Rezon was published by the Grand
Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1825.
2. Charges and Regulations of the Ancient

and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted

Masons, extracted from the Ahiman Rezon, etc.
Published by the consent and direction of the
Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia. Halifax, 1786.
3. The New Ahiman Rezon, .Containing the
Laws and Constitution of Virginia, etc. By
John K. Reade, present Deputy Grand Master of
Virginia, etc. Richmond, 1791, Another edition was published in 1818, by James Henderson.

4. The Maryland Ahiman Rezon of Free

and Accepted Masons, containing the History
of Masonry from the establishment of the Grand
Lodge to the present time; with their Ancient
Charges, Addresses, Prayers, Lectures, Prologues, Epilogues, Songs, etc.1 collected from the
Old Records, Faithful Traaitions and Lodge
Books; by G. Keating. Compiled by order of
the Grand Lodge of Maryland. Baltimore,
1797.
5. The Ahiman Rezon and ]llasonic Ritual,
published by the order of the Grand Lodge of
North Carolina and Tennessee. Newbern,
N.C., 1805.
6. An Ahiman Rezon, for the use of the
Grand Lodge of South Carolina, Ancient York
Masons, and the Lodges under the Register and
Masonic Jurisdiction thereof. Compiled and
arranged with considerable additions, at the
request of the Grand Lodge, and published by
their authority. By Brother Frederick Dalcho
M.D., etc. Charleston, S. C., 1807. A secona1
edition was published by the same author, in
1822, and a third, in 1852, by Dr. Albert G.
Mackey. In this third edition, the title was
changed to that of The Ahiman Rezon, or Book
of Constitutions, etc. And the work was in a
great measure expurgated of the peculiarities
of Dermott, and made to conform more closely
to the Andersonian Constitutions. A fourth
edition was published by the same editor,
in 1871, in which everything antagonistic to
the original Book of Constitutions has been
omitted.
7. The Freemason's Library and General
Ahiman Rezon; containing a delineation of the
true principles of Freemasonry, etc.; by Samuel Cole. Baltimore, 1817. 8vo, 332 + 92
pp. There was a second edition in 1826.
8. Ahiman Rezon; prepared under the
direction of the Grand Lodge of Georgia; by
Wm. S. Rockwell, Grand Master of Masons
of Georgia. Savannah, 1859. 4to and 8vo,
404 pp. But neither this work nor the third
and fourth editions of the Ahiman Rezon of
South Carolina have any connection in principle or theory with the Ahiman Rezon of
Dermott. They have borrowed the name
from the" Ancient Masons," but they derive
all their law and their authorities from the
"Moderns," or the legal Masons of the last
century.
9. The General Ahiman Bezon and Freemason's Guide, by Daniel Sickles. New
York, 1866. 8vo, pp. 408. This book like
Rockwell's, has no other connection with the
archetypal work of Dermott but the name.
Many of the Grand Lodges of the United
States having derived their existence and

40

AHlMAN

AID

authority from the Dermott Grand Lodge,

the influence of his Ahiman Rezon was for a
long time exercised over the Lodges of this
country; and, indeed, it is only within a comparatively recent period that the true principles of Masonic law, as expounded in the
first editions of Anderson's Constitutions,
have been universally adopted among American Masons.
It must, however, be observed, in justice to
Dermott, -who has been rather too grossly
abused by Mitchell and a few other writers,
that the innovations upon the old laws of
Masonry, which are to be found in the Ahiman
Rezon, are for the most part not to be charged
upon him, but upon Dr. Anderson himself,
who, for the first time, introduced them into
the second edition of the Book of Constitutions, published in 1738. It is surprising, and
accountable only on the ground of sheer carelessness on the part of the supervising committee, that the Grand Lodge should, in 1738,
have approved of these alterations made by
Anderson, and still more surprising that it was
not until1756 that a new or third edition of
the Constitutions should have been published,
in which these alterations of 1738 were expunged, and the old regulations and the old
language restored. But whatever may have
been the causes of this oversight, it is not to be
doubted that, at the time of the formation of
the Grand Lodge of the Ancients, the edition
of the Book of Constitutions of 1738 was considered as the authorized exponent of Masonic
law by the original or regular Grand Lodge of
England and was adopted, with but little
change, by Dermott as the basis of his Ahiman
Rezon. How much this edition of 1738
differed from that of 1723, which is now considered the only true authority for ancient
law, and how much it agreed with Dermott's
Ahiman Rezon, will be evident from the following specimens of the first of the Old
Charges, correctly taken from each of the
three works:
First of the Old Charges in the Book of Constitutions, edit., 1723.
" A Mason is obliged by his tenure to obey
the moral law; and if he rightly understands
the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor
an irreligious libertine. But though in ancient
times Masons were charged, in every country,
to be of the religion of that country or nation,
whatever it was, yet it is now thought more
expedient only to oblige them to that religion
in which all men agree, leaving their particular
opinions to themselves; that is to be good men
and true, or men of honour and honesty, by
whatever denominations or persuasions they
may be distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes the centre of union, and the means of
conciliating true friendship among persons
that must have remained at a perpetual distance."
First of the Old Charges in the Book of
Constitutions, edit"/ 1738.
" A Mason is obliged by his tenure to observe the moral law, as a true Noachida; and
if he rightly understands the Craft, he will

never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious

libertine, 1Wr act against conscience.
" In antient times, the Christian Masons
were charged to comply with the Christian
usages of each country where they travelled or
worked. But Masonry being found in all nations, even of divers religions, they are now only
charged to adhere to that religion in which all
men agree, (leaving each brother to his own
particular opinions;) that is, to be good men
and true, men of honour and honesty, by
whatever names, religions, or persuasions they
may be distinguished; for they all agree in the
three great articles of Noah eoough to preserve
the cement of the Lodge. Thus, Masonry is the
center of their union, and the happy means of
conciliating persons that otherwise must have
remained at a perpetual distance."
First of the Old Charges in Dermott's
Ahiman Rezon.
" A Mason is obliged by his tenure to observe the moral law, as a true Noachida; and
if he rightly understands the Craft, he will
never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious
libertine, 1Wr act against conscience.
" In ancient times, the Christian Masons
were charged to comply with the Christian
usages of each country where they travelled or
worked; being found in all nations, even of
divers religions.
" They are generally charged to adhere to
that religion in which all men agree, (leaving
each brother to his own particular opinions;)
that is, to be good men and true, men of
honour and honesty, by whatever names, reZigions, or persuasions they may be distinguished; for they all agree in the three great
articles of Noah enough to preserve the cement
of the Lodge.
" Thus Masonry is the center of their union,
and the ~ppy means of conciliating persons
that otherwise must have remained at a perpetual distance."
The italics in the second and third extracts
will show what innovations Anderson made,
in 1738, on the Charges as originally published in 1723, and how closely Dermott followed him in adopting these innovations.
There is, in fact, much less difference between
the Ahiman Rezon of Dermott and Anderson's
edition of the Book of Constitutions, printed
in 1738, than there is between the latter and
the first edition of the Constitutions, printed
in 1723. But the great points of difference
between the " Ancients " and the " Moderns,"
points which kept them apart for so many
years, are to be found in their work and ritual.
for an account of which the reader is referred
to the article Ancient Masons.
[E. L. H.]
Ahlsar. See Achishar.
Ahollab. A skilful artificer of the tribe
of Dan, who was appointed, together with
Bezaleel, to construct the tabernacle in the
wilderness and the ark of the covenant.
(Exodus xxxi. 6.) He is referred to in the
Royal Arch degree of the English and American systems.
Aid and Assistance. The duty of aiding
and assisting, not only all worthy distressed

AID

AID

'Master Masons, but their widows and orphans

also, " wheresoever dispersed over the face of
-the globe," is one of the most important
obligations that is imposed upon every brother
of the " mystic tie " by the whole scope and
tenor of the Masonic Institution. The regulations for the exercise of this duty are few,
but rational. In the first place, a Master
Mason who is in distress has a greater claim,
under equal circumstances, to the aid and
assistance of his brother, than one who, being
in the Order, has not attained that degree, or
who is altogether a profane. This is strictly
in accordance with the natural instincts of the
human heart, which will always prefer a
friend to a stranger, or, as it is rather energetically expressed in the language of Long
Tom Coffin, " a messmate before a shipmate,
a shipmate before a stranger, and a stranger
before a dog "; and it is also strictly in accordance with the teaching of the Apostle of
the Gentiles, who has said: " As we have
therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all
men, especially unto them who are of the
household of faith." (Galatians vi. 10.)
But this exclusiveness is only to be practised under circumstances which make a selection imperatively necessary. Where the
granting of relief to the profane would incapacitate us from granting similar relief to our
brother, then must the preference be given
to him who is "of the household." But the
earliest symbolic lessons of the ritual teach
the Mason not to restrict his benevolence
within the narrow limits of the Fraternity,
but to acknowledge the claims of all men who
need it, to assistance. Inwood has beautifully said: "The humble condition both of
property and dress1 of penury and want, in
which you were received mto the Lodge, should
make you at all times sensible of the distresses
of poverty, and all you can spare from the call
of nature and the due care of your families,
should only remain in your possessions as a
ready sacrifice to the necessities of an unfortunate, distressed brother. Let the distressed cottage feel the warmth of your
Masonic zeal, and, if possible, exceed even
the unabating ardour of Christian charity. At
your approach let the orphan cease to weep,
and in the sound of your voice let the widow
forget her sorrow." (Sermons, p. 18.)
Another restriction laid upon this duty of
aid and assistance by the obligations of Masonry is, that the giver shall not be lavish
beyond his means in the disposition of his
benevolence. What he bestows must be such
as he can give " without material injury to
himself or family." No man should wrong
his wife or children that he may do a benefit
to a stranger,. or even to a brother. The obligations laia on a Mason to grant aid and
assistance to the needy and distressed seem
to be in the following gradations: first, to his
family; next, to his brethren; and, lastly, to
the world at large.
So far this subject has been viewed in a
general reference to that spirit of kindness
which should actuate all men, and which it

is the object of Masonic teaching to impress

on the mind of every Mason as a common duty
of humanity, and whose disposition Masonry
only seeks to direct and guide. But there lB
another aspect in which this subject may be
considered, namely, in that peculiar and tech
nical one of Masonic aid and assistance due
from one Mason to another. Here there is a
duty declared, and a correlative right inferred;
for if it is the duty of one Mason to assist
another, it follows that every Mason hasthe
right to claim that assistance from his brother.
It is this duty that the obligations of Masonry are especially intended to enforce; it is
this right that they are intended to sustain.
The symbolic ritual of Masonry which refers,
as, for instance, in the First Degree, to the
virtue of benevolence, refers to it in the general sense of a virtue which all men should
practise. But when the Mason reaches the
Third Degree, he discovers new obligations
which restrict and define the exercise of this
duty of aid and assistance. So far as his
obligations control him, the Mason, as a Mason, is not legally bound to extend his aid
beyond the just claimants in his own Fraternity. To do good to all men is, of course,
inculcated and recommended; to do good to
the household is enforced and made compulsory by legal enactment and sanction.
Now, as there is here, on one side, a duty,
and on the other side a right, it is proper to
inquire what are the regulations or laws by
which this duty is controlled and this right
maintained.
The duty to grant and the right to claim
relief Masonically is recognized in the following passage of the Old Charges of 1722:
" But if you discover him to be a true and
genuine Brother, you are to respect him accordingly; and if he is in want, you must relieve him if you can, or else direct him how he
may be relieved. You must employ him some
days, or else recommend him to be employed.
But you are not charged to do beyond your
ability; only to prefer a poor brother, that is a
good man and true, before any other poor
people in the same circumstances."
This written law agrees in its conditions and
directions, so far as it goes, with the unwritten
law of the Order, and from the two we may
deduce the following principles:
1. The applicant must be a Master Mason.
In 1722, the charitable benefits of Masonry
were extended, it is true, to Entered Apprentices, and an Apprentice was recognized, in
the language of the law, as " a true and genuine brother." But this wa8 because at that
time only the First Degree was conferred in
subordinate Lodges, Fellow-Crafts and Master
Masons being made in the Grand Lodge.
Hence the great mass of the Fraternity consisted of Apprentices, and many Masons never
proceeded any further. But the Second and
Third Degrees are now always conferred in
subordinate Lodges, and very few initiates
voluntarily stop short of the Master's Degree.
Hence the mass of the Fraternity now consists of Master Masons, and the law which

41

42

AITCHISON'S

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE

formerly applied to Apprentices is, under our seem to have met at Musselburgh at a late:<
present organization, made applicable only to period.
those who have become Master Masons.
Lyon, in his History of the Lodge of Edin2. The applicant must be worthy. We are burgh, speaks of trouble in the Grand Quarto presume that every Mason is " a good man terly communication respecting representaand true " until a Lodge has pronounced to tives from this Lodge when (May, 1737) it was
the contrary. Every Mason who is" in good "agreed that Atcheson's Haven be deleted
stA.nding," that is, who is a regularly contrib- out of the books of the Grand Lodge, and no
uting member of a Lodge, is to be considered more called on the rolls of the Clerk's highest
as "worthy," in the technical sense of the peril." It was restored to the roll in 1814, but
term. An expelled, a suspended, or a non- becoming dormant, it was finally cut off in
affiliated Mason does not meet the required 1866. The Lodge of Edinburgh has long encondition of " a regularly contributing mem- joyed the distinction of having the oldest preher."
Such a Mason is therefore not served Lodge minute, which dated July, 1599.
"worthy," and is not entitled to Masonic
Just recently Bro. R. E. Wallace-James has
assistance.
brought to light a minute-book bearing this
3. The giver is not expected to exceed his title: The Buik of the Actis and Ordinans of
ability in the amount of relief. The written the Nobile M aisteris and fellows of Craft of the
law says, "you are not charged to do beyond Ludg of Aitchison's heavine, and contains a
your ability "; the ritual says, that your catalogue of the names of the fellows of Craft
relief must be " without material injury to that are presently in the Zeir of God 1598.
The first page of this rare book bears in a
yourself or family." The principle is the same
in both.
bold hand the date," 1598."
4. The widow and orphans of a Master
The minute is as follows:
The IX day of J anuerie the Zeir of God
Mason have the clairr;. of the husband and
father extended to them. The written law upon ye quhilk day Robert Widderspone was
says nothing explicitly on this point, but the maid fellow of Craft in ye presens of Wijzam
unwritten or ritualistic law expressly declares Aytone Elder, Johne Fender being Warden,
that it is our duty" to contribute to the relief Johne Pedden Thomas Pettencrief John Craof a worthy, distressed brother, his widow and furd George Aytone Wilzame Aytone younger
orphans."
Hendrie Petticrief all fellowis of Craft upon
5. And lastly, in granting relief or assist- ye quhilk day he chois George Aytone Johne
ance, the Mason is to be preferred to the pro- Pedden to be his intenders and instructouris
fane. He must be placed " before any other and also ye said Robert hes payit his xx sh.
and his gluffi.s to everie Maister as efferis. See
poor people in the same circumstances."
These are the laws which regulate the doc- val. xxiv., Trans. Quat. Cor. Lodge.
trine of Masonic aid and assistance. They arc
[E. E. C.]
often charged by the enemies of Masonry with
Aitchison' s-Haven Manuscript. One of
a spirit of exclusiveness. But it has been shown the " Old Charges," or records of Masonry
that they are in accordance with the exhorta- now in the custody of the Grand Lodge of
tion of the Apostle, who would do good " es- Scotland, formerly preserved in the archives
pecially to those who are of the household," of the Aitchison-Haven Lodge, which met at
and they have the warrant of the law of na- , Musselburgh in Scotland. The MS. is enture; for everyone will be ready to say, with grossed in the minute-book of Aitchisonthat kindest-hearted of men, Charles Lamb, Haven Lodge. The writer attests to his tran" I can feel for all indifferently, but I cannot scription in the following manner: "Insert by
feelfor all alike. I can be a friend to a worthy me undersub and the 19" of May, 16661 Jo.
man, who, upon another account, cannot be Auchinleck, clerk to the Masones of achimy mate or fellow. I cannot like all people sones Lodge."
It has been reproduced (with 24 lines in facalike." And so as Masons, while we should be
charitable to all persons in need or in distress, simile) by D. Murray Lyon in his History of
there are only certain ones who can claim the the Lodge of Edinburgh.
aid and assistance of the Order, or of its disAix-la-Chapelle. (In German, Aachen.)
ciples, under the positive sanction of Masonic A city of Germany, remarkable in Masonic
law.
history for a persecution which took place in
Altchlsons-Haven Lodge (also spelled the eighteenth century, and of which Gadicke
Atcheson, Achlson). This was one of the (Freimaur. Lex.) gives the following account:
oldest Operative Lodges consenting to the for- In the year 1779, Ludwig Grienemann, a
mation of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in Dominican monk, delivered a course of Lenten
1736. The age of this Lodge, like many or sermons, in which he attempted to prove that
most of the oldest Lodges of Scotland, is not the Jews who crucified Christ were Freemaknown. Some of its members signed the St. sons, that Pilate and Herod were Wardens in a
Clair Charters in 160()-1601. The place of Mason's Lodge, that Judas, previous to his
its meeting (Aitchison-Haven) is no longer on betrayal of his Master, was initiated into the
the map, but was in the county of Midlothian. Order, and that the thirty pieces of silver,
The ongin of the town was from a charter of which he is said to have returned, was only the
Jamffi V., dated 1526, and probably the Lodge fee which he paid for his initiation. Aix-ladated near that period. Aitchison's-Haven Chapelle being a Roman Catholic city, the
was probably the first meeting-place, but they magistrates were induced, by the influence of

43

AKIROP

ALARM

Grienemann, to issue a decree, in which they

declared that anyone who should permit a
meeting of the Freemasons in his house should,
for the first offense, be fined 100 florins, for
the second 200, and for the third, be banished
from the city. The mob became highly incensed against the Masons, and insulted all
whom they suspected to be members of the
Order. At length Peter Schuff, a Capuchin,
jealous of the influence which th'e Dominican
Grienemann was exerting, began also, with
augmented fervor, to preach against Freemasonry, and still more to excite the popular
commotion. In this state of affairs, the Lodge
at Aix-la-Chapelle applied to the princes and
Masonic Lodges in the neighboring territories
for assistance and protection, which were immediately rendered. A letter in French was
received by both priests, in which the writer,
who stated that he was one of the former dignitaries of the Order, strongly reminded them
of their duties, and, among other things, said
that " many priestst...a pope, several cardinals,
bishops, and even uominican and Capuchin
monks, had been, and still were, members of
the Order." Although this remonstrance had
some effec~1 peace was not altogether restored until the neighboring free imperial
states threatened that they would prohibit
the monks from collecting alms in their territories unless they ceased to excite the popular
commotion against the Freemasons.
Aklrop. The name given, in the ritual of
the Ancient and Accepted Rite, to one of the
ruffians celebrated in the legend of the Third
Degree. The word is said in the ritual to signify an assassin. It might probably be derived from ::J,?, KaRaB, to assault or join battle;
but is just as probably a word so corrupted by
long oral transmission that its etymology can
no longer be traced. (See Abiram.)
Alabama. On August 29, 1811, while
Alabama was yet a part of Mississippi Territory, the Grand Lodge of Kentucky- granted a
dispensation for Madison Lodge, No. 21, in
Madison County. On August 28, 1812, a
Charter was granted to this Lodge, locating it
at Huntsville, and was issued the same day,
and the Master was installed in Grand Lodge.
When the Territory was divided and Mississippi admitted into the Union in 1817, the
Grand Lodge of Mississippi had not been organized, .so that it never claimed jurisdiction
outside of that State, and this Lodge remained
under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of
Kentucky until the Grand Lodge of Alabama
was formed.
The Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Tennessee granted dispensations for Lodges
in Alabama, as follows: Alabama Lodge, No.
21, at Huntsvill~ April 6, 1818; Washington
Lodge at Hazel ureen 1 in 1818; Rising Virtue
Lodge at Tuscaloosa, m 1819; Halo Lodge at
Cahawba, April 4, 1820; Moulton Lodge at
Moulton1 May 4, 1820; Franklin Lodge at
Russellville, October 3, 1820; Tuscumbia
Lodge at Courtland, March 3, 1821; and Farrar Lodge at Elyton, March 5, 1821. Charters
were granted to Alabama and Washington

Lodges, October 6, 1818; to Rising Virtue

Lodge, October 5, 1819; and to Moulton,
October 3, 1820.
A convention to organize a Grand Lodge
was held at Caha.wba, June 1, 1821, and was
in session five days.
The constitution, dated June 14, 1821, was
published by itself it was signed by the
Grand Officers and the Representatives of
nine Lodges, viz.: Madison Lodge, Alabama
Lodge at Huntsville, Alabama Lodge at Claiborne, Rising Virtue Lodge, Halo Lod~e,
Moulton Lodge, Russellville Lodge U. D.,
Farrar Lodge, U. D., and St. Stephen~s Lodge.
Thomas W. Farrar was elected Grand Master and Thomas A. Rogers Grand Secretary.
The Grand Chapter of Alabama was organized on the 2d of June, 1827, at the town of
Tuscaloosa, and at the same time and place a
Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters
was established.
On the 27th of October, 1860, Sir Knt.
B. B. French, Grand Master of the Grand
Encampment of the United States, issued his
mandate for the formation of a Grand Commandery of Alabama.
Alapa. A Latin word signifyin~ " a blow
on the cheek with the open hand. ' Such a
blow was given by the master to his manumitted slave as a symbol of manumission, and
as a reminder that it was the last unrequited
indity which he was to receive. HenceJ. in
medieval times, the same word was applied
to the blow inflicted on the cheek of the newly
created knight by the sovereign who created
him, with the same symbolic signification.
This was sometimes represented by the blow
on the shoulder with the flat of a sword, which
has erroneously been called the accolade. (See
Knighthood.)

Alarm. The verb " to alarm" signifies,

in Freemasonry, " to give notice of the app,roach of some one desiring admission." Thus,
'to alarm the Lodge" is to inform the Lodge
that there is some one without who is seeking
entrance. AB a noun, the word " alarm " has
two significations. 1. An alarm is a warning
given by the Tiler, or other appropriate officer,
by which he seeks to communicate with the
interior of the Lodge or Chapter. In this sense
the e'f}lression so often used, " an alarm at the
door,' simply signifies that the officer outside
has given notice of his desire to communicate with the Lodge. 2. An alarm is also the
peculiar mode in which this notice is to be
given. In modern Masonic works, the number of knocks given in an alarm is generally
expressed by musical notes. Thus, three distinct knocks would be designated thu~;
two rapid and two slow ones thus,
and three knocks three times repeated thus,
jj'"j
etc. The word comee
rro-:n the French "alarme" which in turn
comes from the Italian" ;Jiarme," literally a.
cry " to arms," uttered by sentinels surprised
by the enemy. The legal meaning of to alarm
is not to frighten, but to make one aware of the

m m.

n t /;

ALASKA

ALDWORTB

necessity of defense or protection. And this

is precisely the Masoruc signification of the
word.
Alaska. Masonry in regular form was intraduced into Alaska by the establishment of
Gastineaux Lodge, No. 124, at Douglas31late
in 1904, under a warrant from the urand
Lodge of Washington. This was followed by
Anvil Lodge, No. 140, at Nome; Mount Tuneau, No. 147, at Tuneau; Tanan, No. 162
at Fairbank:!!.i. Valdez, No. 168, at Valdez; and
Mount McKinley, No. 183, at Cordova; all
under warrants from the same Grand Lodge.
[W. J. A.]
Alban, St. (See Saint Alban.)
Alberta (Canada). This Grand Lodge was
established in 1905, and in 1910 had 34
LodgeS and 2,380 brethren under its jurisdiction.
Albertus Magnus. A scholastic philosopher of the Middle Ages, of great erudition,
but who had among the vulgar the reputation
of being a magician. He was born at Lauingen, in Swabia, in 1205, of an illustrious family,
his subtitle being that of Count of Bollstadt.
He studied at Padua, and in 1223 entered
the Order of the Dominicans. In 1249, he
became head-master of the school at Cologne. In 1260, Pope Alexander VI. con!erred upon him the bishopric of Ratisbon.
In 1262, he resigned the episcopate and returned to Cologne, and, devoting himself to
philosophic pursuits for the remainder of his
life, died there in 1280. His writings were very
voluminous, the edition published at Lyons,
in 1651, amounting to twenty-one large folio
volumes. Albertus has been connected with
the Operative Masonry of the Middle Ages
because he has been supposed by many to have
been the real inventor of the German Gothic
style of architecture. Heideloff, in his Bauhiitte des MittelaZters, says that "he recalled
into life the symbolic language of the ancients:
which had so longlain dormant, and adaptea
it to suit architectural forms.'' The Masons
accepted his instructions, and adopted in consequence that system of symbols which was
secretly communicated only to the members of
their own body, and served even as a medium
of intercommunication. He is asserted to
have designed the plan for the construction of
the Cathedral of Cologne, and to have altered
the Constitution of the Masons, and to have
given to them a new set of laws.
Albrecht, Heinrich Christoph. A German author, who published at Hamburg, in
1792, the first and only part of a work entitled
M atertalen zu einer critischen Geschichte der
Freirnaurerei, i.e., Collections towards a Critical History of Freemasonry. Kloss says that
this was one of the first attempts at a clear and
rational history of the Order. Unfortunately,
the author never completed his task, and only
the first part of the work ever appeared. Albrecht was the author also of another work
entitled GeheimeGeschichte eines Rosenkreuzers,
or Secret History of a Rosicrucian, and of a
series of papers which appeared in the Berlin
Archiv. der Zeit, containing "Notices of Free-

masonry in the first half of the Sixteenth

Century." Albrecht adopted the theory
first advanced by the Abbe.Grandidier, that
Freemasonry owes its origin to the Steinmetzen
of Germany.
Alchemy. The Neo-Platonicians intraduced at an early period of the Christian era
an apparently new science, which they called
h{OT'IP/fl lpd,. or the Sacred Science, which
materially influenced the subsequent condition
of the arts and sciences. In the fifth century
arose, as the name of the science, alchemia,
derived from the Arabic definite article aZ
being added to chemia, a Greek word used in
Diocletian's decree against Egyptian works
treating of the X'll'!a. or transmutation of
metals; the word seems simply to mean " the
Egyptian Art," X'll'la., 'or the land of black earthz
being the Egyptian name for Egypt, ana
Julius Firmicius, in a work On the Influence of
the Stars upon the Fate of Man, uses the phrase
" scientia alchemire." From this time the
study of alchemy was openly followed. 'In
the Middle Ages, and up to the end of the seventeenth century, it was an important science,
studied by some of the most distinguished philosophers, such as Avicenna, Albertus Magnus,
Raymond Lulli, Roger Bacon, Elias Ashmole,
and many others.
Alchemy-called also the Hermetic Philosophy, because it is said to have been first
taught in Egypt by Hermes Trismegistus.
Freemasonry and alchemy have sought the
same results (the lesson of Divine Truth and
the doctrine of immortal life), and they have
both sought it by the same method of symholism. It is not, therefore, strange that in
the eighteenth century, and perhaps before,
we find an incorporation of much of the science
of alchemy into that of Freemasonry. Hermetic rites and Hermetic degrees were common, and their relics are still to be found existing in degrees which do not absolutely trace
theirorigintoalchemy,butwhichshowsomeof
.its traces in their rituals. The Twenty-eighth
Degree of the Scottish Rite, or the Knight of
the Sun, is entirely a Hermetic degree, and
claims its parentage in the title of "Adept of
Masonry," by which it is sometimes known.
Aldworth, the Bon. Mrs. This lady
who is well known as" the Lady Freemason,'1
was the Hon. Elizabeth St. Leger, daughter
of Lord Doneraile of Doneraile Court, Co.
Cork, Ireland. She was born in 1693, and married in 1713 to Richard Aldworth, Esq., of
Newmarket Court, Co. Cork. There appears
to be no doubt that while a girl she received
the First and Second degrees of FreemasonrY'
in Ireland, but of the actual circumstances of
her initiation several different accounts have
been given.
Of these the most authentic appears to be
one issued at Cork, with the authority of the
family, in 1811, and afterward republished in
London.
From this it appears that her father, Viscount Doneraile, together with his sons and
a few friends, was accustomed to open a Lodge
and carry on the ordinary ceremonies at Don

44

ALEXANDER

ALDWORTH
eraile Court, and it was during one of these
meetings that the occurrence took place which
is thus related:
"It happened on this particular occasion
that the Lodge was held in a room separated
from another, as is often the case, by stud and
briokwork. The young lady, being giddy and
thoughtless and determined to gratify her curiosity, made her arrangements accordingly,
and, with a pair of scissors, (as she herself related to the mother of our infonnan~,) removed a portion of a brick from the wall, and
placed herself so as to command a full view of
everything which occurred in the next room;
so placed, she witnessed the two first degrees
in Masonry, which was the extent of the proceedings of the Lodge on that night. Becoming aware, from what she heard, that the
brethren were about to separate, for the first
time she felt tremblingly alive to the awkwardness and danger of her situation, and
began to consider how she could retire without
observation. She became nervous and agitated<.and nearly fainted, but so far recovered
herselt as to be fully aware of the necessity of
withdrawing as quickly as possible; in the act
of doing so, being in the dark, she stumbled
against and overthrew something, said to be a
chair or some ornamental piece of furniture.
The crash was loud; and the Tiler, who was
on the lobby or landing on which the doors
both of the Lodge room and that where the
Honorable Miss St. Leger was, opened, gave
the alarm, burst open the door and, with a
light in one hand and a drawn sword in the
0ther, appeared to the now terrified and fainting lady. He was soon joined by the members
of the Lodge present: and luckily; for it is asserted that but for tne prompt appearance of
her brother, Lord Doneraile, and other steady
members, her life would have fallen a sacrifice
to what was then esteemed her crime. The
first care of his Lordshi:p was to resuscitate
the unfortunate lady Without alarming the
house, and endeavor to learn from her an explanation of what had occurred; having done
so, many of the members being furious at the
transaction, she was placed under guard of
the Tiler and a member, in the room where she
was found. The members reassembled and
deliberated as to what, under the circumstances was to be done, and over two long
hours ;be could hear the angry discussion and
her death deliberately proposed and seconded.
At length the ~ood sense of the majority sueceeded in cahmng, in some measure, the angry
and irritated feelings of the rest of the memhers, when, after much had been said and many
things proposed, it was resolved to give her the
option of submitting to the Masonic ordeal to
the extent she had witnessed, (Fellow Craft,)
and if she refused, the brethren were again to
consult. Being waited on to decide, Miss St.
Leger, exhausted and terrified by the stonniness of the debate, which she could not avoid

45

partially hearing, and yet, notwithstanding

all, with a secret pleasure, gladly_ and unhesitatingly accepted the offer. She was accordingly initiated."
A very different account is given in the
Freemason's Quarterly Review for 1839 (p. 322)#
being reprinted from the Cork Standard o
May 29, 1839.
According to this story Mrs. Aldworth was
seized. with curiosity about the mysteries of
Freemasonry and set herself to discover them;
so she made friends with the landlady of an
inn in Cork in which a Lodge used to meet,
and with her connivance was concealed in- a
clockcase which was placed in the Lodge room;
however, she was unable to endure the discomfort of her confinement in such narrow q_uarters and betrayed herself by a scream, on which
she was discovered by the members of the
Lodge and then and there initiated.
It will be observed that according to this version the lady was already married before she
was initiated. The story is said to be supported by the testimonyof two members of
Lod~e 71, at Cork, in which Lodlte the initiation 1s said to have taken place; this, however,
can hardly be correct, for that Lodge_ did not
meet at Cork until 1777, whereas, Mrs. Aidworth died in 1773.
If, however, the commoner version of the
story is preferred, according to which Miss
St. Leger was initiated as a young girl then
the occurrence must have taken place before
her marriage in 1713, and therefore before the
establishment of Grand Lodges and the introductionofwarrantedandnumberedLodges
and it is therefore a proof of the existence ol
at least one Lodge of Speculative Masons in
Ireland at an early period.
Mter her marriage Mrs. Aldwortli seetM to
have kept up her connection with the Craft,
for her portrait in Masonic clothing, her apron
and jewels, are still in existence, and her name
occurs among the subscribers to Dassigny's
Enquiry of 1744; and it has even been stated
thttt she presided as Master of her Lodge.
The story has been fully discussed by Bros.
Conder, Crawley, and others in the eighth volume (1895) of the Tran8actions of the Quatuor
Coronati Lodge of London, to which the curious are referred for further information.
(E. L. H.]
Alethopbllote, Lover of Truth. Given
by Thory as the Fifth Degree of the Order of
MricanArchitectls. (ActaLatomorum,i.,292.)
Alew:ander I., Emperor of Russia. Alexander I. succeeded Paul I.- in the year 1801,
and immediately_ after his accession renewea
the severe prohibitions of 1lls predecessor
against all secret societies, and especially Fr~
masonry. In 1803, M. Boeber, counselor
of state and director of the military school at
St. Petersburg, resolved to remove, if polll!ible,
from the mind of the Emperor the prejudices
which he had conceived against the Order.
Accordingly, in an audience which he had so*This is a mistake; her father, the first Lord licited and obtained, he described the object
Doneraile1 <lid not die until 1727, when his of the Institution and the doctrine of itll m,yeteries in such a way as to lead the Emperor to
daughter fWl been manied for fourteen years.
1

-----------------1

ALEXANDRIA

ALLEGORY

rescind the obnoxious decrees, and to add these

words: "What you have told me of the Institution not only induces me to grant it my
protection and patronage1 but even to ask for
mitiation into Its mysteries. Is this poBBible
to be obtained?" M. Boeber replied: "Sire
I cannot myself reply to the question. But I
will call together the Masons of your capital1
and make your Majesty's desire known; ana
I have no doubt that they will be eager to
comply with your wishes." Accordingly Alexander was soon after initiated, and the Grand
Orient of all the RuBBias was in consequence
established, of which M. Boeber was elected
Grand Master. (Acta Latomorum, i., 218.)
Alexandria, School of. When Alexander
built the city of Alexandria in Egypt1 with the
intention of making it the seat of his empire,
he invited thither learned men from all nations,
who brought with them their peculiar notions.
The Alexandria School of Philosophy which
was thus established, by the commingling of
Orienta.lists, Jews, Egyptians, and Greeks,
became eclectic in character, and exhibited a
hetero~neous mixture of the opinions of the
Egyptian priests, of the Jewish Rabbis of
Arabic teachers, and of the disciples of Plato
and P~ha.goras. From this school we derive
Gnosticism and the Kabbalat and, above all,
the system of symbolism ana allegory which
lay at the foundation of the Masonic philosophy. To no ancient sect, indeed except
perhaps the Pythagoreans, have the Masonic
teachers been so much indebted for the substance of their doctrines, as well as the esoteric
method of communicating themhas to that of
the School of Alexandria. Bot Aristobulus
and Philo the two most celebrated chiefs of
this schooi, taught, although a century intervened between their births, the same theory,
that the sacred writings of the Hebrews were,
by their system of allegories1 _the true source
of all religious and philosophic doctrine, the
literal meaning of which alone was for the
common people, the esoteric or hidden meaning bein~ kept for the initiated. Freemasonry
still carnes mto practise the same theory.
A.Uncourt, Francois d'. A French gentleman, who, in the Y.ear 1776, was sent with
Don Oyres de Ornella.s PraQao, a Portuguese
nobleman, to prison, by the governor of the
island of Madeira, for bein(!; Freemasons.
They were afterward sent to Lisbon, and confined in a common jail for fourteen months,
where they would have perished had not the
Masons of Lisbon supported them, through
whose intercession with Don Ma.rtinio de
Mello they were at last released. (Smith, Use
and Abuse of Freemasonry, p. 206.)
A.llab. (ABByrian (Fig. 1), ilu; Aramaic,
~;N, elah; Hebrew, ~il;iN, lUah.) The Arabic
name of Godi derived from (Fig. 2) ilah, god
and the artie e (Fig. 3) al, expressing the Goo1
by way of eminence. In the great profeBBion
of the Unity, on which is founded the religion
of Islam, both terms are used, as, pronounced
"U il&ha. ill' Allah," there is no god but God,
the real meaning of the expression being,
" There is only one God." Mohammed relates

that in his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, on ascending through the seven heavens, he beheld above the throne of God this
formula; and the green standard of the

46

(Fja. 1.)

~+

(Fia. 2.)

(Fia. 3.)

&JS, JJ

Prophet was adorned with the mystic sentence.

It is the first phrase lisped by the infant, and
the devout Moslem utters the profeBBion of the
faith at all times, in joy, in sorrow, in praise,
in prayer, in battle, and with his departing

breath the words are wafted to heaven; for

among the peculiar virtues of these words is
that they may be spoken without any motion
of the lips. The mourners on their way to the
grave continue the strain in melancholy tones.
Around the supreme name is clustered the
masbaha, or rosary, of the ninety-nine beautiful names of God, which a.rt) often repeated by
the Mohammedan in his devotions.
[W. S. Paterson.]
Allegiance. Every Mason owes allegiance
to the Lodge, Chapter, or other body of which
he is a member, and also to the Grand Lod~e,
Grand Chapter or other supreme author1ty
from which that body has received its charter.
But this is not a divided allegiance. li, for
instance the edicts of a Grand and a Subordinate ~dge confiict, there is no question
which is to be obeyed. Supreme or governing
bodies in Masonry claim and must receive a
paramount allegiance.
Allecory. A discourse or narrative in
which there is a literal and a figurative sense, a
patent and a concealed meaning; the literal or
patent sense being intended, by analogy or
comparison, to indicate the figurative or concealed one. Its derivation from the Greek,
~Aos- and &-yopelmv, to say something different,
that is, to tray something where the language is
one thing and thetruemeaninganother, exactly
expreBBes the character of an alle~ory. It has
been said that there is no essent1a.l difference
between an allegory and a symbol. There is
not in design, but there is in their character.
An allegory may be interpreted without any
previous conventional agreement but a symbol cannot. Thus, the legend of the Third Degree is an allegory, evidently to be interpreted
as teaching a restoration to life; and this we
learn from the legend itself, witnout any previous understanding. The sprig of acacia
is a symbol of the immortality of the soul.
But this we know only because such meaning
had been conventionally determined when the
symbol was first established. It is evident,
then, that an allegory whose meaning is obscure is imperfect. The enigmatical meaning
should be easy of interpretation; and henoo

ALLIANCE

ALL-SEEING

Lemrere, a French poet, has said: " L'allegorie habite un palais diaphane "-Allegory
live& in a tramparent palace. All the legends
of Freemasonry are more or less allegorical
and whatever truth there may be in some of
them in an historical point of view1 it is only as
allee;ories or legendary symbols tnat they are
of Importance. The English lectures have
therefore very properly defined Freemasonry
to be " a system of morality veiled in allegory
and illustrated by symbols."
The allegory was a favorite figure among
the ancients, and to the allegorizing spirit are
we to trace the construction of the entire
Greek and Roman mythology. Not less did
it prevail among the older Aryan nations, and
its abundant use is exhibited in the religions of
Brahms and Zoroaster. The Jewish Rabbis
were greatly addicted to it, and carried its
employment as Maimonides intimates (More
Nevochim, Ill., xliii.), sometimes to an excess.
Their Midrash or system of commentaries on
the sacred book, is almost altogether allegorical. Aben Ezra, a learned Rabbi of the twelfth
century, sara, " The Scriptures are like bodies,
and allegones are like the garments with which
they are clothed. Some are thin like fine silk,
and others are coarse and thick like sackcloth." Our Lord, to whom this ~irit of the
Jewish teachers in his day was familiar, inculcated many truths in parables all of which
were allegories. The pnmitive Fathers of the
Christian Church were thus infected; and
Origen (Epist. ad Dam.), who was especially
addicted to the habit, tells us that all the
Pagan p,hilosophers should be read in this
spirit: 'hoc fa.cere solemus quando philosophos Iegimus.'' Of modem allegorizing writers, the most interesting to Masons are Lee,
the author of The Temple of Solomon portrsyed by Scripture Light, and John Bunyan,
who wrote Solomon's Temple Spiritualized.
Alliance, Sacred. An organization of
twenty-one brethren possessing the ultimate
degree of the Scottish Rite formed iD. New
York, September 19, 1872, who assemble annually on that day. One by one, in the due
course of time, this Assembly is to decrease
until the sad dutr. will devolve on some one to
banquet alone With twenty draped chairs and
covers occupied by the imaginary presence of
his fellows. It was instituted to commemorate
the breaking of a dead-lock in the close corporation of the Supreme Council by the admiBBion of four very prominent members of
the Fraternity.
Allied Masonic Degrees. A body has
been formed in England called the Grand
Council of the Allied Masonic ~. in
order to govern various Degrees or Orders havin~ no central authority of their own. The
pnncipal degrees controlled by it are those of
St. Lawrence the Martyr Knildlt of Constantinople, Grand Tiler of King Solomon, Secret
Monitor1 Red Cross of Babylon1 and Grand
High Priest, besides a large numoer, perhaps
about fifty, of "side degrees," of which some
are actively worked and some are not.
AJiqeqUOQ The addrese of the presiding

oftieer of a Supreme Council of the Ancient

and Accepted Scottish Rite is sometimes so
called. It was first used by the Council for
the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States,
and is derived from the usage of the Roman
Church, where certain addresses of the Pope to
the Cardinals are called allocutions, and this
is to be traced to the customs of Pagan Rome,
where the harangues of the Generals to their
soldiers were called allocutions.
Allowed. In the old manuscript Constitutions, this word is found in the now unusual
sense of " accepted.'' Thus, " Every Mason
of the Craft that is Mason allowed, ye shall do
to him as ye would be done unto yourself.''
(LansdoWne MS., circa 1600.) Mason allowed
means Mason acce]Jted~ ~hat~ approved. Phil
lips, in his N8to Worta of words (1690), defines the verb allow," to give or grant; to approve of; topennitorsuffer.'' Latimer,inone
of his sermons, uses it in this sense of approving or accepting, thus: " St. Peter, in forsaking his old boat and nets was allowed as much
before God as if he had forsaken all the riches
in the world.'' In a similar sense is the word
used in the Office of Public Baptism of Infants, in the Common Prayer-Book of the
Church of Eng_land.
AB8eelng E)'e. . An important symbol of
the Supreme Being, borrowed by the Freemasons from the nations of antiquity. Both.
the Hebrews and the Egyptians apJ?ear to
have derived its use from that natural mclination of figurative minds to select an organ as
the sym'bol of the function which it is intended peculiarly to discharge. Thus, the
foot was often adopted as the symbol of swiftness, the arm of strength, and the hand of
fidelity. On the same principle, the open eye
was selected as the symbol of watchfulness,
and the eye of God as the symbol of Divine
watchfulness and care of the universe. The
use of the symbol in this sense is repeatedly to
be found in the Hebrew writers. Thus, the
Psalmist says (Ps. xxxiv. 15): " The eyes of
the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears
are open unto their cry," which explains a
subsequent p888age (Ps. cxxi. 4), in which it is
said: "Beliold, he that keepeth Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep.''
In the Apocryphal Book of the Conver8ation of God with M o868 on Mount Sinai,
translated by the Rev. W. Cureton from an
Arabic MS. of the fifteenth century, and published by the Philobiblon Society of Lon<lon,
the idea of the eternal watchfulriess of God is
thus beautifully allegorized:
" Then Moses said to the Lord 0 Lord dost
thou sleep or not? The Lord said unto Moses,
I never sleep: but take a cup and fill it with
water. Then Moses took a cup and filled it
with water, as the Lord commanded him.
Then the Lord cast into the heart of Moses the
breath of slumber; so he slept, and the cup fell
from his hand, and the water which was
therein was spilled. Then Moses awoke from
his sleep. Then said God to Moses, I declare
by my power, and by my glory, that if I were
to withdraw my providence from the heavens

47

48

ALNWICK

ALL-SOULS' .

and the e9J'th, for no longer a space of time\ Almoner. An officer elected or appointed
than thou hast slept, they would at once fall to in the continental Lodges of Europe to take
ruin and confusion, like as the cup fell from : charge of the contents of the alms-box, to
thy hand."
carry into effect the charitable resolutions of
On the same principle, the Egyptians repre- the Lodge, and to visit sick and needy brethsented Osiris, their chief deity, by the symbol ren. A physician is usually selected in preferof an open eye, and placed this hiero- ence to any other member for this office. An
glyphic of him in all their temples. His almoner may also be appointed among the
symbolic name, on the monuments, was repre- officers of an English Lodge. In the United
sented by the eye accompanying a throne, to States the officer does not exist, his duties
which was sometimes added an abbreviated being performed by a committee of charity.
figure of the god, and sometimes what has been It is an important office in all bodies of the
called a hatchet, but which may as correctly Scottish Rite.
be supposed to be a representation of a square.
Alms-Box. A box which, toward the
The All-Seeing Eye may then be considered close of the Lodge, is handed around by an
as a symbol of God manifested in his omni- appropriate officer for the reception of such
presence-his guardian and preserving char- donations for general objects of charity as the
acter-to which Solomon alludes in the Book brethren may feel disposed to bestow. This
of Proverbs (xv. 3) when he says: "The eyes laudable custom is very generally practised
of the Lord are in every placel beholding (or, in the Lodges of England, Scotland1 and Ireas in the Revised Verswn Keeping watch land, and universally in those of tne Contiupon) the evil and the good.' 1 It is a symbol of nent. The newly initiated candidate is exthe Omnipresent Deity.
pected to contribute more liberally than the
All-Souls' Day. The 2d of November. other members. Bro. Hyde Clarke says
A festival in the Romish Church for prayers in (Lon. Freem. Mag., 1859, p. 1166) that "some
behalf of all the faithful dead. It is kept as a. brethren are in the habit, on an occasion of
feast day by Chapters of Rose Croix.
thanksgiving with them, to contribute to the
Almanac, Masonic. Almanacs for the box of the Lodge more than on other occaspecial use of the Fraternity are annually sions.'' This custom has not been adopted in
published in many countries of Europe, but the Lodges of America, except in those of
the custom has not extended to Amerwa. As French origin and in those of the Ancient and
early as 1752 we find an Almanach des Francs- Accepted Scottish Rite.
MllfOOB en Ecosse published at The Hague.
Almsgldng. Although almsgiving, or the
This1 or a similar work, was continued to be pecuniary relief of the destituteJ was not one
published annually at the same place until the of the original objects for whicn the Instituyear 1778. (Kloss, Bibliographie, Nos.107-9.) tion of Freemasonry was established, yet, as
The first English work of the kind appeared in in every society of men bound together by a
1775, under the title of The Freemason's Cal- common tie, it becomes incidentally, yet necendar, or an Almanac for the year 1775_, con- essarily, a duty to be practised by all its
taining, besides an accurate and useful l:alen- members in their individual as well as in their
dar of all remarkable occurrences for the year, [corporate capacity. In fact, this virtue is intimany useful and curious particulars relating to mately interwoven with the whole superstrucMasonry. Inscribed to Lord Petre, G. M., by ture of the Institution, and its l?ractise is a.
a Society of Brethren. London, printed for necessary corollary from all its prmciples. At
the Society of Stationers. This work was an early period in his initiation the candidate
without any official authority, but two years is instructed in the beauty of charity by the
after the Freemason's Calendar for 1777 was most impressive ceremonies, which are not
pu~lished "under the sanction of the Grand easily to be forgotten, and which, with the same
Lodge of England.'' A Masonic Year Book benevolent design, are repeated from time to
is now issued annually by the Grand Lodge of time during his advancement to higher deEngland, and most of the English Provmces grees, in various forms and under different
publish Masonic Almanacs.
circumstances. "The true Mason," says
Almighty. In Hebrew ,ll.' ?X,El Shaddai. Bro. Pike, "must be1 and must have a right
The name by which God was known to the to be, content with himself; and he can be so
patriarchs before he announced himself to only when he lives not for himself alone, but
Moses by his tetragrammatonic name of Je- for others who need his assistance and have a.
hovah. (See Exodus vi. 3.) It refers to his claim upon his sympathy.'' And the same
power and might as the Creator and Ruler of elo9-uent writer lays down this rule for a Mathe universe, and hence is translated in the sons almsgiving: "Give, looking for nothing
Septuagint by TavroKpJ.r,.,p, and in the Vul- again, without consideration of future advangate by omnipotens.
tages; give to children, to old men, to the unAlmond-Tree. When it is said in the pas- thankful, and the dying, and to those you shall
sage of Scripture from the twelfth chapter of never see again; for else your alms or courtesy
Ecclesiastes, sometimes read during the cere- is not charity, but traffic and merchandise.
monies of the Third Degree, " the almond-tree And omit not to relieve the needs of your
shall flourish," reference is made to the white enemy and him who does you injury." (See
flowers of that tree, and the allegoric signifi- Exclusiveness of Masonry.)
cation is to old age, when the hairs of the head
Alnwick Manuscript. This manuscript,
1 which is now in the possession of the Newehall become gray.
1

49

AL-QM-JAH

ALPHABET

castle College of the " Societas Rosicruciana

in Anglia," is written on twelve quarto pages
as a preface to the minute-book of the " Company and Fellowship of Freemasons of a
Lodge held at Alnwick," where it appears
under the heading of " The Masons' Constitutions." The date of the document is September
29, 1701, " being the general head meeting
day." Itwasfirstpublishedin187linHughan's
Masonic Sketches and Reprints (Amer. ed.),
and again in 1872 by the same author in his
Old Charges of the British Freemasons. In this
latter work, Bro. Hughan says of the records of
this old Lodge that, " ranging from 1703 to
1757 they mostly refer to indentures, fines,
and initiations, the Lodge from first to last
remaining true to its operative origin. The
members were required annually to' appear at
the Parish Church of Alnwicke with their
approns on and common squares as aforesaid
on St. John's Day in Christmas, when a sermon was provided and preached by some
clergyman at their appointment.' A. D.
1708." The MS. has since been reproduced
in facsimile by the Newcastle College of Rosicrucians in 1895.
Alom-Jah. ln the Egyptian mysteries,
this is said to have been the name given to
the aspirant in the highest degree as the secret
name of the Supreme Being. In its component parts we may recognize the ?N, AL or EL of
the Hebrews, the AuM or triliteral name of
the Indian mysteries, and the i1' J AH of the
Syrians.
Aloyau, Societe de I'. The word Aloyau
is the French name for a sirloin of beef and
hence the title of this society in English would
be The Society of the Sirloin. It was a Masonic
association, which existed in France before
the revolution of 1789, until its members were
dispersed at that time. They professed to be
the possessors of many valuable documents
relating to the Knights Templar and, besides,
to be (ActaLatomorum, i., 292) their successors.
(See Temple, Order of the.)
Alpha and Omega. The first and last letters of the Greek language, referred to in the
Royal Master and some of the higher degrees.
They are explained by this passage in Revelations, ch. xxii., v. 13.: "I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end, the first
and the last." Alpha and Omega is, therefore, one of the appellations of God, equivalent to the beginning and end of all things, and
so referred to in Isaiah xliv. 6, "I am the first
and I am the last."
Alphabet, Angels'. In the old rituals of
the Fourth or Secret Master's Degree of the
Scottish and some other Rites, we find this
passage: " The seventy-two names, like the
name of the Divinity, are to be taken to the
Kabbalistic Tree and the Angels' Alphabet."
The Kabbalistic Tree is a name given by the
Kabbalists to the arrangement of the ten Sephiroth (which see). The Ang,els' Alphabet is
called by the Hebrews C'::>'mi1 :Jn::>, chetab
hamalachim, or the writing of the angels. Gaffarel says (Curios. Inouis. 1 ch. xiii., 2) that the
stars, according to the opinion of the Hebrew

writers, are ranged in the heavens in the form

of letters, and that it is possible to read
there whatsoever of importance is to happen
throughout the universe. And the great English Hermetic philosopher, Robert Fludd, says,
in his Apology for the Brethren of the Rosy Cross,
that there are characters in the heavens
formed from the disposition of the stars, just
as geometric lines and ordinary letters are
formed from points; and he adds, that those
to whom God has granted the hiuden knowledge of reading these characters will also know
not only whatever is to happen, but all the
secrets of philosophy. The letters thus arranged in the form of stars are called the Angels' Alphabet. They have the power and
articulation but not the form of the Hebrew
letters, and the Kabbalists say that in them
Moses wrote the tables of the law. The astrologers, and after them the alchemists, made
much use of this alphabet; and its introduction into any of the high degree rituals is an
evidence of the influence exerted on these degrees by the Hermetic philosophy. Agrippa in
his Occult Philosophy, and Kircher in his (Edipus Egyp!:i,acU8, and some other writers, have
given copies qf this alphabet. It may also be
found in Johrison's Typographia. But it is in
the mystical books of the Kabbalists that we
must look for full instructions on this subject.
Alphabet, Hebrew. Nearly all of the significant words in the Masonic rituals are of
Hebrew origin, and in writing them in the rituals the Hebrew letters are frequently used.
For convenience of reference, that alphabet is
here given. The Hebrews, like other ancient
nations, had no figures, and therefore made
use of the letters of their alphabet instead of
numbers, each letter having a particular numerical value. They are, therefore, affixed in
the following table:
N A
1
Aleph
Beth
::lB
2
Gimel
:1 G
3
Daleth
, D
4
He
i1 H
5
Vau
, Vor 0
6
Zain
tZ
7
Cheth
M CH
8
Teth
~ T
9
Yod
' I or Y 10
Caph
;; CorK 20
Lamed
; L
30
Mem
~ M
40
Nun
.:1 N
50
t:l S
60
Samech
Ain
l' Guttural 70
~

Tsaddi
Koph
Resh
Shin
Tau
Final Caph
Final Mem
Final Nun
Final Pe
Final Tsaddi

Tz
i' Q or K
, R
~ SH
n T
1 C or K
C M
1 N
I') P
Y' TZ
:l:

90
100
200
300
400
000
600
700
800

90o

ALPHABET

50

ALTAR

Alphabet, Masonic. See Cipher Writing. Masonry, and usuallyinacubicalform. Altars

Alphabet, Number of Letters ln. In were erected long before temples. Thus,

the Sandwich Island alphabet there are 12

letters; the Burmese 19; Italian, 20; Bengalese, 21; Hebrew, Syrian, Chaldee, Phoonician, and Samaritan, 22 each; Latin, 23
Greek, 24; French, 25; German, Dutch, and
English, 26 each; Spanish 8J!d Sclavonic, 27
each; Persian and Coptic1 32 each; Georgian,
35; Armenian, 38; Russian, 41; Muscovite,
43; Sanskrit and Japanese, 50 each; Ethiopic
and Tartarian, 202 each.
Alphabet, Samaritan. It is believed by
scholars that, previous to the captivity, the
alphabet now called the Samaritan was employed by the Jews in transcribing the copies
of the law, and that it was not. until their return from Babylon that they adopted, instead
of their ancient characters, the Chaldee or
square letters, now called the Hebrew, in
which the sacred text, as restored by Ezra,
was written. Hence, in the more recent rituals of the Scottish Rite, especially those useq
in the United States, the Samaritan character
is beginning to be partially used. For convenience of reference, it is therefore here inserted.
The letters are the same in number as the Hebrew, with the same power and the same
names; the only difference is in form.
Aleph
Beth
Gimel
Daleth
He
Vau
Zain
Cheth
Teth
Yod
Kaph

~.

~~

'lf

~
~

li1

:l

Lamed
Mem
Nun
Samech
Ayin
Pe
Tsade
Koph
Resch
Shin
Tau

~p
'\
lr

Alplna. In 1836, and some years after-

ward, General Assemblies of the Masons of

Switzerland were convened at Zurich, Berne,
and Basle, which resulted in the union of the
two Masonic authorities of that confederation,
under the name of the Grand Lodge Alpina.
The new Grand Lodge was organized at Zurich, by fourteen Lodges, on the 24th of July,
1844.
In 1910 it had 34 Lodges under its jurisdiction with a membership of 3,842.
Altar. The most important article of furniture in a Lodge room is undoubtedly the
altar. It is worth while, then, to investigate
its character and its relation to the altars of
other religious institutions. The definition of
an altar is very simple. It is a structure elevated above the ground, and appropriated to
some service connected with worship, such as
the offering of oblations, sacrifices, or prayers.
Altars, among the ancients, were generally
made of turf or stone. When permanently
erected and not on any sudden emergency,
they were generally built in regular courses of

Noah is said to have erected one as soon as he

came forth from the ark. Herodotus gives the
Egyptians the credit of being the first among
the heathen nations who invented altars.
Among the ancients, both Jews and Gentiles, altars were of two kinds-for incense and
for sacrifice. The latter were always erected
in the open air, outside and in front of the
Temple. Altars of incense only were permitted within the Temple walls. Animals were
slain, and offered on the altars of burnt-offerings. On the altars of incense, bloodless sacrifices were presented and incense was burnt
to the Deity.
The Masonic altar, which, like everything
else in Masonry, is symbolic, appears to combine the character and uses of both of these
altars. It is an altar of sacrifice, for on it the
candidate is directed to lay his passions and
vices as an oblation to the Deity1 while he
offers up the thoughts of a pure neart as a
fitting incense to the Grand Architect of the
Universe. The altar is, therefore, the most
holy place in a Lodge.
Among the ancients, the altar was always
invested with peculiar sanctity. Altars were
places of refuge, and the supplicants who fled
to them were considered as having placed
themselves under the protection of the Deity
to whom the altar was consecrated, and to do
violence even to slaves and criminals at the
altar, or to drag them from it, was regarded as
an act of violence to the Deity himself, and was
hence a sacrilegious crime.
The marriage covenant among the ancients
was always solemnized at the altar, and men
were accustomed to make all their solemn contracts and treaties by taking oaths at altars.
An oath taken or a vow made at the altar was
considered as more solemn and binding than
one assumed under other circumstances.
Hence, Hannibal's father brought him to the
Carthaginian altar when he was about to make
him swear eternal enmity to the Roman
power.
In all the reli~ions of antiquity, it was the
usage of the priests and the people to pass
around the altar in the course of the sun, that
is to say, from the east, by the way of the
south, to the west, singing preans or hymns of
praise as a_part of their worship.
From all this we see that the altar in Masonry is not merely a convenient article of
furniture, intended, like a table, to hold a
Bible. It is a sacred utensil of religion, intended1 like the altars of the ancient temples,
for religious uses, and thus identifying Masonry, by its necessary existence in our Lodges,
as a religious institutiOn. Its presence should
also lead the contemplative Mason to view the
ceremonies in which it is employed with
solemn reverence, as being part of a really
.
religious worship.
The situation of the altar in the French and
Scottish Rites is in front of the Worshipful
Master, andhtherefore, in the East. In the
York Rite, t e altar is placed in the center of

ALTENBERG

AMENDMENT

the room, or more properly a little to the East

Amal-sagghl. (Great labor.) The name

of the 5th step of the mystic ladder of Kadosh,
A. A. Scottish Rite.
Amaranth. A plant well known to the
ancients, the Greek name of which signifies
"never withering." It is the Celosia cristata
of the botanists. The dry nature of the
flowers causes them to retain their freshness for
a very long time, and Pliny says, although incorrectly, that if thrown into water they will
bloom anew. Hence it is a symbol of immortality, and was used by the ancients in their
funeral rites. It is often placed on coffins at
the present day with a like symbolic meaning,
and is hence one of the decorations of a
Sorrow Lodge.
Amarantht Order of the. Instituted by
Queen Christina of Sweden in 1653, and numbering 31, composed of 15 knights, 15 ladies,
and the Queen as the Grandmistress. The
insignia consisted of two letters A interlaced1
one being inverted, within a laurel crown, and
bearing the motto, Dolce neUa mtmoria. The
annual festival of this equestrian Order was
held at the Epiphany. A society of a similar
name, androgynous in its nature, was instituted in 1883, under the supervision of Robert
Macoy, of New York, to supplement the Order
of the Eastern Star, haVIng a social and
charitable :purpose, the ritual of which, as well
as its constitutional government, has met with
much commendation.
AmarJah. Hebrew :"l~.,r.lN, God apake;
a si~ficant word in the high degrees of the
AnCient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Amen. Sometimes used as a response to a
Masonic prayer, though in England the formula
is " so mote it be." The word Amen signifies
in Hebrew verily, truly, certainly. "Its proper
place," says Gesenius, "is where one person
confirms the words of another, and adds his
wish for success to the other's vows." It is
evident, then, that it is the brethren of the
Lodge and not the MBBter or Chaplain, who
should pronounce the word. Yet the custom
in the United States is for the M88ter or
Chaplain to say "Amen " and the brethren
respond, " So mote it be." It is a response t<>
the prayer. The Talmudists have many
superstitious notions in respect to this word.
Thus, in one treatise ( Uber Mmar), it ~ said
that whosoever pronounces it with fixed attention and devotion, to him the gates of Paradise
will be opened; and, again, whosoever enunciates the woro rapidly, his days shall pass
rapidly away, and whosoever dwells upon it,
pronouncing it distinctly and slowly, his life
shall be prolonged.
Amendment. All amendments to the bylaws of a Lodge must be submitted to the
Grand or Provincial or District Lodge for its
approval.
An amendment to a motion pending before
a Lodge takes precedence of the original
motion, and the question must be put upon the
amendment first. If the amendment be lost,
then the question will be on the motion; if the
amendment be adopted, then the question
will be on the original motion as eo amended;

of the center.

The form of a Masonic altar should be a

cube, about three feet high, and of corresponding proportions as to length and width, having,
in imitation of the Jewish altar, four horns,
one at each comer. The Holy Bible with the
Square and Compass should be spread open
l!AST.

J*
WF.S'r.

upon it, while around it are to be placed three

lights. These lights are to be in the East,
West, and South, and should be arranged as in
the annexed diagram. The stars show the position of the light in the East1 West,, ~nd South.
The black dot represents tne .POSition North
of the altar where there is no light, because in
Masonry the North is the place of darkness.
Altenburgt Congress of. Altenber~ is a
small place in the Grand Dukedom of Wermar,
about two miles from the city of Jena. Here
in the month of Junet 1764, the notorious
Johnson, or Leucht, wno called himself the
Grand Master of the Knights Templar and the
head of the Rite of Strict Observance, assembled a Masonic congress for the purpose of
establishing this Rite and its system of Templar Masonry. But he was denounced and
expelled by the Baron de Hund, who1 having
l)roved Johnson to be an impostor and charlatan, was himself proclaimed Grand Master of
the German Masons by the congress. (See
Johnson and Hund; also Strict Observance,
Rite of.)
Altenburgt Lodge at. One of the oldest
Lodges in Germany is the Lodge of " Archimedes of the Three Tracing Boards" (Archimedes zu den drei Reissbreutern) in Altenburg.
It was instituted January 31, 1742, by a deputation from Leipsic. In 1775 it joined the
Grand Lodge of Ber~J but in 1788 attached
itself to the Eclectic union at Frankfort-onthe-Main, which body it left in 1801, and
established a directory of its own, and installed a Lodge at Gera and another at Schneeberg. In the year 1803 the Lodge published a
Book of Constitutions in a folio of 244 pages, a
work which is now rare, and which Lenning
says is one of the most valuable contributions
to Masonic literature. Three Masonic journals were also produced by the Altenburg
school of historians and students, one of which
-theBruderblatter-continued to appear until
1854. In 1804 the Lodge struck a medal upon
the occasion of erecting a new hall. In 1842
it celebrated its centennial anniversary.

51

52

AMENDMENT

AMERICAN

and if then this question be lost, the whole

motion falls to the ground.
The principal Parliamentary rules in relation to amendments which ar(l applicable to
the business of a Masonic Lodge are the
following:
1. An amendment must be made in one of
three ways: by adding or inserting certain
words, by striking out certain words, or by
striking out certain words and inserting others.
2. Every amendment is susceptible of an
amendment of itself, but there can be no
amendment of the amendment of an amendment; such a piling of questions one upon
another would tend to embarrass rather than
to facilitate business. " The object which is
proposed to be effected by such a proceeding
must be sought by rejecting the amendment
to the amendment, and then submitting the
proposition in the form of an amendment of
the first amendment in the form desired."
Cushing (Elem. Law and Pract. Leg. Ass.,
1306) illustrates this as follows: "If a proposition consists of ABband it is proposed to
amend by inserting C , it may be moved to
amend the amendment by inserting EF; but
it cannot be moved to amend this amendment,
as, for example, by inserting G. The only
mode by which this can be reached is to reject
the amendment in the form in which it is presented, namely, to insert EF1 and to move it
in the form in which it IS desired to be
amended, namely, to insert EFG."
3. An amendment once rejected cannot be
again proposed.
4. An amendment to strike out certain
words having prevailed, a subsequent motion
to restore them is out of order.
5. An amendment may be proposed which
will entirely change the character and substance of the original motion. The inconsistency or incompatibility of a proposed
amendment with the proposition to be
amended1 though an argument, perhaps, from
its rejectiOn by the Lodge, is no reason for its
suppression by the presiding officer.
6. An amendment, before it has been proposed to the body for discussion, may be withdrawn by the mover; but after it has once been
in possession of the Lodge, it can only be withdrawn !Jy leave of the Lodge. In the Congress
of the United States, leave must be obtained
by unanimous consent; but the usage in Masonic bodies is to require only a majority vote.
7. An amendment having been withdrawn
by the mover, may be again proposed by
another member.
1
8. Several amendments may be proposed
to a motion or several amendments to an
amendment, and the question will be put on
them in the order of their presentation. But
as an amendment takes precedence of a
motion, so an amendment to an amendment
takes precedence of the original amendment.
9. An amendment does not require a
seconder, although an original motion always
does.
There are many other rules relative to
amendments which prevail in Parliamentary

bodies, but these appear to be the only ones

which regulate this subject in Masonic assemblies.
Amentl. See Book of the Dead.
American Mysteries. Among the many
evidences of a former state of civilization among
the Aborigines of America which seem to
prove their origin from the races that inhabit
the Eastern hemisphere, not the least remarkable is the existence of Fraternities bound
by mystic ties, and claiming, like the Freemasons, to possess an esoteric knowledge,
which they carefully conceal from all but the
initiated. De Witt Clinton relates, on the
authority of a respectable native minister,
who had received the signs, the existence of
such a society among the Iroquois. The
number of the members was limited to fifteen,
of whom six were to be of the Seneca tribe1
five of the Oneidas1 two of the Cayugas, anct
two of the St. Regis. They claim that their
institution has existed from the era of the
creation. The times of their meeting they
keep secret, and throw much mystery over all
their proceedings.
Brinton tells us in his interesting and instructive work on The Myths of the New World
(p. 285), that among the red race of America
" the priests formed societies of different
grades of illumination, only to be entered by
those willing to undergo trying ordeals, whose
secrets were not to be revealed uncter the
severest penalties. The Algonkins had three
such grades-the waubeno, the meda, and the
jossakeed, the last being the highest. To this
no white man was ever admitted. All tribe!!
appear to have been controlled by these secret
societies. Alexander von Humboldt mentions one, called that of the Botuto, or Holy
Trumpet, among the Indians of the Orinoco,
whose members must vow celibacy, and submit to severe scourgings and fasts. The
Collahuayas of Peru were a guild of itinerant
quacks and magicians, who never remained
permanently in one spot."
American Rite. It has been proposed,
and I think with propriety, to give this name
to the series of degrees conferred in the
United States. The York Rite, which is the
name by which they are usually designated,
is certainly a misnomer, for the York Rite
properly consists of only the degrees of
Entered Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, and Master
Mason, including in the last degree the Holy
Royal Arch. This was the Masonry that
existed in England at the time of the revival
of the Grand Lodge in 1717. The abstraction
of the Royal Arch from the Master's Degree
and its location as a separate degree, produc;;d
that modification of the York Rite which now
exists in England, and which should properly
be called the Modern York Rite, to distinguish it from the Ancient York Rite, which
consisted of onlY,: three degrees. But in the
United States still greater additions have been
made to the Rite, through the labors of Webb
and other lecturers, and the influence insensibly exerted on the Order by the introduction
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite

AMERICAN

AMIS

53

into this country. The American modifica.- can Union Lodge, but in April, 1776, caused a

tion of the York Rite, or the American Rite, new warrant to be issued to the same brethren,
consists of nine degrees, viz.:
under the name of Military Union Lodge, No.1,
Given in Sym- without recalling the former warrant. They
1. Entered Apprentice.
bolic Lodges, and thus presented an anomaly of a Lodge holding
2. Fellow-Craft.
under the control warrants from and yieldin~ obedience to two
}
of Grand Lodges.
3. Master Mason.
Grand Bodies in different Jurisdictions. The
4. Mark Master.
} Given in Chap- spirit of the brethren, though, is shown in their
5. Past Master.
ters, and under the adherence to the name American Union in
6. Most Excellent Master. control of Grand their minutes, and the only direct acknowl7. Holy Royal Arch.
Chapters.
edgment of the new name is in a minute proGiven in Coun- vidin~ that the Lodge furniture purchased by
8. Royal Master.
ells, and under the Amerwan Union" be considered only as lent
to the Military Union Lodge."
!). Select Master.
} control of Grand
Councils.
This Lode;e followed the Connecticut Line
of the Contmental army throughout the War
A tenth degree, called Super-Excellent of Independence. It was Gen. Samuel Holden
Master, is conferred in some Councils as an Parsons of American Union who returned to
honorary rather than as a regular degree; but the British army Lodge Unity, No. 18, their
even as such it is repudiated by many Grand warrant, which had come into possession of
Councils. To these, perhaps, should be added the American army at the taking of Stony
three more de!Vees, namely, Knight of the Point in 1779. American Union participated
Red Cross, Knight Templar, and Knight of in a convention at Morristown, N.J., January
Malta, which are given in Commanderies, and 31, 1780, when it was proposed to nominate
are under the control of Grand Commanderies, Gen. Washington as "Grand Master over the
or, as they are sometimes called, Grand En- thirteen United States of America," and it was
campments. But the degrees of the Com- on the suggestion of Rev. Israel Evans. of
mandery which are also known as the degrees American Union that the " Temple of Virof Chiv~i~; can hardly be called a part of the tue," for the use of the army and the army
Americ~ Rite. The possession of the Eighth Lodges, was erected at New Windsor (NewandNinthDegreesisnotconsideredanecessary burgh), N. Y. 1.during the winter of 1782-83.
qualification for receiving them. The true The Lodge followed the army to the NorthAmerican Rite consists only of the nine de- west Territory after the War of Independence,
grees above enumerated.
and participated in the formation of the
There is, or may be, a Grand Lodge, Grand Grand Lod~e of Ohio. Shortly afterward
Chapter, Grand Council, and Grand Com- the Lodge w1thdrew from the Grand Lodge of
mandery in each State, whose jurisdiction is Ohio and did not a:ppear on the roll therealter,
distinct and sovereign within its own territory. but pursued an mdependent existence for
There is no General Grand Lodge, or Grand some years. The present American Union
Lodge of the United States, though several Lodge at Marietta, Ohio1 No. 1 on the roll of
efforts have been made to form one (see the Grand Lodge of Ohm, was organized by
General Grand Lodge); there is a General members of the old Lodge. The first minuteGrand Chapter, but all Grand Chapters are not book, from the original constitution to April
subject to it, and a Grand Encampment to 23, 1783, is in the library of the Grand Lodge
which all Grand Commanderies of the States of New York. During the war many prominent patriots were members, and several
are subject.
American (Mmtary) Union Lodge. In times Washington was recorded as a visitor.
.
[C.A.B.]
1776 six Master Masons, four Fellow-Crafts,
Ameth. Properly, Emeth, 1 which see.
andoneEnteredApprentice, all but one, officers
Amethyst. Hebrew ;,~ mN, achlemah.
in the Connecticut Line of the Continental
army in camp at Roxbury, Mass., petitioned The ninth stone in the breastplate of the high
Richard Gridley, Deputy Grand Master of priest. The amethyst is a stone in hardness
St. John's Grand Lodge, for a warrant forming next to the diamond, and of a deep red and
them into a regular Lod~e. On the 15th of blue color resembling the breast of a dove.
Amlclsts. Order or. A secret association
February, a warrant was Issued to Joel Clark,
appointing and constituting him First Master of students, once very extensively existing
of America.n Union Lodge, " erected at Rox- among the universities of Northern Germa.ny.
bury, or wherever your body shall remove on Thor:y (Acta Latomorum, i., 292) says that this
the Continent of America, provided it is where assomation was first established in the College
no Grand Master is appointed." The Lodge of Clermont, at Paris. An account of it was
was duly constituted and almost immediately published at Halle, in 1799, by F. C. Laukhard,
moved to New York, and met on April 23, under the title of Der M osellaner-oder Ami1776, by_permission of Dr. Peter Middleton, cisten-Orden nach seiner Entstehung innern
Grand Master of Masons in the Province of Verfassung und Verbreitung auf den 'deutschen
New York. It was agreed at this meeting to Universitaten, &c. The Order was finally
petition him to confirm the Massachusetts suppressed by the imperial government.
Amls Bennis. Loge des. The Lodge of
warrant as, under its term~~ they were without
authority to meet in New xork. Dr. Middle- United Friends, founded at Paris in 1771, WIU!
ton would not collfirnl. the warrant of AIPeri- distinguished for the talents of lllany of i~

AMMON

ANAGRAM

members, among whom was Savalette de

La.ngee, and played for many years an important part in the affairs of French Masonry.
In its bosom was originated, in 1775, the Rite
of Philalethes. In 1784 it convoked the first
Congress of Paris, which was held in 1785, for
the laudable purpose of endeavoring to disentanlde Freemasonry from the almost inextricable confusion into which it had fallen
by the invention of so many rites and new
degrees. The Lodge was in possession of a
valuable library for the use of its members
and had an excellent cabinet of the physic~
and natural sciences. Upon the death of
Savalette, who was the soul of the Lodge, it
fell into decay, and its books, manuscripts,
and cabinet were scattered. (Clave], p. 171.)
All of its library that was valuable was transferred to the archives of the Mother Lodge of
the Philosophic Scottish Rite. Barruel gives
a brilliant picture of the concerts, ballsf and
suppers given by this Lodge in its ha cyon
days, to which " les Cresus de la Ma9onnerie "
congregated, while a few superior members
were engaged, as he says, in hatching ~olitical
and revolutionary schemes, but really m plans
for the elevation of Masonry as a philosophic
institution. (Barruel, M emoires pour &ervir
l'HiBtoire du JacobiniBme, iv., 343.)
Ammon. See Amun.
Ammonttlsh War. A war to which
allusion is made in the Fellow-Craft's Degree.
The Ammonites were the descendants of the
younger son of Lot, and dwelt east of the
river Jordan, but originally formed no part of
the land of Canaan, the Israelites having been
directed not to molest them for the sake of
their great progenitor, the nephew of Abraham.
But in the time of Jephthah, their king hav'ing
char~ the Israelites with taking away a part
of his territory, the Ammonites crossed the
river Jordan ana made war upon the Israelites.
Jephthah defeated them with great slaughter,
and took an immense amount of spoil. It was
on account of this spoil-in which they had no
share-that the Ephraimites rebelled against
Jephthah, and gave him battle. (SeeEphraim-

sian Avesta to the six good genii or powerful

angels who continuously wait round the throne
of Ormudz, or Ormazd. Also the name of the
six summer months and the six productive
working properties of nature.
Amulet. See Talisman.
Amun. The Supreme God among the
Egyptians. He was a concealed god, and is
styled " the Celestial Lord who sheds light on
hidden things." From him all things emanated, though he created nothing. He corresponded with the Jove of the Greeks, and,
consequently, with the Jehovah of the Jews.
His symbol was a ram, which animal was
sacred to him. On the monuments he is
represented with a human face and limbs free,
having two tall straight feathers on his head,
issuing from a red cap; in front of the plumes a
disk is sometimes seen. His body is colored a
deep blue. He is sometimes, however, represented with the head of a ram, and the Greek
and Roman writers in general agree in describing him as being ram-headed. There is
some confusion on this point. Kenrick says
that N ouf was1 in the majority of instances,
the ram-headea god of the Egyptians; but he
admits that Amun may have been sometimes
so represented.
Anachronism. Ritual makers, especially
when they have been ignorant and uneducated,
have often committed anachronisms by the
introduction into Masonic ceremonies of
matters entirely out of time. Thus, the use
of a bell to indicate the hour of the night,
practised in the Third Degree; the placing of a
celestial and a terrestrial globe on the summit
of the pillars of the porch, in the Second
Degree; and quotations from the New Testament and references to the teachings of Christ,
in the Mark Degree, are all anachronisms.
But, although it were to be wished that these
disturbances of the order of time had been
avoided, the fault is not really of much importance. The object of the ritualist was
simply to conve:y' an idea, and this he has done
in the way which he supposed would be most
readily comprehended by those for whom the
ritual was made. The idea itself is old, although the mode of conveying it may be new.
Thus, the bell is used to indicate a specific
point of time, the globes to symbolize the universality of Masonry, and passages from the
New Testament to inculcate the practise of
duties whose obligations are older than Christianity.
Anagram. The manufacture of anagrams
out of proper names or other words has always
been a favorite exercise, sometimes to pay a
compliment-as when Dr. Burney made
Honor est a Nilo out of Horatio Nelson-and
sometimes for purposes of secrecy, as when
Roger Bacon concealed under an anagram one
of the ingredients in his recipe for gunpowder,
that the world might not too easily become
acquainted with the composition of so dangerous a material. The same method was
adopted by the adherents of the house of
Stuart when they manufactured their system
of high degrees as a political engine, and thus,

ites.)

Amor Honor et .Justitia. A motto of the

Grand Lodge of England used prior to the
union of 1813, which is to be found graven on
the " Masonic Token " of 1794, commemorative of the election of the Prince of Wales as
M. W. Grand Master, November 24, 1790.
Ampblbalus. See Saint AmphibalUB.
Ample Form. When the Grand Master
is present at the opening or closing of the
Grand Lodge, it is said to be opened or closed
" in ample form." Any ceremony performed
by the Grand Master is said to be done " in
ample form" i when performed by the Deputy,
it is said to oe "in due form "; and by any
other temporarily presiding officer, it is "in
form." (See Form.)
Amru. The name given to the Phcenician
carpenter, who is represented in somA legends
as one of the Assassins, Fanor and Metusael
being the other two.
Alllllhaspands. The name given in the Per-

55

ANANIAH

ANCIENT

under an anagrammatic form 1 they made

many words to designate thell' friends or,
principally, theirenemiesof the opposite party.
Most of these words it has now become impossible to restore to their original form,
but several are readily decipherable. Thus,
among the Assassins of the Third Degree, who
symbolized, with them, the foes of the monarchy, we recognize Romvel as CromweU, and
Hoben as Bohun, Earl of Essex. It is only
thus that we can ever hope to trace the origin
of such words in the high degrees as Tercy,
Stolkin, Morphey, etc. To look for them m
any Hebrew root would be a fruitless task.
The derivation of many of them, on account
of the obscurity of the persons to whom they
refer, is, perhaps, forever lost; but of others
the research for their meaning may be more
successful.
Ananlah. The name of a learned Egyptian, who is said to have introduced the Order
of Mizraim from Egypt into Italy. Dr.
Oliver (Landm., ii., 75) states the tradition,
but doubts its authenticity. It is in all probability apocryphal. (See Mizraim, Rite of.)
Anchor and Ark. The anchor, as a symbol of hope, does not appear to have belonged
to the ancient and classic system of symbolism.
The Goddess Spes, or Hope, was among the
ancients represented in the form of an erect
woman, holding the skirts of her garments in
her left hand, and in her right a flower-shaped
cup. As an emblem of hope, the anchor is
peculiarly a Christian, and thence a Masonic,
symbol. It is first found inscribed on the
tombs in the catacombs of Rome, and the
idea of using it is probably derived from the
language of St. Paul (Heb. vi. 19), "which
hope we have as an anchor
of the soul both sure and
steadfast." The primitive
Christians " looked upon
life as a stormy voyage, and
glad were the voyagers
when it was done, and they
had arrived safe in port.
Of this the anchor was a
symbol, and when their brethren carved it
over the tomb, it was to them an expression
of confidence that he who slept beneath had
reached the haven of eternal rest." (Kip,
Catacombs of Rome, p. 112.) The strict identity between this and the Masonic idea of the
symbol will be at once observed.
"The anchori" says Mrs. Jameson (Sac.
and Legend, Art. :t 34)," is the Christian symbol of immovable nrmness, hope, and patience;
and we find it very frequently in the cats.combs, and on the ancient Christian gems."
It is the peculiar attribute of St. Clement1
and is often inscribed on churches dedicatea
to him.
But there is a necessary connection between
an anchor and a ship, and hence, the lattelimage has also been adopted as a symbol of
the voyage of life; but, unlike the anchor, it
was not confined to Christians, but was with
the heathens also a favorite emblem of the
close of life. Kip thiDka the idea may have

been derived from them by the Christian

Fathers, who gave it a more elevated meaning.

The ship is in Masonry substituted bv the ark.
Mrs. Jameson says (ut supra) that ''the Ark
of Noah floating safe amid the deluge, in which
all things else were overwhelmed, was an
obvious symbol of the Church of Christ. . .
The bark of St. Peter tossed in the storm, and
by the Redeemer guided safe to land, was also
considered as symbolical."
These symbolical views have been introduced in~ Masonry, with, however, the more
extended application which the universal
character of the Masonic reliJrious faith required. Hence, in the Third Degree, whose
teachings all relate to life and death, " the ark
and anchor are emblems of a well-grounded
hope and a well-spent life. They are emblematical of that Divine ark wliich safely
wafts us over this tempestuous sea of troubles,
and that anchor which shall safely moor us in a
peaceful harbor where the wicked cease from
troubling and the weary shall find rest." Such
is the language of the lecture of the Third
Degree1 and it gives all the information that
is required on the esoteric meaning of these
symbols. The history I have added of their
probable origin will no doubt be interesting to
the Masonic student.
Anchor, Knight or the. See Knight of
the Anchor.

Anchor, Order or Knlchts and Ladles

of the. A system of androgynous Masonry

which arose in France in the year 1745. It
was a schism which sprang out of the Order of
Felicity, from which it differed only in being
somewhat more refined. Its existence was
not more durable than that of its predecessor.
(Clavel, Hist. piU. de la F. M., p. 111.) (See
Felicity Order of.)

Ancient and Accepted Bite. See Scot-

tish Rite.

Ancient Craft Masonrr. This is the

name given to the three symbolic degrees of
Entered Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, and Master
Mason. The degree of Royal Arch is not
generally included under this appella.tion; although, when considered (as it rea.Ily is) a complement of the Third Degree, it must of course
constitute a part of Ancient Craft Masonry.
In the articles of union between the two Grand
Lodges of England, adopted in 1813, it is declared that " pure Antient Masonry consists
of three degrees and no more, viz.: those of the
Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the
Master Mason, includin~ the Supreme Order
of the Holy Royal Arch. '
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

The title most generally assumed by the English and American Grand Lodges. (See Titles
of Grand Lodges. )

Ancient or Antlent or Atholl Masons.

In 1751 some Irish Masons in London established a body which they called the " Grand
Lodge of England according to the Old Insti
tutions( and they styled themselves "Ancients ' and the members of the regular
Grand Lodge, established in 171~oderns."
Thus Dermott, in his Ahimaa
, dividee

S6

ANCIENT

ANCIENT

the Masons of England into two classes, .as

follows:
" The Ancients, under the name of Free and
Accepted Masons, according to the old Institutions; the Moderns~ under the name of
Freemasons of Englan<1. And though a similarity of names, yet they differ exceedingly
in makings, ceremonies, knowledge, Masonic
language, and installations; so much, that
they always have been, and still continue to
be, two distinct societies, totally independent
of each other." (7th ed., p. xxx.)
The " Ancients " maintained that they
alone preserved the ancient tenets and practises of Masonry, and that the regular Lodges
had altered the Landmarks and made innovations, as they undoubtedly had done about the
year 1730, when Prichard's Masonry Dissected appeared.
For a long time it was supposed that the
" Ancients " were a schismatic body of
seceders from the Premier Grand Lodge of
England, but Bro. Henry Sadler, in his Masonic Facts and Fictions, has proved that
this view is erroneous, and that they were
really Irish Masons who settled in London.
In theyear 1756, Laurence Dermott, then
Grand Secretary, and subsequently the
Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
the Ancients, published a Book of Constitutions for the use of the Ancient Masons1 under
the title of Ahiman Rezon, which worll: went
through several editions, and became the
code of Masonic law for all who adhered,
either in England or America, to the Grand
Lodge of the Ancients, while the Grand
Lodge of the Moderns, or the regular Grand
Lodge of England, and its adherents, were
governed by the regulations contained in
. Anderson's Constitutions, the first edition of
which had been published in 1723.
The dissensions between the two Grand
Lodges of England lasted until the year 1813,
when, as will be hereafter seen, the two bodies
became consolidated under the name and title
of the United Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of England. Four years afterward
a. similar and final reconciliation took place in
Americaz by the union of the two Grand
Lodj~:es m South Carolina. At this day all
distinction between the Ancients and Moderns
ha.s ceased, and it lives only in the memory of
the Masonic student.
What were the precise differences in the rituals of the Ancients and the Moderns, it is
now perhaps impossible to discover, as from
their esoteric nature they were only orally
communicated; but some shrewd and near
approximations to their real nature may be
drawn by inference from the casual expressions
which have fallen from the advocates of each
in the course of their long and generally
bitter controversies.
It has already been said that the regular
Grand Lodge is stated to have made certain
changes in the modes of recognition, in consequence of the publication of Samuel Prichard's
spurious revelation. These changes were, as
we traditionally learn, a simple transposition

of certain words, by which that which ha.d

originally been the first became the second, and
that which had been the second became the first.
Hence Dr. Dalcho, the compiler of the original
Ahiman Rezon of South Carolina, who was
himself made in an Ancient Lodge, but was
acquainted with both systems, says (Edit.
1822, p. 193), "The real difference in point of
importance was no greater than it would be to
dispute whether the glove should be placed first
upon the right or on the left." A similar testimony as to the character of these changes is
furnished by an address to the Duke of Athollt
the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge or
Ancients, in which it is said: "I would beg
leave to ask, whether two persons standing in
the Guildhall of London, the one facing the
statues of Gog and Magog, and the other with
his back turned on them, could, with any
degree of propriety, quarrel about their stations; as Gog must be on the right of one, and
Magog on the right of the other. Such then,
and far more insignificant, is the disputatious
temper of the seceding brethren, that on no
better grounds than the above they choose to
usurp a power and to aid in open and direct
violation of the regulations they had solemnly
engaged to maintain and by every artifice
possible to be devised endeavored to increase
their numbers." It was undoubtedly to the
relative situation of the pillars of the :porch,
and the appropriation of their names m the
ritual, that these innuendoes referred. As we
have them now, they were made by the
change effected by the Grand Lodge of Moderns, which transposed the original order in
which they existed before the change, and in
which order they are still preserved by the continental Lodges of Europe.
It is then admitted that the Moderns did
make innovations in the ritual; and although
Preston asserts that the changes were Illade
by the regular Grand Lodge to distinguish its
members from those made by the Ancient
Lodges, it is evident, from the language of
the address just quoted, that the innovations
were the cause and not the effect of the schism,
and the inferential evidence is that the changes
were made in consequence of, and as' a safeguard against, spurious publications, and
were intended, as has already been stated, to
distinguish impostors from true Masons, and
not schismatic or irregular brethren from
those who were orthodox and re~ar.
But outside of and beyond this transposition of words, there was another difference
existing between the Ancients and the Moderns. Dalcho, who was acquainted with both
systems, says that the Ancient Masons were
in possession of marks of recognition known
only to themselves. His language on this
subject is positive. " The Ancient York Masons," he says, " were certainly in possession
of the original, universal marks, as they were
known and given in the Lodges they had left,
and which had descended through the Lodge
of York, and that of England, down to their
day. Besides these, we find they had peculiar marks of their own, which were unknown

57

ANCIENT

ANDERSON

to the body from which they had separated,

and were unknown to the rest of the Masonic
world. We hav'e, then, the evidence that
they had two sets of marks; viz.: those which
they had brought with them from the original
body, and those which thejY had, we must suppose, themselves devised.' (P. 192.)
Dermott, in his Ahiman Rezon, confirms
this statement of Dalcho, if, indeed, it needs
confirmation. He says that " a Modern
Mason may with safety communicate all his
secrets to an Ancient Mason, but that an
Ancient Mason cannot, with like safety, communicate all his secrets to a Modern Mason
without further ceremony." And he assigns
as a reason for this, that "as a science comprehends an art (though an art cannot comprehend a science), even so Ancient Masonry
contains everything valuable among the Moderns, as well as many other things that cannot
be revealed without additional ceremonies."
Now, what were these " other things "
known by the Ancients, and not known by
the Moderns? What were these distinctive
marks, which precluded the latter from visiting the Lodges of the former? Written history is of course silent as to these esoteric
matters. But tradition, confirmed by, and at
the same time explaining, the hints and casual
intimations of contemporary writers, leads us
to the almost irresistible inference that they
were to be found in the different constructions
of the Third, or Master's Degree, and the introduction into it of the Royal Arch element; for,
as Dr. Oliver (Hist. Eng. R. A., p. 21) says,
" the division of the third degree and the fabrication of the English Royal Arch appear, on
their own showing, to have been the work of
the Ancients." And hence the Grand Secretary of the regular Grand Lodge, or that of the
Moderns, replying to the application of an
Ancient Mason from Ireland for relief, says:
" Our society (i. e., the Moderns) is neither
Arch, Royal Arch, nor Ancient, so that you
have no nght to partake of our charity."
This, then, is the solution of the difficulty.
The Ancients, besides preserving the regular
order of the words in the First and Second Degrees, which the Moderns had transposed (a
transposition which has been retained in the
Lodges of Britain and America, but which
has never been observed by the continental
Lodges of Europe, who continue the usage of
the Ancients), also finished the otherwise imperfect Third Degree with its natural complement, the Royal Arch, a complement with
which the Moderns were unacquainted, or
which they, if they knew it once, had lost.
The following is a list of t e Grand Masters
of the Grand Lodge of Ancients from its organization to its dissolution: 1753, Robert
Turner; 1754-55, Edward Vaughan; 1756-59,
Earl of Blessington; 176o-65, Earl of Kelly;
1766-70, The Ilon. Thomas Matthew; 177174, third Duke of Atholl; 1775-81, fourth
Duke of Atholl 1782-90, Earl of Antrim;
1791-1813, fourth Duke of Atholl; 1813, Duke
of Kent, under whom the reconciliation of the
two Grand Lodges was accomplished.

The Grand Lodge or Ancient MMODB was,

shortly after its organization, recognized by
the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland,
and, through the ability and energy of its
officers, but especially Laurence Dermott, at
one time its Grand Secretary, and afterward
its Deputy Grand Master, and the author of
its Ahiman Rez011, or Book of C011stitutians,
it extended its influence and authority into
foreign countries and into the British Colonies
of Americahwhere it became exceedingly po.P:
ular, and w ere it organized several ProvinCial
Grand Lodges, as, for instance, in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania~ Virginia,
and South Carolina, where the Loages working under this authority were generally known
as " Ancient York Lodges."
In consequence of this, dissensions existed,
not only in the mother country, but also in
America, for many years, between the Lodges
which derived their warrants from the Grand
Lodge of Ancients and thosewhich derived
theirs from the regular or so-called Grand
Lodge of Moderns. But the Duke of Kent
having been elected, in 1813, the Grand Master of the Ancients, while his brotherl the
Duke of Sussex, was Grand Master ot the
Moderns, a permanent reconciliation wa.s
effected between the rival bodies, and by mutual compromises the present "United Grand
Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of England "
was established.
Similar unions were consummated in America, the last being that of the two Grand
Lodges of South Carolina, in 1817, and the
distinction between the Ancients and the
Moderns was forever abolishedJ or remains
only as a melancholy page in tne history of
Masonic controversies. From their connection with the Dukes of Atholl, the "Ancient "
Masons are sometimes known as "Atholl"
Masons.
[E. L. H.)
Ancient Reformed Bite. A Rite differ-ing very slightly from the French Rite, or Rite
Moderne, of which, indeed, it is said to be only
a modification. It is practised by the Grand
Lodge pf Holland and the Grand Orient of
Belp:ium. It was established in 1783 as one
of tiie results of the Congress of Wilhelmsbad.
Ancient of Days. A title applied, in the
visions of Daniel, to Jehovah, to signify that
his days are beyond reckoning. Used by
Webb in the Most Excellent Master's BODg.
" Fulfilled is the promise
By the ANCIENT O:F DAYS,

To bring forth the cape-stone

With shouting and

praise.'~

Ancients. See Ancient MasOM.

Ancient, The. The Third Degree of the
German Union of Twenty-two.
Ancient York Masons. One of the names
assumed by the Lodges of Ancient Masons,
which see.
Anderson, James. The Rev. James Anderson, D.D., is well known to a.ll Masons
as the compiler of the celebrated Book of C<mstitutions. The date and place .of his birth
have not yet been discovered with certainty,

ANDERSON

ANDRE

but the date was probably 1680, and the placet

Aberdeen in Scotland, where he was educatea
and where he probably took the degrees of
M.A. and D.D. At some unascertained
period he migrated to London, and our first
precise knowledge of him_. derived from a document in the State Recoras, is that on February
15, 1709-10, he1 as a Presbyterian minister,
took over the lease of a chapel in Swallow
Street, Piccadilly, from a congregation of
French Protestants which desired to dispose
of it because of their decreasing prosperity.
During the following decade he published several sermons, and is said to have lost a considerable sum of money dabbling in the South
Sea scheme.
Where and when his connection with Freemasonry commenced has not yet been discovered, but he must have been a fairly prominent
member of the Craft, because on September
29, 1721, he was ordered by the Grand Lodge,
which had been established in London in 1717,
to " digest the old Gothic Constitutions in a
new and better method." On the 27th of
December following, his work was finished,
and the Grand Lodge appointed a committee
of fourteen learned brethren to examine and
report upon it. Their report was made on the
25th of March, 1722; and, after a few amendments, Anderson's work was formally approved, and ordered to be printed for the
benefit of the Lodges, which was done in 1723.
This is now the well-known Book of Constitutions, which contains the history of Masonry (O!J more correctly)., architecture), the
Ancient (.;harges, and the ueneral Regulations,
as the same were in use in many old Lodges.
In 1738 a second edition was published. Both
editions have become exceedingly rare, and
copies of them bring fancy prices among the
collectors of old Masonic books. Its intrinsic
value is derived only from the fact that it contains the first printed copy of the Old Charges
and also the General Regulations. The history of Masonry which precedes these, and
constitutes the body of the work, is fanciful,
unreliable, and pretentious to a de!P'ee that
often leads to absurdity. The Craft lB greatly
indebted to Anderson for his labors in reorganizing the Institution, but doubtless it
would have been better if he had contented
himself with giving the records of the Grand
Lod~e from 1717 to 1738, which are contained
in his second edition, and with preserving for
us the Charges and Regulations, which, without
his industry, might have been lost. No Masonic writer would now venture to quote Anderson as authority for the history of the
Order anterior to the eighteenth century. It
must also be added that in the republication
of the Old Charges in the edition of 1738, he
made several important alterations and interpolations, which justly gave some offense
to the Grand Lodge, and which render the
second edition of no authority in this respect.
In the year 1723, when his first edition of
the Constitutions appeared, he was Master
of Lodge 17t and he was appointed Grand
Warden, ana also became Chaplain to the

Earl of Buchan; in 1732 he published a voluminous work entitled Royal Genealogies, or the

58

Genealogical Tables of Emperors, Kings and

Princes, from Adam to these times; in 1733 he
issued a theological pamphlet on Unity in
Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; in 1734 here-

moved with a ~part of his congregation from

his chapel in Swallow Street to one in Lisle
Street, Leicester Fields, in consequence of
some difference with his people, the nature of
which is unknown; in 1735 he rerresented to
Grand Lodge that a new edition o the Book of
Constitutions was become necessary, and he
was ordered to lay his materials before the
present and former Grand Officers; in 1738 the
new Book of Constitutions was approved of
by Grand Lodge and ordered to be printed.
Anderson died on May 28, 1739, and was
buried in Bunhill Fields with a Masonic funeral, which is thus reported in The Dail1f_ Post
of June 2d: "Last night was interr d the
corpse of Dr. Anderson, a Dissenting Teacherii
in a very remarkable deep Grave. His Pa
was supported by five Dissenting Teachersl
and the Rev. Dr. Desaguliers: It was followea
by about a Dozen of Free-Masons who encircled the Grave; and after Dr. Earle had
harangued on the Uncertainty of Life &c.,
without one word of the Deceased, the Brethren1 in a most solemn dismal Posture, lifted up
thell' Hands, sigh'd, and struck their aprons
three times in Honour to the Deceased."
Soon after his death another of his works,
entitled News from Elysium or Dialogues of
the Dead, was issued, and in 1742 there appeared the first volume of a Genealogical History of the House of Yvery, also from his pen.
'
fE. L. H.]
Anderson Manuscript. In the first edition of the Constitutions of the Freemasons,
published by Dr. Anderson in 17231the author
quotes on pp. 32, 33 from " a certam record of
Freemasons, written in the reign of King Edward IV." Preston also cites it in his IUustrations, (p. 182, ed. 1788), but states that it is said
to have been in the possession of EliasAshmole,
but was unfortunately destroyed, with other
papers on the subject of Masonry, at the Revolution. Anderson makes no reference to
Ashmole as the owner of the MS., nor to the
fact of its destruction. If the statement of
Preston was confirmed by other evidence its
title would properly be the" Ashmole MS.";
but as it was first mentioned by Anderson, Bro.
Hughan has verr properly called it the " Anderson Manuscript." It contains the Prince
Edwin legend.
Andre, Christopher Karl. An active
Mason, who resided at Biiinn, in Moravia,
where, in 1798, he was the Director of the
Evangelical Academy. He was very zealously employed, about the end of the last
century, in connection with other distinguished Masons, in the propagation of the
Order in Germany. He was the editor and
author of a valuable periodical work, which
was published in 5 numbers, 8vo, from 1793 to
1796, at Gotha and Halle under the title of
Der Freimaurer oder compendiOse Bibliothek

ANDREA

ANDROGYNOUS

alles W issenswiirdigen iiber geheime Gesellschaften (" The Freemason, or a Compendious Library of everything worthy of notice
in relation to Secret Societies"). Besides valuable extracts from contemporary Masonic
writers, it contains several essays and treatises
by the editor.
Andrea, John Valentine. This distinguished philosopher and amiable moralist,
who has been claimed by many writers as the
founder of the Rosicrucian Order, was born
on the 17th of August, 1586, at the small town
of Herrenberg, in Wiirttemberg, where his
father exercised clerical functions of a respectable rank. Mter receiving an excellent education in his native province, he traveled extensively through the principal countries of
Europe, and on his return home received the
appointment, in 1614, of deacon in the town of
Vaihingen. Four years after he was promoted to the office of superintendent at Kalw.
In 1639 he was appointed court chaplain and a
spiritual privy councilor, and subsequently
Protestant prelate of Adelberg, and almoner
of the Duke of Wiirttemberg. He died on the
27th of June, 165!, at the age of sixty-eight
years.
Andrea was a man of extensive acquirements and of a most feeling heart. By his
great abilities he was enabled to elevate himself beyond the narrow limits of the prejudiced
age in which he lived, and his literary labors
were exerted for the reformation of manners,
and for the supply of the moral wants of the
times. His writings, although numerous,
were not voluminous, but rather brief essays
full of feeling, judgment, and chaste imagination, in which great moral, political, and religious sentiments were clothed in such a language of sweetness, and yet told with such
boldness of spirit, that, as Herder says, he
appears, in his contentious and anathematizing century, like a rose springing up among
thorns. Thus, in his Menippus, one of the
earliest of his works, he has, with great skill
and freedom, attacked the errors of the
Church and of his contemporaries. His Herculis Christiani Luctus, x:"l:iv., is supposed by
some persons to have given indirectly, if not
immediately, hints to John Bunyan for his
Pilgrim's Progress.
One of the most important of his works
however, or at least one that has attract;d
most attention, is his Fama Fraternitatis, published in 1615. This and the Chemische H ochzeit Christiani Rosencreuz, or "Chemical Nuptials, by Christian Rosencreuz," which is also
attributed to him, are the first works in which
the Order of thli Rosicrucians is mentioned.
Arnold, in his Ketzergeschichte or " History of
Heresy," contends, from these works, that Andrea was the founder of the Rosicrucian Order;
others claim a previous existence for it, and
suppose that he was simply an annalist of the
Order; while a third party deny that any such
Order was existing at the time, or afterward,
but that the whole was a mere mythical rhapsody, invented by Andrea as a convenient
vehicle in which to convey his ideas of reform.

But the whole of this subject is more fully

discussed under the head of Rosicrucianism,
which see.

59

Andrew, Apprentice and Fellow-Craft

of St. (Fr., Apprenti et Compagnon de St.
Andre; Ger., Andreas lehrling und Geselle.)
The Fourth Degree of the Swedish Rite, which
is almost precisely the same as the Elu Secret
of the French Rite.
Andrew, Cross of St. See Cross, St. Andrew's.
Andrew, Favorite of St. (Fr., Favori de
St. Andre.) Usually called " Knight of the
Purple Collar." The Ninth Degree of the
Swedish Rite.

Andrew, Grand Scottish Knight of St.

See Knight of St. Andrew.

Androgynous Degrees. (From ~w~J~, a

man, and -yvll'f,, a woman.) Those degrees of
Masonry which are conferred on both men and
women. Besides the degrees of the Adoptive
Rite, which are practised in France, there are
several of these degrees which are, as " side
degrees," conferred in America. Such are
the " Mason's Wife," conferred on the wives,
daughters, sisters, and mothers of Master
Masons, and the " Knight and Heroine of
Jericho," conferred on the wives and daughters of Royal Arch Masons. A few years ago,
Rob. Morris invented, and very generally
promulgated through the Western States of
this country, a series of androgynous degrees,
which he called " The Star of the East."
There is another androgynous degree, sometimes conferred on the wives of Royal Arch
Masons, known as the " Good Samaritan."
In some parts of the United States these
degrees are very popular, while in other places
they are never practised, and are strongly condemned as improper innovations. The fact
is, that by their friends as well as by their enemies, these so-called degrees have been greatly
misrepresented. When females are told that
in receiving these degrees they are admitted
into the Masonic Order, and are obtaining
Masonic information under the name of " Ladies' Masonry," they are simply deceived.
Every woman connected by ties of consanguinity to a Master Mason is peculiarly entitled to Masonic assistance and protection.
If she is told this, and also told that by these
androgynous degrees she is to be put in possession of the means of making her claims
known by a sort of what may be called oral
testimony, but that she is by their possession
no nearer to the portals of Masonry than she
was before, if she is honestly told this, then
there is no harm, but the possibility of some
good, in these forms if carefully bestowed and
prudently preserved. But all attempts to
make Masonry of them, and especially that
anomalous thing called Co-Masonry, are wrong,
imprudent, and calculated to produce opposition among the well-informed and cautious
members of the Fraternity.
Androgynous Masonry. That so-called
Masonry which is dedicated to the cultivation
of the androgynous degrees. The Adoptive
Rite of France is Androgynous Masonry.

60

ANGEL

ANNO

Angel. Angels were originally in the Jewish theogony considered simply as messengers
of God, as the name M alachim imports, and
the word is thus continually used in the early
Scriptures of the Old Testament. It was only
after the captivity that the Jews brought from
Babylon their mystical ideas of angels as instruments of creative ministration, such as the
angel of fire, of water, of earth, or of air.
These doctrines they learned from the Chaldean sages, who had probably derived them
from Zoroaster and the Zendavesta. In time
these doctrines were borrowed by the Gnostics,
and through them they have been introduced
into some of the high degrees; such, for instance, as the Knight of the Sun, in whose ritual the angels of the four elements play an
important part.
Angellc Brothers. (Ger., Engelsbrilder.)
Sometimes called, after their founder, Gichtelites or Gichtelianer. A mystical sect of religious fanatics founded by one Gichtel, about
the close of the seventeenth century, in the
United Netherlands. After the death of their
founder in 1710, they gradually became extinct, or were continued only in secret union
with the Rosicrucians.
Angels' Alphabet. See Alphabet, Angels'.
Angerona. The name of a pagan deity
worshiped among the Romans. Pliny calls
her the goddess of silence, and calmness of
mind. Hence her statue has sometimes been
introduced among the ornaments of Masonic
edifices. She is represented with her finger
pressed upon her lips. See Harpocrates, for
what is further to be said upon this symbol.
Angle. The inclination of two lines meeting in a point. Angles are of three kindsacute, obtuse, and right angles. The right
angle, or the angle of 90 degrees, is the only
one recognized in Masonry, because it is the
form of the trying square, one of the most important working tools of the profession, and
the symbol of morality.
Angular Triad. A name given by Oliver
to the three presiding officers of a Royal Arch
Chapter.
Animal Worship. The worship of animals is a species of idolatry that was especially
practised by the ancient Egyptians. Ternples were erected by this people in their honor,
in which they were fed and cared for during
life; to kill one of them was a crime punishable with death; and after death, they were
embalmed, and interred in the catacombs.
This worship was derived first from the earlier
adoration of the stars, to certain constellations
of which the names of animals had been given;
next, from an Egyptian tradition that the gods
being pursued by Typhon, had concealed
themselves under the forms of animals; and
lastly, from the doctrine of the metempsycho-1
sis, according to which there was a continual
circulation of the souls of men and animals.
But behind the open and popular exercise of
this degrading worship the priests concealed a
symbolism full of philosophical conceptions.
Mr. Gliddon says in his Otia Egyptiaca (p.
94) that " animal worship among the Egyp-

tians was the natural and unavoidable conse~

quence of the misconception, by the vulgar,
of those emblematical figures invented by the
priests to record their own philosophical conception of absurd ideas. As the pictures and
effigies suspended in early Christian churches,
to commemorate a person or an event, became
in time objects of worship to the vulgar, so, in
Egypt, the esoteric or spiritual meaning of the
emblems was lost in the gross materialism of
the beholder. This esoteric and allegorical
meaning was, however, preserved by the
priests, and communicated in the mysteries
alone to the initiated, while the uninstructed
retained only the grosser conception."
Anima Mundi. (Soul of the World.) A
doctrine of the early philosophers, who conceived that an immaterial force resided in nature and was the source of all physical and sentient life, yet not intelligential.
"Annales Chronologiques (Literaires et
Historiques de la MaQonnerie de la Pays-Bas,
a dater de 1 Janvier, 1814," i. e., Chronological, Literary, and Historical Annals of the
Masonry of the Netherlands from the year 1814).
This work, edited by Bros. Melton and De
Margny, was published at Brussels, in five
volumes, during the years 1823-26. It consists of an immense collection of French,
Dutch, Italian, and English Masonic documents translated into French. Kloss extols
it highly as a work which no Masonic library
should be without. Its publication was unfortunately discontinued in 1826 by the Belgian revolution.

Annales Originis Magni Galllarum Orlentls, etc. This history of the Grand Ori-

ent of France is, in regard to its subject, the

most valuable of the works of C. A. Thory. It
comprises a full account of the rise, progress,
changes, and revolutions of French Freemasonry, with numerous curious and inedited
documents, notices of a great number of rites,
a fragment on Adoptive Masonry, and other
articles of an interesting nature. It was published at Paris, in 1812, in one vol. of 471 pp.,
8vo. (See Kloss, No. 4,088.)
Anniversary. See Festivals.
Anno Deposltionis. In the Year of the
Deposit; abbreviated A:. Dep:. The date
used by Royal and Select Masters, which is
found by adding 1000 to the Vulgar Era; thus,
1911 + 1000 = 2911.
Anno Egyptiaco. In the Egyptian year.
The date used by the Hermetic Fraternity,
and found by adding 5044 to the Vulgar Era
prior to each July 20th, being the number of
years since the consolidation of the Egyptian
monarchy under Menes.
Anno Hebraico. In the Hebrew Year;
abbreviated A:. H:. The same as Anno
Mundi; which see.
Anno Inventlonis. In the Year of the
Discovery; abbreviated A:. I:. or A:. Inv.'.
The date used by Royal Arch Masons. Found
by adding 530 to the Vulgar Era; thus, 1911
530 = 2441.
Anno Lucis. In the Year of Light; abbreviated A:. L:. The date used in ancient Craft

~---~-~--~-------~~--~---------------~-

ANNO

ANSYREEH

61

Masonry; found by adding 4000 to the Vulgar tations are to be seen among the former of the
Era; thus, 1911 + 4000 = 5911.
performance of this holy Rite. Wilkinson inAnno Mundi. In the Year of the World. forms us (Arw.Egypt., iv., 280) that with the
The date used in the Ancient and AcceJ>ted Egyptians the investiture to any sacred office
Rite; found by adding 3760 to the Vulgar Era was confirmed by this external sign; and that
until September. After September, add one priests and kings at the time of their conseyear more; this is because the year used is the cration were, after they had been attired in
Hebrew one, which begins in September. their full robes, anointed by the pouring of oil
Thus, July, 1911 3760 = 5671, and October, upon the head. The Jewish Scriptures men1911 + 3760 + 1 = 5672.
tion several instances in which unction was
Anno Ordinis. In the Year of the Order; administered, as in the consecration of Aaron
abbreviated A: .0:. The date used by Knigb.t~' as high priest, and of Saul and David, of SolTemplars; found by subtracting 1118 from the omon and Joash, as kings. The process of
:omointing Aaron is fully described in Exodus
Vulgar Era; thus, 1911 - 1118 = 793.
Annuaire. Some French Lodges publish (xxix. 7). After he had been clothed in all his
annually a record of their most important pro- robes, with the miter and crown upon his
ceedings for the past year, and a list of their head, it is said, " then shalt thou take the
members. This publication is called an An- anointing oil and pour it upon his head, and
nuaire, or Annual.
anoint him."
Annual Communication. All the Grand
The ceremony is still used in some of the
Lodges of the United States, except those of high degrees of Masonry, and is always recogMassachusetts, Maryland, the District of nized as a symbol of sanctification, or the desColumbia, and Pennsylvania, hold only one ignation of the person so anointed to a sacred
annual meeting; thus reviving the ancient use, or to the performance of a particular
custom of a yearly Grand Assembly. The function. Hence, it forms an important part
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, like that of of the ceremony of installation of a high priest
England, holds Quarterly Communications. in the order of High Priesthood as practised in
At these annual communications it is usual to America.
pay the representatives of the subordinate
As to the form in which the anointing oil
Lodges a per diem allowance, which varies in was poured, Buxtorf (Lex. Talm., p. 267)
dilierent Grand Lodges from one to three dol- quotes the Rabbinical tradition that in the
lars, and also their mileage or traveling ex- anointment of kings the oil was poured on the
pcnses.
head in the form of a crown, that is, in a circle
Annual Proceedings.
Every Grand around the head; while in the anointment of
Lodge in the United States publishes a full the priests it wa,s poured in the form of the
account of its proceedings at its Annual Com- Greek letter X, that is, on the top of the head,
munication, to which is also almost always in the shape of a St. Andrew's cross.
Anonymous Society. A society formerly
added a list of the subordinate Lodges and
their members. Some of these Annual Pro- existing in Germany, which consisted of 72
ceedings extend to a considerable size, and members, namely, 24 Apprentices, 24 Fellowthey are all valuable as giving an accurate and Crafts, and 24 Masters. It distributed much
official account of the condition of Masonry in charity, but its real object was the cultivation
each State for the past year. They also fre- of the occult sciences. Its members pretended
qucntly contain valuable reports of com- that its Grand Master was one Tajo, and that
mittees on questions of Masonic law. The he resided in Spain. (ActaLatomorum, i., 294.)
Ansyreeh. A sect found in the mountains
reports of the Committees of Foreign Corres;-_1ondence are especially valuable in these of Lebanon, of Northern Syria. Like the
p:1mphlets. (See Committee on Foreign Cor- Druses, toward whom, however, they enterrespondence.)
tain a violent hostility, and the Assassins,
Annuities. In England, one of the modes they have a secret mode of recognition and a
of distributing the charities of a Lodge is to secret religion, which does not appear to be
grant annuities to aged members or to the well understood by them. "However," says
widows and orphans of those who are de- Rev. Mr. Lyde, who visited them in 1852,
ceased. In 1842 the "Royal Masonic Annuity "there is one in which they all seem agreed,
for Males" was established, which has since and which acts as a kind of Freemasonry in
become the " Royal Masonic Benevolent In- binding together the scattered members of
stitution for Aged Freemasons and Their Wid- their body, namely, secret prayers which are
ows," and grants annuities to both males and taught to every male child of a certain age,
females, having also an asylum at Croydon in and are repeated at stated times, in stated
Surrey, England, into which the annuitants places, and accompanied with religious rites."
are received in the order of their seniority on The Ansyreeh arose about the same time with
the list. (See Asylum for Aged Freemasons.) the Assassins, and, like them, their religion
[E. L. H.]
appears to be an ill-digested mixture of JudaAnointiug. The act of consecrating any ism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism. To
person or thing by the pouring on of oil. The the Masonic scholars these secret sects of
ceremony of anointing was emblematical of a Syr.ia present an intere~ting ~tudy, because of
particular sanctification to a holy and sacred I their supposed connectiOn With the Templars
use. As such it was practised by both the 1 du~ing the Crusad~s, th.e entire results of
Egyptians and the Jews, and many represen-' which are yet to be mvestigated.

ANTEDILUVIAN

ANTI-MASONIC

Antediluvian Masonry. Among the traditions of Masonry, which, taken literally,

become incredible, but which, considered
allegorically, may contain a profound meaning,
not the least remarkable are those which relate to the existence of a Masonic system before the Flood. Thus, Anderson (Const., 1st
ed., p. 3) says: "Without regarding uncertain
accounts, we may safely conclude the Old
World, that lasted 1656 years, could not be ignorant of Masonry." Dr. Oliver has devoted
the twenty-eighth lecture in his Historical
Landmarks to an inquiry into " the nature and
design of Freemasonry before the Flood ";
but he admits that any evidence of the existence at that time of such an Institution must
be based on the identity of Freemasonry and
morality. " We may safely assume," he says,
" that whatever had for its object and
end an inducement to the practice of that
morality which is founded on the love of
God, may be identified with primitive Freemasonry."
The truth is, that antediluvian Masonry is
alluded to only in what is called the " ineffable degrees"; and that its only important
tradition is that of Enoch, who is traditionally
supposed to be its founder, or, at least, its
great heirophant. (See Enoch.)
Anthem. The anthem was originally a
piece of church music sung by alternate voices.
The word afterward, however, came to be
used as a designation of that kind of sacred
music which consisted of certain passages
taken out of the Scriptures, and adapted to
particular solemnities. In the permanent
poetry and music of Masonry the anthem is
very rarely used. The spirit of Masonic poetry
is lyrical, and therefore the ode is almost
altogether used (except on some special occasions) in the solemnities and ceremonials of
the Order. There are really no Masonic anthems.

sanctioned the proceedings. Lodges were

established in Paris and Brussels until the
government of France forbade the meetings
in 1841; however, in 1848 work was resumed
and the Rite spread to Roumania, Egypt,
America, and elsewhere.
In 1862 J. E. Marconis united the Rite
with the Grand Orient of France, retaining
apparently the rank of Grand Hierophant;
and in 1865 a Concordat was executed between the two bodies by which the relative value of their different degrees was
settled.
In 1872 a Sovereign Sanctuary of the Rite
was established in England by some American
members with Bro. John Y arker as Grand
Master General, and has since continued at
work.
An official journal entitled The Kneph was
at one time issued by the authority of the
Sovereign Sanctuary, from which we learn
that the Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry is " universal and open to every Master
Mason who is in good standing under some
constitutional Grand Lodge, and teaches the
Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of
Man." The degrees of the Rite are 95 in number, starting with the three Craft degrees, and
divided into three scl'ies, and appear to have
been rearranged and renamed at various
times.
[E. L. H.]
Anti-Masonic Books. There is no country of the civilized world where Freemasonry has existed, in which opposition to
it has not, from time to time, exhibited itself; although it has always been
overcome by the purity and innocence
of the Institution. The Roman Catholic
religion has always been anti-Masonic, and
hence edicts have constantly been promulgated by popes and sovereigns in Roman
Catholic countries against the Order. The
most important of these edicts is the bull
of Pope Clement XII., which was issued
on the 24th of April, 1738, the authority of
which bull is still in existence, and forbids
any pious Catholic from uniting with a
Masonic Lodge, under the severest penalties of ecclesiastical excommunication.
In the United States, where there are neither popes to issue bulls nor kings to promulgate edicts, the opposition to Freemasonry
had to take the form of a political party.
Such a party was organized in this country in
the year 1826, soon after the disappearance
of one William Morgan. The object of this
party was professedly to put down the Masonic Institution as subversive of good government, but really for the political aggrandizement of its leaders, who used the opposition to
Freemasonry merely as a stepping-stone to
their own advancement to office. But the public virtue of the masses of the American people
repudiated a party which was based on such
corrupt and mercenary views, and its ephemeral existence was followed by a total annihilation.
A society which has been deemed of so
much importance as to be the victim of so

62

Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry,

otherwise of Memphis. This rite claims a

derivation from Egypt, and an organization

from the High Grades which had entered
Egypt before the arrival of the French Army,
and it has been asserted that Napoleon and
Kleber were invested with a ring at the hands
of an Egyptian sage at the Pyramid of Cheops.
However that may be, in 1814 the Disciples
of Memphis were constituted as a Grand
Lodge at Montauban in France by G. M.
Marconis and others, being an incorporation
of the various rites worked in the previous
century and especially of the Primitive Rite of
Philadelphes of Narbonne (q. v.). In the political troubles that followed in France the
Lodge of the Disciples of Memphis was put to
sleep on March 7, 1816, and remained somnolent until July 7, 1838, when J. E. Marconis
was elected Grand Hierophant and arranged
the documents, which the Rite then possessed,
into 90 degrees. The first Assembly of the
Supreme Power was held on September 25,
1838, and proclaimed on October 5th following. The father of the new Grand Hierophant seems to have been living and to have

ANTI-MASONIC

ANTI-MASONIC

63

many persecutions, must needs have had its sal for the information that it gives in referenemies in the press. It was too good an ence to the sacred rites of the ancients, indeInstitution not to be abused. Accordingly, pendent of its polemic character. About this
Freemasonry had no sooner taken its com- time the English press was inundated by pre)Ilanding position as one of the teachersof tended revelations of the Masonic mysteries,
.t]ie-\v<ltrQ:_,:tban
of adversaries sprangup published under the queerest titles, such as
to malign its character and to misrepresent its Jachin and Boaz; or, An authentic key to the
objects. Hence, in the catalogue of a Masonic door of Freemasonry, both Ancient and Modern,
library, the anti-Masonic books will form no published in 1762; Hiram, or the Grand Massmall part of the collection.
ter Key to both Ancient and Modern FreeAnti-Masonic works may very properly be masonry, which appeared in 1764; The Three
divided into two classes. 1. Those written Distinct Knocks, published in 1760, and a
simply for the purposes of abuse, in which the host of others of a similar character, which
character and obJects of the Institution are were, however, rather intended, by minismisrepresented. 2. Those written for the tering to a morbid and unlawful cunosity, to
avowed purpose of revealing its ritual and put money into the purses of their compilers,
esoteric doctrines. The former of these than to gratify any vindictive feelings against
classes is always instigated by malignity, the the Institution.
latter by mean cupidity. The former class
Some, however, of these works were amialone comes strictly within the category of able neither in their inception nor in their
"anti-Masonic books," although the two execution, and appear to have been dictated
classes are often confounded; the attack on by a spirit that may be characterized as being
the principles of Masonry being sometimes anything ruse except Christian. Thus, in the
accompanied with a pretended revelation year 1768, a sermon was preached, we may
of its mysteries, and, on the other hand, suppose, but certainly published, at London,
the pseudo-revelations are not unfrequently with the following ominous title: Masonry
enriched by the most liberal abuse of the In- the Way to Hell; a Sermon wherein is clearly
stitution.
proved, both from Reason and Scripture, that
The earliest authentic work which contains all who profess the Mysteries are in a State of
anything in opposition to Freemasonry is Damnation. This sermon appears to have
The Natural History of Staffordshire, by Rob- been a favorite with the ascetics, for in less
ert Plot, which was printed at Oxford in the than two years it was translated into French
year 1686. It is only in one particular part and German. But, on the other hand, it gave
of the work that Dr. Plot makes any invidious offense to the liberal-minded, and many reremarks against the Institution; and we plies to it were written and published, among
should freely forgive him for what he has said which was one entitled Masonry the Turnpikeagainst it, when we know that his recognition Road to Happiness in this Life, and Eternal
of the existence, in the seventeenth century, of Happiness Hereafter, which also found its
a society which was already of so much im- translation into German.
In 1797 appeared the notorious work of
portance that he was compelled to acknowledge that he had" found persons of the most John Robison, entitled Proofs of a Conspireminent quality that did not disdain to be of acy against all the Religions and Governments
this fellowship," gives the most ample refu- of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings
tation of those writers who assert that no of Freemasons, Illuminati, and Reading Sotraces of the Masonic Institution are to be cieties. Robison was a gentleman and a
found before the beginning of the eighteenth scholar of some repute, a professor of natural
century. A triumphant reply to the attack philosophy, and Secretary of the Royal Soof Dr. Plot is to be found in the third volume ciety of Edinburgh. Hence, although his
of Oliver's Golden Remains of the Early Ma- theory is based on false premises and his reasonic Writers.
soning fallacious and illogical, his language is
A still more virulent attack on the Order more decorous and his sentiments less maligwas made in 1730, by Samuel Prichard, which nant than generally characterize the writers
he entitled Masonry dissected, being an univer- of anti-Masonic books. A contemporary
sal and genuine description of all its branches critic in the Monthly Review (vol. xxv., p. 315)
from the original to the present time. Toward thus correctly estimates the value of his work:
the end of the year a reply was issued entitled " On the present occasion," says the reviewer,
A Defence of Masonry, occasioned by a pam- "we acknowledge that we have felt something
phlet called Masonry Dissected. It was pub- like regret that a lecturer in natural philoslished anonymously, but it has recently been ophy, of whom his country is so justly proud,
established that its author was Martin Clare should produce any work of literature by
A.M., F.R.S., a schoolmaster of London, who which his high character for knowledge and
was a prominent Freemason from 1734 to 1749. for judgment is liable to be at all depreci(Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, iv., 33-41.) No ated." Robison's book owes its preservation
copy of this Defence is known to exist, but it at this day from the destruction of time only
was reproduced in the Free Masons' Pocket to the permanency and importance of the InCompanion for 1738, and in the second edition stitution which it sought to destroy, Masonry,
of the Book of Constitutions, which was pub- which it vilified, has alone saved it from the
lished in the same year.
[E. L. H.] I tomb of the Capulets.
It is a learned production, well worth peru- I This work closed the labors of the anti-

ahost

ANTI-MASONIC

ANTI-MASONIC

Masonic press in England. No work abusive

of the Institution of any importance has appeared in that country since the attack of
Robison. The Manuals of Richard Carlile
and the Theologico-astronomical sermons of
the Rev. Robert Taylor are the productions of
men who do not profess to be the enemies of
the Order, but who have sought, by their
peculiar views, to give to Freemasonry an
origin, a design, and an interpretation
different from that which is received as
the general sense of the Fraternity. The
works of these :writers, although erroneous,
are not inimical.
The French press was prolific in the production of anti-Masonic publications. Commencing with La Grande Lumii;re, which was
published at Paris, in 1734, soon after the
modern introduction of Masonry into France,
but brief intervals elapsed without the appearance of some work adverse to the Masonic
Institution. But the most important of these
was certainly the ponderous effort of the Abbe
Barruel, published in four volumes, in 1707,
under the title of Memoires pour servir d l'histoire du J acobinisme. The French Revolution was at the time an accomplished fact.
The Bourbons had passed away, and Barrucl,
as a priest and a royalist, was indignant at
the change, and, in the bitterness of his rage,
he charged the whole inception and success of
the political movement to the machinations of
the Freemasons, whose Lodges, he asserted,
were only Jacobinical clubs. The general
scope of his argument was the same as that
which was pursued by Professor Robison;
but while both were false in their facts and
fallacious in their reasoning, the Scotchman
was calm and dispassionate, while the Frenchman was vehement and abusive. No work,
perhaps, was ever printed which contains so
many deliberate misstatements as disgrace
the pages of Barruel. Unfortunately, the work
was, soon after its appearance, translated into
English. It is still to be found on the
shelves of Masonic students and curious
work collectors, as a singular specimen of
the extent of folly and' falsehood to which
one may be led by the influences of bitter
party prejudices.
The anti-Masonic writings of Italy and
Spain have, with the exception of a few translations from French and English authors, consisted only of bulls issued by popes and edicts
pronounced by the Inquisition. The antiMasons of those countries had it all their own
way, and, scarcely descending to argument or
even to abuse, contented themselves with
practical persecution:
In Germany, the attacks on Freemasonry
were less frequent than in England or France.
Still there were some, and among them may be
mentioned one whose very title would leave
no room to doubt of its anti-Masonic character. It is entit.led Beweiss dass die Freimaurer-Gesellschqft in allen Staaten, u. s. w.,
that is, "Proofs that the Society of Freemasons is in every country not only useless, but.
if not restricted, dangerous, and ought to be

interdicted." This work was published at

Dantzic, in 1764, and was intended as a <lefensc of the decree of the Council of Dantzic
against the Order. The Germans, however,
have given no such ponderous works in behalf of anti-Masonry as the capacious volumes
of Barruel and Robison. The attacks on the
Order in that country have principally been
by pamphleteers.
In the United States anti-Masonic writings
were scarcely known until they sprung out of
the Morgan cxeitement in 1826. The disappearance and alleged abduction of this individual gave birth to a rancorous opposition to
Masonry, and the country was soon flooded
withanti-J'vlasonicworks. Most of these were,
however, merely pamphlets, which had only
an ephemeral existence and have long since
b8en consigned to the service of the trunkmakers or suffered a literary metempsychosis
in the paper-mill. Two only arc worthy, from
their size (their only qualification), for a place
in a Masonic catalogue. The first of these is
entitled Leiters on Masonry and Anti-Masonry,
addressedtothe Hon.JohnQuincyAdams. By
TV illiam L. Stone. This work, which was published at New York in 1832, is a large octavo
of 556 pages.
The work of Mr. Stone, it must be acknowledged, is not abusive. If his arguments are
illogical, they are at least conducted without
malignity. If his statements are false, his
language is decorous. He was himself a Mason,
and he has been compelled, by the force of
truth, to make many admissions which are
favorable to the Order. The book was evidently written for a political purpose, and to
advance the interests of the anti-Masonic
party. It presents, therefore, nothing but
partisan views, and those, too, almost entirely
of a local character, having reference only
to the conduct of the Institution as exhibited
in what is called " the Morgan affair." Masonry, according to Mr. Stone, should be
suppressed because a few of its members
are supposed to have violated the laws in
a village of the State of New York. As
well might the vices of the Christians of
Corinth have suggested to a contemporary
of St. Paul the propriety of suppressing
Christianity.
The next anti-Masonic work of any prominence published in this country is also in the
epistolary style, and is entitled Letters on the
Masonic Institution. By JohnQuincy Adams.
It is an octavo of 284 pages, and was published
at Boston in 1847. Mr. Adams, whose eminent public services have made his life a part
of the history of his country, has very properly been described as "a man of strong
points and weak ones, of vast reading and
wonderful memory, of great credulity and
strong prejudice." In the latter years of his
life, he became notorious for his virulent opposition to Freemasonry. Deceived and excited
by the misrepresentations of the anti-Masons,
he united himself with that party, and threw
all his vast energies and abilities into the political contests then waging. The result w:;~.s this

64

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ANTI-MASONIC

ANTIQUITY

series of letters, abusive of the Masonic Institution, which he directed to leading politicians of the country, and which were published in the public journals from 1831 to 1833.
These letters1 which are utterly unworthy of
the genius, learning, and eloquence of the
author, display a most egregious ignorance of
the whole design and character of the Masonic
Institution. The " oath "and" the murder of
Morgan " are the two bugbears which seem
continually to float before the excited vision
of the wr1ter, and on these alone he dwells
from the first to the last page.
Except the letters of Stone and Adams,
there is hardly another anti-Masonic book
published in America that can go beyond the
literary dignity of a respectably sized pamphlet. A compilation of anti-Masonic documents was published at Boston, in 1830, by
James C. Odiorne, who has thus in part preserved for future reference the best of a bad
class of writings. In 1831, Henry Gassett, of
Boston, a most virulent anti-Mason, distributed, at his own expense, a great number of
anti-Masonic books, which had been published during the Morgan excitement, to the
principal libraries of the United States, on
whose shelves they are probably now lying
covered with dust; and, that the memory of
his good deed might not altogether be lost, he
published a catalogue of these donations in
1852, to which he has prefixed an attack on
Masonry.
Anti-Masonic Party. A party organized
in the United States of America soon after the
commencement of the Morgan excitement,
professedly, to put down the Masonic Institution as subversive of good government, but
really for the political aggrandizement of its
leaders, who used the opposition to Freemasonry merely as a stepping-stone to their
own advancement to office. The party held
several conventions; endeavored, sometimes
successfully, but oftener unsuccessfully, to enlist 'prominent statesmen in its ranks, and
finally in 1831, nominated William Wirt and
Amos Ellmaker as its candidates for the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency of the United
States. Each of these gentlemen received but
seven votes, being the whole electoral vote of
Vermont, which was the only State that voted
for them. So signal a defeat was the deathblow of the party, that in the year 1833 it
quietly withdrew from public notice, and now
is happily no longer in existence. William L.
Stone, the historian of anti-Masonry, has with
commendable impartiality expressed his opinion of the character of this party, when he says
that " the fact is not to be disguised--contradicted it cannot be-that anti-Masonry had
become thoroughly political, and its spirit was
vindictive towards the Freemasons without
distinction as to guilt or innocence." (Letters,
xxxviii.1 p. 418.) Notwithstanding the opposition tnat
from time to time has been exhibited to Freemasonry in every country, America is the only one where it assumed the form
of a political party. This, however, may very
justly be attributed to the peculiar nature of

its popular institutions. There, the ballotbox is considered the most potent engine for
the government of rulers as well as people, and
is, therefore, resorted to in cases in which, in
more despotic governments, the powers of the
Church and State would be exercised. Hence,
the anti-Masonic convention held at Philadelphia, in 1830, did not hesitate to make the
following declaration as the cardinal principle
of the party. "The object of anti-Masonry,
in nominating and electing candidates for the
Presidency and Vice-Presidency, is to deprive
Masonry of the support which it derives from
the power and patronage of the executive
branch of the United States Government. To
effect this object, will require that candidates
besides possessing the talents and virtues
requisite for such exalted stations, be known
as men decidedly opposed to secret societies."
This issue having been thus boldly made was
accepted by the people; and as principles like
these were fundamentally opposed to all the
ideas of liberty, personal and political, into
which the citizens of the country had been indoctrinated, the battle was made, and the
anti-Masonic party was not only defeated for
the time, but forever annihilated.
Anti-Masonry. Opposition to Frej3masonry. There is no country in which Masonry
has ever existed in which this opposition has
not from time to time exhibited itself; although, in general, it has been overcome by
the purity and innocence of the Institution.
The earliest opposition by a government, of
which we have any record, is that of 1425,
in the third year of the reign of Henry VI., of
England, when the Masons were forbidden to
confederate in Chapters and Congregations.
This law was, however, never executed. Since
that period, Freemasonry has met with no
permanent opposition in England. The
Roman Catholic religion has always been antiMasonic, and hence edicts have always existed in the Roman Catholic countries against
the Order. But the anti-Masonry which has
had a practical effect in inducing the Church
or the State to interfere with the Institution,
and endeavor to suppress it, will come more
properly under the head of Persecutions, to
which the reader is referred.
Antin, Duke d'. Elected perpetual Grand
Master of the Masons of France, on the 24th
of June, 1738. He held the office until1743,
when he died, and was succeeded by the Count
of Clermont. Clavel (Hist. Pittoresq., p.
141)' relates an instance of the fidelity and
intrepidity with which, on one occasion, he
guarded the avenues of the Lodge. from the
official intrusion of a commissary of police
accompanied by a band of soldiers.
Antipodeans. (Les Antipodiens.) The
name of the Sixtieth Degree of the seventh
series of the collection of the Metropolitan
Chapter of France. (Acta Latomorum, i.,
294.)
Antiquity, Lodge of. The oldest Lodge
in England, and one of the four which concurred in February, 1717, in the meeting at
the Apple-Tree Tavern, London, in the forma-

65

ANTIQUITY

ANTIQUITY

tion of the Grand Lodge of England. At that

time, the Lodge of Antiquity met at the Goose
and Gridiron, in St. Paul's Church-yard.
This Lodge and three others met on St. John
Baptist's Day (June 24), 1717, at the Goose
and Gridiron Tavern, and by a majority of
hands elected Mr. Anthony Sayer Grand
Master, he being the oldest Master present.
Capt. Joseph Elliot, and Mr. Jacob Lamball,
carpenter, he elected Grand Wardens. This
and the other three Lodges did not derive
their warrants from the Grand Lodge, but
"acted by immemorable Constitution."
Antiquity Manuscript. This celebrated
MS. is now, and has long been, in the possession of the Lodge of Antiquity, at London. It
is stated in the subscription to have been
written, in 1686, by " Robert Padgett, Clearke
to the Worshipful Society of the Freemasons
of the city of London." The whole manuscript was first published by W. J. Hughan in
his Old Charges of British Freemasons (p. 64),
but a part had been previously inserted by
Preston in his nlustrations (b. ii., sect. vi.).
And here we have evidence of a criminal inaccuracy of the Masonic writers of the last
century, who never hesitated to alter or interpolate passages in old documents whenever it was required to confirm a preconceived theory. Thus, Preston had intimated
that there was before 1717 an Installation
ceremony for newly elected Masters of Lodges
(which is not true), and inserts what he ralls
" the ancient Charges that were used on this
occasion," taken from the MS. of the Lodge
of Antiquity. To confirm the statement,
that they were used for this purpose, he cites
the conclusion of the MS. in the following
words: "These be all the charges and covenants that ought to be read at the installment
of Master, or making of a Freemason or Freemasons." The words in italics are not to be
found in the original MS., but were inserted
by Preston. Bro. E. Jackson Barron had an
exact transcript made of this MS., which he
carefully collated, and which was published
by Bro. Hughan. Bro. Barron gives the following description of the document:
" The MS. copy of the Charges of Freemasons is on a roll of parchment nine feet
long by eleven inches wide, the roll being
formed of four pieces of parchment glued together; and some few years ago it was partially mounted (but not very skilfully) on a
backing of parchment for its better preservation.
" The Rolls are headed by an engraving of
the Royal Arms, after the fashion usual in
deeds of the period; the date of the engraving
in this case being fixed by the initials at the
top I. 2. R.
' 1Under this engraving are emblazoned in
separate shields the Arms of the city of London, which are two well known to require
description, and the Arms of the Masons
Company of London, Sable on a chevron between three castles argent, a pair of compasses
of the first surrounded by appropriate mantling.
" The writing is a good specimen of the

ordinary law writing of the times, inter

spersed with words in text. There is a margin of about an inch on the left side, which is
marked by a continuous double red ink line
throughout, and there are similar double lines
down both edges of the parchment. The
letter U is used throughout the MS. for V,
with but two or three exceptions." (Hughan's Old Charges, 1872, p. 14.)
Antiquity of Freemasonry. Years ago
in writing an article on this subject under the
impressions made upon me by the fascinating
theories of Dr. Oliver, though I never completely accepted his views, I was led to place
the organization of Freemasonry, as it now
exists, at the building of Solomon's Temple.
Many years of subsequent research have led
me greatly to modify the views I had previously held. Although I do not rank myself
among those modern iconoclasts who refuse
credence to every document whose authenticity, if admitted, would give to the Order a
birth anterior to the beginning of the last
century, I confess that I cannot find any incontrovertible evidence that would trace Masonry, as now organized, beyond the Building
Corporations of the Middle Ages. In this
point of view I speak of it only as an architectural brotherhood, distinguished by signs,
by words, and by brotherly ties which have
not been essentially changed, and by s:Ymbols and legends which have only been developed and extended, while the asiOciation
has undergone a transformation from an
operative art to a speculative science.
But then these Building Corporations did
not spring up in all their peculiar organization
--different, as it was, from that of other
guilds-like Autochthones, from the soil.
They, too, must have had an origin and an
archetype, from which they derived their
peculiar character. And I am induced, for
that purpose, to look to the Roman Colleges
of Artificers, which were spread over Europe
by the invading forces of the empire. But
these have been traced to Numa, who gave
to them that mixed practical and religious
character which they are known to have
possessed, and in which they were imitated by
the medieval architects.
We must, therefore look at Freemasonry in
two distinct points of view: First, as it is-a
society of Speculative Architects engaged in
the construction of spiritual temples, and in
this respect a development from the Operative
Architects of the tenth and succeeding centuries, who were themselves offshoots from the
Traveling Freemasons of Como, who traced
their origin to the Roman Colleges of Builders.
In this direction, I think, the line of descent is
plain, without any demand upon our credulity
for assent to its credibility.
But Freemasonry must be looked at also
from another standpoint. Not only does it
present the appearance of a speculative
science, based on an operative art, but it also
very significantly exhibits itself as the symbolic
expression of a religious idea. In other and
plainer words, we see in it the important

66

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ANTIQUITY

ANTIQUITY

lesson of eternal life, taught by a legend which,

whether true or false, is used in Masonry as a
symbol and an allegory.
But whence came this legend? Was it invented in 1717 at the revival of Freemasonry
in England? We have evidence of the
strongest circumstantial character, derived
from the Sloane Manuscript No. 3,329, recently exhumed from the shelves of the
British Museum, that this very legend was
known to the Masons of the seventeenth
century at least.
Then, did the Operative Masons of the
Middle Ages have a legend also? The evideuce is that they did. The Compagnons de
Ia Tour, who were the offshoots of the old
Masters' Guilds, had a legend. We know
what the legend was, and we know that its
character was similar to, although not in all
the details precisely the same as, the Masonic
legend. It was, however, connected with the
Temple of Solomon.
Again: Did the builders of the Middle Ages
invent their legend, or did they obtain it from
some old tradition? The question is interesting, but its solution either way would scarcely
affect the Antiquity of Freemasonry. It is
not the form of the legend, but its spirit and
symbolic design, with which we have to do.
. This legend of the Third Degree as we now
have. it, and as we have had it for a certain
period of two hundred and fifty years, is intended, by a symbolic representation, to teach
the resurrection from death, and the Divine
dogma of eternal life. All Masons know its
character, and it is neither expedient nor
necessary to dilate upon it.
But can we find such a legend elsewhere?
Certainly we can. Not indeed the same
legend; not the same personage as its hero; not
the same details; but a legend with the same
spirit and design; a legend funereal in character, celebrating death and resurrection,
solemnized in lamentation and terminating in
joy. Thus, in the Egyptian Mysteries of
Osiris, the image of a dead man was borne in
an argha, ark or coffin, by a procession of
initiates; and this enclosure in the coffin or
interment of the body was called the aphanism, or disappearance, and the lamentation
for him formed the first part of the Mysteries.
On the third day after the interment, the
priests and initiates carried the coffin, in which
was also a golden vessel, down to the river
Nile. Into the vessel they poured water from
the river; and then with a cry of 'Evrrfl~ea.pev
~:ya.l\ll.c/,p.e8a., "We have found him, let us
rejoice," they declared that the dead Osiris,
who had descended into Hades, had returned
from thence, and was restored again to life; and
the rejoicings which ensued constituted the
second part of the Mysteries. The analogy
between this and the legend of Freemasonry
must be at once apparent. Now, just such a
legend, everywhere differing in particulars,
but everywhere coinciding in general character, is to be found in all the old religionsin sun worship, in tree worship in animal
worship. It was often perverted', it is true,

from the original design. Sometimes it was

applied to the death of winter and the birth of
spring, sometimes to the setting and the subsequent rising of the sun, but always indicating a loss and a recovery.
Especially do we find this legend, and in a
purer form, in the Ancient Mysteries. At
Samothrace, at Eleusis, at Byblos--in all
places where these ancient religions and mystical rites were celebrated-we find the same
teachings of eternal life inculcated by the
representation of an imaginary death and
apotheosis. And it is this legend, and this
legend alone, that connects Speculative Freemasonry with the Ancient Mysteries of Greece,
of Syria, and of Egypt.
The theory, then, that I advance on the
subject of the Antiquity of Freemasonry is
this: I maintain that, in its present peculiar
organization, it is the successor, with certainty, of the Building Corporations of the
Middle Ages, and through them, with less
certainty but with great probability, of the
Roman Colleges of Artificers. Its connection
with the Temple of Solomon, as its birthplace,
may have been accidental-a mere arbitrary
selection by its inventors-and bears, therefore, only an allegorical meaning; or it may be
historical, and to be explained by the frequent
communications that at one time took place
between the Jews and the Greeks and the
Romans. This is a point still open for discussion. On it I express no fixed opinion.
The historical materials upon which to base
an opinion are as yet too scanty. But I am
inclined, I confess, to view the Temple of
Jerusalem and the Masonic traditions connected with it as a part of the great allegory
of Masonry.
But in the other aspect in which Freemasonry presents itself to our view, and to which
I have already adverted, the question of its
antiquity is more easily settled. As a
brotherhood, composed of symbolic Masters
and Fellows and Apprentices, derived from an
association of Operative Masters, Fellows,
and Apprentices--those building spiritual
temples as these built material ones--its age
may not exceed five or six hundred years; but
as a secret association, containing within itself
the symbolic expression of a religious idea1 it
connects itself with all the Ancient Myster~es,
which, with similar secrecy, gave the same
symbolic expression to the same religious
idea. These Mysteries were not the cradle'S
of Freemasonry: they were only its analogues.
But I have no doubt that all the Mysteries
had one common source, perhaps, as it has
been suggested, some ancient body of priests;
and I have no more doubt that Freemasonry
has derived its legend, its symbolic mode of instruction, and the lesson for which that in struction was intended, either directly or indirectly from the same source. In this view
the Mysteries become interesting to the Mason as a study, and fn this view only. And so,
when I speak of the Antiquity of Masonry, I
must say, if I would respect the axioms of
historical science, that its body came out of

ANTON

APOCALYPSE

the Middle Ages, but that its spirit is to be

traced to a far remoter period.
Anton, Dr. Carl Gottlob von. A German Masonic writer of considerable reputation, who died at Gorlitz on the 17th of
November, 1818. He is the author of two
historical works on Templarism, both of which
are much esteemed. 1. Versltch einer Geschichte des Tempelherren ordens (i.e., An Essay
on the Order of Knights Templars), Leipzig,
1779. 2. Untersuchung ubcr das Geheimniss und die Gebrauche der Tcmpelherren
(i.e., An Inquiry into the Mystery and Usages
of the Knights Templars), Dessau, 1782. He
also published at Gorlitz, in 1805, and again
in 1819, A brief essay on the Culdees (Ueber
die Culdeer).
Anton Hieronymus. In the examination
of a German "steinmetz," or STONEMASON,
this is said to have been the name of the first
Mason. It is unquestionably a corruption
of A don Hiram.
Anubis or Anepu. Egyptian deity, son
of Osiris and Nephthys. The Greek Hermes.
Having the head of a jackal, with pointed ears
aud snout, which the Greeks frequently
changed to those of a dog. At times represented as wearing a double crown. His duty
was to accompany the souls of the deceased to
Hades (Amenthes), and assist Horus in weighing their actions under the inspection of Osiris.
Ape and Lion, Knight of the. Sec
Knight of the Ape and Lion.
Apex, Rite of. See Sat B'hai, Order of.
Aphanism. In the Ancient Mysteries,
there was always a legend of the death or disappearance of some hero god, and the subsequent discovery of the body and its resurrection. The concealment of this body by those
who had slain it was called the aphanism,
from the Greek, a<j>av(w, to conceal. As
these Mysteries may be considered as a type
of Masonry, as some suppose, and as, accordi)lg to others, both the Mysteries and Masonry
are derived from one common and ancient
type, the aphanism, or concealing of the body,
is of course to be found in the Third Degree.
Indeed, the purest kind of Masonic aphanism
is the loss or concealment of the WORD. (See
Mysteries, and Euresis.)
Apis. The sacred bull, held in high reverence by the Egyptians as possessing Divine
powers, especially the gift of prophecy. As it
was deemed essential the animal should be
peculiarly marked by nature, much difficulty
was experienced in procuring it. The bull
was required to be black, with a white triangle
on its forehead, a white crescent on its side,
and a knotted growth, like a scarabreus, under
the tongue. Such an animal being found, it
was fed for four months in a building facing
the East. At new moon it was embarked on
a special vessel, prepared with exquisite care,
and with solemn ceremony conveyed to Heliopolis, where for forty days it was fed by
priests and women. In its sanctified condition it was taken to Memphis and housed in
a temple with two chapels and a court wherein
to exercise. The omen was good or evil in

accordance with which chapel it entered from

the court. At the age of 25 years it was led
to its death, amid great mourning aud lamentations. The bull or apis was au important
religious factor in the Isian worship, and was
continued as a creature of reverence during
the Roman domination of Egypt.
Apocalypse, Masonry of the. The adoption of St. John the Evangelist as one of the
patrons of our Lodges, has given rise, among
the writers on Freemasonry, to a variety of
theories as to the original cause of his being
thus connected with the Institution. Several
traditions have been handed down from remote periods, whieh claim him as a brother,
among which the Masonic student will be
familiar with that which represents him as
having assumed the government of the Craft,
as Grand Master, after the demise of John the
Baptist. I confess that I am not willing to
place implicit confidence in the correctness of
this legend, and I candidly subscribe to the
prudence of Dalcho's remark, that "it is unwise to assert more than we can prove, and to
argue against probability." There must have
been, however, in some way, a connection
more or less direct between the Evangelist and
the institution of Freemasonry, or he would
not from the earliest times have been so
universally claimed as one of its patrons. If
it was simply a Christian feeling-a religious
veneration-which gave rise to this general
homage, I see no reason why St. Matthew
St. Mark, or St. Luke might not as readily and
appropriately have been selected as one of the
" lines parallel." But the fact is that there is
something, both in the life and in the writings
of St. John the Evangelist, which closely connects him with our mystic Institution. He
may not have been a Freemason in the sense
in which we now use the term; but it will be
sufficient, if it can be shown that he was
familiar with other mystical institutions,
which are themselves generally admitted to
have been more or less intimately connected
with Freemasonry by deriving their existence
from a common ori12;in.
Such a society was the Essenian Fraternity
-a mystical association of speculative philosophers among the Jews, whose organization
very closely resembled that of the Freemasons, and who are even supposed by some to
have derived their tenets and their discipline
from the builders of the Temple. As Oliver
observes, their institution " may be termed
Freemasonry, retaining the same form but
practised under another name." Now there
is little doubt that St. John was an Essene.
Calmet positively asserts it; and the writings
and life of St. John seem to furnish sufficient
internal evidence that he was originally of
that brotherhood.
But it seems to me that St. John was more
particularly selected as a patron of Freemasonry in consequence of the mysterious and
emblematic nature of the Apocalypse, which
evidently assimilated the mode of teaching
adopted by the Evangelist to that practised
by the :Fraternity. If anyone who has in-

68

APOCALYPSE

APOCALYPTIC

vestigated the ceremonies performed in the

Ancient Mysteries, the Spurious Freemasonry,
as it has been called, of the Pagans, will compare them with the mystical machinery used
in the Book of Revelations, he will find himself irresistibly led to the conclusion that
St. John the Evangelist was intimately acquainted with the whole process of initiation
into these mystic associations, and that he
has selected its imagery for the ground-work
of his prophetic book. Mr. Faber, in his
Origin of Pagan Idolatry (vol. ii., b. vi., ch.
G), has, with great ability and clearness, shown
that St. John in the Apocalypse applies tho
ritual of the ancient initiations to a spiritual
and prophetic purpose.
"The whole machinery of the Apocalypse,"
says Mr. Faber, "from beginning to end,
seems to me very plainly to have been borrowed from the machinery of the Ancient
Mysteries; and this, if we consider the nature
of the subject, was done with the very strictest
attention to poetical decorum.
"St. John himself is made to personate an
aspirant about to be initiated; and, accordingly, the images presented to his mind's eye
closely resemble the pageants of the Mysteries both in nature and in order of succession.
" The prophet first beholds a door opened in
the magnificent temple of heaven; and into
this he is invited to enter by the voice of one
who plays the hierophant. Here he witnesses
the unsealing of a sacred book, and forthwith
he is appalled by a troop of ghastly apparitions,
which flit in horrid succession before his eyes.
Among these are preeminently conspicuous a
vast serpent, the well-known symbol of the
great father; and two portentous wild beasts,
which severally come up out of the sea and out
of the earth. Such hideous figures correspond
with the canine phantoms of the Orgies, which
seem to rise out of the ground, and with the
polymorphic images of the hero god who was
universally deemed the offspring of the sea.
"Passing these terrific monsters in safety,
the prophet, constantly attended by his angel
hierophant, who acts the part of an interpreter,
is conducted into the presence of a female, who
is described as closely resembling the great
mother of pagan theology. Like Isis emerging from the sea and exhibiting herself to the
aspirant Apulcius, this female divinity, upborne upon the marine wild beast, appears to
float upon the surface of many waters. She is
said to be an open and systematical harlot, just
as the great mother was the declared female
principle of fecundity; and us she was always
propitiated by literal fornication reduced to a
religious system, and as the initiated were
made to drink a prepared liquor out of a sacred
goblet, so this harlot is represented as intoxicating the kings of the earth with the
golden cup of her prostitution. On her forehead the very name of MYSTERY is inscribed;
and the label teaches us that, in point of character, she is the great universal mother of
idolatry.
" The nature of this mystery the officiating
hierophant undertakes to explain; and an im-

portant prophecy is most curiously and artfully veiled under the very language and
imagery of the Orgies. To the sea-born great
father was ascribed a threefold state--he lived,
he died, and he revived; and these changes of
condition were duly exhibited in the Mysteries. To the sea-barn wild beast is similarly ascribed a threefold state-he lives, he
dies, he revives. While dead, he lies floating
on the mighty ocean, just like Horus or Osiris,
or Siva or Vishnu. When he revives again,
like those kindred deities, he emerges from the
waves; and, whether dead or alive, he bears
seven heads and ten horns, corresponding in
number with the seven ark-preserved Rishis
and the ten aboriginal patriarchs. Nor is this
all: as the worshipers of the great father bore
his special mark or stigma, and were distinguished by his name, so the worshipers of the
maritime beast equally bear his mark and are
equally decorated by his appellation.
" At length, however, the first or doleful part
of these sacred Mysteries draws to a close, and
the last or joyful part is rapidly approaching.
After the prophet has beheld the enemies of
God plunged into a dreadful lake or inundation of liquid fire, which corresponds with the
infernal lake or deluge of the Orgies, he is
introduced into a splendidly-illuminated region,
expressly adorned with the characteristics of
that Paradise which was the ultimate scope of
the ancient aspirants; while without the holy
gate of admission are the whole multitude of
the profane, dogs, and sorcerors, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolators, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."
Such was the imagery of the Apocalypse.
The close resemblance to the machinery of the
Mysteries, and the intimate connection between their system and that of Freemasonry,
very naturally induced our ancient brethren
to claim the patronage of an apostle so preeminently mystical in his writings, and whose
last and crowning work bore so much of the
appearance, in an outward form, of a ritual of
initiation.
Apocalypse, Order of the. An Order
instituted about the end of the seventeenth
century, by one Gabrino, who called himself
the Prince of the Septenary Number or Monarch of the Holy Trinity. He enrolled a great
number of artisans in his ranks who went
about their ordinary occupations with swords
at their sides. According to Thory, some of
the provincial Lodges of France made a degree
out of Gabrino's system. The arms of the
Order were a naked sword and a blazing star.
(ActaLatomorum, i., 294.) Reghellini (iii., 72)
thinks that this Order was the precursor of the
degrees afterward introduced by the Masons
who practised the Templar system.
Apocalyptic Degrees. Those degrees
which are founded on the Revelation of St.
John, or whose symbols and machinery of
initiation are derived from that work, are
called Apocalyptic degrees. Of this nature
are several of the high degrees: such, for
instance, as the Seventeenth, or Knight of
the East and West of the Scottish Rite.

69

70

APORRHETA

Aporrheta. Greek, a1r&pp71Ta.. The holy

things in the Ancient Mysteries which were
known only to the initiates, and were not to
be disclosed to the profane, were called the
aporrheta. What are the aporrheta of Freemasonry? what are the arcana of which there
can be no disclosure? is a question that for
some years past has given rise to much discussion among the disciples of the Institution.
If the sphere and number of these aporrheta
be very considerably extended, it is evident
that much valuable investigation by public
discussion of the science of Masonry will be
prohibited. On the other hand, if the aporrheta are restricted to only a few points, much
of the beauty, the permanency, and the efficacy of Freemasonry which are dependent on
its organization as a secret and mystical association will be lost. We move between
Scylla and Charybdis, and it is difficult for a
Masonic writer to know how to steer so as, in
avoiding too frank an exposition of the principles of the Order, not to fall by too much
reticence, into obscurity. The European Masons are far more liberal in their views of the
obligation of secrecy than the English or the
American. There are few things, indeed,
which a French or German Masonic writer
will refuse to discuss with the utmost frankness. It is now beginning to be very generally admitted, and English and American
writers are acting on the admission, that the
only real aporrheta of Freemasonry are the
modes of recognition, and the peculiar and
distinctive ceremonies of the Order; and to
these last it is claimed that reference may be
publicly made for the purpose of scientific
investigation, provided that the reference be
9 made as. to be obscure to the profane, and
L~ntelligible only to the initiated.
Appeal, Right of. The right of appeal is
an inherent right belonging to every Mason,
and the Grand Lodge is the appellate body
to whom the appeal is to be made.
Appeals are of two kinds: 1st, from the decision of the Master; 2d, from the decision
of the Lodge. Each of these will require a
distinct consideration.
1. Appeals from the Decision of the Master.
It is now a settled doctrine in Masonic law that
there can be no appeal from the decision of a
Master of a Lodge to the Lodge itself. But
an appeal always lies from such decision to
the Grand Lodge, which is bound to entertain
the appeal and to inquire into the correctness
of the decision. Some writers have endeavored to restrain the despotic authority of the
Master to decisions in matters strictly relating
to the work of the Lodge, while they contend
that on all questions of business an appeal
may be taken from his decision to the Lodge.
But it would be unsafe, and often impracticable, to draw this distinction, and accordingly
the highest Masonic authorities have rejected
the theory, and denied the power in a Lodge
to entertain an appeal from any decision of the
presiding officer.
The wisdom of this law must be apparent
to anyone who examines the nature of the or-

APPRENTICE
ganization of the Masonic Institution. The
Master is responsible to the Grand Lodge for
the good conduct of his Lodge. To him and
to him alone the supreme Masonic authority
looks for the preservation of order, and the
observance of the Constitutions and the Land.,.
marks of the Order in the body over which he
presides. It is manifest, then, that it would
be highly unjust to throw around a presiding
officer so heavy a responsibility, if it were in
the power of the Lodge to overrule his decisions or to control his authority.
2. Appeals from the Decisions of the Lodge.
Appeals may be made to the Grand Lodge
from the decisions of a Lodge, on any subject
except the admission of members, or the election of candidates; but these appeals are more
frequently made in reference to conviction and
punishment after trial.
When a Mason, in consequence of charges
preferred against him, has been tried, convicted, and sentenced by his Lodge, he has
an inalienable right to appeal to the Grand
Lodge from such conviction and sentence.
His appeal may be either general or specific.
That is, he may appeal on the ground, generally, that the whole of the proceedings have
been irregular or illegal, or he may appeal
specifically against some particular portion
of the trial; or lastly, admitting the correctness of the verdict, and acknowledging the
truth of the charges, he may appeal from the
sentence, as being too severe or disproportionate to the offense.
Appendant Orders. In the Templar
system of the United States, the degrees of
Knight of the Red Cross and Knight of Malta
are called Appendant Orders because they are
conferred as appendages to that of Knight
Templar, which is the principal degree of the
Commandery.
Apple-Tree Tavern. The place where the
four Lodges of London met in 1717, and organized the Grand Lodge of England. It was
situated in Charles Street, Covent Garden.
Apprenti. French for Apprentice.
Apprentice. See Apprentice, Entered.
Apprentice Architect. (Apprenti Architecte.) A degree in the collection of Fustier.
Apprentice Architect, Perfect. (Apprenti Architecte, Parfait.) A degree in the
collection of Le Page.
Apprentice Architect, Prussian. (Apprenti Architecte, Prussien.) A degree in the
collection of Le Page.
Apprentice Cohen. (Apprenti Coiin.) A
degree in the collection of the Archives of the
Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Rite.
Apprentice, Egyptian. (Apprenti, Egyptien.) The First Degree of the Egyptian Rite
of Cagliostro.
Apprentice, Entered. The First Degree
of Freemasonry, in all the rites, is that of
Entered Apprentice. In French, it is called
apprenti; in Spanish, aprendiz; in Italian,.
apprendente; and in German, lehrling: in all
of which the radical meaning of the word is
a learner. Like the lesser Mysteries of the
ancient initiations, it is in Masonry a pre-

APPRENTICE

APPRENTICE

liminary degree, intended to prepare the

candidate for the higher and fuller instructions
of the succeeding degrees. It is, therefore,
although supplying no valuable historical
information, replete, in its lecture, with instructions on the internal structure of the
Order. Until late in the seventeenth century,
Apprentices do not seem to have been considered as forming any part of the confraternity of Free and Accepted Masons; for
although they are incidentally mentioned in
the Old Constitutions of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, these
records refer only to Masters and Fellows as
constituting the Craft, and this distinction
seems to have been one rather of position than
of degree. The Sloane Manuscript, No.
3,329, which Findel supposes to have been
written at the end of the seventeenth century,
describes a just and perfect Lodge as consisting
of "two Interprintices, two Fellow Craftes, and
two Masters," which shows that by that time
the Apprentices had been elevated to a recognized rank in the Fraternity. In the Manuscript signed]"Mark Kipling," which Hughan
entitles" The York MS., No.4," the date of
which is 1693, there is a still further recognition in what is there called " the Apprentice
Charge," one item of which is, that "he shall
keepe councell in all things spoken in Lodge or
.chamber by any Masons, Fellows, or Freemasons." This indicates that they were admitted to a closer communion with the members of the Craft. But notwithstanding these
recognitions, all the manuscripts up to 1704
show that only " Masters and Fellows " were
summoned to the assembly. During all this
time, when Masonry was in fact an operative
art, there was but one degree in the modern
sense of the word. Early in the eighteenth
century, if not earlier, Apprentices must have
been admitted to the possession of this degree;
for after what is called the revival of 1717,
Entered Apprentices constituted the bulk of
the Craft, and they only were initiated in the
Lodges, the degrees of Fellow-Craft and
Master Mason being conferred by the Grand
Lodge. This is not left to conjecture. The
thirteenth of the General Regulations, approved in 1721, says that" Apprentices must
be admitted Masters and Fellow Crafts only
in the Grand Lodge, unless by a dispensation."
But this having been found very inconvenient,
on the 22d of November, 1725, the Grand
Lodge repealed the article, and decreed that
the Master of a Lodge, with his Wardens
and a competent number of the Lodge assembled in due form, can make Masters and
Fellows at discretion.
The mass of the Fraternity being at that
time composed of Apprentices, they exercised
a !:!;reat deal of influence in the legislation of the
Order; for although they could not represent
their Lodge in the Quarterly Communications
of the Grand Lodge-a duty which could only
be discharged by a Master or Fellow-yet
they were always permitted to be present at
the grand feast, and no General Regulation
could be altered or repealed without their

consent; and, of course, in all the business of

their particular Lodges, they took the most
prominent part, for there were but few Masters or Fellows in a Lodge, in consequence of
the difficulty and inconvenience of obtaining the degree, which could onl[ be done at
a Quarterly Communication o the Grand
Lodge.
But as soon as the subordinate Lodges were
invested with the power of conferring all the
degrees, the Masters began rapidly to increase
in numbers and in corresponding influence.
And now, the bulk of the Fraternity consisting
of Master Masons, the legislation of the Order
is done exclusively by them, and the Entered
Apprentices and Fellow-Crafts have sunk into
comparative obscurity, their degrees being
considered only as preparatory to the greater
initiation of the Master's Degree.
Apprentice, Hermetic. (Apprenti Hermetique.) The Thirteenth Degree, ninth series,
of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter
of France.
Apprentice, Kabballstlc. (Apprenti Cabalistique.) A degree in the collection of the
Archives of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Rite.
Apprentice Mason. (Apprenti Magon.)
The Entered Apprentice of French Masonry.
Apprentice Masoness. (Apprentie Mat;onne.) The First Degree of the French Rite of
Adoption. The word M asoness is a neologism, but it is in accordance with the genius of
our language, and it is difficult to know how
else to translate into English the French word
Ma<;onne, which means a woman who has
received the degrees of the Rite of Adoption,
unless by the use of the awkward phrase,
Female Mason. To express this idea, we
might introduce as a technicality the word
Masoness.
Apprentice Masoness, Egyptian. (Apprentie Ma9onne Egyptienne.) The First Degree of Cagliostro' s Egyptian Rite of Adoption.
Apprentice, Mystic. (Apprenti Mystique.) A degree in the collection of M. Pyron.
Apprentice of Paracelsus. (Apprenti
de Paracelse.) A degree in the collection of
M. Peuvret. There existed a series of these
Paracelsian degrees- Apprentice, FellowCraft, and Master. They were all most
probably forms of Hermetic Masonry.
Apprentice of the Egyptian Secrets.
(Apprenti des secrets Egyptiens.) The First:
Degree of the Order of African Architects.
Apprentice Philosopher, by the Number 3. (Apprenti Philosophe par le Nombre
3.) A degree in the collection of M. Peuvret.
Apprentice Philosopher, Hermetic.
(Apprenti Philosophe Hermetique.) A degree
in the collection of M. Peuvret.
Apprentice Philosopher to the Number
9. (Apprenti Philosophe au Nombre 9.) A
degree in the collection of M. Peuvret.
Apprentice Pillar. See Prentice Pillar.
Apprentice, Scottish. (Apprenti Ecossais.) This degree and that of Trinitarian
Scottish Apprentice (ApprentiEcossais Trinitaire) are contained in the collection of Pyron.

71

72

APPRENTICE

APRON

Apprentice Theosophist. (Apprenti

Theosophe.) The First Degree of the Rite of
Swedenborg.
Apron. There is no one of the symbols of
Speculative Masonry more important in its
teachings, or more interesting in its history,
than the lambskin, or white leather apron.
Commencing its lessons at an early period in
the Mason's progress, it is impressed upon his
memory as the first gift which he receives, the
first symbol which is explained to him, and the
first tangible evidence which he possesses of
his admission into the Fraternity. Whatever
may be his future advancement in the "royal
art," into whatsoever deeper arcana his devo~ion to the mystic Institution or his thirst for
knowledge may subsequently lead him, with
the lambskin apron-his first investiture-he
never parts. Changing, perhaps, its form and
its decorations, and conveying, at each step,
some new but still beautiful allusion, its substance is still there, and it continues to claim
the honored title by which it was first made
known to him, on the night of his initiation,
as " the badge of a Mason."
If in less important portions of our ritual
there are abundant allusions to the manners
and customs of the ancient world, it is not to be
supposed that the Masonic Rite of investiture
-the ceremony of clothing the newly initiated
candidate with this distinctive badge of his
profession-is without its archetype in the
times and practises long passed away. It
would, indeed, be strange, while all else in
Masonry is covered with the veil of antiquity,
that the apron alone, its most significant symbol, should be indebted for its existence to the
invention of a modern mind.
On the contrary, we shall find the most
satisfactory evidence that the use of the
apron, or some equivalent mode of investiture, as a mystic symbol, was common to
all the nations of the earth from the earliest
periods.
Among the Israelites the girdle formed a
part of the investiture of the priesthood. In
the mysteries of Mithras, in Persia, the candidate was invested with a white apron. In the
initiations practised in Hindostan, the ceremony of investiture was preserved, but a sash,
called the sacred zennar, was substituted for
the apron. The Jewish sect of the Essenes
clothed their novices with a white robe. The
celebrated traveler K::empfer informs us that
the Japanese, who practise certain rites of
initiation, invest their candidates with a white
apron, bound round the loins with a zone or
girdle. In the Scandinavian Rites, the military genius of the people caused them to substitute a white shield, but its presentation was
.accompanied by an emblematic instruction
not unlike that which is connected with the
Mason's apron.
" The apron," says Dr. Oliver (S. and S.,
Lect. X., p. 196), " appears to have been, in
ancient times, an honorary badge of distinction. In the Jewish economy, none but the
superior orders of the priesthood were permitted to adorn themselves with ornamented

Girdles, which were made of blue, purple, and

crimson, decorated with gold, upon a ground
of fine white linen; while the inferior priests
wore only plain white. The Indian, the Persian, the Jewish, the Ethiopian, and the Egyptian aprons, though equally superb, all bore a
character distinct from each other. Some were
plain white, others striped with blue, purple,
and crimson; some were of wrought gold,
others adorned and decorated with superb
tassels and fringes. In a word, though the
principal honour of the Apron may consist in
its reference to innocence of conduct and purity of heart, yet it certainly appears, through
all ages, to have been a most exalted badge of
distinction. In primitive times it was rather
an ecclesiastical than a civil decoration, although in some cases the Apron was elevated
to great superiority as a national trophy. The
Royal Standard of Persia was originally an
apron in form and dimensions. At this day
it is connected with ecclesiastical honours; for
the chief dignitaries of the Christian church,
wherever a legitimate establishment, with tho
necessary degrees of rank and subordination is
formed, are invested with Aprons as a peculiar
badge of distinction; which is a collateral proof
of the fact that Masonry was originally incorporated with the various systems of divine
worship used by every people in the ancient
world. Masonry retains the symbol or shadow;
it cannot have renounced the reality or substance."
In the Masonic apron two things are essential to the due preservation of its symbolic
character-its color and its material.
1. As to its color. The color of a Mason's
apron should be pure unspotted white. This
color has, in all ages and countries, been esteemed an emblem of innocence and purity.
It was with this reference that a portion of
the vestments of the Jewish priesthood was
directed to be white. In the Ancient Mysteries the candidate was always clothed in
white. "The priests of the Romans," says
Festus, " were accustomed to wear white garments when they sacrificed." In the Scandinavian Rites it has been seen that the shield
presented to the candidate was white. The
Druids changed the color of the garment presented to their initiates with each degree;
white, however, was the color appropriated
to the last, or degree of perfection. And it
was, according to their ritual, intended to
teach the aspirant that none were admitted
to that honor but such as were cleansed from
all impurities both of body and mind. In
the early ages of the Christian church a white
garment was always placed upon the catechumen who had been newly baptized, to denote
that he had been cleansed from his former sins,
and was thenceforth to lead a life of purity.
Hence it was presented to him with this solemn charge: "Receive the white and undefiled garment, and produce it unspotted befo:rc the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you may obtain eternal life." From all
these instances we learn that white apparel
was anciently used as an emblem of purity,

APRON

APRON

and for this reason the color has been preserved in the apron of the Freemason.
2. As to its material. A Mason's apron
must be made of lambskin. No other substance, such as linen, silk, or satin, could be
substituted without entirely destroying the
emblematic character of the apron, for the
material of the Mason's apron constitutes one
of the most important symbols of his profession. The lamb has always been considered
as an appropriate emblem of innocence. And
hence we are taught, in the ritual of the First
Degree, that, " by the lambskin, the Mason is
reminded of that purity of life and rectitude of
conduct which is so essentially necessary to
his gaining admission into the Celestial Lodge
above, where the Supreme Architect of the
Universe forever presides."
The true apron of a Mason must, then, be of
unspotted lambskin, from 14 to 16 inches
wide( from 12 to 14 deep, with a fall about 3 or
4 incnes deep, square at the bottom, and without device or ornament of any kind. The
usage of the Craft in the United States of America has, for a few years past, allowed a narrow
edging of blue ribbon in the symbolic degrees,
to denote the universal friendship which constitutes the bond of the society, and of which
virtue blue is the Masonic emblem. But this
undoubtedly is an innovation, for the ancient
apron was without any edging or ornament.
In the Royal Arch Degree the lambskin is, of
course, continued to be used, but, according
to the same modern custom, there is an edging
of red, to denote the zeal and fervency which
should distinguish the possessors of that degree. All extraneous ornaments and devices
are in bad taste, and detract from the symbolic
character of the investiture. But the silk or
satin aprons, bespangled and painted and
embroidered, which have been gradually creeping into our Lodges, have no sort of connection
with Ancient Craft Masonry. They are an
innovation of our French brethren, who are
never pleased with simplicity, and have, by
their love of tinsel in their various newly
invented ceremonies, effaced many of the most
beautiful and impressive symbols of our Institution. A Mason who understands and
appreciates the true symbolic meaning of his
apron, would no more tolerate a painted or
embroidered satin one than an artist would a
gilded statue. By him, the lambskin, and the
lambskin alone, would be considered as the
badge " more ancient than the Golden Fleece,
or Roman Eagle, and more honorable than the
Star and Garter."
The Grand Lodge of England is precise in
its regulations for the decorations of the apron
which are thus laid down in its Constitution:
"Entered Apprentices.-A plain white lambskin, from fourteen to sixteen inches wide,
twelve to fourteen inches deep, square at bottom, and without ornament; white strings.
"Fellow Crajt.-A plain white lambskin,
similar to that of the Entered Apprentices,
with the addition only of two sky-blue rosettes
at the bottom.
"Master Masons.-The same, with sky-

blue lining and edging, not more than two

inches deep, and an additional rosette on the
fall or flap, and silver tassels. No other colour or ornament shall be allowed except to
officers and past officers of Lodges who may
have the emblems of their offices in silver or
white in the centre of the apron; and except
as to the members of the Prince of Wales'
Lodge, No. 259, who are allowed to wear the
internal half of the edging of garter-blue
three-fourths of an inch wide.
"Grand Stewards, present and past.-Aprons
of the same dimensions lined with crimson,
edging of the same colour three and a half
inches, and silver tassels. Provincial and
District Grand Stewards, present and past,
the same, except that the edging is only two
inches wide. The collars of the Grand Steward's Lodge to be crimson ribbon, four inches
broad.
" Grand Officers of the United Grand Lodge,
present and past.-Aprons of the same dimensions, lined with garter-blue, edging three and
a half inches, ornamented with gold, and blue
strings; and they may have the emblems of
their offices, in gold or blue, in the centre.
" Provincial Grand Officers, present and past.
-Aprons of the same dimensions, lined with ,
garter-blue, and ornamented with gold and
with blue strings: they must have the emblems of their offices in gold or blue in the centre within a double circle, in the margin of
which must be inserted the name of the Province. The garter-blue edging to the aprons
must not exceed two inches in width.
" The apron of the Deputy Grand Master
to have the emblem of his office in gold embroidery in the centre, and the pomegranate
and lotus alternately embroidered in gold on
the edging.
"The apron of the Grand Master is ornamented with the blazing sun embroidered in
gold in the cbntre; on the edging the pomegranate and lotus with the seven-eared wheat
at each corner, and also on the fall; all in gold
embroidery; the fringe of gold bullion.
"The apron of the pro Grand Master the
same.
" The Masters and Past Masters of Lodges
to wear, in the place of the three rosettes on
the Master Mason's apron, perpendicular
lines upon horizontal lines, thereby forming
three several sets of two right angles; the
length of the horizontal lines to be two inches
and a half each and of the perpendicular
lines one inch; these emblems to be of silver
or of ribbon, half an inch broad, and of the
same colour as the lining and edging of the
apron. If Grand Officers, similar emblems of
garter-blue or gold."
In the United States, although there is evidence in some old aprons, still existing, that
rosettes were formerly worn, there are now no
distinctive decorations for the aprons of the
different symbolic degrees. The only mark of
distinction is in the mode of wearing; and this
differs in the different jurisdictions, some
wearing the Master's apron turned ur_ at the
corner, and others the Fellow-Crafts. The

APRON

ARCHETYPE

authority of Cross, in his plate of the Royal

Master's Degree in the older editions of his
Hieroglyphic Chart, conclusively shows that
he taught the former method, although the
latter is now the more common usage.
As we advance to the higher degrees, we
find the apron varying in its decorations and
in the color of its border, which are, however,
always symbolical of some idea taught in the
degree.
Apron, Washlngtdn's. We here introduce a faithful representation of the emblems,
wrought in needlework upon white satin by
Madame Lafayette, for a Masonic apron,
which the Marquis conveyed from Paris to

tion into the primitive Christian church. (See

Discipline of the Secret.)
Arch, Antiquity of !;he. Writers on architecture have, until within a few years, been
accustomed to suppose that the invention of
the arch and keystone was not anterior to the
era of Augustus. But the researches of modern antiquaries have traced the existence of
the arch as far back as 460 years before the
building of King Solomon's Temple, and thus
rescued Masonic traditions from the charge
of anachronism. (See Keystone.)
Arch, Catenarlan. See Catenarian Arch.
Arch of Enoch. The Thirteenth Degree
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is
sometimes so called. (See Knight of the
Ninth Arch.)
Arch of Heaven. Job (xxvi. 11) compares
heaven to an arch supported by pillars. " The
pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished
at his reproof." Dr. Cutbush, on this passage,
remarks, " The arch in this instance is allegorical, not only of the arch of heaven, but of
the higher degree of Masonry, commonly
called the Holy Royal Arch. The pillars
which support the arch are emblematical of
Wisdom and Strength; the former denoting
the wisdom of the Supreme Architect, and the
latter the stability of the Universe."-Am.
Ed. Brewster's Encyc.
Arch of Solomon, Royal. The Thirteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted
Rite is sometimes so called, by which it is
dis~inguished from the Royal Arch Degree of
the English and American systems.
Arch of Steel. The grand honors are conferred, in the French Rite, by two ranks of
brethren elevating and crossing their drawn
swords. They call it voute d'acier.
Arch of Zerubbabel, Royal. The Seventh
Degree of the American Rite is sometimes so
called to distinguish it from the Royal Arch
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
which is called the Royal Arch of Solomon.
Arch, Royal. See Royal Arch Degree.
Archeology. The science which is engaged
in the study of those minor branches of antiquities which do not enter into the course of
general history, such as national architecture,
genealogies, manners, customs, heraldic subjects, and others of a similar nature. The
archeology of Freemasonry has been made,
within a recent period, a very interesting
study, and is much indebted for its successful
pursuit to the labors of Kloss and Findel in
Germany, and to Thory and Ragon in France,
and to Oliver, Lyon, Hughan, Gould, Sadler,
Dr. Chetwode Crawley and others, in England. The scholars of this science have especially directed their attention to the collection
of old records, and the inquiry into the condition and organization of Masonic and other
secret associations during the Middle Ages.
In America, the late William S. Rockwell was
a diligent student of Masonic archeology, and
several others in this country have labored
assiduously in the same inviting field.
Archetype. The principal type, figure,
pattern, or example whereby and whereon

74

General Washington at Mount Vernon. It

was a cherished memorial, which after Washington's death was formally presented to the
"Washington Benevolent Society," at Philadelphia.
Arablcl. An Arabian sect of the second
century, who believed that the soul died with
the body, to be again revived with it at the
general resurrection.
Aranyaka An appendage to the Veda
of the Indians supplementary to the Brahmanas, but giving more prominence to the
111ystical sense of the rites of worship.
Araunah. See Ornan.
Arbitration. In the Old Charges, Masons
are advised, in all cases of dispute or controversy, to submit to the arbitration of the Masters and Fellows, rather than to go to law.
Arbroath, Abbey of (England). Erected
ch1ring the twelfth century. Rev. Charles Corrlinet, in his description of the ruins of North
Britain, has given an account of a seal of the
Abbey Arbroath marked " Initiation." The
seal was ancient before the abbey had an existence, and contains a perfectly distinct characteristic of the Scottish Rite.
Arcade de Ia Pelleterie. The name of
derision given to the Orient of Clermont in
France, that is to say, to the Old Grand
Lodge, before the union in 1799.
Arcanl Dlscipllna. The mode of initia-

ARCHIMAGUS

ARCHIVES

75

a. thing is formed. In the science of symbol~ stone of the Royal Exchange of Edinburgh,

ism, the archetype is the thing adopted as a

symbol, whence the symbolic idea is derived.
Thus, we say the Temple is the archetype of
the Lodge, because the former is the symbol
whence all the Temple symbolism of the latter
is derived.
Archlmagus. The chief officer of the
Mithraic Mysteries in Persia. He was the
representative of Ormudz, or Ormazd, the
type of the good, the true, and the beautiful,
who overcame Ahriman, the spirit of evil, of
the base, and of darkness.
Architect. In laying the corner-stones of
Masonic edifices, and in dedicating them after
they are.finished, the architect of the building,
although he may be a profane, is required to
take a part in the ceremonies. In the former
case, the square, level, and plumb are delivered to him with a charge by the Grand Master; and in the latter case they are returned
by him to that officer.
Architect, African. See African Architect8.
Architect, Engineer and. An officer in
the French Rite, whose duty it is to take
charge of the furniture of the Lodge. In the
Scottish Rite such officer in the Consistory has
charge of the general arrangement of all preparatory matters for the working or ceremonial of the degrees.
Architect by 3, li, and 7, Grand. (Grande
Architecte par 3, 5, et 7.) A degree in the manuscript of Peuvret's collection.
Architect, Grand. (Architecte, Grande.)
1. The Sixth Degree of the Rite of Martinism.
~- The Fourth Degree of the Rite of Elect Cohens. 3. The Twenty-third Degree of the Rite
of Mizraim. 4. -The Twenty-fourth Degree
of the third series in the collection of the
Metropolitan Chapter of France.
Architect, Grand Master. See Grand
Maater Architect.
Architect, Little. (Architecte, Petit.) 1.
The Twenty-third Degree of the third series of
the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France. 2. The Twenty-second Degree of the
Rite of Mizraim.
Architect of Solomon. (Architecte de
Salomon.) A degree in the manuscript collection of M. Peuvret.
Architect, Perfect. (Architecte, Parfait.)
The Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty. seventh Degrees of the Rite of Mizraim are
Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, and Master Perfect Architect.

Architect, Perfect and Sublime. Grand.

(Architecte, Parfait et Sublime Grande.) A degree in the collection of the Loge de SaintLouis des Amis Reunis at Calais.
Archltectonicus. A Greek word, adopted
in Latin, signifying " belonging to architecture." Thus, Vitl'l.\vius writes, " rationes
architectonime," the rules of architecture.
But as Architecton signifies a Master Builder,
the Grand Lodge of Scotland, in some Latin
inscriptions, has used the word architectonicus, to denote Maaonic or relating to Freemaaonry. In the inscription on the corner-

we find "fratres a.rchitectonici" used for

Freemasons; and in the Grand Lodge diploma,
a Lodge is called "societas architectonica ";
but the usage of the word in this sense has not
been generally adopted.
Architecture. The art of constructing
dwellings, as a shelter from the heat of summer and the cold of winter, must have been
resorted to from the very first moment in
which man became subjected to the power of
the elements. Architecture is, therefore, not
only one of the most important, but one of
the most ancient of sciences. Rude and imperfect must however, have been the first
efforts of the human race~ resulting in the erection of huts clumsy in tneir appearance, and
ages must have. elapsed ere wisdom of design
combined strength of material with beauty of
execution.
As Geometry is the science on which Ma~
sonry is founded, Architecture is the art from
which it borrows the language of its symbolic
instruction. In the earlier ages of the Order
every Mason was either an operative mechanic or a superintending architect. And
something more than a superficial knowledge
of the principles of architecture is absolutely
essential to the Mason who would either understand the former history of the Institution
or appreciate its present objects.
There are five orders of architecture: the
Doric, the Ionic, the Corinthian, the Tuscan,
and the Composite. The first three are the
original orders, and were invented in Greece;
the last two are of later formation, and owe
their existence to Italy. Each of these orders,
as well as the other terms of architecture, so
far as they are connected with Freemasonry
will be found under its appropriate he~
throughout this work.
The Books of Constitutions, commenced
by Anderson and continued by Entick and
Noorthouck, contain, under the title of a History of Freemaaonry, in reality a history of the
progress of architecture from the earliest ages.
In the older manuscript Constitutions the
science of geometry, as well as architecture, is
made identical with Masonry; so that he who
would rightly understand the true history of
Freemasonry must ever bear in mind the distinction between Geometry, Architecture, and
Masonry, which is constantly lost sight of in
these old records .
Architecture, Piece of. (M or~eau d' architecture.) The name given in French Lodges
to the minutes.
Archives. This word means, properly, a.
place of deposit for records; but it means also
the records themselves. Hence the archives of
a Lodge are its records and other documents.
The legend in the Second Degree, that the pillars of the Temple were made hollow to contain the archives of Masonry, is simply a
myth, and a very modern one.
Archives, Grand Guardian of the. An
officer in the Grand Council of Rites of Ireland who performs the duties of Secretary
General.

76

ARCHIVES

ARK

Archives, Grand Keeper of the. An Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah;
officer in some of the bodies of the high degrees
whose duties are indicated by the name. In
the Grand Orient of France he is called Grand
Garde des timbres et Sceaux, as he combines the
duties of a keeper of the archives and a keeper
of the seals.
Archivlste. An officer in French Lodges
who has charge of the archives. The Germans call him Archivar.
Ardarel. A word in the high degrees, used
as the name of the angel of fire. It is a distorted form of Adariel, the splendor of God.
Arellm. A word used in some of the rituals of the high degrees. It is found in Isaiah
(xxxiii. 7), where it is translated, in the A. V.,
" valiant ones " and by Lowth, " mighty
men." It is a doubtful wordz and is probably
formed from ari,.e~ the lion ot God. D'Herbelot says that lVlohammed called his uncle
Hamseh, on account of his valor, the lion of
God. In the Kabbala, Arelim is the angelic
name of the third sephirah.
Areopagus. The third apartment in a
Council of Kadosh is so called. It represents
a tribunSl, and the name is derived from the
celebrated court of Athens.
Argonauts, Order of. A German androgynous Masonic society founded in 1775,
by brethren of the Rite of Strict Observance.
Much of the myth of the Argonauts was introduced into the forms and ceremonies, and
many of the symbols taken from this source,
such as meeting upon the deck of a vessel, the
chief officer being called Grand Admiral, and
the nomenclature of parts of the vessel being
used. The motto was Es Lebe die Freude, or
Joy forever.
Ariel. In the demonology of the Kabbala,
the spirit of air; the guardian angel of innocence and purity: hence the Masonic synonym. A name applied to Jerusalem; a
water spirit.
Arithmetic. That science which is engaged in considering the properties and powers
of numbers, and which, from its manifest
necessity in all the operations of weighing,
numbering, and measuring, must have had its
origin in the remotest ages of the world.
In the lecture of the degree of Grand Master
Architect, the application of this science to
Freemasonry is made to consist in its reminding the Mason ihat he is continually to add to
his knowledge, never to subtract anything from
the character of his neighbor, to multiply his
benevolence to his fellow-creatures, and to
divide his means with a suffering brother.
Arizona, Grand Lodge of, was established in 1882, and in 1910 had 19 Lodges and
1,410 brethren under its jurisdiction.
Ark. In the ritual of the American Royal
Arch Degree three arks are referred to: 1. The
Ark of Safety, or of Noah; 2. The Ark of the
Covenant, or of Moses; 3. The Substitute
Ark, or the Ark of Zerubbabel. In what is
technically called " the passing of the veilsz''
each of these arks has its commemorative Illustration, and in the order in which they have
been named. The first was constructed by

the second by Moses, Aholiab, and Bezaleel;

and the third was discovered by Joshua, Haggai, and Zerubbabel.
Ark and Anchor. See Anchor and Ark.
Ark and Dove. An illustrative degree,
preparatory to the Royal Arch, and usually
conferred, when conferred at all, immediately
before the solemn ceremony of exaltation.
The name of Noachite, sometimes given to it,
is incorrect, as this belongs to a degree in the
Ancient Scottish Rite. It is very probable
that the degree, which now, however, has lost
much of its significance, was derived from a
much older one called the Royal Ark Marinerst
to which the reader is referred. The legena
and symbolism of the ark and dove formed an
important part of the spurious Freemasonry
of the ancients.
Ark Mariners. See Royal Ark Mariners.
Ark, Noah's, or the Ark of Safety, constructed by Shem, Ham, and Japheth! under
the superintendence of Noah, and in 1t, as a
chosen tabernacle of refuge, the patriarch's
family took refuge. It has been called by
many commentators a tabernacle of Jehovah;
and Dr. Jarvis, speaking of the word ,:11::,
ZoHaR, which has been translated window,
says that, in all other passages of Scripture
where this word occurs, it signifies the meridian light, the brightest effulgence of day, and
therefore it could not have been an aperture,
but a source of light itself. He supl?oses it
therefore to have been the Divine Shekinah, or
Glory of Jehovah, which afterward dwelt between the cherubim over the Ark of the
Covenant in the tabernacle and the Temple.
(Church of the Redeemed, i., 20.)
Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the
Covenant or of the Testimony was a chest
originally constructed by Moses at God's
command (Exod. xxv.10), in which were kept
the two tables of stone, on which were engraved the Ten Commandments. It contained, likewise, a golden pot filled with
manna, Aaron's rod, and the tables of the
covenant. It was at first deposited in the
most sacred place of the tabernacle and afterward placed by Solomon in the Sanctum
Sanctorum of the Temple, and was lost upon
the destruction of that building by the Chaldeans. The later history of this ark is buried
in obscurity. It is supposed that, upon the
destruction of the first Temple by the Chaldeans, it was carried to Babylon among the
other sacred utensils which became the spoil
of the conquerors. But of its subsequent
fate all traces have been lost. It is, however,
certain that it was not brought back to Jerusalem by Zerubbabel. The Talmudists say
that there were five things which were the
glory of the first Temple that were wanting in
the second; namely, the Ark of the Covenant, the Shekinah or Divine Presence, the
Urim and Thummim, the holy fire upon the
altar, and the spirit of prophecy. The Rev.
Salem Towne, 1t is true, has endeavored to
prove, by a very ingenious argument, that the
original Ark of the Covenant was concealed by

ARK

ARK

77

Josiah, or by others, at some time previous to

the destruction of Jerusalem, and that it was
afterward, at the building of the second Temple, discovered and brought to light. But
such a theory is entirely at variance with all
the legends of the degree of Select Master and
of Royal Arch Masonry. To admit it would
lead to endless confusion and contradictions in
the traditions of the Order. It is, besides, in
Prideaux, on the authority of Lightfoot,
conflict with the opinions of the Rabbinical
writers and every Hebrew scholar. Josephus contends that, as an ark was mdispensable to
and the. Rabbis allege that in the second the Israelitish worship, there was in the second
Temple the Holy of Holies was empty, or con- Temple an ark which had been expressly made
tained only the Stone of Foundation which for the purpose of supplying the place Qf the
marked the place which the ark should have first or original ark, and which, without poeoccupied.
' sessing any .of its prerogatives or honors, was
The ark was made of shittim wood, over- of precisely the same shape and dimensions,
laid, within and without, with pure gold. It and was deposited in the same :place. The
was about three feet nine inches long, two feet Masonic legend, whether authentic or not, is
three inches wide, and of the same extent in simple and connected. It teaches that there
depth. It had on the side two rings of gold, was an ark in the second Temple, but that it
through which were placed staves of shittim was neither the Ark of the Covenant1 which
Wood, by which, when necessary, it was borne had been in the Holy of Holies of the first
by the Levites. Its covering was of pure Temple, nor one that had been constructed as
gold, over which was placed two figures called a substitute for it after the building of the
cherubim, with expanded wings. The cov- second Temple. It was that ark which was
ering of the ark was called kaphiret, from presented to us in the Select Master's Degree,
kaphar, "to forgive sin," and hence its English and which being an exact copy of the Mosaname of "mercy-seat," as being the place ical ark, and intended to replace it in case of its
loss, which is best known to Freemasons as the
where the intercession for sin was made.
The researchGS of archeologists in the last Substitute Ark.
Lightfoot gives these Talmudic legends, in
few years have thrown much light on the
Egyptian mysteries. Among the ceremonies his Prospect of the Temple1 in the following
of that ancient people was one called the Pro- language: "It is fancied oy the Jews, that
cession of Shrines, which is mentioned in the Solomon, when . he built the Temple, foreRosetta stone, and depicted on the Temple seeing that the Temple should be destroyed,
walls. One of these shrines was an ark, which caused very obscure and intricate vaults
was carried in procession by the priests, who under ground to be made, wherein to hide the
supported it on their shoulders by staves pass- ark when any such danger came; that howsoing through metal rings. It was thus brought ever it went with the Temple, yet the ark,
into the Temple and deposited on a stand or which was the very life of the Temple, might be
altar that the ceremonies prescribed in the saved. And they understand that passage in
rituai might be performed before it. The 2 Chron. xxxv. 31 'Josiah said unto the Levites,
contents of these arks were various, but always Put the holy arK into the house which Soloof a mystical character. Sometimes the ark mon, the son of David, did build,' etc., as if
would contain symbols of Life and Stability; Josiah, having heard by the reading of Moses'
sometimes the sacred beetle, the symbol of manuscript, and by Huldah's prophecy of the
the Sun; and there was always a representa- danger that hung over Jerusalem, commanded
tion of two figures of the goddess Theme or to convey the ark into this vault, that it might
Truth and Justice, which overshadowed the be secured; and with it, say they, they laid
ark with their wings. These coincidences of up Aaron's rod the pot of manna, and the
the Egyptian and Hebrew arks must have anointing oil. For while the ark stood in its
place upon the stone mentioned-they hold
been more than accidental.
Ark, Substitute. The chest or coffer that Aaron's.rod and the pot of manna stood
which constitutes a part of the furniture, and before it; but, now, were all conveyed into obis used in the ceremonies of a Chatter of scurity-and the stone upon whwh the ark
Royal Arch Masons1 and in a Counci of Se- stood lay over the mouth of the vault. But
lect Masters accordmg to the American sys- Rabbi Solomon, which useth not, ordinarily,
tem, is called by Masons the Substitute Ark, to forsake such traditions, hath given a more
to distinguish it from the other ark, that which serious gloss upon the place; namely, that
was constructed in the wilderness under the whereas Manasseh and Amon had removed
direction of Moses, and which is known as the the ark out of its habitation, and set up imArk of the Covenant. This the Substitute Ark ages and abominations there of their ownwas made to represent under circumstances Joshua speaketh to the priests to restore it to
that are recorded in the Masonic traditions, its place again. What became of the ark, at
and especilllly in those of the Select Degree.
the burning of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar,
The ark used in Royal Arch and Cryptic we read not; it is most likely it went to the
Masonry in this country is generally of this fire also. However it sped, it was not in the
form:
second Temple; and is one of the five choice

78

ARKANSAS

things that the Jews reckon wanting there.

Yet they had an ark there also of their own
making, as they had a breastplate of judgment; which, though they both wanted the
glory of the former, which was giving of
oracles, yet did they stand current as to the
other matters of their worship as the former
breastplate and ark had done. 1'
The idea of the concealment of an ark and
its accompanying treasures always prevailed
in the Jewish church. The account ~iven by
the Talmudists is undoubtedly myth1calj but
there must, as certainly have been some toundation for the myth, for every myth has a
substratum of truth. The Masonic tradition
differs from the Rabbinical, but is in every way
more reconcilable with truth, or at least with
probability. The ark constructed by Moses,
Aholiab, and Bezaleel was burned at the destruction of the first Temple; but there was
an exact representation of 1t in the second.
Arkansas. The modern school of historians, Masonic and profane, write history from
original sources when possible, but m this
case that method is no longer possible, as all
the records of the Grand Lodge of this State
were burned in 1864 and again in 1876 when
all records gathered since 1864 were destroyed
-depriving us of all early records.
FrOm what had been previously written several accounts have appeared, and from these
this article is compiled.
- Passing over the tradition that the Spaninrds had introduced Freem"ll.sonry into A:rkansas about the time of the Revolution+. we
find the first Lodge was established at rost
A:rkansas, under authority of a dispensation
granted by the Grand Master of Kentucky:
November 29, 1819, and a charter was gran tea
August 29, 1820, but was surrendered August
28, 1822. For several years Masonic matters
were dormant.
The Grand Master of Tennessee granted a
dispensation for Washington Lodge in Fayetteville, December 24, 1835, and for some
reason it was renewed November 12, 1836, and
received a charter October 3, 1837. The
Grand Lodge of Tennessee granted a dispensation to Clarksville Lodge at Clarksville, October !5~ 1838, and a charter October 12, 1839.
These nates are taken from Drummond and
you will observe he says the Grand Master
lBBUed the dispensation to Washington Lodge,
but that the Grand Lodge issued the dispensation to Clarksville LOdge. As we have
noticed a similar statement from a Past Grand
Secretary of A:rkansas, they do not conform
to the usual plan of the Grand Master issuing
the dispensation and the Grand Lodge issuing
the charter. HoW1lver, this custom was quite
general.
The next attempt to form a Lodge at Post
Arkansas was under the Grand Lodge of Louisia.na, which granted a charter January 6
1837, and a charter seems to have been grant;j_
to a Lodge at Little Rock on the same date,
and when the cap1tal was nmved to Little
Rock, Morning Star Lodge at Post Arkansas
wrrendered its charter.

ARMENBUCliSE
The Grand Master of Alabmna granted a
dispensation to Mt. Horeb Lodge at Washington in 1838.
Washington LodJI;e, No. R2, under a charter
from the Grand Lodge of Tennessee; Western
Star Lodge, No. 43, at Little Rook, under a
charter of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana.;
Morning Star Lodge, No. 42, at Post A:rkansas,
under a charter from the Grand Lodge of Louisiana; Mt. Horeb Lodge, _u. D., under dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Alabama, met
at Little Rock, November 21,18381 and formed
the Grand Lodge of A:rkansas. Tne combined
membership is put at 100. These Lodges took
new charters and Washington Lodge became
No.1, Western Star No. 2...._Morning Star No.
3, and Mt. Horeb No.4. The first two are in
existence, but the last two are defunct.
The Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons
'wa.~ organized April 28, 1851 by three ChaptersJocated at Fayetteville, Little Rock, and
El uorado, which had previously received
charters from the General Grand Chapter of
the United States.
The Grand Council of Royal and Select
Masters was established in the year 1860.
The Grand Commandery of the Order of
the Temple was organized on March 23, 1872.
A Lodge, Council, Chapter, Council of
Kadosh1 and Consistory of the Scottish Rite
are estaolished at Little Rock.
A.rklte Worship. The alll'lost univel'8al
prevalence among the nations of antiquity of
some tradition of a long past deluge, gave
rise to certain mythological doctrines and religious ceremonies, to which has been given
the name of arkite worship, which was very
extensively diffused. The evidence of this is
to be found in the sacred feeling which was
entertained for the sacredness of high mountains, derived, it is supposed, from recollections of an Ararat, and from the presence in
nll the Mys1Rries of a basket, chest, or coffer,
whose mystical character bore apparently a
reference to the ark of Noah. On the subje~
of this arkite worship, Bryant, Faber, Higgins,
Banier, and many other writers, have made
learned investigations, which may be consulted with advantage by the Masonic archeologist.
Ark Mariner, Royal, lewel of. The
jewel of this degree prefigures the teachings,
which are unique, and draws their symbols
from the sea, rain, ark, dove, olive-branch,
and Rainbow. This last symbol, as El's sign,
" overshadows " the ark, which really is the
sign of lshtar. The ark is llaid to b&ve contained all the elements of Elohim's creatiw
power, and in" about nine months and three
days there came forth the pent-up energies of
Maiya "; her symbol is the dove with the
mystic olive, which are sacred to her. The
whole underlying thought is that of creatiOD.
See illustration on opposite pa!Je.
Armenbucbse. The poor-box; the name
given by ~rman Masons to the box in which
collections of money are made at a TableLodge for the relief of poor brethren and their
families.

ARMES
Armes. A corrupted form of Hermes
found in the Lansdowne and eome other old
manuscripts.
Armiger. 1. A bearer of arms. The
title given by heralds to the esquire who
waited on a knight. 2. The Sixth Degree of
the Order of Mrican Architects.

Armory. An apartment attached to the

asylum of a oommandery of Knights Templars, in which the swords and other parts of
the costume of the knights are deposited for
safe-keeping.
Armor. In English statutes, armor is
used for the whole apparatus of war; offensive
and defensive arms. In the Order of the
Temple pieces of armor are used to a. limited
extent. In the chivalric degrees of the Scottish Rite, in order to carry out the symbolism
as well as to render effect to its dramas, armor
pieces and articles for use of knights become
necessary, with mantling, crest, mottoes, etc.
Some are herein enumerated:
ArLLETTEs-Square shields for the shoulders.
ANLACE-8hort dagger worn at the girdle.
BALDRic--Belt diagonally crossing the
body.
BATTLE-AX-Weapon with ax-blade and
spear-head.
BEAVER-Front of helmet, which is raised
to admit food and drink.
BEAKER-The drinking-cup with mouthlip.
BEIII'-For body. Badge of knightly rank.
B:a.ASSART-Armor to protect the arm
from elbow to shoulder.
BucKLER-A long shield for protecting the
body.

CoRSELET-Breastplate.
CREsT-Ornament on helmet designating
rank.
CUIRAss-Backplate.
FASCEs-Armor for the thighs, hung from
the corselet.
GADLING-Sha.rp metallic knuckles on
gauntlet.
GA.tlln'LIIIT-Mailed sJ.ove~~.

AROBA

79

GoRGET-Armor for the neck.

HALBERD-Long-pole ax.
HAUBERK-8hirt of mail, of rings or scales.
HELMET or CASQUE-Armor for the head.
JAMBEux-Armor for the legs.
JuPoN-8leeveless jacket, to the hips.
LANcE-Long spear with metallic head and
pennon.
MAcE-Heavy, short staff of metal, ending
with spiked ball.
MANTLE-Outer cloak.
Mo:a.ION-Head armor without vizor.
PENNON-A pennant, or short streamer,
bifurcated.
PLUME-The designation of knighthood.
BALLET-Light helmet for foot-eoldiera.
SPEAR-Sword, spur, shield.
Vrzo:a.-Front of helmet (slashed), moving
on pivots.
Arms of Masonry. Stow says that the
Masons were incorporated as a company in
the twelfth year of Henry IV., 1412. Their
arms were granted to them, in 1472, by William Hawkesloe, Clarenceux King-at-Arms,
and are azure on a chevron between three
castles argent; a pair of compasses somewhat
extended, of the first. Crest, a castle of the
second. They were adopted, subsequent!~;
by the Grand Lodge of England. The A thou
Grand Lodge objected to this as an unlawful
assumption by the Modern Grand LodJI:e of
Speculative Freemasons of the arms of the
Operative Masons. They accordingly adopted
another coat, which Dermott blazons as follows: Quarterly per squares, counterchanged
vert. In the first quarter, azure, a lion rampant,
or. In the second quarter, or, an ox passant
sable. In the third quarter, or, a man with '
hands erect proper, robed crimson and ermine.
In the fourth quarter, azure, an eagle displayed
or. Crest1the holy ark of the covenant proper,
supportea by cherubim. Mottol Kodes la
Adonai, that is, Holiness to the Lora.
These arms are derived from the "tetrarchical" (as Sir Thos. Browne calls them),
or general banners of the four principal tribes;
for it is said that the twelve tribes, during their
passage through the wilderness, were encamped in a hollow square, three on each side,
as follows: Judah, Zebulun, and Issachar, in
the East, under the general banner of Judah;
Dan, Asher, and N aph tali, in theN orth, under
the banner of Dan; Ephraim, Manasseh,
and Benjamin, in the West, under the banner
of Ephraim; and Reuben, Simeon, and Gad,
in the South, under Reuben. See Banners.
Aroba. Pledge, covenant, agreement.
(Latin, Arrhabo, a token or pledge. Hebrew,
Arab, which is the root of Arubbah, surety,
hostage.) This important word, in the Fourteenth Degree of the Scottish Rite is used
when the initiate partakes of the /,Ancient
Aroba," the pledge or covenant of friendship,
by eating and drinking with his new companions. The word is of greater import than
that imp,lied in mere hospitality. The word
"aroba ' appears nowhere in English works,
and seems to have been omitted by Masonic
writers, The root " arab " is one of the oldest

ARRAS

ASCENSION

in the Hebrew language, and means to interweave or to mingle, to exchange, to become

surety for anyone, and to pledge even the
life of one person for another, or the strongest
pledge that can be given. Judah pleads with
Israel to let Benjamin go with him to be presented in Egypt to Joseph, as the latter had
requested. He says: "Send the lad with me;
I will be surety for him" (Gen. xliii. 9); anu
before Joseph he makes the same remark in
Gen. xliv. 32. Job, in chap. xvii. 3, appealing to God, says: "Put me in a surety with
thee; who is he that will strike hands with
me? " (See also 1 Sam. xvii. 18.) In its pure
form, the word "arubbah " occurs only once
in the Old Testament (Prov. xvii. 18): "A
man void of understanding striketh hands, and
becometh surety in the presence of his friend."
In Latin, Plautus makes use of the following
phrase: "Huncarrhabonemamorisameaccipe."
Arras, Primordial Chapter of. Arras is
a town in France in the department of Pas de
Calais, where, in the year 1747, Charles
Edward Stuart, the Prete.nder, is said to have
established a Sovereign Primordial and Metro
politan Chapter of Rosicrucian Freemasons. A
portion of the charter of this body is given by
Ragon in his Orthodoxie M ar;onique. In 1853,
the Count de Hamel, prefect of the department,
discovered an authentic copy in parchment,
of this document bearing the date of April 15;
1747, which he deposited in the departmental
archives. This document is as follows:
"We, Charles Edward, king of England,
France, Scotland, and Ireland, and as such
Substitute Grand Master of the Chapter of
H., known by the title of Knight of the Eagle
and Pelican, and since our sorrows and misfortunes by that of Rose Croix, wishing to
testify our gratitude to the Masons of Artois,
and the officers of the city of Arras, for the
numerous marks of kindness which they in
conjunction with the officers of the garrison
of Arras have lavished upon us, and their
attachment to our person, shown during a
residence of six months in that city,
"We have in favor of them created and
erected, and do create and erect by the present
bull, in the aforesaid city of Arras, a Sovereign
Primordial Chapter of Rose Croix, under the
distinctive title of Scottish Jacobite, ("Ecosse
Jacobite,) to be ruled and govemed by the
Knights Lagneau and Robespierre; Avocats
Hazard, and his two sons, physicians; J. B.
Lucet, our upholsterer, and Jerome Cellier,
our clock-maker, giving to them and to their
successors the power not only to make knights,
but even to create a Chapter in whatever town
they may think fit, provided that two Chapters shall not be created in the same town
however populous it may be.
"And that credit may be given to our
present bull, we have signed it with our hand
and caused to be affixed thereunto the secret
seal, and countersigned by the secretary of our
cabinet, Thursday, 15th of the second month
of the year of the incamation, 1747.
"CHARLES EDWARD STUART.
"Countersigned,
BERKLEY."

This Chapter created a few others, and in

1780 established one in Paris, under the distinctive title of Chapter of Arras, in the valley
of Paris. It united itself to the Grand Orient
of France on the 27th of December, 1801. It
was declared First Suffragan of the Scottish
Jacobite Chapter, with the right to constitute
others. The Chapter established at Arras,
by the Pretender1. was named the "Eagle and
Pelican," and Oliver (Orig. of R. A., p. 22)
from this seeks to find, perhaps justifiably, a
connection between it and the R. S. Y. C. S.
of the Royal Order of Scotland. [The story
of the establishment of this Chapter by the
Pretender is doubted by some writers and it
certainly lacks confirmation; even his joining
the Craft at all is disputed by several who have
carefully studied the subject.-E. L. H.]
Arrest of Charter. To arrest the charter
of a Lodge is a technical phrase by which is
meant to suspend the work of a Lodge, to
prevent it from holding its usual communications, and to forbid it to transact any business
or to do any work. A Grand Master cannot
revoke the warrant of a. Lodge; but if, in his
opinion, the good of Masonry or any other
sufficient cause requires it, he may suspend
the operation of the warrant until the next
communication of the Grand Lodge, which
body is alone competent to revise or approve of
his action.
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum is the name
under which the Transactions of the Lodge
Quatuor Coronati, No. 2076, London, the
premier literary Lodge of the world, are published in annual volumes, commencing with
1888.
Arthusius, Gotthardus. A learned native of Dantzic, Rector of the Gymnasium at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, who wrote many
works on Rosicrucianism, under the assumed
name of Irenreus Agnostus. (See Agnostus.)
Artisan, Chief. An officer in the Council
of Knights of Constantinople.
Art, Royal. See Royal Art.
Arts. In the Masonic phrase, "arts, parts,
and points of the Mysteries of Masonry ";
arts means the knowled~e, or things made
known, parts the degrees mto which Masonry
is divided, and points the rules and usages.
(See Parts, and also Points.)
Arts, Liberal. See Liberal Arts and

80

Sciences.

Arundel, Thomas Howard, Earl of.

Tradition places Arundel as the Grand Master

of English Freemasons from 1633 to 1635. This
is in accordance with Anderson and Preston-,
Aryan. One of the three historical di-/
visions of religion-the other two being the \
Turanian and the Shemitic. It produce& .
Brahmanism, Buddhism, and the Code ort
Zoroaster.
'
Asarota. A variegated :pavement used for
flooring in temples and anCient edifices.
Ascension Day. Also called Holy Thursday. A festival of the Christian church held
in commemoration of the ascension of our
Lord forty days after Easter. It is celebrated
as a feast day by Chapters of Rose Croix.

ASES

ASHMOLE

Ases. The twelve gods and as many goddesses in the Scandinavian mythology.
Ashe, D.D., Rev. Jonathan. A literary
plagiarist who resided in Bristol, England. In
1814 he published The Masonic Manual; or,
Lectures on Freema3onry. Ashe does not, it
is true1 pretend to originality, but abstains
from g:tvmg credit to Hutchinson, from whom
he has taken at least two-thirds of his book.
A second edition appeared in 1825, and in
1843 an edition was published by Spencer,
with valuable notes by Dr. Oliver.
Asher, Dr. Carl Wllhelm. The first
translator into German of the Halliwell or
"Regius" MS., which he published at Hamburg, in 1842, under the title of Aelteste Urkunde der Freimaurerei in England. This
work contains both the original English document and the German translation.
Ashlar. "Freestone as it comes out of the
quarry."-Bailey. In Speculative Masonry
we adopt the ashlar in two different states, as
symbols in the Apprentice's Degree. The
Rough Ashlar, or stone in its rude and unpolished condition, is emblematic of man in
his natural state--ignorant, uncultivated, and
vicious. But when education has exerted its
wholesome influence in expanding his intellect,
restraining his passions, and purifying his life,
he then is represented by the Perfect Ashlar,
which, under the skilful hands of the workmen,
has been smoothed, and squared, and fitted
for its place in the building. In the older
lectures of the eighteenth century the Perfect
Ashlar is not mentioned, but its place was
supplied by the Broached Thurnel.
Ashmole, Elias. A celebrated antiquary,
and the author of, among other works, the
well-known History of the Order of the Garter,
and founder of the Ashmolean Museum at
Oxford. He was born at Litchfield, in England, on the 23d of May, 1617, and died at London on the 18th of May, 1692. Hewasmadea
Freemason on the 16th of October, 1646, and
gives the following account of his reception in
his Diary, p. 303.
"1646. Oct: 16. 4 If 30' p. m., I was
made a Freemason at Warrington, in Lancashire, with Colonel Henry Mainwaring, of
Karincham, in Cheshire. The names of those
that were then of the Lodge, Mr. Richard
Penket Warden Mr. James Collier Mr.
Rich: Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam,
Rich: Ellam and Hugh Brewer."
In another place he speaks of his attendance
at a meeting (Diary, p. 362), and thirty-six
years afterward makes the following entry:
"1682. March 10. About 5 If p. m., I
received a summons to appear at a Lodge to
be held the next day at Masons' Hall, London.
"11. Accordingly, I went, and about
Noone were admitted into the Fellowship of
Freemasons, Sir William Wilson, knight,
Capt. Richard Borthwick, Mr. William Woodman, Mr. William Wise.
"I was the senior fellow among them, (it
being thirty-five years since I was admitted;)
there was present besides myself the Fellowes
afternamed: Mr. Thomas Wise, Master of the

Masons' company this present year; Mr.

Thomas Shorthofe, Mr. Thomas Shadbolt,
- - Waindsford, Esq., Mr. Nicholas Young,
Mr. John Shorthofe, Mr. William Hamon,
Mr. John Thompson, and Mr. William Stanton. We all dyned at the halfe Moone
Taverne in Cheapeside, at a noble dinner prepared at the cliarge of the new Accepted
Masons."*
It is to be regretted that the intention expressed by Ashmole to write a history of Freemasonry was never carried into effect. His
laborious research as evinced in his ex4austive
work on the Order of the Garter, would lead us
to have expected from his antiquarian pen a
record of the origin and early progress of our
Institution more valuable than any that we
now possess. The following remarks on this
subject, contained in a letter from Dr. Knipe,
of Christ Church, Oxford, to the publisher of
Ashmole's Life, while it enables us to form
some estimate of the loss that Masonic literature has suffered, supplies interesting particulars which are worthy of preservation.
"As to the ancient society of Freemasons,
concerning whom you are desirous of knowing
what may be known with certainty, I shall
only tell you, that if our worthy Brother, E.
Ashmole, Esq., had executed his intended
design, our Fraternity had been as much
obliged to him as the Brethren of the most
noble Order of the Garter. I would not have
you surprised at this expression, or think it
all too assuming. The sovereigns of that Order
have not disdained our fellowship, and there
have been times when emperors were also
Freemasons. What from Mr. E. Ashmole's
collection I could gather was, that the report
of our society's taking rise from a bull granted
by the Pope, in the reign of Henry III., to
some Italian architects to travel over all
Europe, to erect chapels, was ill-founded.
Such a bull there was, and those architects
were Masons; but this bull, in the opinion of
the learned Mr. Ashmole, was confirmative
only, and did not by any means create our
Fraternity, or even establish them in this
kingdom. But as to the time and manner of
that establishment, something I shall relate
from the same collections. St. Alban the
Proto-Martyr of England, established Masonry here; and from his time it flourished
more or less, according as the world went,
down to the days of King Athelstan, who, for
the sake of his brother Edwin, granted the
Masons a charter under our Norman princes.
They frequently received extraordinary marks
of royal favor. There is no doubt to be made,
that the skill of Masons, which was always
transcendent, even in the most barbarous
times,-their wonderful kindness and attachment to each other1 how different soever in
condition, and their mviolable fidelity in keeping religiously their secret,-must expose them
in ignorant, troublesome, and suspicious times

81

*These entries have been reproduced in facsimile in Vol. XI of Ara Quatuor Coronatorum
(1898).

82

ASIA

ASSASSINS

to a vast variety of adventures, according to

the different fate of parties and other alterations in government. By the way, I shall
note that the Masons were always loyal, which
exposed them to great severities when power
wore the trappings of justice, and those who
committed treason punished true men as
traitors. Thus, in the third year of the reign
of Henry VI., an act of Parliament was
passed to abolish the society of Masons, and
to hinder, under grievous penalties, the holding
Chapters, Lodges, or other regular assemblies.
Yet this act was afterwards repealed, and even
before that, King Henry VI., and several of
the principal lords of his court, became fellows
of the Craft."
Asia. In the French Rite of Adoption, the
East end of the Lodge is called Asia.
Asia, Initiated Knights and Brothers
of. This Order was introduced in Berlin, or,
as some say, in Vienna, in the year 1780, by a
schism of several members of the German
Rose Croix. They adopted a mixture of
Christian, Jewish, and Mohammedan ceremonies, to indicate, as Ragon supposes, their
entire religious tolerance. Their object was
the study of the natural sciences and the
search for the universal panacea to prolong
life. Thory charges them with this; but may
it not have been, as with the Alchemists,
merely a symbol of immortality? They forbade all inquiries into the art of transmutation of metals. The Grand Synedrion, properly the Grand Sanhedrim, which consisted of
seventy-two members and was the head of the
Order, had its seat at Vienna. The Order was
founded on the three symbolic degrees, and
attached. to them nine others, as follows: 4.
Seekers; 5. Sufferers; 6. Initiated Knights
and Brothers of Asia in Europe; 7. Masters
and Sages; 8. Royal Priests, or True Brothers
of Rose Croix; 9. Melchizedek. The Order no
longer exists. Many details of it will be
found in Luchet's Essai sur les Illumines.
Asia, Perfect Initiates of. A rite of very
little importance, consisting of seven degrees,
and said to have been invented at Lyons. A
very voluminous manuscript, translated from
the German, was sold at Paris, in 1821, to M.
Bailleul, and came into the possession of
Ragon, who reduced its size, and, with the
assistance of Des Etangs, modified it. I
have no knowledge that it was ever worked.
Ask, Seek, Knock. In referring to the
passage of Matthew vii. 7, "Ask, and it shall
be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened unto you," Dr. Clarke
says: "These three words--ask, seek, knockinclude the ideas of want, loss~ and earnestness."
The application made to tne passage theologically is equally appropriate to it in a Masonic Lodge. You ask for acceptance, you seek
for light, you knock for initiation, which ineludes the other two.
Aspirant. One who eagerly seeks to know
or to attain something. Thus, Warburton
speaks of "the aspirant to the Mysteries."
It is applied also to one about to be initiated
into Masonry. There seems, however, to be

a shade of difference in meaning between the

words candidate and aspirant. The candidate
is one who asks for admission; so called from
the Lat. candidaius "clothed in white," because candidates for office at Rome wore a
white dress. The aspirant is one already
elected and in process of initiation, and coming
from aspiro, to seek eagerly, refers to the
earnestness with which he prosecutes his
search for light and truth.
Assassins. The Ishmaelites, or Assassins,
constituted a sect or confraternity, which was
founded by Hassan Sabah, about the year
1090, in Persia. The name is derived, it is
supposed, from their immoderate use of the
plant haschish, or henbane, which produced
a delirious frenzy. The title given to the chief
of the Order was Sheikh-el-Jebel, which has
been translated the "Old Man of the Mountain," but which Higgins has shown (Anacal.,
i., 700) to mean literally "The Sage of the
Kabbala or Traditions." Von Hammer has
written a History of the Assassins, but his
opposition to secret societies has led him to
speak with so much prejudice that, although
his historical statements are interesting, his
philosophical deductions have to be taken
with many grains of allowance. Godfrey
Higgins has probably erred on the other side,
and by a too ready adherence to a preconceived theory has, in his Anacalypsis, confounded them with the Templars, whom he
considers as the precursors of the Freemasons ..
In this, as in most things, the middle course
appears to be the most truthful.
The Assassins were a secret society1 that is
to say, they had a secret esoteric aoctrine,
which was imparted only to the initiated.
Hammer says that they had a graduated
series of initiations, the names of which he
gives as Apprentices, Fellows, and Masters;
they had, too, an oath of passive obedience,
and resembled, he asserts, in many respects
the secret socif)ties that subsequently exist;!
in Europe. They were governed by a Grand
Master and Priors, and had regulations and
a special religious code, in all of which Von
Hammer finds a close resemblance to the Ternplars, the Hospitalers, and the Teutonic
Knights. Between the Assassins and the
Templars history records that there were
several amicable transactions not at all consistent with the religious vows of the latter
and the supposed religious faith of the former,
and striking coincidences of feeling, of which
Higgins has not been slow to avail himself in
his attempt to prove the close connection, if
not absolute identity, of the two Orders. It is
most probable, as Sir John Malcolm contends,
that they were a race of Sofis, the teachers
of the secret doctrine of Mohammed. Von
Hammer admits that they produced a great
number of treatises on mathematics and
jurisprudenceh and, forgetting for a time his
bigotry and is prejudice, he attributes to
Hassan, their founder, a profound knowledge
of philosophy and mathematical and met&.physical sciences, and an enlightened spirit~
under whose influence the civilization or

ASSASSINS

ASSOCIATES

Persia attained a high degree; so that during

his reign of forty-six years the Persian literature attained a point of excellence beyond that
of Alexandria under the Ptolemies, and of
France under Francis I. The old belief that
they were a confederacy of murderers-whence
we have taken our English word assassinsmust now be abandoned as a figment of the
credulity of past centuries, and we must be content to look upon them as a secret society of
philosophers, whose political relations, how~ver, merged them into a dynasty: If we
mterpret Freemasonry as a genenc term,
signifying a philosophic sect which teaches
truth by a mystical initiation and secret symbols, then Higgins was not very far in error in
calling them the Freemasons of the East.
Assassins of the Third Degree. There
is in Freemasonry a legend of certain unworthy Craftsmen who entered into a conspiracy to extort from a distinguished brother
a secret of which he was the possessor. The
legend is altogether symbolic, and when its
symbolism is truly comprehended, becomes
surpassingly beautiful. By those who look
at it as having the pretension of an historical
fact, it is sometimes treated with indifference,
and sometimes considered an absurdity. But
it is not thus that the legends and symbols of
Masonry must be read, if we would learn
their true spirit. To behold the goddess in
all her glorious beauty, the veil that conceals
her statue must be withdrawn. Masonic
writers who have sou,ght to interpret the symbolism of the legend of the conspiracy of the
three assassins, have not agreed always in the
interpretation, although they have finally
arrived at the same result, namely, that it has
a spiritual signification. Those who trace
Speculative Masonry to the ancient solar
worship, of whom Ragon may be considered as
the exponent, find in this legend a symbol of
the conspiracy of the three winter months to
destroy the life-giving heat of the sun. Those
who, like the disciples of the Rite of Strict
Observance, trace Masonry to a Templar
origin1 explain the legend as referring to the
conspll'acy of the three renegade knights who
falsely accused the Order, and thus aided King
Philip and Pope Clement to abolish Templarism, and to slay its Grand Master. Hutchinson and Oliver, who labored to give a Christian
interpretation to all the symbols of Masonry, referred the legend to the crucifixion of
the Messiah, the type of which is, of course,
the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain.
Others, of whom the Chevalier Ramsay was
the leader, sought to give it a political significance; and, making Charles I. the type
of the Builder, symbolized Cromwell and
his adherents as the conspirators. The Masonic scholars whose aim has been to identify
the modern system of Freemasonry with the
Ancient Mysteries, and especially with the
Egyptian, which they supposed to be the germ
of all the others, interpret the conspirators as
the symbol of the Evil Principle, or Typhon,
slaying the Good Principle-~. ~r Osiris; or, when
they refer to the Zoroaetio Mysteries of Persia,

as Ahriman contending against Ormuzd. And

lastly, in the Philosophic degrees, the myth is
interpreted as signifying the war of Falsehood,
Ignorance, and Superstition against Truth.
Of the supposed names of the three Assassins,
there is hardly any end of variations, for they
materially differ in all the principal rites.
Thu!'~ we have Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum in
the l: ork and American Rites. In the Adonhiramite system we have Romvel, Gravelot,
and Abiram. In the Scottish Rite we find the
names given in the old rituals as Jubelum
Akirop, sometimes Abiram, Jubelo Romvel,
and Jubela Gravelot. Schterke and Oterfiit
are in some of the German rituals, while other
Scottish rituals have Abiram, R.omvel, and
Hobhen. In all these names there is manifest corruption, and the patience of many
Masonic scholars has been well-nigh exhausted in seeking for some plausible and
satisfactory derivation.
Assembly. The meetings of the Craft during the operative period in the Middle Ages,
were called "assemblies," which appear to
have been tantamount to the modern Lodges
and they are constantly spoken of in the Old
Constitutions. The word assembly was also
often used in these documents to indicate a
larger meeting of the whole Craft, which was
equivalent to the modern Grand Lodge, and
which was held annually. The York MS.,
No.1, about the year 1600, says" that Edwin
procured of ye King his father a charter and
commission to hold every yeare ap. assembly
wheresoever they would within ye realm of
England," and this statement, whether true
or false, is repeated in all the old records.
Preston says, speaking of that medieval
period, that "a sufficient number of Masons
met together within a certain district1 with
the consent of the sheriff or chief magiStrate
of the place, were empowered at this time to
make Masons," etc. To this assembly, every
Mason was bound, when summoned, to
appear. Thus, in the Harleian MS., circa
1660, it is ordained that "every Master and
Fellow come to the Assembly, if it be within
five miles about him, if he have any warning."
The term "General Assembly," to indicate
the annual meeting, is said to have been first
used at the meeting, held on December 271
1663, as quoted by Preston. In the Ota
Constitutions printed in 1722 by Roberts1
and which claims to be taken from a MS. ot
the eighteenth century, the term used is
"Yearly Assembly." Anderson speaks of an
Old Constitution which used the word
"General; " but his quotations are not always
verbally accurate.
Assistance. See Aid and Assistance.
Associates of the Temple. During the
Middle Ages, many persons of rank, who were
desirous of participating in the spiritual advantages supposed to be enjoyed by the
Templars in consequence of the good works
done by the Fraternity, but who were unwilling to submit to the discipline of the brethrent
made valuable donations to the Order, ana
were, in consequence, admitted into a sort of

83

ASSOCIATION

ATHEIST

spiritual connection with it. These persons

were termed "Associates of the Temple."
The .custom was most probably confined to
England, and many " of these Associates "
had monuments and effigies erected to them
in the Temple Church at London.
Association. Although an association is
properly the union of men into a society for
a common purpose, the word is scarcely ever
applied to the Order of Freemasonry. Yet
its employment, although unusual, would not
be incorrect, for Freemasonry is an association of men for a common purpose. Washington uses the term when he calls Freemasonry "an association whose principles lead
to purity of morals, and are beneficial of
action." (Letter to G. L. of So. Ca.)
Assyrian Architecture. The discovery in
1882 of the remains of a town, close to, and
north of, Nineveh, built by Sargon, about 721
B.c. in size about a mile square, with its
angies facing the cardinal points, and the
enclosure containing the finest specimens of
their architecture, revived much interest in
archeologists. The chief place of regard is
the royal palace, which was like unto a city
of itself, everything being on a colossal scale.
The walls of the town were 45 feet thick. The
inclined approach to the palace was flanked by
strangely formed bulls from 15 to 19 feet high.
There were terraces, courts, and passage-ways
to an innermost square of 150 feet, surrounded
by state apartments and temples. The Hall
of Judgment was prominent, as also the astronomical observatory. All entrances to great
buildings were ornamented by colossal animals
and porcelain decorations and inscriptions.
Astrrea. The Grand Lodge established in
Russiai on the 30th ofAugust, 1815, assumed
the tit e of the Grand Lodge of Astrrea. It
held its Grand East at St. Petersburg, and
continued in existence until 1822, when the
Czar issued a Ukase, dated August 1, 1822,
closing all Lodges in Russia and forbidding
them to reopen at any future time.
Astrology. A science demanding the
respect of the scholar, notwithstanding its
designation as a "black art," and, in a reflective sense, an occult science; a system of divination foretelling results by the relative positions of the planets and other heavenly bodies
toward the earth. Men of eminence have
adhered to the doctrines of astrology as a
science. It is a study well considered in, and
formin~ an important part of, the ceremonies
of the 'Philosophus," or fourth grade of the
First Order of the Society of Rosicrucians.
Astrology has been deemed the twin science
of astronomy, grasping knowledge from the
heavenly bodies, and granting a proper understanding of many of the startling forces in
nature. It is claimed that the constellations
of the zodiac govern the earthly animals, and
that every star has its peculiar nature, property, and function, the seal and character of
which it impresses through its rays upon
plants, minerals, and animal life. This science
was known to the ancients as the "divine
art." (See Magic.)

Astronomy. The science which instructs

us in the laws that govern the heavenly bodies.
Its origin is lost in the mists of antiquity; for
the earliest inhabitants of the earth must have
been attracted by the splendor of the glorious
firmament above them1 and would have
sought in the motions of 1ts luminaries for the
readiest and most certain method of measuring time. With astronomy the system of
Freemasonry is intimately connected. From
that science many of our most significant
emblems are borrowed. The Lodge itself is
a representation of the world; it is adorned
with the images of the sun and moon, whose
regularity and precision furnish a lesson of
wisdom and prudence; its pillars of strength
and establishment have been compared to the
two columns which the ancients placed at the
equinoctial points as supporters of the arch
of heaven; the blazing star, which was among
the Egyptians a symbol of Anubis, or the dogstar, whose rising foretold the overflowing of
the Nile, shines in the East; while the clouded
canopy is decorated with the beautiful
Pleiades. The connection between our Order
and astronomy is still more manifest in the
spurious Freemasonry of antiquity, where, the
pure principles of our system being lost, the
symbolic instruction of the heavenly bodies
gave place to the corrupt Sabean worship of
the sun, and moon, and stars-a worship
whose influences are seen in all the mysteries
of Paganism.
Asylum. During the session of a Commandery of Knights Templars, a part of the
room is called the asylum; the word has hence
been adopted, by the figure synecdoche, to
signify the place of meeting of a Commandery.
Asylum for Aged Freemasons. The
Asylum for Aged and Decayed Freemasons is
a magnificent edifice at Croydon in Surrey,
England. The charity was established by
Dr. Crucefix, after sixteen years of herculean
toil, such as few men but himself could have
sustained. He did not live to see it in full
operation, but breathed his last at the very
tune when the cope-stone was placed on the
building. (See Annuities.)
Atelier. The French thus call the place
where the Lo4ge meets, or the Lodge room.
The word signifies a workshop or place where
several workmen are assembled under the
same master. The word is applied in French
Masonry not only to the place of meeting of a
Lodge, but also to that of a Chapter, Council,
or any other Masonic body. Bazot says
(Man. Mar;on, 65) that atelier is more particularly applied to the Table-Lodge, or Lodge
when at banquet, but that the word is also
used to designate any reunion of the Lodge.
Atheist. One who does not believe in the
existence of God. Such a state of mind can
only arise from the ignorance of stupidity or a
corruption of principle, since the whole universe is filled with the moral and physical
proofs of a Creator. He who does not look to
a superior and superintending power as his
maker and his judge, is without that coercive

84

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85

ATHELSTAN

AUFSEHER

principle of salutary fear which should prompt

him to do good and to eschew evil, and his
oath can, of necessity1 pe no stronger than his
word. Masons, looking to the dangerous
tendency of such a tenet, have wisely discour&ged it, by declaring that no atheist can
be admitted to participate in their Fraternity;
and the better to carry this law into effect,
every candidate, before passing through any
of the ceremomes of imtiation, is required,
publicly and solemnly, to declare his trust in
God.
Athelstan. The grandson of the great
Alfred ascended the throne of England in
924, and died in 940. The Old Constitutions
describe him as a great patron of Masonry.
Thus, one of them, the Roberts MS., printed
in 1722, and claiming to be five hundred years
old, says: "He began to build manyAbbeys,
Monasteries, and other religious houses, as
also castles and divers Fortresses for defence
of his realm. He loved Masons more than
his father; he greatly study'd Geometry, and
sent into many lands for men expert in the
science. He gave them a very large charter
to hold a yearly assembly, and power to correct offenders in the said science; and the king
himself caused a General Assembly of all
Masons in his realm, at York, and there made
many Masons, and gave them a deep charge
for observation of all such articles as belonged
unto Masonry, and delivered them the said
Charter to keep."
Atholl Masons. The "Ancient" Masons
are sometimes called "Atholl" Masons, because they were presided over by the Third
Duke of Atholl as their Grand Master from
1771 to 1774, and by the Fourth Duke from
1775 to 1781, and also from 1791 to 1813.
(See Ancient Masons.)
Atossa. The daughter of King Cyrus of
Persia, Queen of Cambyses, and afterward of
Darius Hystaspes, to whom she bore Xerxes.
Referred to in the degree of Prince of Jerusalem, the Sixteenth of the Scottish Rite.
Attendance. See Absence.
Attouchement. The name given by the
French Masons to what the English call the
grip.
Attributes. The collar and jewel appropriate to an officer are called his attributes.
The working tools and implements of Masonry
are also called its attributes. The word in
these senses is much more used by French
than by English Masons.
Atwood, Henry C. At one time of considerable notoriety in the Masonic history of
New York. He was born in Connecticut about
the beginning of the present century, andremoved to the city of New York about 1825,
in which year he organized a Lodge for the
purpose of introducing the system taught by
Jeremy L. Cross, of whom Atwood was a
pupil. This system met with great opposit\pn from some of the most distinguished
Masons of the State, who favored the ancient
ritual, which had existed before the system of
Webb had been invented, from whom Cross
received his lectures. Atwood, by great smart-

ness and untiring energy, succeeded in making

the system which he taught eventually popular. He took great interest in Masonry, and
being intellectually clever, although not
learned, he collected a great number of admirers, while the tenacity with which he maintained his opinions, however unpopular they
might be, secured for him as many enemies.
He was greatly instrumental in establishing,
in 1837, the schismatic body known as tne
St. John's Grand Lodge, and was its Grand
Master at the time of its union, in 1850, with
the legitimate Grand Lodge of New York.
Atwood edited a small Masonic periodical
called The Sentinel, which was remarkable for
the virulent and unmasonic tone of its articles.
He was also the author of a Masonic Monitor of some pretensions. He died in 1860.
Atys. The Mysteries of Atys in Phrygia,
and those of Cybele his mistress, like their
worship, much resembled those of Adonis and
Bacchus, Osiris and Isis. Their Asiatic origin
is universally admitted, and was with great
plausibility claimed by Phrygia, which contested the palm of antiquity with Egypt.
They, more than any other people, mingled
allegory with their religious worship, and were
great inventors of fables; and their sacred traditions as to Cybele and Atys, whom all admit
to be Phrygian gods, were very various. In
all, as we learn from Julius Firmicus, they
represented by allegory the phenomena of
nature, and the succession of physical facts
under the veil of a marvelous liistory.
Their feasts occurred at the equinoxes,
commencing with lamentation, mourning,
groans, and pitiful cries for the death of Atys,
and ending with rejoicings at his restoration
to life.
"Audl, VIde, Tace." (Hear, see, and be
silent.) A motto frequently found on Masonic medals, and often appropriately used in
Masonic documents. It was adopted as its
motto by the United Grand Lodge of England at the union between the "Ancients "
and the "Moderns " in 1813.
Auditor. An officer in the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
for the Southern JurisdictiOn of the United
States. His duty is, with the Committee on Finance, to examine and report on the accounts of
the Inspector and other officers. This duty of
auditing the accounts of the Secretary and
Treasurer is generally entrusted, in Masonic
bodies, to a special committee appointed for
the purpose. In the Grand Lodge of England, the accounts are audited annually by a
professional auditor, who must be a Master
Mason.
Auditors. The first class of the secret
system adopted by the Christians in their
early days. The second class were Catechumens, and the third were The Faithful.
Aufseher. The German name for the
Warden of a Lodge. The Senior Warden is
called Erste Aufseher, and the Junior Warden, Zweite Aufseher. The word literally
means an overseer. Its Masonic application
is technical.

86

AUGER

AUSTRIA

Auger. An implement used as a symbol the brethren in the Sixteenth Degree of the
in the Ark Mariners Degree.
Scottish Rite, which in the legend is said to
Augustine, St. See Saint Augustine.
have been presented by King Darius to the
Augustus WOllam, Prince of Prussia. captive Zerubbabel on presentation of his
Born in 1722, died in 1758. Brother of Fred- liberty, and that of all his people, who had
erick the Great, and father of King Frederick been slaves in Babylon for seventy years.
Auserwiihlten. German for Elu o:r Elect.
William II. A member of Lodge "Drei
Austin. See Saint Augustine.
W eltkugeln " Berlin.
Aum. Amystic syllable among the Hin- Australasia. The first Masonic Lodge
dus, signifying the Supreme God of Gods, in this region was held in 1803 at Sydney,
which the Brahmans, from its awful and sa- but was suppressed by the Governor, and it
cred meaning, hesitate to pronounce aloud, was not until the year 1820 that the parent
and in doing so place one of their hands be- Lodge of Australasia was warranted to meet
fore the mouth so as to deaden the sound. at Sydney by the Grand Lodge of Ireland; it
This triliteral name of God, which is as sacred is now No.1 on the New South Wales register
among the Hindus as the Tetragrammatam and named the "Australian Social Mother
is among the Jews, is composed of three San- Lodge." After that many Lodges were warskrit letters, sounding AUM. The first letter, ranted under the three Constitutions of En~
A, stands for the Creator; the second, U, for land, Scotland and Ireland, out of which m
the Preserver; and the third, M, for the De- course of time no less than six independent
stroyer, or Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. Benfey, Grand Lodges have been formed, viz., South
in his Sanskrit-English Dicticmary, defines the Australia (founded in 1884), New South Wales
word as "a particle of reminiscence "; and (1888), Victoria (1889), Tasmania (1890),
this may explain the Brahmanical saying, New Zealand (1890), and Western Australia
that a Brahman beginning or ending the read- (1900).
[E. L. H.]
Austria. Freemasonry was introduced
ing of a part of the Veda or Sacred Books,
must always pronounce, to himself, the syllable into Austria in 1742, by the establishment at
AUM; for unless that syllable precede, his Vienna of the Lodge of the Three Cannons.
learning will slip away from him, and unless But it was broken up by the government in
it follow, nothing will be long retained. An the following year, and thirty of its members
old passage in the Parana says, "All the rites were imprisoned for having met in contempt
ordained in the Vedas, the sacrifices to fire, of the authorities. Maria Theresa was an
and all sacred purifications, shall pass away, enemy of the Institution, and prohibited it in
but the word AUM shall never pass away, for 1764. Lodges, however, continued to meet
it is the symbol of the Lord of all things." secretly in Vienna and Prague. In 1780,
The word has been indifferently spelled, O'M, Joseph II. ascended the throne, and under his
AOM, and AUM; but the last is evidently the liberal administration Freemasonry, if not
most proper, as the second letter is 00 = U actually encouraged, was at least tolerated,
and many new Lodges were established in
in the Sanskrit alphabet.
Aumont. Said to have been the successor Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Transylof Molay as Grand Master, and hence called vania, under the authorit;y of the Grand Lodge
the Restorer of the Order of the Templars. of Germany, in Berlin. Delegates from these
There is a tradition, altogether fabulous, how- Lodges met at Vienna in 1784, and organized
ever, which states that he, with seven other the Grand Lodge of Austria, electing the
Templars, fled, after the dissolution of the Count of Dietrichstein, Grand Master. The
Order, into Scotland, disguised as Operative attempt of the Grand Lodge at Berlin to make
Masons, and there secretly and under another this a Provincial Grand Lodge was successful
name founded a new Order; and to preserve for only a short time, and in 1785 the Grand
as much as possible the ancient name of Tem- Lodge of Austria again proclaimed its indeplars, as well as to retain the remembrance pendence.
During the reign of Joseph II., Austrian
of the clothing of Masons, in which disguise
they had fled, they chose the name of Free- Masonry was prosperous. Notwithstanding
masons, and thus founded Freemasonry. the efforts of its enemies, the monarch could
The society thus formed, instead of conquering never be persuaded to prohibit it. But in
or rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem, was to 1785 he was induced to issue instructions by
erect symbolical temples. This is one of the which the number of the Lodges was reduced,
forms of the Templar theory of the origin of so that not more than three were permiUed to
Freemasonry.
exist in each city; and he ordered that a list
Aurora. In Hebrew the light is called A ur, of the members and a note of the times of
and in its dual capacity A urim. Hence Urim, meeting of each Lodge should be annually delights-as, Thme, Thummim perfections. livered to the magistrates.
Ra is the sun, the symbolic god of the EgypJoseph died in 1790, and Leopold II. extians, and Ouro, royalty. Hence we have pressed himself as not unfriendly to the FraAur, Ouro, Ra, which is the double symbolic ternity, but his successor in 1792, Francis II.,
capacity of "Light." Referring to the Urim yielded to the machinations of the anti-Maand Thummim, Re is physical and intellec- sons, and dissolved the Lodges. In 1801i he
tual light, while Thme is the divinity of truth issued a decree which forbade the emp oyment of anyone in the public service who was
and justice.
Aurora is the color of the baldrio worn by attached to any secret society. Masonr;y is

-----~-

AUTHENTIC

---------

---~---

AZAZEL

in operation in Austria, as it is in most non- but more generally in the higher ones, on eerMasonic co'llntries, but not in any public form tain occasions of paying honors to superior
as in other countries. The Catholics do not officers. The brethren form in two ranks
so persistently persecute it as they once did facing each other. H the degree is one in
throuldl royal sanction.
which swords are used, these are drawn and
Authentic. Formerly, in the science of elevated, being crossed each with the oppoDiplomatics, ancient manuscripts were site sword. The swords thus crossed constitermed authentic when they were originals, tute what is called "the arch of steel." The
and in opposition to copies. But in modem person to whom honor is to be paid paeses
times the acceptation of the word has been between the opposite ranks and under the arch
enlarged, and it is now applied to instruments of steel.
which, although they may be copies, bear the
Avlgnon, lliumlnatl of. (Illumines
evidence of having been executed by proper d'Avignon.) A rite instituted by Pernetti at
authority. So of the old records of Masonry, Avignon, in France, in 1770, and transferred
the origmals of many have been lost, or at in the year 1778 to Montpellier, under the
least have not yet been found. Yet the cop- name of the Academy of True Masons. The
ies, if they can be traced to unsuspected Academy of Avignon consisted of only four
sources within the body of the Craft and show degrees, the three of syJpbolic or St. John's
the internal marks of historical accuracy, are Masonry, and a fourth called the True Mason,
to be reckoned as authentic. But if their which was made up of instructions, Hermetical
origin is altogether unknown, and their state- and Swedenborgian. (See Pernetti.)
menta or style conflict with the known charAvouchment. See Vouching.
acter of the Order at their assumed date, their
Award. In law, the judgment pronounced
authenticity- is to be doubted or denied.
by one or more arbitrators, at the re~uest of
Authenticity of tbe Scriptures. A be- two parties who are at variance. ' If any
lief in the authenticity of the Scr~tures of the complaint be brought," say the Charges pubOld and New Testament as a religious quali- lished by Anderson, "the brother found guilty
fication of initiation does not constitute one shall stand to the award and determination
of the laws of Masonry, for such a reJ.mlation of the Lodge." (Constitutions, ed. 1723, p.
would destroy the universality of the Institu- 54.)
tion, and under its action none but Christians
Ayes and Noes. It is not according to
could become eligible for admission. But in Masonic usage to call for the ayes and noes on
1856 the Grand Lodge of Ohio declared "that any question pending before a Lodge. By a
a distinct avowal of a belief in the Divine au- show of hands is the old and usual custom.
thority of the Holy Scriptures should be reArnon. Aynon, Agnon, Ajuon, and Dyon
quired of every one who is admitted to the are all used in the old manuscript Constit~
privileges of Masonry, and that a denial of tions for one whom they call the son of the
the same is an offence against the Institution, King of Tyre, but it is evidently meant for
caJ.ling for exemplary discipline." It is hardly Hiram Abif. Each of these words is most
necessary to say that the enunciation of this probably a corruption of the Hebrew Adon or
principle met with the almost universal con- Lord1 so that the reference would clearly be
demnation of the Grand Lodges and Masonic to Adon Hiram or Adoniram, with whom
jurists of this country. The Grand Lodge of Hiram was often confounded; a confusion to
Ohio subsequently re~aled the regulation. be found in later times in the Adonhiramite
In 1857, the Grand Lodge of Texas adopted a Rite.
similar resolution; but the general sense of
Azarlah. The old French rituals have
the Fraternity has rejected all religious tests Azarias. A name in the high degrees signifying Helped of God.
except a belief in God.
Antopsy. (Greek, uf...rotCa, a seeing with Azazel. "Scapegoat," the "demon of~
one's own eyes.) The complete communica- places." Translated by others to be the fallen
tion of the secrets in the Ancient Mysteries, angel mentioned in the Book of Enoch, and
when the aspirant was admitted into the sa- identical with Sammael, the Angel of Death.
cellum, or most sacred place, and was invested Symmaehus says, " the goat that departs";
by the hierophant with all the aporrheta, or Josephus, "the averter of ills," "caper emissacred. things which constituted the perfect sarius."
knowledge of the initiate. A similar cereTwo he-goats, in all respects alike and equal,
mony in FreenuiSOnry is called the Rite of were brought forward for the day of atoneIntrusting. (See Mysteries.)
ment. The urn was shaken and twu lots
A.uDUary Decrees. AcOOl'ding to Oliver cast; one WBB "For the Name," and the
(Landm. 1 ii., 345), the Supreme Council of other "For Azazel." A scarlet tongue-haped
France, m addition to the thirty-three regular piece of wood WM twisted on the head of the
degrees of the Rite, confers six others, which goat to be sent away, and he was placed behe calls "Auxiliary De!!:rees." They are, l. fore the gate and delivered to his conductor.
Elu de Perignan. 2. Petit Archit~ete. 3. The high priest, placing his two hands on the
Grand Architecte1 or Compagnon Ecossais. goat, made confession for the people, and pro4. Ma!tre ~Bii!llS. 5. Knight of the East. nounced THE NAME clearly, which the people
6. Knight Rose Croix.
hearing, they knelt and worshiped, and fell
Avenue. Forming avenue is a ceremony on their faces and said, "Blessed be the N4fn.
sometimes practised in the lower degrees, Tlte Honor of His kingdom jomJt;f' mid 6fltlll'."

AZRAEL

BABEL

The goat was then led forth to the mountainside and rolled down to death.
Azrael. (Heb., help of God.) In the Jewish and the Mohammedan mythology, the
name of the angel who watches over the dying
and separates the soul from the body. Prior
to the intercession of Mohammed, Azrael inflicted the death-penalty visibly, by striking
down before the eyes of the living those whose

time for death was come. (See Henry W.

Longfellow's exquisite poem Azrael.)
Aztec Writings. The key to the Azteo
writings, it is alleged, has been discovered by
Rev. Father Damago Soto, of Concordia,Vera.
Cruz.
Azure. The clear, blue color of the sky.
Cerulean. The appropriate color of the symbolic degrees sometimes termed Blue Deil'ees.

88

B
B. (;:), Beth.) A labial consonant standing second in most alphabets, and in the
Hebrew or Phrenician signifies house, probably from its form of a tent or house, thus:

and finally the Hebrew ;:), having the numerical value two. When united with the
leading letter of the alphabet, ;)N, it signifies
Ab, Father, Master, or the one in authority,
as applied to Hiram the Architect. This is
the root of Baal. The Hebrew name of the
Deity connected with this letter is i,n:J, Bak;
hur.
Baal. Hebrew, l'::l. He was the chief
divinity among the Phrenicians, the Canaanite~y and the Babylonians. The word signifies
in .ttebrew lord or master. It was among the
Orientalists a comprehensive term, denoting
divinity of any kind without reference to class
or to sex. The Sabaists understood Baal as
the sun, and Baalim, in the plural, were the
sun, moon, and stars, "the host of heaven."
Whenever the Israelites made one of their
almost periodical deflections to idolatry, Baal
seems to have been the favorite idol to whose
worship they addicted themselves. Hence
he became the especial object of denunciation
with the p;r.:ophets. .Thus, in 1 ~gs (xviii.),
we see EliJah showmg, by practical demonstration, the difference between Baal and Jehovah. The idolaters, at his instigation,
called on Baal, as their sun-god, to light the
sacrificial fire, from morning until noon, because at noon he had acquired his greatest
intensity. And after noon no fire having
been kindled on the altar, they began to cry
aloud, and to cut themselves in token of mortification, because as the sun descended there
was no hope of his help. But EliJah, depending on Jehovah, made his sacrifice toward
sunBet, to show the greatest contrast between
Baal and the true God. And when the people

saw the fire come down and consume the offering, they acknowledged the weakness of their
idol, and falling on their faces cried out, J ehovah hu hahelohim-" Jehovah, he is the God."
And Hosea afterward promises the people
that they shall abandon their idolatry, and
that he would take away from them the Shemoth hahbaalim, the names of the Baalim, so
that they should be no more remembel'ed by
their names; and the people should in that
day "know Jehovah."
Hence we see that there was an evident antagonism in the orthodox Hebrew mind between Jehovah and Baal. The latter was,
however, worshiped by the Jews, whenever
they became heterodox, and by all the Oriental
or Shemitic nations as a supreme divinity,
representing the sun in some of his modifications as the ruler of the day. InTyre, Baal
was the sun, and Ashtaroth, the moon. Baalpeor, the lord of priapism, was the sun represented as the generative principle of nature,
and identical with the phallus of other religions. Baal-gad was the lord of the multitude (of stars), that i~ the sun as the chief of
the heavenly host. ln brief, Baal seems to
have been wherever his cultus was established,
a development or form of the old sun worship.
Babel. In Hebrew, ;;:);:) which the writer
of Genesis connects with ;~;:), balal, "to confound," in reference to the confusion of
tongues; but the true derivation is probably
from BAB-EL, the "gate of El" or the "gate of
God," because/erhaps a temple was the first
building raise by the primitive nomads.
It is the name of that celebrated tower attempted to be built on the plains of Shinar,
A.M. 1775, about one hundred and forty
years after the delugeJ which tower, Scripture informs us, was aestroyed by a special
interposition of the Almighty. The Noachite Masons date the commencement of
their Order from this destruction, and much
traditionary information on this subject is preserved in the degree of "Patriarch Noachite."
At Babel, Oliver says that what has been
called Spurious Freemasonry took its origin.
That is to say, the people there abandoned the
worship of the true God, and b;r their dispersion lost all knowledge of his eXIStence, and of

89

BABYLON

BACON

the principles of truth upon which Masonry

is founded. Hence it is that the rituals speak
of the lofty tower of Babel as the place where
language was confounded and Masonry lost.
This is the theory first advanced by Anderson in his Constitutions, and subsequently
developed more extensively by Dr. Oliver in
all his works, but especially in his Landmarks.
As history, the doctrine is of no value, for it
wants the element of authenticity. But in a
symbolic point of view it is highly suggestive.
If the tower of Babel represents the profane
world of ignorance and darkness, and the
threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite is the
symbol of Freemasonry1 because the Solomonic Temple, of which It was the site, is the
prototype of the spiritual temple which Masons are erecting, then we can readily understand how Masonry and the true use of language is lost in one and recovered in the other,
and how the progress of the candidate in his
initiation may properly be compared to the
progress of truth from the confusion and ignorance of the Babel builders to the perfection
and illumination of the temple builders, which
temple builders all Freemasons are. And
so, when in the ritual the neophyte1being asked
"whence he comes and whither IS he travelling," replies, "from the lofty tower of Babel,
where language was confounded and Masonry
lost, to the threshing-floor of Oman the Jehusite, where language was restored and Masonry found " the questions and answers
become intelligible from this symbolic point
of view. (See Ornan.)
Babylon. The ancient capital of Chaldea,
situated on both sides of the Euphrates, and
once the most magnificent city of the ancient
world. It was here that, upon the destruction
of Solomon's Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in
the year of the world 3394, the Jews of the
tribes of Judah and Benjaniin, who were the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, were conveyed and
detained in captivity for seventy-two years,
until Cyrus, King of Persia, issued a decree for
restoring them, and permitting them to rebuild their temple, under the superintendence
of Zerubbabel, the Prince of the Captivity,
and with the assistance of Joshua the High
Priest and Haggai the Scribe.
Babylon the Great, as the prophet Daniel
calls it, was situated four hundred and seventyfive miles in a nearly due east direction from
Jerusalem. It stood in the midst of a large
and fertile plain on each side of the river
Euphrates, which ran through it from north to
south. It was surrounded with walls which
were eighty-seven feet thick, three hundred
and fifty in height, and sixty miles in compass.
These were all built of large bricks cemented
together with bitumen. Exterior to the walls
was a wide and deep trench lined with the
same material. Twenty-five gates on each
side, made of solid brass gave admission to
the city. From each of these gates proceeded
a wide street fifteen miles in length, and the
whole was separated by means of other smaller
divisions, and contained six hundred and seventy-six squares, each of which was two miles

and a quarter in circumference. Two hundred and fifty towers placed upon the walls
afforded the means of additional strength
and protection. Within this immense circuit
were to be found palaces and temples and
other edifices of the utmost magnificence
which have caused the wealth, the luxury, and
splendor of Babylon to become the favorite
theme of the historians of antiquity, and
which compelled the prophet Isaiah, even
while denouncing its downfall, to speak of it
as "the siory of kingdoms, the beauty of the
Chaldees excellency."
Babylon, which, at the time of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, constituted a
part of the Chaldean empire, was subsequently
taken, B.c. 538, after a siege of two years, by
Cyrus, King of Persia.
Babylon, Red Cross of. Another name
for the degree of Babylonish Pass, which see.
Babylonlsh Captivity. See Captivity.
Babylonlsh Pass. A degree given in
Scotland by the authority of the Grand Royal
Arch Chapter. It is also called the Red Cross
of Babylon, and is almost identical with the
Companion of the Red Cross conferred in
Commanderies of Knights Templar in America
as a preparatory degree.
Back. Freemasonry, borrowing its symbols from every source, has not neglected to
make a selection of certain parts of the human
body. From the back an important lesson
is derived, which is fittin~ly developed in the
Third Degree. Hence, m reference to this
symbolism, Oliver says: "It is a duty incumbent on every Mason to support a brother's
character in his absence equally as though he
were present; not to revile him behind his back,
nor suffer it to be done by others, without
using every necessary attempt to prevent it."
And Hutchinson, referring to the same symbolic ceremony, says: "The most material
part of that brotherly love which should subsist among us Masons is that of speaking well
of each other to the world; more especially it
is expected of every member of this Fraternity
that he should not traduce his brother.
Calumny and slander are detestable crimes
against society. Nothing can be viler than to
traduce a man behind his back; it is like the
villainy of an assassin who has not virtue
enough to give his adversary the means of
self-defenceh but, lurking in darkness, stabs
him whilst e is unarmed and unsuspicious of
an enemy." (Spirit of Masonry, p. 205.)
(See Points of Fellowship.)
Bacon, Francis. Baron of Verulam, commonly called Lord Bacon. Nicolai thinks
that a great impulse was exercised upon the
early history of Freemasonry by the New
Atlantis of Lord Bacon. In this learned romance Bacon supposes that a vessel lands on
an unknown island, called Bensalem, over
which a certain King Solomon reigned in days
of yore. This king had a large establishment,
which was called the House of Solomon, or
the college of the workmen of six days, namely,
the days of the creation. He afterward describes the immense apparatus which was

00

BACON

there emploved in physical researches. There

were, says he, deep grottoes and towers for
the successful observation of certain phenomena of nature; artificial mineral waters; large
buildings, in which meteors, the wind, thunder,
and rain were imitated; extensive botanic gardens; entire fields, in which all kinds of
animals were collected, for the study of their
instincts and habits; houses filled with all the
wonders of nature and art; a great number of
learned men, each of whom, in his own country,
had the direction of these things; they made
journeys and observations; they wrote, they
collected, they determined results, and deliberated together as to what was proper to
be published and what concealed.
This romance became at once very popular,
and everybody's attention was attracted by
the allegory of the House of Solomon. But
it also contributed to spread Bacon's views on
experimental knowledge, and led afterward
to the institution of the Royal Society, to
which Nicolai attributes a common object
with that of the Society of Freemasons,
established1 he says, about the same time, the
difference oeing only that one was esoteric
and the other exoteric in its instructions.
But the more immediate effect of the romance
of Bacon was the institution of the Society
of Astrologers, of which Elias Ashmole was a
leading member. Of this society Nicolai, in
his work on the Origin and History of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, says:
( "Its object was to build the House of
Solomon, of the New Atlantis, in the literal
sense, but the establishment was to remain as
secret as the island of Bensalem-that is to
say, they were to be engaged in the study of
nature-but the instruction of its principles
was to remain in the society in an esoteric
form. These philosophers presented their
idea in a strictly allegorical method. First,
there were the ancient columns of Hermes, by
which Iamblichus pretended that he had enlightened all the doubts of Porphyry. You
then mounted, by several steps, to a chequered
floor, divided into four regions, to denote the
four suyerior sciences; after which came the
types o the six days' work, which expressed
the object of the society, and which were the
same as those found on an engraved stone in
m;r possession. The sense of all which was
this: God created the world, and preserves it
by fixed principles, full of wisdomj he who
seeks to know these principles-that is to
say~ the interior of nature-approximates to
Goa, and he who thus approximates to God
obtains from his grace the power of commanding nature."
This society, he adds met at Masons' Hall
in Basinghall Street, because many of its
members were also members of the Masons'
Company, into which they all afterward
entered and assumed the name of Free and
Accepted Masons, and thus he traces the origin
of the Order to the New Atlantis and the
House of Solomon of Lord Bacon. It is only
a theory, but it seems to throw some light
on that long process of incubation which

BACULUS
terminated at last, in 1717, in the production
of the Grand Lodge of England. The connection of A.shmole with the Masons is s.
singular one and has led to some controversy.
The views of Nicolai, if not altogether correct,
may suggest the possibility of an explanation.
Certain it is that the eminent astrologers of
England, as we learn from A.shmole's Diary,
were on terms of intimacy with the Masons
in the seventeenth century, and that many
Fellows of the Royal Society were also prominent members of the early Grand Lodge of
England which was established in 1717.
Bacon, Boger. An English monk who
made wonderful discoveries in many sciences.
He was born in llchester in 1214, educated at
Oxford and Paris, and entered the Franciscan
Order in his twenty-fifth year. He explored
the secrets of nature, and made many discoveries, the application of which was looked
upon as magic. He denounced the ignorance
and immorality of the clergy, resulting in
accusations, through revenge, and final imprisonment. He was noted as a Rosicrucian.
Died in 1292.
Baculus. The staff of office borne by the
Grand Master of the Templars. In ecclesiology, baculus is the name given to the
pastoral staff carried by a bishop or an abbot
as the ensign of his dignity and authority.
In pure Latinity, bacu!us means along stick
or staff, which was commonly carried by
travelers, by shepherds, or by infirm and
aged persons, and afterward from affectation, by the Greek philosophers. In early
times, this staff, made a little longer, was
carried by kings and persons in authority, as
a mark of distinction, and was thus the origin
of the royal scepter. The Christian church,
borrowing many of its usages from antiquity
and alluding also, it is said, to the sacerdot;;i
power which Christ conferred when he sent
the apostles to preach, commanding them to
take with them staves, adopted the pastoral
staff, to be borne by a bishop, as symbolical
of his power to inflict pastoral correction; and
Durandus says, "By the pastoral staff is likewise understood the authority of doctrine.
For by it the infirm are supported, the wavering are confirmed, those going astray are
drawn to repentance." Catalin also says
that "the baculus, or episcopal staff is an
ensign not only of honor, but also of dlgnity,
power, and pastoral jurisdiction."
Honorius, a writer of the twelfth century,
in his treatise De Gemma Anima!, gives to
this pastoral staff the names both of baculus
and uirga. Thus he says, "Bishops bear the
staff (baculum), that by their teaching they
may strengthen the weak in their faith; and
they carry the rod (uirgam), that by their power
they may correct the unruly." And this is
strikingly similar to the language used by St.
Bernard in the Rule which he drew up for the
government of the Templai-s. In Art. lxvili.
he says, "The Master ought to hold the st;;;if
and the rod (baculum et uirgam) in his hand,
that is to say1 the staff (baculum), that he may
support the infirmities of the weak, and the

BACULUS
rod (virgam), that he may with the seal of reo-

titude strike down the vices of delinquents."

The transmission of episcopal ensigns from
bishops to the heads of ecclesiastical associ&-tiona was not difficult in the Middle Ages; and
hence it afterward became one of the insignia
of abbots, and the heads of confraternities con
nected with the Church, as a token of the pos-session of powers of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
Now, as the Papal bull, Omne datum Op.
timum, invested the Grand Master of the
Templars with almost efliscopal jurisdiction
over the priests of his Order, he bore the
baculm, or pastoral staff, as a mark of that
jurisdiction, and thus it became a part of the
Grand Master's insignia of office.
The baculus of the bishop, the abbot, and
the confraternities was not precisely the same
in form. The earliest episcopal staff term.i~
nated in a globular knob, or a tau cross. This
was, however, soon replaced by the simple..
curved termination, which resembles and. is
called a crook, in allusion to that used by
shepherds to draw back and recall the sheep of
their flock which have gone astray, thus sym~
bolizing the expression of Christ, "I am the
good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and a.m
known of mine."
The baculus of the abbot does not differ in
form from that of a bishopJ but as the bishop
carries the curved part ot his staff pointing
forward, to show the extent of his episcopal
jurisdiction, so the abbot carries his point1ng
backward, to signify that his authority is
limited to his monastery.
The baculi, or staves of the confraternities,
were surmounted by small tabernacles, with
images or emblems, on a sort of carved cap,
having reference to the particular guild or
confraternity by whom they were borne.
The baculus of the Knights Templars, which
was borne by the Grand MMter as the ensign
of his office, in allusion to his quaBi-episcopal
jurisdiction, is described and delineated in
Mfinter, Burnes, Addison, and all the other
authorities, as a staff, on the top of which is
an octagonal figure, surmounted with a cross
patee. The cross, of course, refers to the
Christian character of the Order and the octagon alludes, it is said, to the eight beatitudes
of our Savior in his Sermon on the Mount.
The pastoral staff is variously designated, by
ecclesiastical writers, as virga, jerula, cambutta,
crocia, and pedum. From crocia, whose root
is the Latin crux, and the Italian croce, a cross,
we get the English crozier.
Pedum, another name of the baculus, signifies, in pure Latinity, a shepherd's crook, and
thus strictly carries out the symbolic idea of
a pastoral charge. Hence, looking to the
pastoral jurisdiction of the Grand Master of
the Templars, his staff of office is described
under the title of "pedum magistralt. eeu
pa.triarchale," that is, a "magisterial or patriarchal staff," in the Statuta Commilitanum
Ordinis TempU; or the 11 Statutes of the
Fellow-soldiers of the Oraer of the Temple,"
88 a part of the investiture of the Grand Master, m the following words:

BADGE
"Pedum

91

magiatrale ~ev fJQtriQrclale, tatr

reum, ift caeumiM cu.i'l48 ~ Ordini ww

orbem exaltatur "; that is, "A magisterial or

patriaroha.l etaff of gold, on the top of which

is a cross of the Order, llurmounting an orb or
globe.'' (Stat., uvili., art. 358.) But of all
these n~~omes, bacu.lu11 is the one more commonly used by writers to designate the
Templa.r pastoral atatf.
In the year 1859 this staff of office WIUl first
adopted at Chicago by the Templare of the
United States, during the Grand Mastership
of Sir William B. Hubbard. But, unfo~
tunately, at that time it received the name of
abaow, a misnomer, which has continued to
the present day, on the authority of a literary
blunder of Sir Walter Scott, eo that it has
fallen to the lot of American Masons to perpetuate, in the use of this word, an error of
the great novelist, resulting from his too car~
less writing, at which he would himaelf have
been the first to smile, had his attention been
called to it.
Abacus, in mathematics, denotes an instru~
ment or table used for calculation, and in
architecture an orn~~omental part of a column;
but it nowhere, in English or Latin, or any
known language, signifies any kind of a staff.
Sir Walter Scott, who undoubtedly was
thinking of baculm, in the hurry of the ma.
ment and a not improbable confusion of words
and thoughts, wrote abacue, when, in his novel
of Ivanhoe, he describes the Grand Masterz
Lucas Beaumanoir, as bearing in his hana
" that aingula.r abacus, or staff of office,"
committed a very gross, but not very uncommoni literary blunder, of a kind that is quite
fami iar to those who are conversant with the
results of rapid composition, where the writer
often thinks of one word and writes another.
Baden. In 1778 the Lodge "Karl of
Unity " was established in Mannheim, which
at that time belonged to Bavaria. In 1785 an
electoral decree was iSsued prohibiting all
secret meetings in the Bavarian Palatinate and
the Lodge was closed. In 1803 Mannheim
was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Baden,
and in 1805 the Lodge was reopened, and in
the following year accepted a warrant from
the Grand Orient of France and took the name
of "Karl of Concord.11 Then it converted
itself into the Grand Orient of Baden and was
acknowledged as such by the Grand Orient
of France in 1807.
Lodges were established at Bruchsal
Heidelberg, and Mannheim, and the Grand
Orient of Baden ruled over them until 1813,
when all secret societies were again prohibited,
and it was not until 1846 that Masonic ac~
tivity recommenced in Badenl when the Lodge
"Karl of Concord" was awal!:ened.
There is no longer a Grand Orient of Baden,
but the Lodglllil in the Duchy, of which several
have been established, are under the Grand
National Mother-Lodge "Zu den drei Wel~
kugeln " (Of the three Globes) in Berlin.
[E. L. H.]
Badge. A mark, sign, token, or thing,
says Webster, by which a person ill diitin~

92

BADGE

BALDRICK

guished in a particular ~lace or employment,

and designating his relat1on to a person or to a
particular occupation. It is in heraldry the
same thing as a cognizance: thus~the followers
and retainers of the house of .l:'ercy wore a
silver crescent as a badge of their connection
with that family; the white lion borne on the
left arm was the badge of the house of Howard,
Earl of Surrey; the red rose that of the house
of Lancaster; and the white rose, of York.
So the apron, formed of white lambskin, is
worn by the Freemason as a badge of his
profession and a token of his connection with
the Fraternity. (See Apron.)
BadKe of a Mason. The lambskin apron
is so called. (See Apron.)
Bad1e, Royal Arch. The Royal Arch
badge is the triple tau, which see.
Bafomet. See Baphomet.
Ba1. In the early days of the Grand Lodge
of England the Secretary used to carry a Bag
in processions ; thus in the procession round
the tables at tne Grand Feast of 1724 we find
"Secretary Cowper with the Bag" (Constitutions, ed. 1738, p. 117); and in 1729 Lord
Kingston, the Grand Master, provided at his
own cost "a fine Velvet Bag for the Secretary," besides his bad~e of "Two golden Pens
a-cross on his Breast' (ibid.1 p. 124); and in
the Procession of March lrom St. James'
Square to Merchant Taylor's Hall on January 29, 17301 there came "The Secretary
alone with his Badge and Bag, clothed, in
a Chariot." (Ibid., p. 125.)
This practise continued throughout the
Eighteenth century, for at the dedication of
Freemasons' Hall m London in 1776 we find
in the procession " Grand Secretary with the
bag." (Constitutions, 1784, p. 318.) But at the
union of the two rival Grand Lodges in 1813
the custom was changed, for in the order of
procession at public ceremonies laid down in
the Constitutions of 1815, we find "Grand
Secret~ with book of constitutions on a
cushion ' and "Grand Registrar with his
bag "; and the Grand Registrar of England
still carries on ceremonial occasions a bag
with the arms of the Grand Lod~ embroidered on it.
[K L. H.J
B&KUikal. A significant word in the high
degrees. Lenning says it is a corruption of
the Hebrew Begoal-kol, "all is revealed." Pike
says, Bagulkol, with a similar reference to a
revelation. Rockwell gives in his MS., Bekalkel, without any meaning. The old rituals interpret it as signifying "the faithful guardian
of the sacred ark," a derivation clearly fanciful.
Bahrdt, Karl Friederich. A German
Doctor of Theology, who was born, in 1741, at
Bischofswerda, and died in 1792. He is
described by one of his biographers as being
"notorious alike for his bold infidelity and for
his evil life." We know not why Thory and
Lenning have given his name a place in their
vocabularies, as his literary labors bore no
relation to Freemasonry, except inasmuch as
that he was a Mason, and that in 1787, with
several other Masons, he founded at Halle
a secret society called the "German Union,"

or the "Two and Twenty," in reference to the

original number of its members. The object
of this soc~~~:as said to be the enlightenment of m
d. It was dissolved in 1790,
by the imprisonment of its founder for having
written a libel against the Prussian Minister
Woellner. It is incorrect to call this system
of degree a Masonic Rite. (See German Union.)
Baldachin. In architecture, a canopy
supported by pillars over an insulated altar.
In Masonry, 1t has been applied bl some
writers to the canopy over the Masters chair.
The German Masons give this name to the
CQVering of the Lodge, and reckon it therefore
among the symbols.
Balder or Baldur. The ancient Scandinavian or older German divinity. The hero
of one of the most beautiful and hlteresting
of the myths of the Edda; the second son of
Odin and Frigga, and the husband of the
maiden Nanna. In brief, the myth recites
that Balder dreamed that his life was threatenedhwhich being told to the gods1 a council
was eld by them to secure his satety. The
mother proceeded to demand and receive
from every inanimate thing, iron and all
metals, fire and water, stones, earth, plants,
beastst birds, reptiles, poisons, and diseases,
that tney would not injure Balder. Balder
then became the subject of sport with the
gods, who wrestled, cast darts, and in innumerable ways playfully tested his invulnerability.
This finally displeased the mischievous, cunning Loki the Spirit of Evil, who, in the form
of an old woman, sought out the mother,
Frigga, and ascertained from her that there
had been excepted or omitted from the oath
the little shrub Mistletoe. In haste Loki
carried some of this shrub to the assembly of
the gods, and gave to the blind Hoder, the
god of war, selected slips, and directing his
aim, Balder fell pierced to the heart.
Sorrow among the gods was unutterable,
and FrigKa inquired who, to win her favor,
would journey to Hades and obtain from the
goddess Hel the release of Balder. The
heroic Helmod or Hermoder, son of Odin,
offered to undertake the journey. Hel consented to permit the return if all things animate and manimate should weep for Balder.
All living beings and all things wept, save
the witch or giantess Thock (the stepdaughter of Loki), who refused to sympathize
in the general mourning. Balder was therefore obliged to linger in the kingdom of Hel
until the end of the world.
Baldrlck. A :portion of military dreBB,
being a scarf passmg from the shoulder over
the breast to the hip. In the dreBB regulations of the Grand Encampment of Knights
Templar of the United States, adoJ?ted in
1862, it is called a "scarf," and 18 thus
described: "Five inches wide in the whole of
white bordered with black, one inch on either
side, a strip of navy lace one-fourth of an
inch wide at the inner edge of the black. On
the front centre of the scarf, a metal star of
nine points, in allusion to the nine founders of
the Temple Order, inclosing the Passion Cross,

BALDWYN
surrounded by the Latin motto, In hoc signo
vinces; the star to be three and three-quarter
inches in diameter. The scarf to be worn
from the right shoulder to the left hip, with
the ends extending six inches below the point
of intersection."
Baldwyn II. The successor of Godfrey of
Bouillon as King of Jerusalem. In his reign
the Order of Knights Templar was instituted,
to whom he granted a place of habitation
within the sacred enclosure of the Temple on
Mount Moriah. He bestowed on the Order
other marks of favor, and, as its patron; his
name has been retained in grateful remembrance, and often adopted as a name of Commanderies of Masonic Templars.
Baldwyn Encampment. There is at Bristol in England a famous Preceptory of Knights
Templar, called the "Baldwyn," which claims
to have existed from time immemorial, and
of which no one has yet been able to discover
the origin. This, together with the Chapter
of Knights Rosre Crucis, is the continuation
of the old Baldwyn Encampment, the name
being derived from the Crusader, King of
Jerusalem.
The earliest record preserved by this Preceptory is an authentic and important document dated December 20, 1780, and headed:
"In the name of the Grand Architect of
the Universe.
"The Supreme Grand and Royal Encampment of the Order of Kni~hts Tem_plars of St.
John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitallers and
Knights of Malta, &c., &c.," and commencing "Whereas by Charter of Compact our
Encampment is constituted the Sup}"eme
Grand and Royal Encampment of this Noble
Order with full Power when Assembled to
issue, publish and make known to all our
Iovin!!; Knights Companions whatever may
contribute to their knowledge not inconsistent
with its general Laws. Also to constitute
and appoint any Officer or Officers to make
and ordain such laws as from time to time
may appear necessary to promote the Honor
of our Noble Order in general and the more
perfect government of our Supreme degree in
particular. We therefore the MOST EMINENT GRAND MASTER The Grand Master of the Order, the Grand Master Assistant
General, and two Grand Standard Bearers
and Knights Companions for that purpose in
full EncamtJment Assembled do make known."
Then follow twenty Statutes or Regulations for the government of the Order and
the document ends with "Done at our Castle
in Bristol 20th day of December 1780."
It is not clear who were the parties to this
"Compact," but it is thought probable that
it was the result of an agreement between the
Bristol Encampment and another ancient
body at Bath (the Camp of Antiquity) toestablish a supreme direction of the Order.
However that may be, it is clear that the
Bristol Encam_pment was erected into a Supreme Grand Encampment in 1780.
The earliest reference to the Kni~hts
Templar as yet discovered occurs in a Bristol

BALKIS

93

newspaper of January 25, 1772, so it' may

fairly be assumed that the Baldwyn Preceptory had been in existence before the date of
the Charter of Compact.
In 1791 the well-known Brother Thomas
Dunckerley, who was Provincial Grand Master and Grand Superintendent of the Royal
Arch Masons at Bristol, was requested by the
Knights Templar of that city to be their
Grand Master. He at once introduced great
activity into the Order throughout England,
and established the Grand Conclave in London
-the forerunner of the Great Priory.
The "seven degrees " of the Camp of Baldwyn at that time probably consisted of the
three of the Craft and that of the Royal Arch
(which were necessary qualifications of all
candidates as set forth in the Charter of Compact), (5) Knights Templar of St. John of
Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, (6)
Knights Rose Croix of Heredom, (7) Grand
Elected Knights Kadosh.
About the vear 1813 the three degrees of
"Nine Elect/' "Kilwinning," and "East,
Sword and Eagle" were adopted by the Encampment. The "Kadosh' having afterward discontinued, the five "Royal Orders of
Masonic Knighthood," of which the Encam:r.ment consistedt-.were: (1) Nine Elect, (2) Kilwinning, (3) ~ast, Sword and Eagle, (4)
Knight Templar, (5) Rose Croix.
For many years the Grand Conclave in
London was in abeyance, but when H.R.H.
the Duke of Sussex, who had been Grand
Master since 1813, died in 1843, it was revived, and attempts were made to induce the
Camp of Baldwyn to submit to its authority,
but without avail, and in 1857 Baldwyn reasserted its position as a Supreme Grand and
Royal Encampment1 and shortly afterward
issued charters to 8lX subordinate Encampments. The chief cause of difference with the
London Grand Conclave was the question of
giving up the old custom of working the Rose
Croix Degree within the Camp. At last, in
1862, the Baldwyn was enrolled by virtue of a
Charter of Compact "under the Banner of "
the Grand Conclave of Masonic Knights
Templar of England and Wales." It was
arranged that the Baldwyn Preceptory (as it
was then called) .should take precedence
(with five others "of time immemorial") of the
other Preceptories; that it should be constituted a Provincial Grand Commandery or
Priory of itself; and should be entitled to confer the degree of Knights of Malta.
In 1881 a "Treaty of Union" was made
with the Supreme Council of the 33, whereby
the Baldwyn Rose Croix Chapter retained its
"time immemorial " position and was _placed
at the head of the list of Chapters. It also
became a " District " under the Supreme
Council of the 33 and is therefore placed
under an " Inspector General" of its own.
(The precedinv article is contributed by Bro.
Cecil Powell, jomt-author of "Freemasonry in
Bristol" published in 1910.)
Balkls. The name given by the Orientalists to the Queen of Sheba, who visited King

BALLOT

BALLOT

Solomon, and of whom they relate a number of

fables. (See Sheba, Queen of.)
Ballot. In the election of candidates,
Lodges have recourse to a ballot of white and
black balls. Unanimity of choice, in this case,
was originally required; one black ball only
being enough to reject a candidate, because as
the Old Regulations say, "The members of a
particular Lodge are the best judges of it;
and because, if a turbulent member should be
imposed on them, it might spoil their harmony
or hinder the freedom of their communication, or even break up and disperse the Lodge,
which ought to be avoided by all true and
faithful." (Constitutions, 1738, p. 155.)
"But it was found inconvenient to insist
upon unanimity in several cases: and therefore the Grand Masters have allowed the
Lodges to admit a member, if not above three
Ballots are against him; though some Lodges
desire no such allowance." (Ibid.)
And this is still the rule under the English
Constitution. (Rule 190.)
In balloting for a candidate for initiation,
every member is expected to vote. No one
can be excused from sharing the responsibility
of admission or rejection.; except by the unanimous consent of the Lodge. Where a member
has himself no personal or acquired knowledge
of the qualifications of the candidate, he is
bound to give faith to the recommendation of
his brethren of the reporting committee, who,
he is to presume, would not make a favorable
report on the petition of an unworthy applicant.
The most correct usage in balloting for pandidates is as follows:
The committee of investigation having
reported favorably, the Master of the Lodge
directs the Senior Deacon to prepare the hallot-box. The mode in which this is accomplished is as follows: The Senior Deacon
takes the ballot-box, and, .opening it, places
all the white and black balls indiscriminately
in one compartment, leaving the other entirely
empty. He then proceeds with the box to the
Junior and Senior Wardens, who satisfy themselves by an inspection that no ball has been
left in the compartment in which the votes are
to be deposited. The box in this and the other
instance to be referred to hereafter is presented to the inferior officer first, and then to
his superior, that the examination and decision
of the former may be substantiated and confirmed by the higher authority of the latter.
Let it, indeed, be remembered, that in all such
cases the usage of Masonic circumambulation
is to be observed, and that, therefore, we must
first pass the Junior's station before we can get
to that of the Senior Warden.
These officers having thus satisfied themselves that the box is in a proper condition for
the reception of the ballots, It is then placed
upon the altar by the Senior Deacon, who
retires to his seat. The Master then directs
the Secretary to call the roll, which is done
by commencing with the Worshipful Master,
and proceeding through all the officers down
to the youngest member. As a matter of con-

venience, 'the Secretary generally votes the

last of those in the room, and thenil if the Tiler
is a member of the Lodge, he is ca ed in, whil0
the Junior Deacon tiles for him, and the name
of the applicant having been told him, he is
directed to deposit his ballot, which he does
and then retires.
As the name of each officer and member is
called, he approaches the altar, and having
made the proper Masonic salutation to the
Chair, he deposits his ballot and retires to his
seat. The roll should be called slowly, so that
at no time should there be more than one person present at the box, for the great object of
the ballot being secrecy, no brother should be
permitted so near the member voting as to
distinguish the color of the ball he deposits.
The box is placed on the altar, and the ballot
is deposited with the solemnity of a Masonic
salutation, that the voters may be duly impressed with the sacred and responsible nature of the duty they are called on to discharge. The system of voting thus described,
is, therefore, far better on this account than
that sometimes adopted in Lodges, of handing
round the box for the members to deposit
their ballots from their seats.
.
The Master having inquired of theWardens
if all have voted, then orders the Senior Deacon to "take charge of the ballot-box." That
officer accordingly repairs to the altar, and
taking possession of the box, carries it, as before, to the Junior Warden, who examinei the
ballot, and reports, if all the balls are whit':~
cthat "the box is clear in the South," or, il
there is one or more black balls, that "the box
is foul in the South." The Deacon then carries it to the Senior Warden, and afterward
to the Mastcr1who, of course, make the same
report, according to the circumstance, with
the necessary verbal variations of "We11t"
and "East."
If the box is clear--that is, if all the ballots
are white--the Master then announces that
the applicant has been duly elected, and the
Secretarr makes a record of the fact. But if
the box IS foul, the Master inspects the numher of black balls; if he finds only one, he so
states the fact to the Lodge, and orders the
Senior Deacon again to prepare the ballot-box.
Here the same ceremonies are passed through
that have already been described. The balls
are removed into one compartment the box
is submitted to the inspection of theWardens,
ii is placed upon the altar, the roll is called,
the members advance and deposit their votes~
the box is scrutinized, and the result declared
by the Wardens and Master. If again one
black ball be found, or if two or more appeared
on the first ballot, the Master announces that
the petition of the applicant has been reiected,
and directs the usual record to be made by the
Secretary and the notification to be given to
the Grand Lodge.
Balloting for membership or affiliation is
subject to the same rules. In both cases
"previous notice, one month before," must be
given to the Lodge, "due inquiry into the reputation and capacity of the candidate" must

94

95

BALLOT-BOX

BALTIMORE

be made and "the unanimous consent of all

the members then l?resent " must be obtained.
Nor can this unarumity be dispensed with in
one case any more than it can in the other. It
is the inherent P-rivilege of every Lodge to
judge of the qua.lifications of its own members,
"nor is this inherent privilege subject to a dispensation."
Ballot-Box. The box in which the ballots
or little balls used in voting for a candidate
are deposited. It should be divided into two
compartments, one of which is to contain both
black and white balls from which each member selects one, and the other, which is closed
with an aperture, to receive the ball that is to
be deposited. Various methods have been
devised by which secrecy may be secured so
that a voter may select and deposit the ball he
desires without the possibility of its being seen
whether it is black or white. That now most
in use in this country is to have the aperture
so covered by a part of the box as to prevent
the hand from being seen when the ball is deposited.
Ballot, Reconsideration of the. See
Reconsideration of the Ballot.
Ballot, SeCl'ecy of the. The secrecy of
the ballot is as essential to its perfection as its
unanimity or its independence. If the vote
were to be given viva voce, it is impossible that
the improper influences of fear or interest
should not sometimes be exerted, and timid
members be thus induced to vote contrary to
the dictates of their reason and conscience.
Hence, to secure this secrecy and protect the
purity of choice, it has been wisely' established
as a usage, not only that the vote shall in these
cases be taken by a ballot, but that there shall
be no subsequent discussion of the subject.
Not only has no member a right to inquire
how his fellows have voted, but it is wholly
out of order for him to explain his own vote.
And the reason of this is evident. If one
member has a right to rise in his place and announce that he deposited a white ball, then
every other member has the same right; and
in a Lodge of twenty members, where an apP.lication has been rejected by one black ball,
If nineteen members state that they did not
deposit itl.-. the inference is clear that the
twentieth l:Srother has done so, and thus the
secrecy of the ballot is at once destroyed. The
rejection having been announced from the
Chair, the Lodge should at once proceed to
other business, and it is the sacred duty of the
presiding officer peremptorily and at once to
check any rising discussion on the subject.
Nothing must be done to impair the inviolable
secrecy of the ballot.
Ballot, Unanimity of the. Unanimity
in the choice of candidates is considered so
essential to the welfare of the Fraternity, that
the Old Regulations have expressly provided
for its preservation in the following words:
"But no man can be entered a Brother in
any particular Lodge, or admitted to be a
member thereof, without the unanimous consent of all the members of that Lodge then
present when the candi~ate is proposed, and

their consent is formally asked by the Master;

and they are to signify their consent or dissent in their own prudent way, either virtually
or in form, but with unanimity; nor is this
inherent privilege subject to a dispensation;
because the members of a particular Lodge are
the best judges of it; and if a fractious member
should be imposed on them, it might spoil
their harmony, or hinder their freedom; or
even break and disperse the Lodge, which
ought to be avoided by all good and true
brethren." (Constitutions, 1723, p. 59.)
The rule of unanimity here referred to is,
however1 applicable only to the United States
of Amenca, in all of whose Grand Lodges it is
strictly enforced. Anderson tells us, in the second edition of the Constitutions, under the
head of New Regulations (p. 155), that "it
was found inconvenient to insist upon unanimity in several cases; and, therefore, the
Grand Masters have allowed the Lodges to
admit a member if not above three ballots are
against him; though some Lodges desire no
such allowance." And accordingly, the present Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England, says: "No person can be made a Mason
in or admitted a member of a Lodge, if, on the
ballot, three black balls appear against him;
but the by-laws of a Lodge may enact that one
or two black balls shall exclude a candidate
and by-laws may also enact that a prescrib;;d
period shall elapse before any rejected candidate can be again proposed in that Lodge."
(Rule 190.) The Grand Lodge of Ireland prescribes unanimity, unless there is a by-law of
the subordinate Lodge to the contrary. (Law
127.) The Constitution of Scotland provides
that " Three black balls shall exclude a candidate. Lodges in the Colonies and in Foreign
parts may enact that two black balls shall
exclude." (Rule 181.) In the continental
Lodges, the modern English regulation prevails. It is only in the Lodges of the Umted
States that the ancient rule of unanimity is
strictly enforced.
Unanimity in the ballot is necessary to
secure the harmony of the Lodge which may
be as seriously impaired by the admission of a
candidate contrary to the wishes of one member as of three or more; for every man has' his
friends and his influence. Besides, it is unjust to any member, however humble he may
be, to introduce among his associates one
whose presence might be unpleasant to him
and whose admission would probably compel
him to withdraw from the meetings, or even
altogether from the Lodge. Neither would
any advantage really accrue to a Lodge by
such a forced admission; for while receiving
a new and untried member into its fold, it
would be losing an old one. For these reasons,
in this country, in every one of its jurisdictions, the unanimity of the ballot is expressly
insisted on; and it is evident, from what has
been here said, that any less stringent regulation is a violation of the ancient law and usage.
Balsamo, Joseph. See Cagliostro.
Baltimore Convention. A Masonic
Congress which met in the city of Baltimore on

96

BALUSTER

BANNERS

the 8th of May, 1843, in consequence of a recommendation made by a preceding convention

which had met in Washington, D. C., in March,
1842. It consisted of delegates from the
States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New
York;. Maryland, District of Columbia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia; Alabama,
Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, and Louisiana. Its professed objects were to produce
uniformity of Masonic work and to recommend such measures as should tend to the elevation of the Order. It continued in session
for nine days! during which time it was principally occupied in an atteml?t to perfect the
ritual, and in drawing up articles for the permanent organization of a Triennial Masonic
Convention of the United States, to consist of
delegates from all the Grand Lodges. In
both of these efforts it failed, although several
distinguished Masons took part in its I?roceedin~s; the body was too small (consistmg,
as ib did, of only twenty-three members) to
exercise any decided popular influence on the
Fraternity. Its plan of a Triennial Convention met with very general opposition, and its
proposed ritual, familiarly known as the "Baltimore work," has almost become a myth. Its
only practical result was the preparation and
publication of Moore's Trestle Board, a MonItor which has, however, been adopted only by
a lilnited number of American Lodges. The
"Baltimore work " did not materially differ
from that originally established by Webb.
Moore's Trestle Board professes to be an exposition of its monitorial part; a statement
which, however, is denied by Dr. Dove, who
was the President of the Convention, and the
controversy on this point at the time between
these two eminent Masons was conducted
with too much bitterness.
Baluster. A small column or pilaster,
corruptly called a bannister; in French, balustre. Borrowing the architectural idea, the
Scottish Rite Masons apply the word baluster
to any official circular or other document issuing from a Supreme Council.
Balzac, Louis Charles. A French architect of some celebrity, and member of the Institute of Egypt. He founded the Lodge of
the Great Sphinx at Paris. He was also a
poet of no inconsiderable merit, and was the
author of many Masonic canticles in the
French language, among them the well-known
hymn entitled Taisons nous, plus de bruit,
the music of which was composed by M. Riguel. He died March 31, 1820, at which time
he was inspector of the public works in the prefecture of the Seine.
Band. The neck ribbon bearing the jewel
of the office in Lodge, Chapter, or Grand
Lodge of various countries, and of the symbolic color pertaining to the body in which it is
worn.
Banner-Bearer. The name of an officer
known in the higher degrees in the French
Rite. One who has in trust the banner; similar in station to the Standard-Bearer of a
Grand Lodge, or. of a Supreme Body of the
Scottish Rite.

Banneret. A small banner. An officer

known in the Order of the Knights Templar,
who, with the Marshal, had charge of warlike
undertakings. A title of an order known as
Knight Banneret, instituted by Edward I.
The banneret of the most ancient order of
knighthood called Knight Bachelor was
.(Fig. 1.)

(Fig. 2.)

(Fig. 3.)

"*'~

shaped like Fig. 1. The Knights Banneret,

next in age, had a pennon like Fig. 2. That
of the Barons like Fig. 3.
Banners, Boyal Arch. Much difficulty
has been experienced by ritualists in reference
to the true colors and proper arrangements of
the banners used in an American Chapter of
Royal Arch Masons. It is adlnitted that they
are four in number, and that their colors are
blue, purple, scarlet, and white; and it is known
too, that the devices on these banners are a
lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle; but the doubt
is constantly arising as to the relation between these devices and these colors, and as to
which of the former is to be appropriated to
each of the latter. The question, it is true, is
one of mere ritualism, but it is important that
the ritual should be always uniform, and
hence the object of the present article is to
attempt the solution of this question.
The banners used in a Royal Arch Chapter
are derived from those which are supposed to
have been borne by the twelve tribes of Israel
during their encampment in the wilderness, to
which reference is made in the second chapter
of the Book of Numbers, and the second verse:
"Every man of the children of Israel shall
pitch by his own standard." But as to what
were the devices on the banners, or what were
their various colors, the Bible is absolutely
silent. To the inventive genius of the Talmudists are we indebted for all that we know
or profess to know on this subject. These
mystical philosophers have given to us with
wonderful precisiOn the various devices which
they have borrowed from the death-bed
prophecy of Jacob, and have sought, probably
m their own fertile imaginations, for the
appropriate colors.
The English Royal Arch Masons, whose
system differs very much from that of their
Anlerican Companions, display in their Chapters the twelve banners of the tribes in accordance with the Talmudic devices and colors.
These have been very elaborately described
by Dr. Oliver in his Historical Landmarks
(ii., 583-97), and beautifully exemplified by
Companion Harris in his Royal Arch Tracing
Boards.
But our Anlerican Royal Arch Masons, as
we have seen, use only four banners, being
those attributed by the Talmudists to the four
principal tribes--Judah, Ephraim, Reuben,
and Dan. The devices on these banners are
respectively a lion, an ox, a man, and an ea~le.
As to this there is no question, all authorities,

BANQUET

BARD

such as they are, agreeing on this point. But,

as has been before said, there is some diversity
of opinion as to the colors of each, and necessarily as to the officers by whom they should
be borne.
Some of the Targumists, or Jewish biblical
commentators, say that the color of the banner
of each tribe was analogous to that of the
stone which represented that tribe in the
breastplate of the High Priest. If this were
correct, then the colors of the banners of the
four leading tribes would be red and green,
namely, red for Judah, Ephraim, and Reuben,
and green for Dan; these being the colors of
the precious stones sardonyx, ligure, carbuncle,
and chrysolite, by which these tribes were represented in the High Priest's breastplate.
Such an arrangement would not, of course, at
all suit the symbolism of the American Royal
Arch banners.
Equally unsatisfactory is the disposition of
the colors derived from the arms of Speculative
Masonry, as first displayed by Dermott in his
AMman Rezon, which is familiar to all American Masons, from the copy published by Cross,
in his Hieroglyphic Chart. In this piece of
blazonry, the two fields occupied by Judah
and Dan are azure, or blue, and those of
Ephraim and Reuben are or, or golden yellow;
an appropriation of colors altogether uncongenial with Royal Arch symbolism.
We must then, depend on the Talmudic
writers solely for the disposition and arrangement of the colors and devices of these banners. From their works we learn that the
color of the banner of Judah was white; that
of Ephraim.z.. scarlet; that of Reuben, purple/
and that of van, blue; and that the devices o
the same tribes were respectively the lion, the
ox, the man, and the eagle.
Hence, under this arrangement-and it is
the only one UJ?On which we can depend-the
four banners m a Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons, working in the American Rite, must
be distributed as follows among the bannerbearing officers:
1st. An eagle, on a blue banner. This represents the tribe of Dan, and is borne by the
Grand Master of the first veil.
2d. A man, on a purple banner. This represents the tribe of Reuben, and is borne by
the Grand Master of the second veil.
3d. An ox, on a scarlet banner. This represents the tribe of Ephraim, and is borne by
the Grand Master of the third veil.
4th. A lion, on a white banner. This represents the tribe of Judah, and is borne by the
Royal Arch Captain.
Banquet. See Tabl&-Lodge.
Baphomet. The imaginary idol, or, rather,
symbol which the Knights Templars were
ace~ of employing in their mystic rights.
The forty-second of the charges preferred
against them by Pope Clement is in these
words: I~ quod ipsi per singulas provincia& habeant idola : videlicet capita quorum
aliqua habebant tres facies, et alia unum: et
aliqua cranium humanum habebant. Also,
that in all of the provinces they have idols,

namely, heads, of which some had three faces,

some one, and some had a human skull. Von
Hammer, a bitter enemy of the Templars, in
his book entitled The Mystery of Baphomet
Revealed, revived this old accusation, and attached to the Baphomet an impious signification. He derived the name from the Greek
words,~. baptism, and f.'~m, wisdom, and
thence supposed that it represented the admission of the initiated into the secret mysteriesoftheOrder. Fromthisgratuitousassumption he deduces his theory, set forth even m
the very title of his work, that the Templars
were convicted, by their own monuments, of
being guilty as Gnostics and Ophites, of apostasy, idolatry, and impurity. Of this statement he offers no other historical testimony
than the Articles of Accusation, themselves
devoid of proof, but through which the Templars were made the victims of the jealousy of
the Pope and the avarice of the King of France.
Others again have thought that they could
find in Baphomet a corruption of Mahomet,
and hence they have asserted that the Templars had been perverted from their religIOUS faith by the Saracens, with whom they
had so much intercourse, sometimes as foes
and sometimes as friends. Nicolai1 who
wrote an Essay on the Accusations oroUJJM
against the Templars, published at Berlin,
in 1782, supposes, but doubtingly, that the
figure of the Baphomet, figura Bajfometi,
which was depicted on a bust representing the
Creator, was nothing else but the Pythagorean
pentagon, the symbol of health and prosperIty, borrowed by the Templars from the Gnostics, who in tum had obtained it from the
School of Pythagoras.
King, in his learned work on the Gnostics,
thinks that the Baphomet may have been a
symbol of the Manicheans, with whose widespreading heresy in the Middle Ages he does
not doubt that a large portion of the inquiring
spirits of the Temple had been intoxicated.
Amid these conflicting views, all merely
speculative, it will not be uncharitable or unreasonable to suggest that the Baphomet, or
skull of the ancient Templars, was, like the
relic of their modern Masonic representatives,
simply an impressive symbol teaching the
lesson of mortality, and that the latter has
really been derived from the former.
Baptism, Masonic. The term "Masonic
Baptism " has been recently applied in this
country by some authorities to that ceremony
which is used in certain of the high degrees1
and which, more properly, should be callect
"Lustration." It has been objected that the
use of the term is calculated to give needless
offense to scrupulous persons who might suppose it to be an imitatiOn of a Christian sacrament. But, in fact, the Masonic baptism has
no allusion whatsoever, either in form or design, to the sacrament of the Church. It is
simply a lustration or purification by water, a
ceremony which was common to all the ancient initiations. (See Lustration.)
Bard. A title of great dignity and importance among the ancient Bntons, which was

97

BASTARD

BARRUEL

conferred only upon men of distinguished rank

in society and who filled a sacred office. It
was the thkd or lowest of the three degrees
into which Druidism was divided. (See Druidical Mysteries.)
There is an officer of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland called the "Grand Bard."
Bastard. The question of the ineligibility
of bastards to be made Freemasons was first
brought to the attention of the Craft by
Brother Chalmers I. Paton, who, in several
articles in The London Free'Tfl(l8on, in 1869,
contended that they were excluded from initiation by the Ancient Regulations. Subsequently, m his compilation entitled Freemar
8()11,7'y and ita Jurisprudence published in 1872,
he cites several of the Old Constitutions as
explicitly declaring that the men made Masons
shall be "no bastards." This is a most unwarrantable interpolation not to be justified in
any writer on jurisprudence; for on a careful
examination of all the old manuscript copies
which have been published, no such words
are to be found in any one of them. As an
instance of this literary disingenuousness (to
use no harsher term)~ I quote the following
from his work (p. 60 J : "The charge in thie
second edition [of Anderson's ConstitutionB] is
in the following unmistakable words: 'The
men made Masons must be freeborn, no bastardl (or no bondmen,) of mature age and of
gooo. report, hale and sound, not deformed or
dismembered at the time of their making.' "
Now, with a copy of this second edition
lying open before me, I find the passage thus
printed: "The men made Masons must be
freeborn, (or no bondmen,) of mature age and
of good report, hale and sound, not deformed
or dismembered at the time of their making.''
The words "no bastard" are Paton's interpolation.
Again, Paton quotes from Preston the An.cient Charges at makings, in these words:
"That he that be made be able in all degrees;
that is, freeborn, of a good kindred, true, and
no bondsman or bastard, and that he have his
right limbs as a man ought to have."
But on referring to Preston (edition of 1775,
and all subsequent editions) we find the passage to be correctly thus: "That he that be
made be able in all degrees; that is, freeborn,
of a good kindred, true1 and no bondsman,
and that he have his limos as a man ought to
have.''
Positive law authorities should not be thus
cited, not merely carelessly, but with designed
inaccuracy to support a theory.
But although there is no regulation in the
Old Constitutions which expliciay prohibits
the initiation of bastards, it may be implied
from their lan~age that such prohibition did
exist. Thus, m all the old manUI'Icripts, we
find such expressions as these: he that shall be
made a Mason "must be freeborn and of good
kindred" (Sloane MS., No. 3323), or "come of
good kindred" (Edinburgh Kilwinning MS.),
or, as the Roberts Print more definitely has it,
"of honest parentage.''
Jt is not, I therefore think, to be doubted

that formerly bastards were considered asin

eligible for initiation, on the same principle
that they were, as a degraded class, excluded
from the priesthood in the Jewish and the primitive Christian church. But the more liberal
spirit of modern times has long since made the
law obsolete, because it is contrary to the principles of justice to punish a misfortune as if it
was a crime.
Barbatl Fratres. Bearded Brothers-at
an earlier date known as the Conversi--craftsmen known among the Conventual Builders,
admitted to the Abbey Corbey in the year
851, whose social grade was more elevated
than the ordinary workmen, and were freeborn. The Conversi were filiates in the Abbeys, used a quasi-monastic dress, could leave
their profession whenever they chose and could
return to civil life. Converts who abstained
from secular pursuits as sinful and professed
conversion to the higher life of the Abbe1
without becoming monks. Scholre or guilds ot
such Operatives lodged within the convents.
We are told by Bro. Geo. F. Fort (in his Critical Inquiry Concerning the Mediret>al Conventual Buildere, 1884) that the scholre of
dextrous Barbati Fratres incurred the anger
of their coreligionists, by their haughty deportment, sumptuous garb, liberty of movement, and refusal to have their long, flowing
beards shaven-hence their name--thus tending to the more fascinating attractions of civil
life as time carried them forward through the
centuries to the middle of the thirteenth, when
William Abbott, of Premontre, attempted to
enforce the rule of shaving the beard. "These
worthy ancestors of our modern craft deliberately refused," and said, "if the execution of
this order were pressed against them, 'they
would fire every cloister and cathedral in the
country.' " The decretal was withdrawn.
Barefeet. See Discalceation.
Barruel, Abbe. Augustin Barruel, generally known as the Abbe Barruel, who was
born, October 2, 1741, at Villeneuve de Berg,
in France, and who died October 5, 1820, was
an implacable enemy of Freemasonry. He
was a prolific writer, but owes his reputation
principally to the work entitled Memoires
pour servir a l' Histoire du J acobinisme, 4 vols.,
8vo, published in London in 1797. In this
work he charges the Freemasons with revolutionary principles in politics and with infidelity in religion. He seeks to trace the origin
of the Institution first to those ancient heretics,
the Manicheans, and through them to the
Templars, against whom he revives the old
accusations of Philip the Fair and Clement
V. His theory of the Templar origin of
Masonry is thus expressed (ii., 382): "Your
whole school and all your Lodges are derived
from the Templars. After the extinction of
their Order, a certain number of guilty knights,
having escaped the proscription, united for
the preservation of their horrid mysteries. To
their impious code they added the vow of
vengeance against the kings and priests who
destroyed their o_~der., and against all religion
which anathematizeo. their dogmaa. They

98

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---

99

BARTOLOZZI

BASLE

made adepts, who should tranBmit from generation to generation the same mysteries of iniquity, the same oaths, and the same hatred of
the God of the Christians, and of kings, and of
priests. These mysteries have descended to
you, and you continue to perpetuate their
impiety, their vows, and their oaths. Such is
your origin. The lapse of time and the change
of manners have varied a part of your symbols
and your frightful systems; but the essence
of them remains, the vows, the oaths, the
hatred, and the conspiracies are the same."
It is not astonishing that Lawrie (History of
Freemasonry, p. 50) should have said of the
writer of such statements, that "that charity
and forbearance which distinguish the Christian character are never exemplified in the
work of Barruel; and the hypocrisy of his pretensions is often betrayed by the fury of his
zeal. The tattered veil behind which he attempts to cloak his inclinations often discloses to the reader the motives of the man
and the wishes of his party." Although the
attractions of his style and the boldness of his
declamation gave Barruel at one time a prominent place among anti-Masonic writers, his
work is now seldom read and never cited in
Masonic controversies, for the progress of
truth has assigned their just value to its extravagant assertions.
Bartolozzl, Francesco (1728-1813). A
famous engraver who lived for some time in
London and engraved the frontispiece of the
1784 edition of the Book of Constitutions. He
was initiated in the Lodge of the Nine Muses
in London on February 13l 1777. [E. L. H.]
Basilica. Literally ana. originally a royal
palace. A Roman Pagan basilica was a rectangular hall whose length was two or three
times its breadth, divided by two or more lines
of columns, bearing entablatures, into a broad
central nave and side aisles. It was generally
roofed with wood, sometimes vaulted. At one
end was the entrance. From the center of the
opposite end opened a semicircular recess as
broad as the nave, called in Latin the "Tribuna" and in Greek the" Apsis." The uses of
the basilica were various and of a public character, courts of justice being held in them.
Only a few ruins remain, but sufficient to establish the form and general arrangement.
The significance of the basilica to Freemasons is that it was the form ado,Pted for
early Christian churches, and for its mfluence
on the building guilds.
For the beginning of Christian architecture,
which is practically the beginning of Operative
Masonry, we must seek very near the beginning of the Christian religion. For three centuries the only places in Pagan Rome where
Christians could meet with safety were in
the catacombs. When Constantine adopted
Christianity in 324, the Christians were no
longer forced to worship in the catacombs.
They were permitted to worship in the basilica
and chose days for special worship of the
Saints on or near days of Pagan celebrations or
feast days, so as not to attract the attention
or draw the oontempt of the Romans not

Christians. Examples of this have come down

to us, as, Christmas, St. John the Baptist
Day, St. John the Evangelist Day, etc.
The Christian basilicas spread over the
Roman Empire, but in Rome applied specially
to the seven principal churches founded by
Constantine, and it was their plan that gave
Christian churches this name. The first
builders were the Roman Artificers, and after
the fall of the Western Empire we find a decadent branch at Como (see Como) that developed into the Comacine Masters, who
evolved, aided by Byzantine workmen and influence, Lombard architecture.
Basket. The basket or fan was among the
Egyptians a symbol of the purification of souls.
The idea seems to have been adopted by other
nations, and hence, "initiations in the Ancient
Mysteries," says Mr. Rolle (CuUe de Bacch.J.,
30) "being the commencement of a better .life
and the perfection of it, could not take place
till the soul was purified. The fan had been
accepted as the symbol of that purification
because the mysteries purged the soul of sin,
as the fan cleanses the grain." John the Baptist conveys the same idea of purification when
he says of the Messi$, "His fan is in his hand,
and he will thoroughly purge his floor." The
sacred basket in the Ancient Mysteries was
called the ll.ivov, and the one who carried it
was termed the ll.ii<IIO</>opos, or basket-bearer.
Indeed, the sacred basket, containing the first
fruits and offerings, was as essential in all solemn processions of the mysteries of Bacchus
and other divinities as the Bible is in the Masonic procession. As lustration was the symbol of purification by water, so the mystical
fan or winnowing-basket was, according to
Sainte Croix (Myst. du Pag., t. ii., p. 81), the
symbol in the Bacchic rites of a purification
by air.
Basle, Congress of. A Masonic Congress
was held September 24, 1848, at Basle, in Switzerland, consisting of one hundred and six
members, representing eleven Lodges under the
patronage of the Swiss Grand Lodge Alpina.
The Congress was principally engaged upon
the discussion of the question, "What can and
what ought Freemasonry to contribute towards the welfare of mankind locally, nationally, and internationally? " The conclusion
to which the Congress appeared to arrive upon
this question was briefly this: "Locally, Freemasonry ought to strive to make every brother
a good citizen, a good father, and a good
neighbor; whilst it ought to teach him to perform every duty of life faithfully. Nationally,
a Freemason ought to strive to promote and to ,
maintain the welfare and the honor of his
native land, to love and to honor it himself,
and, if necessary, to place his life and fortune
at its disposal; Internationally, a Freemason is
bound to go still further: he must consider
himself as a member of that one great famil;y,
-the whole human race,-who are all children of one and the same Father, and that it is
in this sense, and with this spirit, that the
Freemason ought to work if he would aJipe&r
worthily before the throne of Etemal Truth

BATON

BEAUSEANT

and Justice." The Congress appears to have

accomplished no practical result.
Baton. The truncheon or staff of a Grand
Marshal, and always carried by him in :processions as the ensign of his office. It IS a
wooden rod about eighteen inches long. In
the military usage of England, the baton of
the Earl Marshal was originally of wood, but
in the reign of Richard II. it was made of gold,
and delivered to him at his creation, a custom
which is still continued. In the patent or
commission granted by that monarch to the
Duke of Surrey the baton is minutely described as "baculum aureum circa utramque
finem de nigro annulatum," a golden wand, having black rings around each tnd-a description
that will very well suit for a Masonic baton.
Bats, Parllament of. The Parliament
which assembled in England in the year 1426,
durin15 the minority of Henry VI., to settle
the disputes between the Duke of Gloucester, the Regent, and the Bishop of Winchester, the guardian of the young king's
person, and which was so called because the
members, being forbidden by the Duke of
Gloucester to wear swords, armed themselves
with clubs or bats. It has been stated by
Preston (Illustrations) that it was in this
Parliament that the Act forbidding Masons
to meet in Chapters or Congregations was
passed; but this is erroneous, for that act
was passed in 1425 by the Parliament at
Westminster, while the Parliament of Bats
met at Leicester in 1426.
[E. L. H.]

Italian, and in 1811 a Manuel du Franc-M~on

which is one of the most judicious works ol
the kind published in France. He was also
the author of Morale de la Franc-Mat;onnerie,
and the Tuileur Expert des 33 degres, which is a
complement to his Manuel. Bazot was distinguished for other literary writings on subjects
of general literature, such as two volumes of

100

(See Laborers, Statutes Q{.)

Battery. A given number of blows by the

gavels of the officers, or by the hands of the

Brethren, as a mark of approbation, admiration, or reverence, and at times accompanied
by the acclamation.
Bavaria. Freemasonry was introduced
into Bavaria, from France, in 1737. The
meetings of the Lodges were suspended in
1784 by the reigning duke, Charles Theodore,
and the Act of suspension was renewed in 1799
and 1804 by Maximilian Joseph, the King of
Bavaria. The Order was subsequently revived
in 1812 and in 1817. The Grand Lodge of
Bayreuth was constituted in 1811 under the
appellation of the "Grand Lodge zur Sonne."
In 1868 a Masonic conference took place of
the Lodges under itB jurisdiction, and a constitution was adopted, which guarantees to
every confederated Lodge perfect freedom of
ritual and government, provided the Grand
Lodge finds these to be Masonic.
Bay-Tree. An evergreen plant, and a
symbol in Freemasonry of the immortal nature of Truth. By the bay-tree thus referred
to in the ritual of the Companion of the Red
Cross, is meant the laurel, which, as an ever~een, was among the ancients a symbol of
IIDIDortality. It is, therefore, properly compared with truth, which Josephus makes Zerubbabel say is "immortal and eternal."
Bazot, Etienne Fran~ols. A French Masonic writer, born at Nievre, March 31, 1782.
He published at Paris, in 1810, a Vocabulaire
des Fra.nca-M~ons, which was translated into

Tale~? and Poems, A Eulogy on the Abbe de

l'Epee, and as the editor of the Biographie N ouvelle des Conternporaires, in 20 volumes.

B. D. 8. P. H. G. F. In the French rituals

of the Knights of the East and West, these
letters are the initials of Beaute, Divinite,
Sagesse, Puissance, Honneur, Gloire, Force,
which correspond to the letters of the English
rituals, B. D. W. P. H. G. S., which are the
initials of equivalent words.
Beadle. An officer in a Council of Knights
of the Holy Sepulcher, corresponding to the
Junior Deacon of a symbolic Lodge. The
beadle, bedellus (DuCange), is one, says Junius, who proclaims and executes the will of
superior powers.
Beaton, Mrs. One of those fortunate females who are said to have obtained :possession of the Masons' secrets. The followmg account of her is given in A General History of
the County of Norfolk, published in 1829 (vol.
2, p. 1304). Mrs. Beaton, who was a resident
of Norfolk, England, was commonly called the
Freemason, from the circumstance of her having contrived to conceal herself, one evening,
in the wainscoting of a Lodge-room, where she
learned the secret-at the knowledge of which
thousands of her sex have in vain attempted
to arrive. She was, in many respects, a very
singular character, of which one proof adduced
is that the secret of the Freemasons died with
her. She died at St. John Maddermarket,
Norwich, July, 1802, aged eighty-five.
Beancenlfer. From Beauseant and fero,
'to carry. The officer among the oid Knights
Templar whose duty it was to carry the Beauscant in battle. The office is still retained in
some of the high degrees which are founded on
Templarism.
Beauchaine. The Chevalier Beauchaine
was one of the most fanatical of the irremovable
Masters of the Ancient Grand Lodge of
France. He had established his Lodge at the
"Golden Sun" an inn in the Rue St. Victor,
Paris, where he slept, and for six francs conferred all the degrees of Freemasonry. On
August 17, 1747, he
organized the Order of
Fendeurs, or Woodcutters, at Paris.
Beauseant. The
vexillum belli, or warbanner of the ancient
Templars, which is also W'-------~
used by the modern Masonic Order. The upper
half of the banner was
black, and the lower half '
white: black, to typify terror to foes, and white,
fairness to friends. It bore the pious inscription, Non v.obiB, Domine non nobiB, Bed ttomini

~---~--

--~ --------~-~~~--

--------~----------~~-----~~~~~~~~

BEAUTY

BEEHIVE

tuo da gloriam. It is frequently, says Barrington (Intro. to Htr., p. 121), introduced among
the decorations in the Temple Church, and on
one of the paintings on the wall, Henry I. is
represented with this banner in his hand. As
to the derivation of the word, there is some
doubt among writers. Bauseant or Bausant
was, in old French, a piebald or party-colored
horsei and the word Bawseant is used in the
Scottish dialect with a similar reference to two
colors. Thus, Burns says:
"His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face,"
where Dr. Currie, in hismossary of Burns, explains bawsent as meanin~ "having a white
stripe down the face." It IS also supposed by
some that the word bauseant may be only a
form, in the older language, of the modern
French word bienseant which signifies something decorous or handsome; but the former
derivation is preferable, in which beauseant
would signify simply a party-colored banner.
With regard to the douole signification of the
white and black banner, the Orientalists have
a legend of Alexander the Great, which may be
appropriately quoted on the present occasion,
as given by Weil in his Biblical Legends
(p. 70).
Alexander was the lord of light and darkness: when he went out with his army the
light was before him, and behind him was the
darkness, so that he was secure against all
ambuscadeSj and by means of a miraculous
white and olack standard he had also the
power to transform the clearest day into midnight and darkness, or black night into noonday, just as he unfurled the one or the other.
Thus he was unconquerable, since he rendered
his troops invisible at his pleasure, and came
down suddenly upon his foes. Might there not
have been some connection between the mythical white and black standard of Alexander
and the Beauseant of the Templars? We know
that the latter were familiar with Oriental
symbolism.
Beauseant was also the war-cry of the Ancient Templars.
Beauty. Said to be symbolically one of
the three supports of a Lodge. It is represented by the Corinthian column, because the
Corinthian is the most beautiful of the ancient
orders of Architecture; and by the Junior
Warden, because he symbolizes the meridian
sun-the most beautiful object in the heavens.
Hiram Abif is also said to be represented by
the Column of Beaut;y because the Temple
was indebted to his skill for its splendid decorations. The idea of Beauty as one of the supports of the Lodge is found in the earliest rituals of the eighteenth century, as well as the
symbolism which refers it to the Corinthian
column and the Junior Warden. Preston first
introduced the reference to the Corinthian
column and to Hiram Abif. Beauty, M,N~M,
tiphiret, was the sixth of the Kabbalistic Sephiroth, and, with Justice and Mercy, formed the
second Sephirotic triad; and from the Kabbalists the Masons most probably derived the
symbol. (See Supports of the Lodge.)

Beauty and Bands. The names of the

two rods spoken of by the prophet Zechariah
as symbolic of his pastoral office. This expression was in use in portions of the old Masonic
ritual in Enlrland; but in the system of Dr.
Hemming, wruch was adopted at the union of
the two Grand Lod~es in 1813, this symbol,
with all reference to It, was expunged, and as
Dr. Oliver says (Sym. Die.), "it is nearly forgotten, except by a few old Masons, who may
perhaps recollect the illustration as an incidental subject of remark among the Fraternity
of that period."
Becker. See Johnson.
Becker. Rudolph Zacharias. A very
zealous Mason of Gotha, who published, in
1786, an historical essay on the Bavarian Illuminatit under the title of Grundsatze Verfassung una Schicksale des IUuminatens Order in
Baiern. He was a very popular writer on educational subjects; his Instructive Tales of Joy
and Sorrow was so highly esteemed, that a
half million copies were printed in German
and other languages. He died in 1802.
Bedarrlde, The Brothers. The Brothers
Marc, Michel, and Joseph Bedarride were
Masonic charlatans, notonous for their propagation of the Rite of Mizraim, having established in 1813, at Paris, under the partly real
and partly pretended authority of Lechangeur, the inventor of the Rite, a Supreme Puissance for France, and organized a large number of Lodges. Of these three brothers, who
were Israelites, Michel, who assumed the most
prominent position in the numerous controversies which arose in French Masonry on
account of their RiteJ died February 16, 1856.
Marc died ten years oefore, in April, 1846. Of
Joseph, who was never very prominent, we
have no record as to the time of his death.
(See Mizraim, Rite of.)
Beehive. The bee was among the Egyptians the symbol of an obedient people, because, says Horapollo, of all insects, the bee
alone had a king. Hence, looking at the regulated labor of these insects when congregated in their hive, it is not surprising that a
beehive should have been deemed an appropriate emblem of systematized industry. Freemasonry has therefore adopted the beehive as
a symbol of industry, a virtue taught in the
ritual which says that a Master Mason
"works that he may receive wages, the better
to support himself and family, and contribute
to the relief of a worthy, distressed brother
his widow and orphans "; and in the Ola1
Charges, which tell us that "all Masons shall
work honestly on working days, that they
may live creditably on holidays." There
seems, however, to be a more recondite meaning connected with this symbol. The ark has
already been shown to have been an emblem
common to Freemasonry and the Ancient Mysteries, as a symbol of regeneration-of the
second birth from death to life. Nowhin the
Mysteries, a hive was the type of t e ark.
"Hence," says Faber (Orig. of Pag. Idol., vol.
ii., 133), "both the diluvian priestesses and
the regenerated souls were called bees; hence,

101

102

BEHAVIOR

BENAC

Apollo, the god of the sun. A forest in the

neighborhood of Lausanne is still known as
Sauvebelin, or the forest of Belenus, and traces
of this name are to be found in many parts of
England. The custom of kindling fires about
midnight on the eve of tho festival of St. John
the Baptist, at the moment of the summer
solstice, which was considered by the ancient!!
a season of rejoicing and of divination, is a.
vestige of Druidism in honor of this deity. It
is a significant coincidence that the numerical
value of the letters of the word Belenus, like
those of Abraxas and Mithras, all representatives of the sun, amounts to 365, the exact
number of the days in a solar year. (See
Abraxas.)
Belgium. Soon after the separation of
Belgium from the Netherlands, an independent Masonic jurisdiction was demanded by
the former. Accordingly, in May, 1833, the
Grand Orient of Belgium was established,
which has under its. jurisdiction twenty-one
Lodges. There is also a Supreme Council of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, which
was constituted in the year 1817.
Belief, Religious. The fundamental law
of Masonry contained in the first of the Old
Charges collected in 1723, and inserted in the
Book of Constitutions published in that year,
sets forth the true doctrine as to what the
Institution demands of a Mason in reference
to his religious belief in the following words:
"A Mason is obliged, by his tenure, to obey
the moral law; and if he rightly understands
the art, he will never be a stupid atheist nor
an irreligious libertine. But though in ancient
times Masons were charged in every country
to be of the religion of that country or nation,
whatever it was, yet it is now thought more
expedient only to oblige them to that religion
in which all men agree, leaving their particular
opinions to themselves.'' Anderson, in his
second edition, altered this article, calling a
Mason a true N oachida, and sayin~ that
Masons "all agree in the three great art1eles of
Noah," which is incorrect, since the Precepts
of Noah were seven. (See Religion of M asonr'l/.)
Bells. The use of a bell in the ceremomes
of the Third Degree, to denote the hour, is,
manifestly, an anachronism, for bells were not
invented until the fifth century. But Free-masons are not the only people who have
imagined the existence of bells at the build
ing of the Temple. Henry Stephen tells us
(Apologie pour Herodote, ch. 39) of a monk
who boasted that when he was at Jerusalem
he obtained a vial which contained some of
the sounds of King Solomon's bells. The
blunders of a ritualist and the pious fraud of a.
relic-monger have equal claims to authenticity.
The Masonic anachronism is1 however, not
worth consideration, because 1t is simply intended for a notation of time--a method of
expressing intelligibly the hour at which a
supposed event occurred.
Benac. A significant word in Symbolic
Masonry, obsolete in many of the modem
Bee, Evans, An~mal Symbolism in Eccleaiaati- systems, whose derivation is uncertain. (See
cal Archieecturs.
Macbenac.)

bees were feigned to be produced from the

carcass of a cow, which also symbolized the
ark; and hence, as the great father was esteemed an infernal god, honey was much used
both in funeral rites and in the Mysteries."*
Behavior. The subject of a Mason's be-havior is one that occupies much attention in
both the ritualistic and the monitorial instruc
tions of the Order. In "the Charges of a Free
mason," extracted from the ancient recordst
and first published in the Constitutions ot
1723, the sixth article is exclusively appropri
ated to the subject of "Behavior.'' It is
divided into six sections, as follows: 1. Be
havior in the Lodge while constituted. 2. Be
havior after the Lodge is over and the Breth
ren not gone. 3. Behavior when Brethren
meet without strangers, but not in a Lodge
formed. 4. Behavior in presence of stran
~ers not Masons. 5. Behavior at home and
m your neighborhood. 6. Behavior to
ward a strange brother. The whole article
constitutes a code of moral ethics remarkable
for the purity of the principles it inculcates1
and is well worthy of the close attention ot
every Mason. It is a complete refutation of
the slanders of antiMasonic revilers. As
these charges are to be found in all the editions
of the Book of Constitutions, and in many
recent Masonic works, they are readily ac
cessible to everyone who desires to read them.
Behold Your Master. When, in the in
stallation services, the formula is used, "Breth
ren, behold your master," the expression is not
simply exclamatory, but is intended, as the
original use of the word behold implies, to in
vite the members of the Lodge to fix their at.
tention upon the new relations which have
sprung up between them and him who hasJ'ust
been elevated to the Oriental Chair, an to
impress upon their minds the duties which
they owe to him and which he owes to them.
In like manner, when the formula is continued,
"Master, behold your brethren," the M~
ter's attention is impressively directed to the
same change of relations and duties. These
are not mere idle words, but convey an important lesson, and should never be omitted
m the ceremony of installation.
Bel. ~~.Bel, is the contracted form of ;l'::l,
Baal, and was worshiped by the Babylonians
as their chief deity. The Greeks and Romans
so considered and translated the word by Zeus
and Jupiter. It has, withJah and On, been in
troduced into the Royal Arch system a.s a
representative of the Tetragrammaton, which
it and the accompanying words have some-times ignorantly been made to Qisplace. At
the session of the General Grand Chapter of
the United States, in 1871, this error was corrected; and while the Tetragrammaton was
declared to be the true omnific word, the other
three were permitted to be retained as merely
explanatory.
Belenus. Belenus, the Baal of the Scripture, was identified with Mithras and with

BENAI
Benal. See Bona:lm.

BENEVOLENT

103

title of the "Friendly Sons of St. John." It

Benakar. The name of a cavern to which was constructed after the model of the English

eertain assassins fied for concealment.

Bendekar. A significant word in the high
degrees. One of the Princes or Intendants of
Solomon, in whose quarry some of the traitors
spoken of in the Third Degree were found. He
is mentioned in the catalogue of Solomon's
princes, given in 1 Kings iv. 9. The Hebrew
word is "lp,j::J, the son of him who divides or
pierces. In some old rituals we find a corrupt
form, Bendaca.
Benedict XIV. A Roman pontiff whose
family name was Prosper Lambertini. He
was born at Bologna in 1675, succeeded
Clement XII. as Pope in 1740, and died in
1758. He was distinguished for his learning
and was a great encourager of the Arts and
Sciences. He was, however, an implacable
enemy of secret societies, and issued on the
18th of May, 1751, his celebrated bull, renewing and perpetuating that of his predecessor
which excommunicated the Freemasons. (See
BuU.)

Benediction. The solemn invocation of a

blessing in the ceremony of closing a Lodge is
called the benediction. The usual formula is
as follows:
"May the blessing of Heaven rest upon us,
and all regular Masons; may brotherly love
prevail, and every moral and social virtue
cement us." The response is, "So mote it be.
Amen"; which should always be audibly pronounceo by all the Brethren.
Beneficiary. One who receives the support or charitable donations of a Lodge.
Those who are entitled to these benefits are
affiliated Masons, their wives or widows, their
widowed mothers, and their minor sons and
unmarried daughters. Unaffiliated Masons
cannot become the beneficiaries of a Lod~e,
but affiliated Masons cannot be deprived of Its
benefits on account of non-payment of dues.
Indeed, as this non-payment often arises from
poverty~ it thus furnishes a stronger claim for
fraternal charity.
Benefit Society, Masonic. In 1798, a
society was established in London, under the
patronage of the Prince of Wales, the Earl of
Moira, and all the other acting officers of the
Grand Lodge, whose object was "the relief of
sick, aged, and imprisoned brethren, and for'
the protection of their widows, children, and
orphans." The payment of one guinea per
annum entitled every member, when sick or
- destitute, or his widow and orphans in case of
his death, to a fixed contribution. After a. few
years, however, the Society came to a.n end, as
1t was considered improper to turn Freemasonry into a Benefit Club.
Benefit funds of this kind have been generally unknown to the Masons of America,
although some Lodges have established a
fund for the purpose. The Lodge of Strict
Observance in the City of New York, and
others in Troy, Ballston, Schenectady, etc.,
some years ago, adopted benefit funds. In
1844, several members of the Lodges in Louisville, Kentucky, organized a society under the

society already mentioned. No member was

received after forty-five years of age, or who
was not a contributing member of a Lodge; the
per diem allowance to sick members was
seventy-five cents; fifty dollars were appropriated to pay the funeral expenses of a deceased member, and twenty-five for those of
a member's wife; on the death of a member a
gratuity was given to his family; ten per
cent of all fees and dues was appropriated to
an orphan fund; and it was contemplated, if
the funds would justify, to pension the widows
of deceased members, if their circumstances
required it.
But the establishment in Lodges of such
benefit funds is in opposition to the pure system of Masonic charity, and, they have, therefore, been very properly discouraged b;r
several Grand Lodges, though several still
exist in Scotland.
Benevolence. Cogan, in his work On the
Passions, thus defines Benevolence: "When
our love or desire of good goes forth to others,
it is termed good-will or benevolence. Benevolence embraces all beings capable of enjoyin~
any portion of good; and thus it becomes umversal benevolence, which manifests itself by
being pleased with the share of good every,
creature enjoys, in a disposition to increase it:
in feeling an uneasiness at their sufferings, ana
in the abhorrence of cruelty under every disguise or pretext." This sprrit should pervade
the hearts of all Masons, who are taught to
look upon mankind as formed by the Great
Architect of the Universe for the mutual
assistance, instruction, and support of each
other.
.
Benevolence, Fund or. This Fund Wa8
established in 1727 by the Grand Lodge ef
England under the management of a Committee of seven members, to whom twelve
more were added in 1730. It was originally
supported by voluntary contributions from
the various Lodges, and intended for the relief of distressed Brethren recommended by
the contributing Lodges. The Committee
was called the Committee of Charity.
The Fund is now derived partly from the
fees of honor payable by Grand Officers, and
the fees for dispensations, and partly from an
annual payment of four shillings from each
London Mason and of two shillings from each
country Mason; it is adm,inistered by the
Board of Benevolence, which consists of all
the present and past Grand Officers, all actual
Masters of Lodges and twelve Past Masters.
The Fund is solely devoted to charity, and
during the year 1909 a sum of 15,275 was
voted and paid to petitioners.
In the United States of America there are
several similar organizations known as ''Boards
of Relief." (See Relief, Board of.) [E. L. H.)
BeneYolent Institutions, U. S. There
are five institutions in the United States of an
educational and benevolent character, deriving their existence in whole or i!l _part
from Masonic beneficence: 1. Girard Uollege,

104

BENGABEE

BIDLE

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 2. Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home, Louisville Kentucky; 3. Oxford Orphan Asylum, Oxford,
North Carolina; 4. St. John's Masonic College, Little RoelL, Arkansas; 5. Masonic Female College, Covington, Georgia.
Besides the Stephen Girard Charity Fund,
founded over a half century ago in Philadelphia, the capital investment of which is
$62,000, the annual interest being devoted
"to relieve all Master Masons in good standing," there is a Charity Fund of $60,000 for the
relief of the widows and orphans of deceased
Master Masons, and an incorporated Masonic
Home. The District of Columbia has an
or~anized Masonic charity, entitled St. John's
Mite Association. Idaho has an Orphan
Fund, to which every Master Mason pays
annually one dollar. Indiana has organized
the Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home
Society. Maine has done likewise; and Nebraska has an Orphans' School Fund, although
no building has been proposed.
, Beniabee. Found in some old rituals of
the high degrees for Bendekar, as the name of
an Intendant of Solomon. It is Bengeber in the
catalogue of Solomon's officers, 1 Kings iv. 13,
the son of Geber, or the son of the stron~ man.
Benral. In 1728 a "Deputation ' was
il'anted by Lord Kingston, Grand Master of
England, to Brother Geor~e Pomfret to constitute a Lodge at Bengal m East India, that
had been requested by some Brethren residing
there; and in the following year a D~putation
was granted to Captain Ralph Far Winter, to
be Provincial Grand Master of East India at
Bengal (Constitutions, 1738, p. 194); and in
1730 a Lodge was established at the "East
India Arms, Fort William, Calcutta, Bengal,"
and numbered 72. There is a District Grand
Lodge of Bengal with 74 subordinate Lodges1
and also a District Grand Chapter with 2!
subordinate Chapters.
[E. L. H.]
BenJamin. A significant word in several
of the degrees which refer to the second
Temple, because it was only the tribes of
Judah and Benjamin that returned from the
captivitf to rebuild it. Hence, in the Masonry o the second Temple, Judah and Benjamin have superseded the columns of Jachin
and Boaz; a change the more easily made
because of the identity of the initials.
Benkhurlm. Corruptly spelled benchorim
in most of the old rituals. A significant word
in the high degrees, probably signifying one
that is freeborn, from C'i1n-):l, son of the freeborn.
Benyah, or Beniah. Lenning gives this
form, Benayah. The son of Jah, a significant
word in'the high degrees.
Berlth. Reb., l"l'i:l, a CQI!ertant. A significant word in several of the high de_grees.
Berlin. The capital of the kingdom of
Prussia, and the seat of three Grand Lodies,
namely: the Grand National Mother Lodge,
founded in 17; the Grand Lodge of Germany, founded in 1770; and the Grand Lodge
of Royal York of Friendship, founded in 1798.
(See Germany.)

Bemard, David. An expelled Mason,

under whose name was published, in the year
1829, a pretended exposition entitled Light on
Masonry. It was one of the fruits of the antiMasonic excitement of the day. It is a worthless production, intended as a libel on the
Institution.
Bernard, Saint. St. Bernard, born in
France, in 1091, was the founder of the Order
of Cistercian Monks. He took great interest
in the success of the Knights Templar, whose
Order he cherished throughout his whole life.
His works contain numerous letters recommending them to the favor and protection of
the great. In 1128, he himself drew up the Rule
of the Order, and among his writings is to be
found aSermo exhortatorius ad Milites Templi,
or an " Exhortation to the Soldiers of the
Templez" a production full of sound advice.
To the Influence of Bernard and his untiring
offices of kindness, the Templars were greatly
indebted for their ra,pid increase in wealth and
consequence. He died in the year 1153.
Beryl. Reb., lD't'iM. A precious stone,
the first in the fourth row of the high priest's
breastplate. Its color is bluish-~een. It was
ascribed to the tribe of Benjamm.
Beyerle, Fran~ols Louis de. A French
Masonic writer of some prominence toward
the close of the eighteenth century. He was a
leading member of the Rite of Strict Observance, in which his adopted name was Egues a
Flore. He wrote a criticism on the Masonic
Congress of Wilhelmsbad, which was published under the title of Oratio de Conventu
generali Latomorum apud aquas Wt1helminas,
prope Hanauviam. He also wrote an Essai
sur la Franc-Mar;onnerie, ou du but essentiel et
fondamental de la Franc-Mar;onnerie, translated t.he second volume of Frederic Nicolai's
essay on the crimes imputed to the Templars,
and was the author of several other Masonic
works of less importance. He was a member
of the French Constitutional Convention of
1792. He wrote also some political essays on
finances, and was a contributor on the same
subject to the Encvclopedie M ethodique.
Bezaleel. One of the builders of the Ark
of the Covenant. (See Aholiab.)
Bible. The Bible is properly called a
greater light of Masonry, for from the center
of the Lodge it pours forth upon the East, the
West, and the South its refulgent rays of Divine
truth. The Bible is used among Masons as a
symbol of the will of God, however it may be
expressed. And, therefore, whatever to any
people expresses that will may be used as a
substitute for the Bible in a Masonic Lodge.
Thus, in a Lodge consisting entirely of Jews,
the Old Testament alone may be placed upon
the altar, and Turkish Masons make use of
the Koran. Whether it be the Gospels to the
Christian, the Pentateuch to the Israelite,
the Koran to the Mussulman, or the Vedas
to the Brahman, it everywhere Masonically
conveys the same idea-that of the symbolism
of the Divine Will revealed to man.
The history of the Masonic symbolism of
the Bible is mteresting. It is referred to in

'

ss

SECRET SOCIETIES

Marshall, overran Germany with a sect of new Templars, not

to be confounded with the Templars that afterwards joined
the masonic fraternity. But Hund seems after all to have
rendered no real services to the Stuarts ; though when
Charles Edward visited Germany, the sectaries received him
in the most gallant manner, promising him the most extensive support, and asking of him titles and estates in a kingdom
which he had yet to conquer. Thus he was brought to that
state of mental intoxication which afterwards led him to
make an absurd entry into Rome, preceded by heralds,; w'ho
proclaimed him king. Hund seems, in the sad story of the
Stuarts, to have acted the part of a speculator; and the rite
of the Strict Observance, permeated by the J esuiticalleaven,
had probably an aim very different from the re-establiShment
of the proscribed dynasty. It is certain that at one time
th~ power of the New Templars was very great, and prepared
the way for the Illuminati.

t.

I
l

l'

['

.. ;

f
~

- - ...... -~-,.-,

.-

XV

THE CHAPTER OF CLERMONT AND THE

STRICT OBSERVANCE

'<

434 Jesuitical Influence:-Catholic ceremonies, unknown

in ancient Freemasonry, were introduced from 1735 td 1740;
in the Chapter of Clermont, so called in hortou,r of Louis oi
Bourbon, Prince of Clermont, at .the time grand master oi
the Order in France. From that time, the influence of the
Jesuits on the fraternity made itself more and more felt.
The candidate was no longer received in a lodge, but in the
city of Jerusalem ; not the ideal Jerusalem, but a clerical
Jerusalem, typifying Rome. The meetings were called
Capitula Oanonicorum, and a monkish language and asceticism prevailed therein. In the statutes is seen the hand
of James Lainez, the second general of the Jesuits, and the
aim ~t universal empire betrays itself, for at the reception of
the sublime knights the last two chapters of the Apocalypse
are read to the candidate-a glowing picture of that universal
monarchy which the Jesuits hoped to establish. The sect
spread very rapidly, for whe_n Baron Hund came to Paris
in 1742, and was received into the highest Jesuit degrees
he found on his return to Germany that those degrees were
already established in Saxony and Thuringia, under the
government of Marshall, whose labours he undertook to
promote.
435 The Strict Obse1vance.-From the exertions of these
two men arose the "Rite of Strict Observance," so called,
because Baron Hund introduced into it a perfectly monkish
subordination, and which seemed also for a time intended to
favour the tragic hopes of the house of Stuart ; for Marshall,
having visited Paris in 1741, there entered into close connection with Ramsay and the other adherents of the exiled
family. To further this object, .!fup.CJ. mixed up with the
rites of Clerm_Qnt what was known or supposed to be known
of the statutes of the Templars, and acting in concert with
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THE RELAXED OBSERVANCE

436. Organisation of Relaxed Observance.-In 1767, there
arose at Vienna a schism of the Strict Obseryance; the dis..:
sentients, who called themselves" Clerks of" the Relaxed
Observance "-the nickname of Relaxed Observance had
originally been applied by the members of the Strict Observance, as a term of contempt to all other rites-declaring
that they alone possessed the secrets of the association, and
knew the place where were deposited the splendid treasures
of the Templars. They also claimed precedence, not only
over the rite of Strict Observance, but also over all Masonry.
Their promises and instructions' revolved around the philosopher's stone, the government of spirits, and the millennium.
To be initiated it was necessary to be a Roman Catholic, and
to have passed through all the degrees of the Strict Observance. The members knew only their immediate heads; but
Doctor Stark, of Konigsberg, a famous preacher, and Baron
Raven, of Mecklenburg, were well-known chiefs of the
association.

r.
437 IJisputes in German Lodges.-+Before the establishment
of the Strict Observance, various German lodges ha,d already
introduced the Templar system) hence disputes of' all kinds
arose, and a convention was held at Briswick~!,l 22nd M.p.yl
1~ arrange the differences. Dr. tark presented him-.
self; he was a disciple of Schrop:rerana-of Gugumos, who
called himself high-priest, knight, prince, possessor of the
philosopner's stone, of the secret to evoke the spirits of the
dead, &c. Stark declared to the members of the convention
that he was called .Archimedes ab aquila fulva, that he was
chancellor of the Grand Chapter of Scotland, and had been invited by the brethren of that supreme body to instruct them in
the true principles of the Order. But when he was asked to
produce his credentials, he refused. The Brunswickers, however, thinking that the brethren of Aberdeen might possess
some secrets, sent a deputation thither; but the good folks of

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SECRET SOCIETIES

Aberdeen knew even less than their German friends, for they
knew only the first three degrees. Stark, though found out,
was not to be put down, but wrote a book entitled "The
Coping Stone," in which he represented the Strict Observance
as hostile to religion, society, and the state.
438. Rite of Zinzendorf.- This was not the first attack
made ou the system of Hund. In 1766, Count Ziuzendorf,
chief physician in the Prussian army, who had been received
into the Strict Observance, was struck from the list of members
of the lodge of the Three Globes. In revenge, he founded at
Berlin and Potsdam lodges on the Templar system, which,
however, he soon abandoned, and composed a new rite, invented by himself, and consisting of seven degrees, which
was protected by Frederick the Great. The new Order made
fierce and successful war both on the Strict and the Relaxed
Observance.
439 AfricanArchitects.-:-About 1765,Brother Von Kopper
instituted in Prussia, under the auspices of l!,rederick II., the
Order of "African Architects," who occupied themselves .
with historical researches, mixing up therewith masonry and
chivalry. The order was divided into eleven degrees. They
erected a vast building, which contained a large library, a
museum of natural history, and a chemical laboratory. Until
1786, when it was dissolved, the society awarded every year
a gold medal with fifty ducats to the author of the best
memoir on .the history of Masonry. .This ,was one of the few
rational masonic societies. The African Architects did not
esteem decorations, aprons, collars, jewels, &c. In their
assemblies they read essays, and communicated the results
of their re~earches. At their simple and decorous banquets,
instructive and scientific discourses were delivered. While
their initiations were gratuitous, they gave liberal assistance
to zealous but needy brethren. They published many important works on Freemasonry.

"N,

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XVII
THE CONGRESS OF WILHELMSBAD
440. Various Oongresses.-To put an end to the numerous
disputes raging among masonic bodies, various congresses
were held. In 1778, a congress was convened at Lyons; it
lasted a month, but was without result. In 1785, another
was held at Paris, but the time was wasted in idle disputes with Ca~ostro. The most important was that which
assembled atilhelmsbad in 1782,- under the presidency
of the Duke of Brunswick, who was anxious to end the discord reigning among German Freemasons. It was attended
by Masons from Europe, .America, and .Asia. From an
approximative estimate, it appears that there were then
upwards of three millions of Masons in the different parts
of the globe.
441. .Discussions at Wilhelmsbad.-The statements contained in Dr. Stark's book, "The Coping Stone" (437),
concerning the. influence of the Jesuits in the masonic body,
formed one of the chief topics discussed. Some of the chiefs
of the ~~-~!Yli.JJ.Ce produced considerable confusion by
being unable to give information concerning the secrets of
the high degrees, which they had professed to know ; or to
render an account of large sums they had received on behalf
of the Order. The main :point....'f.aa...to...aettl~ _whether M.asol!.ry
was to.be....co.ni<lerea as a continuation of the Order orihe
.Tl;l~ars, and .whether the secrets of the sect were to be
souglit for in the modern Templar degrees. .After thirty
sittings, the answer was in the negative ; the chiefs of the
Strict Observance were defeated, and the Duke of :Brunswick
suspended the Order for three years, from which blow it
never recovered. The Swedes professed to possess all the
secrets; the Duke of Brunswick hastened to Upsala to learn
.them, but found that the Swedes knew no more than the
Germans; whence new dissensions arose between the Masons
of the two nations.
442. Result of Oonvention.-The result of the convention
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of Wilhelmsbad was the retention of the three symbolical

degrees, with the addition of a new degree, that of the
"Knights of Beneficence," which was based on the principles
enunciated in St. Martin's book, Des Ernurs et de la Verite,
and the Tableau Naturel. The foundation of the new Order
was attributed to the influence of the Jesuits, because the
three initial letters of Chevaliers Bienfaisants, C.H.B., are
equal to 3, 8, 2 = 13, signifying the letter N, meaning Nost1i.
Another result was a league between Masonry and the
Illuminati-and it is still a matter of speculation whether
these latter were not behind the Jesuits-brought about by
the exertions of Spartacus or Weishaupt, who had long ago
discerned the influence he could obtain by the co-operation
of the Masons, whom he, of course, employed as his unconscious tools. But Jesuitical influence, at that time, was
too, powerful to be overcome ; they sided with, and thus
strengthened the influence of, the duke ; hence the opposition of Germany to the principles of the French Revolution,
which broke out soon after-an opposition which was like
discharging a rocket against a thunderbolt, but which was
carried to its height by the manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick, so loudly praised by courtly historians, and of which
the German princes made such good use as to induce the
German confederacy to surround France with a. fiery line of
deluded patriotism. Freemasonry had been made the tool
of prince- and priest-craft, though occasionally it turned
.the tables on the prince, an instance of which is recorded
in the next paragraph.
443 Frederick William III. and the Masons.-The sudden
retreat of the King of Prussia of this name, after having
invaded France in I 792, has never been satisfactorily explained. Dr. E. E. Eckert, in his " Magazine of Evidence
for the Condemnation of the Masonic Order," writes as
follows, quoting from a private letter from M. V--z, of
Paris, to Baron von S--z, at Vienna, which he qualifies as
"thoroughly reliable":-" The King of Prussia had crossed
our frontiers; he was, I believe, at Verdun or Thionville.
One evening a confidential attendant gave him the masonic
sign, and took him into a subterranean vault, where he left
him alone. By the light of the lamps illuminating the
room, the king saw his ancestor, Frederick the Great,
approaching him. There could be no mistake as to his
voice, dress, gait, features. The spirit reproached the king
with his alliance with Austria against France, and commanded him immediately to withdraw therefrom. You

THE CONGRESS OF WILHELMSBAD

63

know that the king acted accordingly, to the great disgust

of his allies, to whom he did not communicate the reasons
of his withdrawal. Some years ~fterwards our celebrated
actor Fleury, who acquired such reputation by his performance at the TMdtre Frant;ais in "The Two Pages,"
in which piece he represented Frederick the Great to perfection, confessed that he acted the ghost when Frederick
William III. was mystified by an appearance, which had
been planned by General.Dumouriez."' Dumouriez was a
Freemason.

XVIII
MASONRY AND NAPOLEONISM
444 Masonry protected by Napoleon.-With renewed court
frivolities and military pomp, the theatrtcal spirit of Masonry
revived. The institution, so active before and during the
Revolution, because it was governe~ by men who rightly
understood and worthily represented its principles, during
the Empire fell into academic puerilities, servile compliance,
and endless squabbles. That period, which masonic writers,
attached to the latter and pleased with its apparent splendour, call the most flourishing of French Masonry, in the
eyes of independent judges appears as the least important
and the least honourable for the masonic order. Napoleon
at first intended to suppress Freemasonry, in which the
dreaded ideologists might easily find a refuge. The representative system of the Grand Orient clashed with !tis
monarchical principles, and the oligarchy of the Scotch rite
aroused his suspicions. The Parisian lodges, however, practised in the art of flattery, prostrated themselves before the
First Consul, prostrated themselves before the Emperor, and
sued for grace. The suspicions of Napoleon were not dissipated; but he perceived the policy of avoiding violent
measures, and of disciplining a body that might turn against
him. The lodges were inundated with the lowest police
agents, who rapidly attained the highest degrees, and seized
at the very outset the clue of any political intrigue which
might be concocted there. Napoleon, after considerable
hesitation, declared in favour of the Grand Orient, and the
Scotch rite had to assume the second place. A single word
of Napoleon had done more to establish peace between them
than all former machinations. The Grand Orient became a
court office, and Masonry. an army of ernployes. ' The Grand
Mastership was offered to Joseph Napoleon, who accepted it,
though never initiated into Freemasonry, with the consent
of his brother, who, however, for greater security, insisted
on having his trusty arch-chancellor Cambaceres appointed
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MASONRY AND NAPOLEONIS

Grand Master Adjunct, to be in reality the on
Order. Gradually all the rites existing in F nee gave in
their adhesion to the imperial policy, electing mbaceres as
their chief dignitary, so that he eventually p sessed more
masonic titles than any other man before or a er him. In
1805 he was made Grand Master Adjunct
the Grand
Orient ; in I 806, Sovereign Grand Master of e Supreme
Grand Coun(fil ; in the same year, Grand Mas r of the rite
of Heroden of Kilwinning; in I807, Supreme ead of the
French rite; in the same year, Grand Master
the Philo~
sophie Scotch rite ; in I 808, Grand Master of he Order of
Christ ; in I 809, National Grand Master of he Knights
of the Holy City; in the same year, Protector the Hi~h
Philosophic Degrees. As every n.ew lodge e ablished m
France had to pay the grand master a heavy e, Masonry
yielded to him an annual revenue of two millio of francs.
445 Spread of Freemasonry.-But masonic sputes soon
again ran high. The arch-chancellor, accusto ed and attached to the usages and pomps of courts, seer ly gave the
preference to the Scotch rite, with its high-so ding titles
and gorgeous ceremonies. The Grand Orien carried its
complaints even to Napoleon, who grew we y of these
paltry farces-he who planned grand dramas; and at one
time he had determined on abolishing the Orde altogether,
but Cambaceres succeeded in arresting his purp e, showing
. him the dangers that might ensue from its s pressiondangers which must have appeared great, sine Napoleon,
who never hesitated, hesitated then, and allo d another
to alter his views. Perhaps he recognised the ecessity in
French society of a l;>ody of men who were fre at least in
appearance, of a kind of political safety-valve.
he French
had taken a liking to their lodges, where th y found a
phantom of independence, and might consider themselves
on neutral groun~, so that a masonic writer cou say : " In
the bosom of Masonry there circulates a little
that vital
air so necessary to generous minds." The
otch rite,
secretly protected, spread throughout the Fre h departments and foreign countries, and whilst the G nd Orient
tried to suppress it, and to prevent innovation elected a
"Director of Rites," the Supreme Grand Council stablished
itself at Milan, and elected Prince Eugene Gran Master of
the Grand Orient of Italy. The two highest rna nic authorities, which yet had the same master in Cam eres, and
the same patron in Napoleon, continued to c bat each
other with as much fury as was shown in the
uggle beVOL. II.

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SECRET SOCIETIES
tween France and England. But having no public life, no
parliamentary debates, no opposition journals, the greater
part of the population took refuge in the lodges, and every
small town had its own. In I 812, there existed one thousand
and eighty-nine lodges, all depending on the Grand Orient ;
the army had sixty-nine, and the lodge was opened and
closed with the cry, Vive l'Empereur!
446. The Clover Leaves.-This was an Order founded in
Germany about I 8o8 by John de Witt, called Von Dorring
(555), a member of almost every secret society then existing, embracing some of the greatest German statesmen, to
further the plans of Napoleon, in the hope that his successes
might lead to the mediatisation of all German states, which,
with France, were to form but one empire. The name was
derived from the fact that three members only were known
to one another.
447 Obsequiousness of Freemasonry.- Napoleon, unable and
unwilling to suppress Freemasonry, employed it in the army,
in the newly-occupied territories, and in such as he intended
to occupy. Imperial proselytism turned the lodges into
schools of Napoleonism. But one section of Masonry, under
the shadow of that protection, became the very contrary,
anti-Napoleonic; and not all the lodges closed their accustomed labours with the cry of Vive l'Empereur I It is,
however, quite certain that Napoleon by means of the masonic
society facilitated or secured his conquests. Spain, Germany,
and Italy were covered with lodges-antechambers, more
than any others, of prefectures and military command-presided over and governed by soldiers. The highest dignitaries
of Masonry at that period were marshals, knights of the
Legion of Honour, nobles of ancient descent, senators, councillors, all safe and trusty persons; a state that obeyed the
orders of Cambaceres, as he obeyed the orders of Napoleon.
Obsequiousness came near to the ridiculous. The half-yearly
words of command of the Grand Orient retrace the history
of Napoleonic progress. In I8oo, "Science and Peace"; in
I 802, after Marengo, "Unity and Success" ; in I 804, after
the coronation, " Contentment and Greatness" ; after the
battle of Friedland, " Emperor and Confidence " ; after the
suppression of the tribune, " Fidelity " ; at the birth of the
King of Rome, " Posterity and Joy" ; at the departure of
the army for Russia, "Victory and Return"-terrible victory,
and unfortunate return !
448. Anti-Napoleonic Freemasonry.-Napoleon, we have
seen, made a league with Freemasonry to obtain its support.

MASONRY AND NAPOLEONISM

67

He is also said to have made certain promises to it; but as

he failed to keep them, the Masons turned against him, and
had a large share in his fall. This, however, is not very
probable, and is attributing too much influence to an
Order which had only recently recovered itself. Still, the
anti-Napoleonic leaven fermented in the Masonic society.
Savary, the minister of police, was aware of it in I8IO, and
wanted to apply to the secret meetings of Freemasons the
article of the penal code, forbidding them; but Cambaceres
once more saved the institution, which saved neither him nor
his patron. Freemasonry, if not by overt acts, at least by
its indifference, helped on the downfall of Napoleon. But it
was not altogether inactive, for even whilst the Napoleonic
star illumined almost alone the political heavens of Europe,
a Masonic lodge was formed whose object was the restoration of the Bourbons, whose action may be proved by official
documents to have extended through the French army, and
led to the seditious movemen~s of I 8 I 3

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XIX
FREEMASONRY, THE RESTORATION AND
THE SECOND EMPIRE
449 The Society of "France Regenerated."-The Restoration, whose blindness was only equalled by its mediocritywhich, unable to create, proposed to itself to destroy what
even time respects, the memories and glories of a peoplecould not please Freemasonry much. Hostile to Napoleon
in his last years, it could not approve of the conduct of the
new government. At all events, the Freemasons held aloof,
though cynics might suggest that this was done with a view
of exacting better terms. In the meanwhile, a society was
formed in Paris, which, assuming masonic forms and the
title of " France Regenerated," became an instrument of
espionage and revenge in the hands of the new despot. But
the very government in whose favour it acted, found it necessary within a year from its foundation silently to suppress
it; for it found the rabid zeal of these adherents to be more
injurious to its interests than the open opposition of its
avowed enemies.
450. Priestly Opposition to Masonry.-The Masonic propaganda, however, was actively carried on. The priests, on
their part, considered the moment come for inaugurating an
anti-masonic crusade. Under Napoleon the priesthood could
not breathe ; the court was closed against it, except on
grand occasions, when its presence was needed to add outward pomp to imperial successes. As the masters of ceremonies, the priests had ceased in France to be the councillors
and confessors of its rulers; but now they reassumed those
functions, and the Masons were at once recommended to the
hatred of the king and the mistrust of the public. They
were represented as abettors of rationalism and regicide;
the consequence was, that a great many lodges were closed,
though, on the other hand, the rite of Misraim was established in Paris in 1816, whose mother lodge was called the
"Rainbow," a presage of serenity and calm, which, however,
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THE RESTORATION AND SECOND EMPIRE

69

did not save the society from police persecution. In I82I,

this lodge was closed, and not reopened till I 8 30. Towards
the same time was founded the lodge of "Trinosophists."
In I82I, the Supreme Grand Council rose to the surface
again, and with it the disputes between it and the Grand
Orient. To enter into their squabbles would be a sad waste
of time, and I therefore pass them over.
45 I. Political Insignificance of Masonry.- The Freemasons
are said to have brought about the July revolution of I83o,
but proofs are wanting, and I think they may be absolved
from that charge. Louis-Philippe, who was placed on the
throne by that revolution, took the Order under his protection, and appointed his son, the Duke of Orleans, Grand
Master. On the Duke's death, in 1842, his brother, the
Duke de Nemours, succeeded him in the dignity. In this
latter year, the disputes between the Grand Orient and the
Supreme Grand Council were amicably settled. Again we
are told that at a masonic congress held at Strasburg the
foundations of the revolution of 1848 were laid. It is
certain that Cavaignac, Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, Prudhon,
Louis Blanc, Marrast, Vilain, Pyat, and a great number
of German republicans, attended that congress, but for
this reason it cannot strictly be called a masonic, it was
rather a republican, meeting. On the establishment of the
Provisional Government after the revolution of 1848, th~
Freemasons gave in their adhesion to that government ;
on which occasion some high-flown speeches about liberty,
equality, and fraternity were made, and everybody congratulated his neighbour that now the reign of universal brotherhood had begun. But the restoration of the Empire, which
followed soon after, showed how idle all this oratory had
been, and how the influence of Masonry in the:great affairs
of the world really is nil.
452. Freemasonry and Napoleon III.-Again the Napoleonic air waves around the Grand Orient. The nephew
showed himself from the first as hostile-to Freemasonry as
his uncle had been ; but the decree prohibiting the French
lodges from occupying themselves with political questions,
under pain of the dissolution of the Order, did not appear
until the 7th September 1850. In January 1852, some
superior members of the Order proposed to offer the dignity
of Grand Master to Lucien Murat, the President's cousin.
The proposal was unanimously agreed to; and on the 19th
of the same month the new Grand Master was acknowledged
by all the lodges. He held the office till 1861, when he was

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SECRET SOCIETIES
obliged to resign in consequence of the masonic body having
passed a vote of censure upon him for his expressions in
favour of the temporal power 0f the Pope, uttered in the
stormy discussion of the French Senate in the month of
June of that year. The Grand Orient was again all in confusion. Napoleon III. now interfered, especially as Prince
Napoleon was proposed for the office of Grand Master ;.
which excited the jealousy of the Muratists, who published
pamphlets of the most vituperative character against their
adversaries, who on their side replied with corresponding
bitterness. Napoleon imposed silence on the litigants, prohibited attendance at lodges, promised that he himself
would appoint a Grand Master, and advised his cousin to
undertake a long voyage to the United States. Deprived
of the right of electing its own chief, the autonomy of
Freemasonry became an illusion, its programme useless,
and its mystery a farce. In the meanwhile, the quarrels
of the partisans of the different candidates calmed down;.
Prince Napoleon returned from America ; Murat resigned
himself to 'this defeat, as to others, and the Emperor forgot
all about Freemasonry. At last, in January 1862, there
appeared a decree appointing Marshal Magnan to be
Grand Master. A Marshal! The nephew, in this instance,
as in many others, had taken a leaf out of his uncle's
book.
453 Jesuitical Mananwres.-Napoleonic Free~asonry, not
entirely to lose its peculiar physiognomy, ventured to change
its institutions. Jesuitism cast loving eyes on it, and drew
it towards itself, as in the days of the Strict Observance.
Murat threw out his net, but was removed just when it
was most important for the interests of the Jesuits that
he should have remained. He proposed to transform the
French lodges-of which, in 1852, there were 325, whilst
in 1861 only 269 could be found-into societies of mutual
succour, and to abandon or submit the higher masonic
sphere of morality and humanity to the society, which in
these last sixty years has already overcome and incorporated
the whole Roman clergy, once its rivals, and by oblique
paths also many of the conservative sects of other creeds.
Murat did not succeed, but others may; and though the
Masons say that Jesuitism shall not succeed, yet, how is
Freemasonry, that professes to meddle neither with politics
nor religion, to counteract the political and religious machinations of the Jesuits ? And even if Freemasonry had the
same weapons, are there men among the Order able to wield

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THE RESTORATION AND SECOND EMPIRE 7I

them with the ability and fearlessness that distinguish the
followers of Loyola? I fear not.
' Besides, the Masons, though they talk loudly of fraternisation and equality, when driven at bay become the stanchest
conservatives, wherefore the International at Lyons, in the
year 1870, solemnly excommunicated Freemasonry, and in
1880 exacted from every candidate for admission to the
society a declaration that he was not a Mason.

/ '

XX
FREEMASONRY IN ITALY
454 Whimsical Masonic Societies.- We have but few
notices of the early state of Freemasonry in Italy. We
are told that in I 5 I 2 there was founded at Florence a society
under the name of "The Trowel," composed of learned and
literary men, who indulged in all kinds of whimsical freaks,
and who may have served as prototypes to the Order of "The
Monks of the Screw," established towards the end of the last
century in Ireland. Thus at one time they would meet in
the lodge, dressed as masons and labourers, and begin to
erect an edifice with trays full of macaroni and cheese, using
spices and bonbons for mortar, and rolls and cakes for
stones, and building up the whole with all kinds of comestibles. .A.nd thus they went on until a pretended rain put
an end to their labours. .A.t another time it was Ceres, who,
in search of Proserpine, invited the Brethren of the Trowel
to accompany her to the infernal regiDns. They followed
her through the mouth of a serpent into a dark room, and
on Pluto inviting them to the feast, lights appeared, and the
table was seen to be covered with black, whilst the dishes
on it were foul and obscene animals, and bones of dead
men, served by devils carrying shovels. Finally all this
vanished, and a choice banquet followed. This Society of
the Trowel was in existence in I737 The clergy endeavoured to suppress it, and would no doubt have succeeded,
but for the accession of Francis, Duke of Tuscany, who had
been initiated in Holland, and who set free all the Freemasons
that had been incarcerated, and protected the Order. But
the remembrance of that persecution is preserved in the
rituals, and in the degree of "Magus," the costume is that
of the Holy Office, as other degrees commemorate the inquisitors of Portugal and Spain.
45 5 lllu,minati in Italy.-The sect of the Illuminati, of
whom Count Filippo Strozzi was a warm partisan, soon after
spread through Italy, as well as another Order, affiliated with
72

FREEMASONRY IN ITALY

73

the Illuminati, mystical and alchymistical, and in opposition

to the Rosicrucians, called the "Initiated Brethren of Asia,"
which had been founded at Vienna. It only accepted candidates who had passed through the first three degrees of
the York rite. Like Egyptian Masonry, it worshipped the
Tetragrammaton, and combined the deepest and most philosophical ideas with the most curious superstitions.
456. Freemasonry at Naples.-In the kingdom of Naples
the Masons amounted to many thousands. An edict of
Charles III. (1751), and another of Ferdinand IV. (1759),
closed the lodges, but in a short time the edicts became
a dead letter, and in vain did the minister, Tanucci, hostile
to the institution, seek to revive them. The incident of a
neophyte dying a few days after his initiation gave a pretext
for fresh persecution. The Masons, assembled at a banquet,
were arrested; and in vain did Levy, a lawyer, undertake their
defence. He was expelled the kingdom ; his book in favour
of the Order was publicly burnt by the executioner. But
Queen Caroline, having dismissed Tanucci, again sanctioned
masonic meetings, for which she received the thanks of the
Grand Orient of France. It would seem, however, that in a
very few years Freemasonry again had to hide its head, for
in 1767 we hear of it as a "secret" society, whose existence
has just been discovered. The document which records this
discovery puts the number of Freemasons at 64,000, which
probably is an exaggeration; still, among so excitable a population as that of Southern Italy, secret societies at all times
found plenty of proselytes.
457 Details ofIJoC'ument.-The document referred to says:
At last the great mine of the Freemasons of Naples is dis.covered, of whom the name, but not the secret, was known.
Two circumstances are alleged by which the discovery was
brought about: a dying man revealed all to his confessor,
that he should inform the king thereof ; a knight, who had
been kept in great state by the society, having had his pension withheld, betrayed the Grand Master of the Order to the
king. This Grand Master was the Duke of San Severo.
The king secretly sent a confidential officer with three dragoons to the duke's mansion, with orders to seize him before
he had time to speak to any one, and bring him to the palace.
The order was carried out; but a few minutes after a fire
broke out in the duke's mansion, destroying his library, the
real object being, as is supposed, to burn all writings having
reference to Freemasonry. The fire was extinguished, and
the house guarded by troops. The duke having been brought

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SECRET SOCIETIES

before the king, openly declared the objects, systems, seals,

government, and possessions of the Order. He was sent back
to his palace, and there guarded by troops, lest he should be
killed by his former colleagues. Freemasons have also been
discovered at Florence, and the Pope and the Emperor have
sent thither twenty-four theologians to put a stop to the disorder. The king acts with the greatest mercy towards all
implicated, to avoid the great dangers that might ensue from
a contrary course. He has also appointed four persons of
great standing to use the best means to destroy so abominable
a sect ; and has given notice to all the other sovereigns of
Europe of his discovery, and the abominable maxims of the.
sect, calling upon them to assist in its suppression, which it
will be folly in them to refuse to do. For the Order does not
count its members by thousands, but by millions, especially
among Jews and Protestants. Their frightful maxims are
only known to the members of the fifth, sixth, and seventh
lodges, while those of the first three know nothing, and
those of the fourth act without knowing, what they do.
They derive their origin from England, and the founder of
the sect was that infamous Cromwell, first bishop, and then
lover of Anne Boleyn, and then beheaded for his crimes,
called in his day "the scourge of rulers." He left the Order
an annual income of IO,ooo sterling. It is divided into
seven lodges: the members of the seventh are called Assessors;
of the sixth, Grand Masters ; of the fifth, Architects ; of the
fourth, Executors (here the secret ends) ; of the third,
Ruricori (!); of the second and first, Novices and Proselytes.
Their infamous idea is based on the allegory of the temple of
Solomon, considered in its first splendour, and then overthrown
by the tyranny of the Assyrians, and finally restored-thereby to signify the liberty of man after the creation of the world,
the tyranny of the priesthood, kings, and laws, and the reestablishment of that liberty. Then follow twelve maxims
in which these opinions and aims are more fully expounded,
from which it appears that they were not very different from
those of all other republican and advanced politicians.
458. Freemasonry at Vem:ce.-The Freemasons were at
first tolerated at Venice, but in I 686 the government suddenly took the alarm, and ordered the closing of all lodges, and
banished the members; but t}le decree was very leniently
executed, and a lodge of nobles having refused to obey,
the magistrates entered it at a time when they knew no
one to be there. The furniture, ornaments, and jewels were
carried out and publicly burnt or dispersed, but none of the-

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FREEMASONRY IN ITALY

75

brethren were in any way molested. A lodge was re-established afterwards, which was discovered in 1785, when all its
contents were again burnt or otherwise destroyed. From the
ritual, which was found among the other effects, it appears
that the candidate for initiation was led, his eyes being
bandaged, from street to street, or canal to canal, so as to
prevent his tracing the locality, to the Rio Marino, where
he was first conducted into a room hung with black, and
illumined by a single light ; there he was clothed in a long
garment like a winding sheet, but black ; he put on a cap
something like a turban, and his hair was drawn over his
face, and in this elegant figure he was placed before a.
looking-glass, covered with a black curtain, under which
were written the words, " If thou hast true courage, and
an honest desire to enter into the Order, draw aside the
curtain, and learn to know thyself." He might then remove
the bandage and look at himself. He was then again blindfolded, and placed in the middle of the room, while thirty
or forty members entered and b.egan to fight with swords.
This was to try the candidate's courage, who was himself
slightly wounded. The bandage was once more removed,
and the wound dressed. Then it was replaced, and the
candidate taken to a second apartment, hung with black and
white, and having in the middle a bed covered with a black
cloth, on the centre of which was a white cross, whilst
on either side was represented a white skeleton. The candidate was laid on the bed, the bandage being removed,
and he was there left with two tapers, the orte white, the
other yellow. After having been left there for some time,
the brethren entered in a boisterous manner, beating discordant drums. The candidate was to show no sign of
trepidation amidst all these elaborate ceremonies ; and then
the members embraced him as a brother, and gave him
the name by which he was henceforth to be known in the
society.
459 .Abatement under Napoleon.-During the reign of
Napoleon I., numerous lodges were founded throughout
Italy; and it cannot be denied by the greatest friends of the
Order, that during that period Freemasonry cut a most pitiful
figure. For a society that always boasted of its independence
of, and superiority to, all other earthly governments, to forward
addresses such as the following toN apol eon, seems something
like self-abasement and self-stultification :-" 0 Napoleon r
thy philosophy guarantees the toleration of our natural and
divine religion. We render thee honour worthy of thee for it,

SECRET SOCIETIES

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and thou shalt find in us nothing but faithful subjects, ever

devoted to thy august person ! "
460. The Freemasonry of the Present in Italy.- Very little
need, or can, be said as regards the active proceedings of
Italian masonic lodges of the present day, though they have
been reconstituted and united under one or two heads. But
their programme deserves attention, as pointing out those
reforms, needed not only in Italy, but everywhere where
Freemasonry exists. The declared object, then, of Italian
Freemasonry is, the highest development of universal philan, thropy ; the independence and unity of single nations, and
fraternity among each other; the toleration of every religion,
and absolute equality of worship; the moral and material
progress of the masses. It moreover declares itself independent of every government, affirming that Italian Freemasonry
will not recognise any other sovereign power on earth but
right reason and universal conscience. It further declares
-and this deserves particular attention-that Freemasonry
is not to consist in a mysterious symbolism, vain ceremonies,
or indefinite aspirations, which cover the Order with ridicule.
Again, Masonry being universal, essentially human, it does
not occupy itself with forms of government, nor with transitory questions, but with such as are permanent and general.
In social reforms abstract theories, founded on mystical
aspirations, are to be avoided. The duty of labour being
the most essential in civil society, Freemasonry is opposed
to idleness. Religious questions are beyond the pale of Freemasonry. Human conscience is in itself inviolable ; it has no
concern with any positive religion, but represents religion
itself in its essence. Devoted to the principle of fraternity,
it preaches universal toleration ; comprehends in its ritual
many of the symbols of various religions, as in its syncretism
it chooses the purest truths. Its creed consists in the worship
of the Divine, whose highest conception, withdrawn from
every priestly speculation, is that of the Great Architect of
the Universe; and in faith in humanity, the sole interpreter
of the Divine in the world. As to extrinsic modes of worship, Freemasonry neither imposes nor recommends any,
leaving to every one his free choice, until the day, perhaps
not far distant, when all men will be capable of worshipping
the Infinite in spirit and in truth, without intermediaries
and outward forms. And whilst man in his secret relations
to the Infinite fecundates the religious thought, he in his
relations to the Universe fecundates the scientific thought.
Science is truth, and the most ancient cultus of Freemasonry.

FREEMASONRY IN ITALY

77

In determining the relations o the individual to his

equals, Freemasonry does not restrict itself to recommending
to do unto others what we wish others would do unto us ;
but inculcates to do good, oppose evil, and not to submit to
injustice in whatsoever form it presents itself. Freemasonry
looks forward to the day when the iron plates of the Monitor
and the Merrimac will be beaten into steam-ploughs; when
man, redeemed by liberty and science, shall enjoy the pure
pleasures of intelligence ; when peace, fertilised by the
wealth and strength now devoted to war, shall bring forth
the most beautiful fruit of the tree of life.
461. Reform needed.-Greatly, therefore, is the academic
puerility of rites to be regretted, which drags back into
the past an institution that ought to launch forward into
the future. It is self-evident that Freemasonry in this state
cannot last, that a reform is necessary ; and as De Castro,
from whom the above is taken, thinks that it would be an
honour to Italy to be the leader in such a reform, it would
be an honour to any country that initiated it. Masonry
ought not to be an ambulance, but a vanguard. It is embarrassed by its excessive baggage, its superfluous symbols.
Guarding secrets universally known, it cannot entertain
secrets of greater account. Believing itself to be the sole
depositary of widely-spread truths, it deprives itself and the
world of other truths. In this perplexity and alternative of
committing suicide or being born anew, what will Masonry
decide on?

I
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XXI
CAGLIOSTRO AND EGYPTIAN MASONRY
462. Life of Oagliostro.-J oseph Balsamo, the disciple
and successor of St. Germain, who pretended at the Court
of Louis XV. to have been the contemporary of Charles V.,
Francis I., and Christ; and to possess the elixir of life and
many other secrets, had vaster designs and a loftier ambition
than his teacher, and was one of the most active agents of
Freemasonry in France and the rest of Europe. He was born
at Palermo in I 743, and educated at two convents in that city,
where he acquired some chemical knowledge. As a young
man, he fell in with an Armenian, or Greek, or Spaniard,
called A.lthotas, a kind of adventurer, who professed to
possess the philosopher's stone, with whom he led a roving
life for a number of years. What became of A.lthotas
at last is not positively known. Balsamo at last found
his way to Rome, where he married the beautiful Lorenza
Feliciani, whom he treated so badly, that she escaped from
him; but he recovered her, and acquired great influence
over her by magnetically operating upon her. There is no
doubt that he was a powerful magnetiser. Visiting Germany,
he was initiated into Freemasonry, in which he soon began
to take a prominent part. He also assumed different titles,
such as that of Marquis of Pellegrini, but the one he is best
known by is that of Count Cagliostro ; and by his astuteness,
impudence, and some lucky hits at prophesying, he acquired
a European notoriety and I made many dupes, including
persons of the highest rank, especially in France, where he
founded many new masonic lodges. He was the author of
a book called "The Rite of Egyptian Masonry," which rite
he established first in Courland, and afterwards in Germany,
France, and England. After having been banished from
France, in consequence of his implication in the affair of the
queen's necklace, and driven from England by his creditors,
he was induced by his wife, who was weary of her wandering life, and anxious once more to see her relations, to visit
78

CAGLIOSTRO AND EGYPTIAN MASONRY

79

Rome, where he was arrested on the charge of attempting

to found a masonic lodge, against which a papal bull had
recently been promulgated, and thrown into the Castle of St.
Angelo, in 1789. He was condemned to death, but the
punishment was commuted to perpetual imprisonment. His
wife was shut up in a convent, and died soon after. Having
been transferred to the Castle of San Leo, he attempted to
strangle the monk sent to confess him, in the hope of escaping in his gown ; but the attempt failed, and it is supposed
that he died, a prisoner, in 1795
463. The Egyptian Rite.-The Egyptian rite invented by
Cagliostro is a mixture of the sacred and profane, of the
serious and laughable. Having discovered a MS. of George
Cofton, in which was propounded a singular scheme for
the reform of Freemasonry in an alchymistic and fantastic
sense, Cagliostro founded thereon .the bases of hls masonic
system, taking advantage of human credulity, enriching
himself, and at the same time seconding the action of other
secret societies. He gave his dupes to understand that the
scope of Egyptian Masonry was to conduct men to perfection
by means of physical and moral regeneration ; asserting that
the former was infallible through the prima materia and
the philosopher's stone, which assured to man the strength
of youth and immortality, and that the second was to be
achieved by the discovery of a pentagon that would restore
man to his primitive innocence. This rite indeed is a tissue
of fatuities it would not be worth while to allude to, did it
not offer matter for study to the philosopher and moralist.
Cagliostro pretended that the rite had been first founded
by Enoch, remodelled by Elias, and finally restored by the
Grand Copt. Both men and women were admitted into
the lodges, though the ceremonies for each were slightly
different, and the lodges for their reception entirely distinct.
In the reception of women, among other formalities there
was that of breathing into the face of the neophyte, saying,
" I breathe 11pon you this breath to cause to germinate in
you and grow in your heart the truth we possess ; I breathe
it into you to strengthen in you good intentions, and to
confirm you in the faith of your brothers and sisters. We
constitute you a legitimate daughter of true Egyptian adoption and of this worshipful lodge." One of the lodges was
called" Sinai," where the most secret rites were performed;
another" Ararat," to symbolise the rest reserved for Masons
only. Concerning the pentagon, Cagliostro taught that it
would be given to the masters after forty days of inter-

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SECRET SOCIETIES

course with the seven primitive angels, and that its possessors would enjoy a physical regeneration for .5557 years,
after which they would through gentle sleep pass into
heaven. The pentagon had as much success with the upper
ten thousand of London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, as the
philosopher's stone ever enjoyed; and large sums were given
for a few grains of the rejuvenating prima materia.
464. Oagliostro's Hydromancy.-But beside masonic delusions, Cagliostro made use of the then little understood
wonders of magnetism to attract adherents ; and as many
persons are seduced by the wine-cup, so he made dupes of
many by means of the water-bottle, which device, as might
be shown, was very ancient, and consisted in divination by
hydromancy. A. child, generally a little girl, ~nd called
the Dove, was made to look into a bottle of water, and see
therein events, past, present, and to come ; and as Cagliostro
was really a man of observation, he made many shrewd
guesses as to the future, and sometimes fortune favoured
him-as in the case of Schropfer (280, 437), one of the leaders
of the llluminati, who refused to join the Egyptian rite; the
little girl declared that in less than a month Schropfer would
be punished. Now it so happened that within that period
Schropfer committed suicide, which of course gave an immense lift to Cagliostro and his bottle. In this respect
indeed Cagliostro was a forerunner of our modern spiritualists ; and as he did not keep his occult power a secret
from all, but freely communicated it, magical practices were
thus introduced into the lodges, which brought discredit
on the institution. And all this occurred at the period of
the Encyclopedists, and on the eve of mighty events !
465. Lodges founded by Oagliostro.-He founded the first
lodge, gorgeously fitted up, at Paris in a private house, and
another one in his own house. A third was founded at
Lyons, for which a special grand building was erected. It
was declared the Mother Lodge, and called "Triumphant
Wisdom." Its patent ran thus:
" Honour, Wisdom,
Union,
Beneficence, Comfort.

" We Grand Copt, in all eastern and western parts of

Europe, Founder and Grand Master of Egyptian Masonry,
make known to All, who may read this, that during our stay
at Lyons many members of the Lodge of the Orient and
Ordinary Rite, which has adopted the distinguishing title of

CAGLIOSTRO AND EGYPTIAN MASONRY

81

'Wisdom,' have expressed their ardent wish to place themselves under our rule, to be enlightened in true Masonry.
We are pleased to accede to their wish," &c.
Lodges also were founded at Strasburg, a ladies' lodge
at The Hague, another at Roveredo, another at Mitau, and
a very grand one near Basle, in a sumptuous temple, erected
for the purpose. The good citizens of Basle always approached it with feelings of a.we, because they imagined
Cagliostro destined it to be his tomb.

VOL, JJ.

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ADOPTIVE MASONRY
466. Historical Not'ice.-According to one of the fundamental laws of Masonry-and a rule prevailing in the greater
mysteries of antiquity-women cannot be received into the
Order. Women cannot keep secrets, at least so Milton says,
through the mouth of Dalila" Granting, as I do, it was a weakness
In me, but incident to all our sex,
Curiosity, inquisitive, importune
Of secrets ; then with like infirmity
To publish them ; both common female faults."

But we have already seen that Cagliostro admitted women

to the Egyptian rite ; and when at the beginning of the
eighteenth century several associations sprang up in France,
which in their external aspect resembled Freemasonry, but
did not exclude women, the ladies naturally were loud in
their praise of such institutions, so that the masonic brotherhood, seeing it was becoming unpopular, had recourse to the
stratagem of establishing "adoptive" lodges of women, so
called because every such lodge had finally to be adopted by
some regular masonic lodge. The Grand Orient of France
framed laws for their government, and the first lodge of
adoption was opened in Paris in I 77 5, in which the Duchess
of Bourbon presided, and was initiated as Grand Mistress of
the rite. The Revolution checked the progress of this rite,
but it was revived in 1805, when the Empress Josephine
presided over the " Loge Imperiale d' Adoption des FrancsChevaliers" at Strasburg. Similar lodges spread over Europe,
Great Britain excepted ; but they soon declined, and are at
present confined to the place of their origin.
467. Organisation.-The rite consists of the same degrees
as those of genuine Masonry. Every sister, being a dignitary, has beside her a masonic brother holding the corresponding rank. Hence the officers are a Grand Master and
s.

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I
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ADOPTIVE MASONRY
a Grand Mistress, an Inspector and an Inspectress, a Depositor
and a Depositrix, a Conductor and a Conductress. The
business of the lodge is conducted by the sisterhood, the
brethren only acting as their assistants; but the Grand
Mistress has very little to say or to do, she being only an
honorary companion to the Grand Master. The first, or
apprentice's, degree is only introductory; in the second, or
companion, the scene of the temptation in Eden is emblematically represented; the building of the tower of Babel is the
subject of the mistress's degree; and in the fourth, or that
of perfect mistress, the officers represent Moses, Aaron, and
their wives, and the ceremonies refer to the passage of the
Israelites through the wilderness, as a symbol of the passage
of men and women through this to another and better life.
'l'he lodge-room is tastefully decorated, and divided by curtains into four compartments, each representing one of the
four quarters of the globe, the eastern, or farthermost, representing Asia, where there are two splendid thrones, decorated
with gold fringe, for the Grand Master and the Grand Mistress. The members sit on each side in straight lines, the
sisters in front and the brothers behind them, the latter
having swords in their hands. All this pretty playing at
Masonry is naturally followed by a banquet, and on many
occasions by a ball. At the banquets the members use a
symbolical language; thus the lodge-room is called "Eden,"
the doors " barriers," a glass is called a "lamp," water
"white oil," wine "red oil"; to fill your glass is "to trim
your lamp," &c.
468. Jesuit Degrees.-The Jesuits, qui vont jourrer leur
nez partout, soon poked it into Adoptive Masonry-for to
get hold of the women is to get hold of the better half of
mankind-and founded new lodges, or modified existing
ones of that rite to further their own purposes. Thus it is
that a truly monkish asceticism was introduced into some of
them, by the Jesuits divided into ten degrees; and we find
such passages in the catechism as these : "Are you prepared,
sister, to sacrifice life for the good of the catholic, apostolic
Roman Church ? " The tenth or last degree was called the
"Princess of the Crown," and a g-reat portion of the ritual
treats of the Queen of Sheba. This rite was established in
Saxony in 1779. 1
1 For another adoptive order, the" Heroine of Jericho," see Miscellaneous
Societies, Book XIV., 701.

1
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XXIII
ANDROGYNOUS MASONRY
469. 01igin and Tendency.-Gallantry already makes its
appearance in Adoptive Masonry; and this gallantry, which
for so many ages was the study of France, and was there
reduced to an ingenious art, manufactured on its own account
rites and degrees that were masonic in name only. Politics
were dethroned by amorous intrigues ; and the enumerators
of great effects sprung from trifling causes might in this
chapter of history find proofs of what a superficial and accidental thing politics are, when not governed by motives of
high morality, nor w:atched by the incorruptible national
conscience. And Androgynous Masonry did not always
confine itself to an interchange of compliments and the
pursuit of pleasure ; still, as a rule, its lodges for the initiation of males and females-defended by some of their advocates as founded on Exod. xxxviii. 8-are a whimsical form
of that court life which in France and Italy had its poets
and romancers; and which rose to s.uch a degree of impudence and scandal as to outrage the modesty of citizens and
popular virtue. It is a page of that history of princely
corruption, which the French people at first read of with
laughter, then with astonishment, finally with indignation;
and which inspired it with those feelings which at last found
their vent in the excesses of the great Revolution. Every
Revolution is a puritanical movement, and the simple and
neglected virtue of the lowly-born avenges itself upon the
pompous vices of their superiors.
470. Ea1liest And1ogynous Societies.-Some of these were
founded in France and elsewhere by an idle, daring, and
conquering soldiery. As their type we may take the Order
of the "Knights and Ladies of Joy," founded with extraordinary success at Paris in 1696, under the protection of
Bacchus and Venus, and whose printed statutes are still in
existence; and that of the "Ladies of St. John of Jerusalem," and the "Ladies of St. James of the Sword and
84

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ANDROGYNOUS MASONRY

ss

Calatrava." They, as it were, Eerved as models to the

canonesses, who, till the end of the last century, brought
courtly pomp and mundane pleasures into the very cloisters
of France, and compelled aust~re moralists to excuse it by
saying that it was dans le go'lht de la nation.
471. Other AndTogynous Societies.-In the Order of the
" Companions of Penelope, or the Palladium of Ladies,"
whose statutes are said to have been drawn up by Fenelon
(with how much truth is easily imagined), the trials consist
in showing the candidate that work is the palladium of
women; whence we may assume the pursuits of this society
to have been very different from the equivocal occupations
of other Orders. The Order of the " Mopses " owed its origin
to a religious scruple. Pope Clement XII. having issued, in
1738, a Bull condemning Freemasonry, Clement Augustus, .
Duke of Bavaria and Elector of Cologne, instituted, under
the above name (derived from the German word Mops, a
young mastiff, the symbol of fidelity), what was pretended to
be a new society, but what was, in fact, only Freemasonry
under another name. Immediately after their establishment
the Mopses became an androgynous order, admitting females
to all the offices except that of Grand Master, which was
for life ; but there was a Grand Mistress, elected every six
months. Their ceremonies were grotesque. The candidate
for admission did not knock, but scratch at the door, and,
being purposely kept waiting, barked like a dog. On being
admitted into the lodge he had a collar round his neck, to
which a chain was attached. He was blindfolded, and led
nine times round the room, while the Mopses present made
as great a din as possible with sticks, swords, chains, shovels,
and dismal howlings. He was then questioned as to his
intentions, and having replied that he desired to become a
Mops, was asked by the master whether he was prepared to
kiss the most ignoble part of that animal. Of course this
raised the candidate's anger; but in spite of his resistance,
the model of a dog, made of wax, wood, or some other
material, was pushed against his face. Having taken the
oath, he had his eyes unbandaged, and was taught the signs,
which were all of a ludicrous description. In 1777 there
was established in Denmark the androgynous order of
the "Society of the Chain," to which belongs the honour
of having founded, and of maintaining at its own expense,
the Asylum for the Blind at Copenhagen, the largest and
best managed of similar institutions in Europe. The Order
of "Perseverance," the date of whose foundation is un-

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SECRET SOCIETIES

known, but which existed in Paris in 1777, and was supported by the most distinguished persons, had a laudable
custom, which might be imitated by other societies, viz., to
inscribe in a book, one of which is still extant, the praiseworthy actions of the male and female members of the association. But one of the most deserving masonic androgynous
institutions was that of the " Sovereign Chapter of the Scotch
Ladies of France," founded in 1810, and divided into lesser
and greater mysteries, and whose instructions aimed chiefly
at leading the neophyte back to the occupations to which
the state of society called him or her. To provide food and
work for those wanting either, to afford them advice and
help, and save them from the cruel alternative of crimesuch was the scope of this society, which lasted till the year
1828. The fashion of androgynous lodges was revived in
Spain in 1877. From the Chaine d'Union, a masonic publication, we learn that several such lodges were formed about
that date, receiving ladies of the highest rank. Thus the
Countess Julia A--, belonging by birth to the AustrianHungarian nobility, and by her connections to Spain, was
initiated into the lodge Fraternitad Iberica on the 14th June
188o; and the Grand Orient of Spain initiated ladies into all
the mysteries of masonry, just as if they wme men.
472. Various other Androgynous Societies.-The Society of
the "vVood-store of the Globe and Glory" was founded in
1747 by the Chevalier de Beauchene, a lively boon companion,
who was generally to be found at an iun, where for very little
money he conferred all the masonic degrees of that time ;
a man whose worship would have shone by the great tun of
Heidelberg, or at the drinking bouts of German students.
The Wood-store was supposed to be in a forest, and the
meetings, which were much in vogue, took place in a garden
outside Paris, called "New France," where assembled lords
and clowns, ladies and grisettes, indulging in the easy costumes and manners of the country. Towards the middle of
the eighteenth century, there was established in Brittany
the Order of the " Defoliators."
In the Order of "Felicity," instituted in Paris in 1742,
and divided into the four degrees of midshipman, captain,
chief of a squadron, and vice-admiral, the emblems and terms
were nautical: sailors were its founders, and it excited so
much attention, that in 17 46 a satire, entitled, " The Means
of reaching the highest Rank in the Navy without getting
Wet," was published against it. Its field of action was
the field of love. A Grand Orient was called the offing, the

ANDROGYNOUS MASONRY
lodge the squadron, and the sisters p~rformed the fictitious
'voyage to the island of Felicity sous la voile des jreres et
pilotees par eux ; and the candidate promised " never to
receive a foreign ship into her port as long as a ship of the
Order was anchored there."
The Order of the " Lovers of Pleasure " was a military
institution, a pale revival of the ceremonies of chivalry and
the courts of love, improvised in the French camp in Galicia.
From the discourse of one of the orators we select the
following passage : "Our scope is to embellish our existence,
always taking for our guide the words, 'Honour, Joy, and
Delicacy.' Our scope, moreover, is to be faithful to our
country and the august sovereign who fills the universe with
his glorious name, to serve a cause which ought to be grateful
to every gentle soul, that of protecting youth and innocence,
and of establishing between the ladies and ourselves an
eternal alliance, cemented by the purest friendship.'' This
society, it is said, was much favoured by Napoleon I., and
hence we may infer that its aim was not purely pleasure ;
at all events, it is remarkable that a society, having masonic
rites, should have given its services to the "august sovereign"
who had just withdrawn his support from genuine Freemasonry.
473 Knights and Nyrnphs of the .Rose.--This Order was
founded in Paris in 1778 by Chaumont, private secretary to
Louis-Philippe d'Orleans, to please that prince. The chief
lodge was held in one of the famous petites maisons of that
epoch. The great lords had lodges in their own houses.
The Hierophant, assisted by a deacon called " Sentiment,"
initiated the men, and the Grand Priestess, assisted by the
deaconess called " Discretion," initiated the women. The
age of admission for knights was " the age to love," that
of ladies "the age to please and to be loved.'' Love and
mystery were the programme of the Order; the lodge was
called the Temple of Love, which was beautifully adorned
with garlands of flowers and amorous emblems and devices.
The knights wore a crown of myrtle, the nymphs a crown of
roses. During the time of initiation a dark lantern, held by
the nymph of Discretion, shed a dim light, but afterwards
the lodge was illuminated with numerous wax candles. The
aspirants, laden with chains, to symbolise the prejudices that
kept them prisoners, were asked, " What seek you here ? "
to which they replied, "Happiness." 'fhey were then questioned as to their private opinion and conduct in matters of
gallantry, and made twice to traverse the lodge over a path

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covered with love-knots, whereupon the iron chains were

taken off, and garlands of flowers, called " chains of love,"
substituted. The candidates' were then conducted to the
altar, where they took the oath of secrecy ; and thence to
the mysterious groves in the neighbourhood of the Temple
of Love, where incense was offered up to Venus and her son.
If it was a knight who had been initiated, he exchanged his
crown of myrtle for the rose of the last initiated nymph;
and if a nymph, she exchanged her rose for the myrtle crown
of Brother Sentiment. The horrors of the Revolution scattered these knights and nymphs, who, like thoughtless children, were playing on a volcano.
474 German Order of the Rose.-An.other order of the
Rose was founded in Germany in 1784 by one Francis.
Matthaus Grossinger, who ennobled himself by assuming
the title of Francis Rudolph von Grossing. He was born
in 1752 at Komorn, in Hungary; his father was a butcher,
his mother the daughter of a tanner. Grossing was a Jesuit,
but on the suppression of the Order he .led a wandering life,
and eventually reached Vienna, where he obtained the protection of the father confessor of the empress, who in 1777
granted him a pension of six hundred florins, which, how,ever,
he lost by her death. He then lived by all kinds of swindling,
and finally founded a philanthropic order, which, after the
name of the supposititious grand mistress, the Lady of Rosenwald, he called the " Order of the Rose." He was very
successful at Halle, where he lived, in initiating dupes, on
whose contributions he lived in great style. When he became too notorious at Halle he transmigrated to Berlin,
where he continued his expensive style of living, got into
debt, was arrested, but made his escape, after having swindled
the Berliners out of twenty thousand dollars.
475 Pretended Objects of the Order.-Tb,e Order professed
to pursue the loftiest philosophic and educational objects.
None but men and women endowed with noble souls were
to be admitted, and no member was to reveal the name of
any other member, nor what was discussed in the lodges,
to outsiders. Masonry was the model for the Order of the
Rose, the latter adopting all the good, and rejecting all the
bad of the former. The ribbon of the Order consisted of
pink silk, both ends terminating in three points ; it was
marked with a rose, and the name of the member, with the
date of his or her reception. Under this was a large seal,
displaying a rose, surrounded by a wreath of the same
flowers ; the ribbon was further adorned with a kind of

.ANDROGYNOUS MASONRY
silhouette, supposed to represent the Lady of Rosenwald,
so indistinct and blurred, as to look more like a blot than a
portrait. Members also were furnished with a small ticket,
giving the explanation of certain terms used by Grossing in
his "Rules and Regulations"; thus Freemasons were called
" Gamblers " ; Jesuits, " Foxes " ; Illuminati, " Wasps " ;
Ghost-seers, "Gnats," &c. The "Rules" were called ".A
Shell or Case for Thorns " ; members, to recognise each
other, would say, " Thorns," to which the other would
reply, "Forest," after which each would produce his ribbon
and ticket. In 1786 the Order counted about one hundred
and twenty. members, but having no innate vitality, being, in
fact, but a company of triflers, many of them withdrew on
finding the whole Order but a scheme of Grossing to put
money into his pocket, and so it was swept away into the
limbus of fashionable follies.
476. Order of Harmony.-The Order of the Rose having
collapsed, Grossing in I 788 founded, under a fictitious name,
the" Order of Harmony." He published a book alleged to
be translated from the English, and entitled, "Harmony, or a
Scheme for the Better Education of the Female Sex," and
wrote in the .Preface, " This ' Harmony ' is not to be confounded with that Chateau en Espagne, with which the
founder of the Order of the Rose for some years deluded
the ladies of Germany." The Order of Harmony was said to
have been founded by Seth, the third son of .Adam, to
have reckoned among its members Moses and Christ, and to
be the refuge of persecuted humanity and innocence. The
founder abused princes and priests, proposed the establishment of convents, in which ladies were to take the vows of
chastity, obedience, and poverty, but only for a year at a time;
a bank was also to be founded in connection with them .
.And the writer finally proposed that a monument should
be erected t0 the promoter of the Order as a benefactor of
mankind! When Grossing was arrested in 1788 at Roten burg
(Prussia), for all kinds of swindling transactions, a number
of diplomas were found among his papers, with the names of
ladies who were to be admitted to the Order filled in. But
the interference of the vulgar police brushed the bloom of
romance off the scheme, and the Order of Harmony perished,
a still-born babe! Grossing, however, managed to effect his
escape, by making his guards drunk; what became of him
afterwards is not on record.
477 Mason's Da7tghter.-This is an androgynous. degree
invented in the Western States of America, and given to

SECRET SOCIETIES

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master masons, their wives, and unmarried sisters and

daughters. It refers to circumstances recorded in chapters
xi. and xii. of St. John's Gospel. In these women's lodges
the banqueting hall is divided into East, West, South, and
North sides (the four walls); the grand mistress sits in the
East ; the temple or lodge is called Eden ; the doors are
called barriers, the glasses, lamps, the wine is called red oil ;
to put oil in the lamps is to fill the glasses, to extinguish the
lamp is to drink the wine, to "fire ! " is to drink. The sign
is to place the hands on the breast, so that the right lies on
the left, and the two thumbs joining form a triangle. The
word is "Eve," repeated five times. Gentlemen are allowed
to be present. As the reader will have observed, the degree
is an imitation of the Loge Imperiale d' Adoption des FrancsChevaliers, described in 466.

XXIV
SCHISMATIC RITES AND SECTS
478. Schismatic Rites and Sects.-The pretended derivation
of .Freemasonry from the Knights Templars has already been
referred to ; but Masonry, the system, not the name, existed
before the Order of the Temple, and the Templars themselves had masonic rites and degrees three hundred years
before their downfall. Those who, however, maintain the
above view say that the three assassins symbolise the three
betrayers of the Order, and Hiram the Grand Master Molay ;
and according to the ritual of the Grand Lodge of the Three
Globes, a German degree, the lights around the coffin signify
the flames of the pile on which Molay was burnt. To the
Rosicrucians and to certain German lodges Hiram is Christ,
and the three assassins, Judas that betrays, Peter that denies
Him, and Thomas that disbelieves His r6lsurrection. The
ancient Scotch rite had its origin in other false accounts of
the rise of the Order. In the last century schisms without
number arose in the masonic body. It would be impossible
in a work like this to give particulars of all ; we have already
done so of several ; a few more may be briefly referred to.
The Moravian Brothers of the Order of Religious Freemasons, or Order of the "Mustard Seed," was a German
rite founded, circa I 7 I 2, by Count Zinzendorf, the same who
afterwards invented the rite already described in 438.
Some authorities assert this Order of the "Mustard-Seed"
to have originated in England in I 708, and thence to
have spread to Holland and Germany, and to have been
adopted by Zinzendorf, circa I 7 1 2-14, when he was a student
at Halle. The mysteries were founded on the passage in
St. Mark iv. 30-32, in which Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard-seed. The brethren
recognised each other by a ring inscribed with the words :
"No one of us lives for himself." The jewel was a cross
of gold, surmounted by a mustard-plant with the words :
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''What was it before? Nothing." The members met every

year in the chapel of the Castle of Gnadenstadt, and also
kept the I 5th March and 16th April as holy days.
Nearly all the degrees of the Scotch rite are schismatic.
In like manner, all the English and American orders of
chivalry, and their conclaves and encampments, are parodies
of ancient chivalry.
In 17 58, Lacorne, a dancing-master, and Pirlet, a tailor,
invented the degree of the " Council of the Emperors of
the East and West," whose members assumed the titles of
"Sovereign Prince Masons, Substitutes General of the Royal
Art, Grand Superintendents and Officers of the Grand and
Sovereign Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem." The ritual
consisted of twenty-five degrees, and as it was calculated
by its sounding titles and splendour of ritual to flatter the
vanity of the frivolous., it was at first very successful; and
Lacorne conferred on one of his creatures, a Hebrew, the
degree of Inspector, and sent him to America to spread
the Order there. In 1797, other Jews added eight new
degrees, giving to this agglomeration of thirty-three pompous degrees the title of " Ancient and Accepted Scotch
Rite." The Grand Orient of France~ seeing its own influence
declining, proposed advantageous and honourable terms to
the Supreme Grand Council which was at the head of the
Scotch rite, and an agreement was come to in 1804. The
Grand Orient retaining the first name, received into its bosom
the Supreme Grand Council and the rich American symbolism.
But the connection did not prosper, and was dissolved in
1805. Again, what is called Mark-Masonry in England is,
by some masonic authorities, considered spurious ; whilst in
Scotland and Ireland it is held to be an essential portion of
Freemasonry. These are curious anomalies. About 1869
His Imperial Highness the Prince Rhodocanakis introduced
into England the "Order of the Red Cross of Constantine
and Rome," which, however, being violently opposed by the
Supreme Grand Council of the 33rd, came to an untimely
end soon after. The S.G.C. threatened any member of the
"Ancient and Accepted" who should dare even to merely
visit this new Order with expulsion from the fraternity.
And the S.G.C. actually sent a "Sovereign Tribunal" to
Manchester to try a brother, who had snapped his fingers
at the Council and said he did no.t care for the " Sovereign."
How it all ended is pleasantly related in the pages of The
Rectangular, January and April I8JI.
479 Farmassoni.-There is a Gnostic sect in Russia whom

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93

the. Russians identify with the Freemasons, and therefore

call "Farmassoni," a corruption of franc-ma~ons. The Farmassoni regard priesthood and ritual as a pagan depravation
of the faith and of the true doctrine; they seek, as much as
possible, to spiritualise Christianity, and to ground it solely
on the Bible and the inward illumination of believers. The
earliest traces of them are to be found at the end of the
seventeenth century, and their appearance coincides with
that of certain German mystics and theosophists in Moscow.
The most important of these was a Prussian sub-officer, who
was carried to Moscow, having been taken prisoner by the
Russians during the Seven Years' War.
480. The Go1'mogones.-This Order was founded in England
in 1724. The names and birthplaces of the members were
written in cipher, and the Order was said to have been
brought by a Chinese mandarin (a Jesuit missionary?) to
England, it being in great repute in China (Rome), and
to possess extraordinary secrets. It held a chapter at the
Castle Tavern, London, but was dissolved in 1738. It is
supposed to have been an attempt of the Jesuits, by the help
of masonic ceremonies, to gain converts to Catholicism, and
that Ramsay, the inventor of the so-called higher degrees,
had something to do with it. I have vainly endeavoured
to trace the origin and meaning of the term Gormogones.
.According to one account I have seen it was also called the
Order of the Gormones, and was said to have been instituted
for the reception of individuals not considered sufficiently
advanced 'for admission to the lodges.
481. The Noachites, or Noachidro.-'rhis Order, founded in
the last quarter of the last century, assumed the high-sounding title of "The Fraternity of the Royal .Ark Mariners,
Mark, Mark Master, Elected of Nine, Unknown, Fifteen,
.Architect, Excellent and Superexcellent Masons." They
professed to be the followers of Noah-which no doubt they
were in one respect-and therefore also called themselves
Noachites or Noachid:E. Their president, Thomas-Boothby
Parkyns, Lord Rancliffe, bore the title of Grand Noah, and
the lodge was called the Royal Ark Vessel. The brother
mariners in the lodge wore a broad sash, representing a rainbow, with an apron fancifully decorated with an ark. dove,
&c. Their principal place of meeting was at the Surrey
Tavern, Surrey Street, Strand. They had a poet, Brother
Ebenezer Sibley, who was a doctor of medicine and an astrologer to boot, who, like too many masonic poets, wrote indifferent couplet~ This Order must not be confounded

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SECRET SOCIETIES

with the" Noachite or Russian Knight," which is the 2rst

degree of the Ancient Scotch rite.
482. Argonauts.-This Order was founded, for his amusement, by a Freemason, Konrad von Rhetz, residing at
Riddagshausen, near Brunswick. He had been the master
of a lodge of the Relaxed Observance, but fell out w~th his
brethren, and ceased from visiting any lodge. Near his
residence there is a large lake with an island in the centre.
On this he built a temple and provided boats to carry visitors
to it, where, if they desired it, they were initiated into the
new Order. Persons of position and of either sex might
claim reception as a matter of right, and many Brunswick
Freemasons belonged to it. The Grand Master, or Grand
Admiral as he was called, entertained all visitors free of
expense, nor was there any charge for initiation. The
greeting was "Long live pleasure!" The temple was built
in the antique style, though with quaint decorations and a
few paintings and engravings. There were also cupboards
containing the insignia of the Order. The officers were
styled Steersman, Chaplain, and so on ; the others were
simple Argonauts. The jewel was a silver anchor with
green enamel. On the founder's death in 1787 the Order
was dissolved ; no trace remains of the temple.
483. The Grand Orient and Atheism.-In 1877 the Grand
Orient abolished in the lodges the acknowledgment of a
belie in God, introduced into the ritual in r854, which has
led to a rupture between it and the Grand Lodge of England.
The influence of Masonry, both social and political, in France
being universal, it is the foundation and support of the war
made on the priesthood with a view chiefly to deprive them
of the education of youth. The Spanish and Dutch Grand
Lodges approved of the action of the Grand Orient in
suppressing the name of God in the ritual of admission.
There is no doubt that Continental Masonry aims at
the abolition not only of the Roman Catholic Church,
but of the human mind's blind surrender to any creed
whatever.
484. Ludicrous Degree.-The following lodge was actually
established about IJIJ. Some joyous companions, having
passed the degree of craft, resolved to form a lodge for
themselves. As none of them knew the master's part, they
at once invented and adopted a ritual which suited every
man's humour. Hence it was ordered that every person
during initiation should wear boots, spurs, a sword, and
spectacles. The apron was turned upside down. To simplify

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the work of the lodge, they abolished the practice of studying geometry, excepting that form mentioned by Hudibras" For he, by geometric scale,
Could take the size of pots of ale ;
Resolve by sines and tangents straight,
If bread or butter wanted weight."

Some of the members proved that a good knife and fork in

the hands of a dexterous brother, over proper materials,
would give greater satisfaction and add more to the rotundity of the lodge than the best scale and compass in Europe ;
adding that a line, a square, a parallelogram, a rhombus, a
rhomboid, a triangle, a trapezium, a circle, a semi-circle, a
quadrant, a parabola, a hyperbola, a cube, a parallelepipedon,
a prism, a prismoid, a pyramid, a cylinder, a curve, a cylindroid, a sphere, a spheroid, a paraboloid, a cycloid, a paracentric, frustums, segments, sectors, gnomons, pentagons,
hexagons, polygons, ellipses, and irregular figures of all sorts,
might be drawn and represented upon bread, beef, mutton,
ham, fowls, pies, &c., as demonstratively as upon sheets of
paper or the tracing-board, and that the use of the globes
might be taught and explained as clearly and briefly upon
two bottles as upon any twenty-eight inch spheres.

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XXV
DIFFUSION OF THE ORDER
485. Freemasonry in Spain and P01tugal.-In 1726, the
Grand Lodge of England granted a patent for the establishment of a lodge at Gibraltar; another was founded in the
following year at Madrid, which, declaring itself independent
of foreign supervision, establishedlodges at Cadiz, Barcelona,
Valladolid, and other places. The Inquisition, seeing the
danger that threatened the Church, persecuted the Order;
hence some mystery surrounds the labours of the brotherhood in the Iberian peninsula. But in the troubles
which distressed Spain during the Napoleonic wars, the
masonic lodges were politically very active. They were
suppressed again by Ferdinand VII., and up to the year
1868 were but few in number, and disguised under various
names. Since that year they have rapidly increased, and
there are now more than 360 lodges in Spain. The Spanish
Grand Lodge has 154 lodges under its jurisdiction; the
Grand Orient of Spain about 162; the Lusitanian Grand
Orient about 40 lodges. There are, moreover, about 40 lodges
subject to foreign Grand Lodges. The number of Spanish
Masons may amount to 30,000.
.
In Portugal, the first lodges were founded, not under
English, but under French auspices; but English influence
soon made itself felt in the establishment of additional lodges,
though in great secrecy; which, however, did not save many
Freemasons from becoming the victims of the Inquisition.
486. Freemasonry in Russia.-In 1731, Freemasonry dared
to oppose itself to Russian despotism, which not fearing, and
probably despising it, did not molest it. The times were
unpropitious. The sanguinary Biren ruled the Empress
Anne, whom by means of the amorous fascination he exercised upon her, he easily persuaded to commit all kinds of
folly and cruelty; and Masonry, though it knew itself to be
tolerated, yet did not feel secure, and cautiously kept itself
in the background. In 1740, England founded a lodge at St.
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DIFFUSION OF THE ORDER

97

Petersburg, and sent thither a Grand Master. The Order

spread in the provinces, and in 1763 the lodge "Olio" was
opened at Moscow. Catherine II. wished to know its statutes,
perceiving the advantage or injury they might bring to her
government as she either promoted or persecuted the associa.
tion. In the end she determined to protect the Order ; and
in a country where the court leads opinion, lodges soon became the fashion. But Masonry thus becoming the amusement of a wealthy nobility, it soon lost sight of its primitive
objects. In no other country .probably did the brotherhood
possess such gorgeous temples; but, deprived of the vivifying and invigorating air of liberty, its splendour could not
save it from a death of inanition.
487. Freemasonry in Switzerland.- English proselytism,
always the most active, established a lodge at Geneva in 1737,
whose first Grand Master was George Hamilton. Two years
afterwards, the foreigners dwelling at Lausanne united and
founded the lodge called the "Perfect Union of Foreigners."
Lodges were also opened at Berne; but the manamvres of
the Grand Lodges of the States surrounding Switzerland
introduced long and fierce dissensions. In 1765, the Strict
Observance founded at Basle the lodge "Liberty," which
became the mother-lodge of many others, and, calling itself
the " German Helvetic Directory," chose for its chief the
celebrated Lavater. Then followed suppressions; but the
Order revived, and in 1844 the different territorial Grand
Lodges united into one federal Grand Lodge, called "Alpina,"
which revised the ancient statutes. The Swiss Freemasons
intend to erect. a grand temple, which perhaps could nowhere find a more fitting site than in a country where four
nations of diverse languages and races dwell in perfect liberty.
488. Freemasonry in Sweden and Poland.-In 1748,
Sweden already had many and flourishing lodges. In 1754
was instituted the Grand Lodge of Sweden, under a patent
from the Grand Lodge of Scotland ; it afterwards declared
its autonomy, which has been recognised by all the masonic
bodies of Europe. In the most ancient Swedish ritual we
meet for the first time in Europe with the cry and sign of
distress of the sons of Adoniram (383): "To me, the sons of
the widow ! "
Freemasonry, at first suppressed in Poland, was revived
under Stanislaus Augustus, and the auspices of the Grand
Orient of France, who established lodges in various towns of
that country. These united in 1784 to form a Grand Orient,
having its seat at Warsaw.
VOL. H.

SEGRET SOCIETIES

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489. Freemasonry in Holland and Germany.-In Holland

the Freemasons opened a lodge in I 7 3 I, under the warrant
of the Grand Lodge of England; it was, however, only what
is called a lodge of emergency, having been called to initiate
the Duke of Tuscany, afterwards Francis I., Emperor of
Germany (454). The first regular lodge was established at
The Hague in I734, which, five years after, took the name of
"Mother-lodge." Numerous lodges were opened throughout
the country, and also in the Dutch colonies ; and the Freemasons founded many schools, with the avowed object of
withdrawing instruction from clerical influence.
In Germany lodges were numerous as early as the middle
of last century, so that in the present one we have witnessed
the centenaries of many of them-as, for instance, in I837,
of that of Hamburg; in I84o, of that of Berlin; in I84I,
of those of Breslau, Baireuth, Leipzig, and many more.
490. l!1reemasonry in Turkey, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.The Order also spread into Turkey, where, however, as may
be supposed, for a long time it led but a harassed existence.
Lodges were established at Constantinople, Smyrna, and
Aleppo; and it may be mentioned, as a fact in favour of
Freemasonry, that the Turkish Freemasons are in a more
advanced state of civilisation than is usual among Orientals
generally. They reject polygamy, and at the masonic banquets the women appear unveiled; so that whatever their
western sisters may have to say against Masonry, the women
of the East certainly are gainers by the introduction of the
Order.
'fhe most important masonic lodges of Asia are in India;
they are under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodges of
England and Scotland.
Freemasonry was introduced into Africa by the establishment of a lodge at Cape Coast Castle in 1735. There are
now lodges at the Cape of Good Hope; in the islands of
Mauritius, Madagascar, and St. Helena ; and at Algiers,
Tunis, Morocco, Cairo, and Alexandria.
Lodges have existed since 1828 at Sydney, Melbourne,
Parramatta, and other places; in all, about two hundred.
491. Freemasonry in America.-The first lodge established
in Canada was at Cape Breton, in the year 1745. Lodges
existed from as early a period in the West Indian Islands.
On the establishment of the Brazilian empire, a Grand Lodge
was initiated; and in 1825, Don Pedro I. was elected its
Grand Master. In 1825, the Grand Lodge of Mexico was
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DIFFUSION OF THE ORDER

York rite, whilst the Clerics, Monarchists, and Centralizers
adopted the Scotch rite, the two parties carrying on a relentless war. Texas, Venezuela, and the turbulent republics
of South America. all had their masonic lodges, which were
in many cases political clubs in disguise. Thus the asflassination of Garcia Moreno, the President of the Republic of
Ecuador, in 1875, was the work of the masonic clubs. The
murderer, one Rajo, on being promised his life if he would
denounce his accomplices, coolly replied: " It would be useless to save my life; if you spared it, my companions would
soon take it; I would rather be shot than stabbed."
The lodges in the territory now forming the United States
date as far back as I 729. Until the close of the revolutionary
war these were under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of
England; but almost every State of the Union now has its
own Grand Lodge, independent of all foreign power.
In different parts of the globe there are about 90 Grand
Lodges, nearly 12,000 lodges, numbering altogether about
I 2,500,000 members ; of the active members, or such as
regularlv attend lodges and pay annual subscriptions, there
may be half that number.

XXVI

PERSECUTIONS OF FREEMASONRY

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492. Cattses of Persecution.-The secrecy with which the

masonic brotherhood has always surrounded its proceedings
is. no doubt highly grateful to the members, but it has its
drawbacks. The outside world, who cannot believe that
masonic meetings, which are so jealously guarded against the
intrusion of non-Masons, have no other purpose than therehearsal of a now totally useless and pointless ritual, followed
by conviviality, naturally assume that there must be something more behind ; and what seems to fear the light is
usually supposed to be evil. Hence all governments, as long
as they did not know what modern Freemasonry really is,
persecuted and endeavoured to suppress it. But as soon as
they discovered its real scope and character, they gave it their
support, feeling quite convinced that men who could find
entertainment in the doings of the lodges, would never, as it
is popularly called, set the Thames on fire. One of the first
persecutions against Freemasonry arose in Holland in I 734
A crowd of ignorant fanatics, incited thereto by the clergy,
broke into a lodge at Amsterdam, and destroyed all its
furniture and ornaments ; but the town clerk h(l.ving, at the
suggestion of the Order, been initiated, the States-General,
upon his report, sanctioned the society, many of the chief
persons becoming members. Of course, when lodges were
turned into political clubs, and the real business of Masonry
was cast aside for something more serious, the matter assumed
a very different aspect. The persecutions here to be' mentioned will therefore be such only as took place against Freemasonry, legitimately so called.
493 Instances of Penecution.-Pope Clement XII., in I 7 38,
issued a decree against the Order, which was followed by a
more severe edict next year, the punishment therein awarded
for being found guilty of practising Freemasonry being confiscation and death, without hope of mercy. This was a
signal of persecution in the countries connected with Rome.
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The parliament of Paris, however, refused to regi&ter the

papal bull ; and an apology for the Order was published at
Dublin. But Philip V. of Spain declared the galleys for life,
or punishment of death with torture to be the doom of Freemasons ; a very large number of whom he caused to be
arrested and sentenced. Peter Torrubia, Grand Inquisitor of
Spain, having first made confession and received absolution,
entered the Order for the express purpose of betraying it.
He joined in 175 I, and made himself acquainted with the
entire ramifications of the craft; and in consequence members
of ninety-seven lodges were seized and tortured on the rack.
Ferdinand VI. declared Freemasonry to be high-treason, and
punishable with death. When the J'rench became masters
of Spain, Freemasonry was revived and openly practised, the
members of the Grand Lodge of Madrid meeting in the hall
previously occupied by their arch-enemy the Inquisition.
With the return of Ferdinand VII., who re-established the
Inquisition, the exterminating process recommenced. In
I 8 14, twenty-five persons suspected of Freemasonry were
dragged in chains to confinement ; but the subsequent arrests
were so numerous, that no correct account is obtainable, nor
can the ultimate fate of the accused be recorded. One of
the noblest victims of the Spanish Inquisition and the Holy
Alliance was Riego. the "Hampden of Spain," who was
atrociously murdered by hanging at Madrid in I823. "Have
I got you, you Freemason, you son of the devil ! you shall
pay for all yon have done!" howled the hangman, before
strangling him. In I 824, a law was promulgated, commanding all Masons to declare themselves, and deliver up all their
papers and documents, under the penalty of being declared
traitors. The Minister of War, in the same year, issued a
proclamation, outlawing every member of the craft ; and in
1827, seven members of a lodge in Granada were executed;
while in 1828, the tribunals of the same city condemned the
Marquis of Lavrillana and Captain Alvarez to be beheaded
for having founded a lodge. In I 848, Masons were no longer
executed, but sent to the galleys; as late as the year 1854,
members of masonic lodges were seized and imprii'Oned.
In 1735, several noble Portuguese instituted a lodge at
Lisbon, under the Grand Lodge of England, of which George
Gordon was Master; but the priests immediately determined
on putting it down. One of the best-known victims of the
Inquisition was John Ooustos, a native of Switzerland, who
was arrested in 1743, and thrown into a subterranean
dungeon, where he was racked nine times in three months

I02

SECRET SOCIETIES

for not revealing the secrets of Masonry. He had, however,

to appear in an auto-da-je, and was sentenced to five years'
work as a galley slave ; but the British Government claiming
him as a subject, he was released before the term of his
puni!Shment expired. Thirty-three years passed without
anything more being heard of Freemasonry in Portugal ;
but in IJ76, two members of the craft were arrested, and
remained upwards of fourteen months in prison. In 1792,
Queen Maria I. ordered all Freemasons to be delivered over
to the Inqui~>ition; a very few families escaped to New York,
where they landed with the words, Asylum qumrim1rs. Among
their American brethren they found not only an asylum, but
a new home. The French Empire ushered in better days ;
but with the restoration of the old regime came the former
prejudices and persecutions. In I 8 I 8, John VI. promulgated
from the Brazils an edict against all secret societies, including Freemasonry; and, again in 1823, a similar though
more stringent proclamation appeared in Lisbon. The
punishment of death therein awarded was afterwards
reduced to ,fine and transportation to Africa.
In Austria, the papal bulls provoked persecutions and
seizures; hence arose the Order of the Mopses (471), which
spread through Holland, Belgium, and France. In 1747,
thirty Masons were arrested and imprisoned at Vienna.
Maria Theresa, having been unable to discover the secrets
of the Order, issued a decree to arrest all Masons, but the
measure was frustrated by the good sense of the Emperor
Joseph II., who was himself a Mason, and therefore knew
that the pursuits of the Order were innocent enough.
Francis I., at the Diet of Ratisbon in 1794, demanded the
suppression of all masonic societies throughout Germany,
but Hanover, Brunswick, and Prussia united with the
smaller States in refusing their ar:;sent.
The history of Freemasonry in Central Italy during the
last century and this, as may be supposed, is a mere repetition of sufferings, persecutions, and misfortunes; the
members of the craft being continually under punishment,
through the intolerance of the priesthood and the interference of the civil power.
_
But persecution was not confined to Catholic countries.
Even in Switzerland, the Masons at one time were persecuted. '):'he Council of Berne, in 1745, passed a law with
certain degrees of punishment for members of lodges;
which law was renewed in 1782. It is now abrogated.
Frederick I., King of Sweden, a very few years after the

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introduction (1736) of Freemasonry, forbade it under penalty

of death. .At present the king is at the head of the Swedish
craft. The King Frederick .Augustus III. of Poland caused,
in 1730, enactments to be published, forbidding, under pain
of severe punishment, the practice of Freemasonry in his
kingdom. In 1757, the Synod of Stirling adopted a resolution debarring all Freemasons from the ordinances of
religion. In I 799, Lord Radnor proposed in the English
Parliament a bill against secret societies, and especially
against Freemasonry ; and a similar but equally fruitless
attempt against the Order was made in I 8 r 4 by Lord
Liverpool. The Society is now acknowledged by law; the
Prince of Wales is at the head of the craft.
494 Anti- Masonic PUblications. -One of the earliest
English publications against Freemasonry is "The Freemasons; an Hudibrastic Poem" (London, 1723). It is
written in the coarsest style of invective, describing the
Masons as. a drunken set of revellers, practising all kinds
of lthy rites. Several works of no literary merit appeared
at various intervals between 1726 and I760, professing to
reveal the masonic secrets, but their authors evidently knew
nothing of the craft. In 1768, a rabid parson published a
sermon, entitled "Masonry, the Way to Hell." It is beneath
criticism. Numerous works of a similar tendency, or professing to reveal what Masonry was, thenceforth appeared
at short intervals in England, France, Germany, and Italy,
such as "Les Plus Secrets Mysteres de la Ma~onnerie" ;
" Le Maschere Strappate" (The Masks torn off) ; " The
Veil Removed, or the Secret of the Revolutions fostered
by Freemasonry"; Robison's "Proofs of a Conspiracy
against all the Religions and Governments of Europe
carried on in the Secret Meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati,
and Reading Societies," a.work which mu!lt have astonished
the Masons not a little, and for which they were no doubt
in their hearts very grateful to the author, !or he makes the
Masons out to be very terrible fellows indeed. The work
of the Abbe Barruel is of the same stamp; it .is entitled,
"Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire du Jacobinisme," and
is noteworthy for nothing but absence of critical power and
honesty of statement. The Jesuits, though imitating the
ritual of the Masons, have naturally always been their
enemies, generally secretly, but sometimes openly, as, for
instance, through the Italian zappatori (labourers), whose
avowed object was the destruction of the Masonic Order.
Protestants also have written ercely .against the Order,

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SECRET SOCIETIES

Lindner's "Mac-Benach" (1818), and Hengstenberg's and

Moller's in quite recent years, are samples of such writings.
One of the most voluminous works against Freemasonry
is that of Dr. E. E. Eckert, of Dresden. It is in three thick
volumes, printed at various places (1852-80). The title is,
" Proofs for tbe Condemnation of Freemasonry as the
Starting Point o all Destructive Activity." He sees
Masonry everywhere, even in Chinese secret societies!
According to Eckert, Freemasons were the originators of
the Illuminati and Burschenschaft in Germany, of ~he
J acobins and J uste Milieu in France, o the Carbonari in
Italy, of the Liberals in Spain, and the Gioviue Italia !
He was expelled from Berlin in consequence of his attacks
on highly-placed Masons. The latest work of importance
hostile to Masonry is by the late Pere Deschamps, in three
large volumes, entitled, " Les Societes Secretes et la Societe"
(Paris and Avignon, 1882-83). The writer, a priest, sees only
evil in the fraternity, and, in fact, all evil in the wor:ldpolitical, social, moral-is due to the occult action of the
Masons, whose object is the overthrow of all religion,
morality, and justice. In 1873, a German work, entitled,
"The Secret Warfare of Freemasonry against Church and
State" (an English translation was published in 1875), had
brought the same charges against the Society's action on
the Continent. And Masonry continues to be the bugbear
of the Church. In 1875, Pope Pius IX. fulminated a bull
against the Order ; in I 884, shortly after the installation of
the Prince of Wales as Grand Master Mark-Mason, the Pope
issued an encyclical, Humanum genus, in which he denounced
the Order as criminal, impious, revolutionary, and everything
bad; towards the end of September of this present year
(1896) an anti-masonic congress, convoked by the Church,
was held at Trent, and attended by about six hundred
priests, presided over by Cardinal Agliardi, armed with the
Pope's brief condemning Freemasonry. The whole proceeding was an exact counterpart of the meeting held on the
1st February 1762, when" many gentlemen, eminent for their
rank and character." including "Pomposo" Johnson, "were,
by the invitation of the Rev. Mr. Aldrich, assembled" to inquire into the noises made by the Cock-lane ghost. Sitting
with closed doors, the Congress discussed Miss Diana
Vaughan, who, in a book published by, or attributed to her,
described how at an early age she was initiated into Freemasonry, and that in American lodges she had frequent
interviews with Lucifer, and some of his imps. 'fhe truth or

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PERSECUTIONS OF FREEMASONRY

105

untruth of this statement was seriously debated by the

"learned divines" assembled at Trent ! And they left the
matter in doubt. The reverend fathers seem to have been
particularly shocked at the liberties taken with the devil's
personality; yet they must know that the devil has for ages
been an object of ridicule, the theme of ribald songs and
jokes even in the mystery plays.
Dr. Bataille wrote a book entitled, " The Devil in the
Nineteenth Century," which is a specimen of the grossest
superstition, which was ridiculed in a reply afterwards published by a Count H. C., and wherein he regrets that a large
number of high personages, particularly among the clergy,
should have been thus imposed upon. Dr. Bataille in his
book referr~d largely to devil-worship in the East; Count
H. C. contradicts most of the doctor's statements.

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XXVII
FUTILITY OF MODERN FREEMASONRY
495 Vain Pretensions of Modern Freemasonry.-After this
necessarily compressed account of Freemasonry, past and present, the question naturallysuggestsitsel-What is its present
use ? Are its pretensions not groundless ? Is it not an
institution which has outlived the object of its foundation?
Is not its present existence a delusion and an anachronism?
Since all that is said and done in the lodges has for many
years been in print, is the holding out of the communication
of secrets not a delusion, and the imposition of childish oaths
not a farce? The answers to all these questions must be
unfavourable to Freemasonry. vVhen Masonry was purely
operative, it had its uses; when it became speculative-, it was
more useful still in its earlier stages, at least on the Continent, and indirectly in this country also ; for either by
itself, or in conjunction vrith other societies, such as t.he.
Illuminati, it opposed the political despotism, then prevalent
all over Europe, and formed an anti-Inquisition to clerical
obscurantism and oppression, wherefore it was persecuted
by Protestant and Roman Catholic rulers alike. The rapid
progress achieved in modern times by humanity and toleration, is undoubtedly due to the tendency which speculative
Masonry took in the last, and to its political activity in all
countries, except England, in this century. Founded in
ages when the possession of religious and scientific knowledge was the privilege of the few, it preserved that
knowledge.,--then indeed a small rivulet only-from being
choked up by the weeds of indifference and superstition ; but
now that that small rivulet has been overtaken by, and swallowed up in, the boundless, ever-advancing ocean of modern
science; which may boldly proclaim its discoveries to the
world, a society that professes to keep knowledge for the
few is but a retrograde institution. Philo, about 1780, properly defined English Masonry, as it then was, and is to-day:
" The lodges indiscrimin~tely receive members, go through
ceremonies, play at mysteries without understanding them,
eat, drink, and digest well, and now and then bestow almssuch are the formal English lodges."
106

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I07

496. Vanity of Masonic Ceremonial.- There are thousands

of excellent men who have. never seen the inside of a lodge,
and yet are genuine Freemasons, i.e. liberal-minded and
enlightened men, devoted to the study of Nature and the
progress of mankind, moral and intellectual ; men devoid of
all political and religious prejudices, true cosmopolitans.
And there are thousands who have passed through every
masonic degree, and yet are not Masons ; men who take
appearances for realities, the means for the end, the ceremonies of the lodge for Freemasonry. But the lodge, with
all its symbols, is only the form of the masonic thought. In
the present age, however, this form, which was very suitable,
nay, necessary, for ehe time when it was instituted, becomes
ah anachronism. The affectation of J2Q.~)3sing a ~~c:r:EJt_is
a childish and mischievous weQ.]gtess:- The objects modern
'Masons profess to pursue are brotherly love, relief, and truth ;
surely the pursuit of these objects cannot need any secret
rites, traditions, and ceremonies. In spite of the great
parade made in masonic publications about the science and
learning peculiar to the craft, what discovery of new scientific
facts or principles can Masons claim for the Order? Nay,
are well-known and long-established truths familiar to them,
and made the objects of study in, the lodges? Nothing of
the kind. That noble character, the Emperor-King Frederick
III., who had early in life been initiated, resigned the GrandMastership when, after patient and diligent inquiry, for
which his exalted position gave him exceptional facilities,
he, in spite of a secret inclination to the contrary, became
satisfied of the unsoundness and vanity of masonic pretensions.
497 Masonry diffuses no Knowledpe.'-We get neither
science nor learning from a Mason, as a Mason. The Order,
in fact, abjures religious and political discussion in this
country, and yet it pretends that to it mankind is indebted
for its progress, and that, were it abolished, mental darkness
would again overshadow the world. But how is this progress to be effected, if the chronic diseases in the existing
religious and political systems of the world are not to be
meddled with ? As well might an association for the advancement of learning abjure inquiry into chemical and
mechanical problems, and then boast of the benefits it conferred on science ! It is Hamlet with the part of Hamlet
omitted. If then Masonry wishes to live on, and be some. thing more than a society of Odd Fellows or Druids, more
lodges must be formed by educated men-and fewer by the
mere publicans and other tradesmen that now found lodges to

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108

create a market for their goods-who might do some good

by teaching moral and natural philosophy from a deeper
ground than the scholastic and grossly material basis on
which all teaching at present is founded, and by rescuing
science from the degraded position of handmaiden to mere
physical comfort, into which modern materialism has forced it.
498. Decay of Freemasonry.-The more I study Freemasonry, the more I am repelled by its pretences. The
facility and frequency with which worthless characters are
received into the Order; the manner in which all its statutes
are disregarded; the dislike with which every brother who
insists on reform is looked upon by the rest ; the difficulty
of expelling obnoxious members; the introduction of many
spurious rites, and the deceptiveness of the rites themselves,
designed to excite curiosity without ever satisfying it; the
puerility of the symbolism; the paltriness of the secret when
revealed to the candidate, and his ill-concealed disgust when
at last he gets behind the scenes and sees through the rotten
canvas that forms so beautiful a landscape in front-all these
too plainly show that the lodge has banished Freemasonry.
And like monasticism or chivalry, it is no longer wanted.
Having no political influence, and no political aspirations,
or, when it has such aspirations revealing them by insane
excesses, such as the citation before masonic tribunals of
Napoleon III., the Emperor of Germany, the Crown Prince,
the Pope, and Marshal Prim, by French, Italian, and Spanish
Masons respectively,and after a farcical sham trial, condemning
the accused so cited-to which summons of course they paid
no attention-to death, or in plain English, to assassination,
a crime really perpetrateJ on the person of Marshal Prim ;
being no longer even a secret society-for a society sanctioned by the State, as Freemasonry is, cannot be called a
secret society; having no industrial or intellectual rallyingpoint-it must eventually die from sheer inanition. It may
prolong its existence by getting rid of all the rites and ceremonies which are neither simple nor grand, nor founded on
any authority or symbolic meaning-, and by renouncing the
silly pretence of secrets,1 and undertaking to teach what I
have sketched in various portions of this work, concerning
the origin and meaning of Masonry and its sym bois, illustrating its teaching by the ornaments and practice of the lodges.
This seems to be the only ground on which Freemasonry
could claim to have its lease of existence, as Freemasonry,
1

"Un secreto, che sanno tre,

Un secreto mai non e."-ltalian Proverb.

FUTILITY OF MODERN FREEMASONRY

109

renewed, for not even the Masonic marriages, introduced by

French lodges, will perpetuate its existence. I have before me
accounts of two such marriages, performed without the usual
ecclesiastic or civil ceremonies, the one in the lodge La
France Ma9onnique in Paris in 1887, and the other in a
lodge at Toulouse, in the same year, as also of two others,
celebrated in Paris, in 1882, when M. Elyse,e Reclus, a Freemason, and one of the five well-known Anarchist brothers,
gave away two of his daughters to two brothers, at a dinner
held in a private house, simply declaring the two couples
by that mere declaration to be married. But the ladies do
not approve of these hole-and-corner espousals.
499 Masonic Opinions of Masonry.-Masons have been
very indignant with me for making these statements; but
honest members of the craft know, and occasionally admit,
that I am right. In 1798 a Mason wrote in the Monthly
Magazine, "The landlord (who is always a brother) promotes harmony, as it is called, by providing choice suppers
aud good liquors, the effects of which are late hours and inebriety; and thus are made up two-thirds of modern lodges."
And again : "Hogarth was a member of the fraternity, and
actually served the office of Grand Steward in I 7 3 5, . . .
yet in his picture of ' Night,' one of the most conspicuous
figures is that of a master of a lodge led home drunk by the
tyler." The too facile admission of worthless members is
regretted by the same writer, as it is by modern Masons (e.g.
Freemason, 26th June 1875).
Brother John Yarker in his "Notes on the Scientific and
Religious Mysteries of Antiquity" (Hogg, I 8j2 ), a zealous
Mason, says : "As the masonic fraternity is now governed,
the craft is fast becoming the paradise of the bon vivant, of
the 'charitable' hypocrite, who . . . decorates his breast
with the 'charity jewel' ; . . . the manufacturer of paltry
masonic tinsel; the rascally merchant who swindles in hundreds and even thousands, by appealing to the tender consciences of those few who do regard their 0. B.'s, and the
Masonic' Emperors' and other charlatans, who make power
or money out of the aristocratic pretensions which they have
tacked on to our institution, ad captandum vulgus." This
I think is enough to show that my censures are well founded.
500. Masonic Literature.-It is almost absurd to talk of
masonic literature; it scarcely exists. Except the works
written by Oliver, Mackey, Findel, and Ragon, there is
scarcely anything worth reading about Freemasonry, of
which a Freemason is the author. The countless lectures
by brethren, with a few exceptions, consist of mere truisms

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SECRET SOCIETIES

and platitudes. Its' periodical literature-in this country at

all events-is essentially of the Grub Street kind, consisting
of mere trade-circulars, supported by puffing masonic tradesmen and vain officials, who like to have their working in
the lodge trumpeted forth in a fashio'n which occasionally
trenches on imbecility, as could readily be shown by extracts
from newspaper reports. All attempts permanently to
establish masonic periodicals of a higher order have hitherto
failed from want of encouragement. The fact is, men of
education take very little interest in Masonry, for it has
nothing to offer them in an intellectual point of view; because even Masons who have attained to every ne plus ultra
of the institution, know little of its origin and meaning.
sooa. The Quatuor Coronati Lodge.-The literary shortcomings of Masonry I have, in the interests of truth, and as
an impartial historian been compelled to point out in the
previous section, have been recognised by intelligent Masons,
and such recognition has, in I 884, led to the foundation of
the Quatuor Coronati Lodge. Members must be possessed
of literary or artistic qualifications; to belong to it, therefore, is in itself a distinction, and, as may be supposed, the
lodge is composed chiefly of well-known masonic historians
and antiquaries, and thus occupies a position totally different from all other masonic lodges. Its objects are the
promotion of masonic knowledge, by papers read and discussions 'thereon in the lodge ; by the publication of its
transactions, and the reprinting of scarce and valuable
works on Freemasonry, such as MSS., e.g. "The Masonic
Poem" (circa 1390), the earliest MS. relating to Freemasonry; Matthew Cooke's Harleian and Lansdowne MSS.;
or printed works, as e.g., "Anderson's Constitutions" of
1738, or Reproductions of Masonic Certificates. All these
have been issued by this lodge in volumes, entitled " Ars
Quatuor Coronatorum," well printed, and expensively illustrated. Connected with the lodge is a " Correspondence
Circle," whose members reside in all parts of the globe, and
form a literary society of Masons, aiming at the progress of
the craft. But by progress can only be meant extension
of Masonry; the "Transactions" and "Reprints" can add
nothing to the knowledge the best-informed members already
possess ; but the "Reprints," by their resthetic sumptuousness and the learned comments accompanying them, invest
Masonry with a dignity which may attract to it more of the
intelligence of mankind than it has hitherto done, and the
labours of Quatuor Coronatorum therefore deserve the hearty
support of the craft.

BOOK XII
INTERNATIONAL, COMMUNE, AND
ANARCHISTS

INTERNATIONAL, COMMUNE, AND

ANARCHISTS
sor. Introductory Rmnarks.-There exists at present in a
state of suspended animation an association of working-or
rather, talking-men, pretending to have for its object the
uniting in one fraternal bond the workers of all countries,
and the advocating of the interests of labour, and those only.
Though it protests against being a secret society, it yet
indulges in such underhand dealings, insidiously endeavouring to work mischief between employers aud employed, and
aiming at the subversion of the existing order of things,
that it deserves to be denounced with all the societies professedly secret. In this country its influence is scarcely felt,
because the English workmen that join 'it are numerically
few : according to the statement of the secretary of the
International himself, the society in its most palmy days
counted only about 8000 English members-and these, with
here and there an exception, belonged to the most worthless
portion of the working classes. It ever is chiefly the idle and
dissipated or unskilled artizan who thinks his position is to
be improved by others and not by himself. To hear the
interested demagogues and paid agitators of the "International," or of "Unions," the working classes would seem
to be exceptionally oppressed, and to labour under disadvantages greater than any that weigh upon other sections
of the community. Yet no other class is so much protected
by the legislature, and none; except the paupers, pay less
towards the general expenses of the country in direct or
indirect taxation. The wages a skilled artizan can earn
are higher than the remuneration obtainable by thousands
of men, who have enjoyed a university education, or sunk
money in some professional apprenticeship; whilst he is
free from the burden incident to maintaining a certain social
status. His hours of labour are such as to leave him plenty
of leisure for enjoyment, especially in this country; and as
regards extra holidays, he is on the whole pretty liberally
dealt with, especially by the large employers of labour, the
capitalists, against whom the street-spouters, who for their
VOL. II.

IJ

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SECRET SOCIETIE.S

own advantage get up public demonstrations, are always

inveighing in a manner which would be simply ridiculous,
were it not mischievous. But then if they did not constantly
attempt to render the workman dissatisfied with his lot, their
occupation would be gone. And so, as the doctors who,
for want of patients, get up hospitals for the cure of particular diseases, try to persuade every man they come in
contact with, that he is suffering from some such disease ;
so these agitators endeavour to talk the workman into the
delusion that he is the most unfortunate and most oppressed
individual under the sun. To wish to act for one's self and
work out one's own salvation is no doubt very praiseworthy;
but workmen ought to bear in mind that they may be the
tools of ambitious men in their own class, who look upon
and use them as such for their own purposes, men who want
to be generals commanding soldiers. But the soldiers of
the Unions are not worth much. Those workmen who are
not satisfied with adhering to the statutes of the society in
order to get rid of troublesome appeals, and to avoid being
molested by their comrades, but who fervently embrace its
principles and count upon their success, usually are the
most idle, the least saving, the least sober. The fanatics of
the Unions, those who ought to form their principal strength,
are formed, not by the elite, but by the scum of the working
classes. The chiefs are not much better. The more intelligent and honest founders of such societies have gradually
withdrawn from them in disgust.
5b2. Socialistic Sche1nes.-Schemes for the regeneration of
mankind have been hatched in every age, from Plato and his
Republic down to Loui~ Blanc's Organisation du Travail, and
the International. Many communistic movements took place
in the sixteenth century, and the brief history of the ~a
~tist kingdom of 1\!.!!!lllter presents striking resemblances
with that oClltri~ommune of Paris. Babeuf and the Conspiracy of the Equals remind us of the demagogues who
. filled Paris with blood and fire. The collegia opijicum
of Rome, the guilds of France and Germany, the tradescorporations, the compagnonnage-all these were the forerunners of modern trade-unions and the International.
The systems of Saint-Simon, Fourier, Cabet, Louis Blanc,
and Owen also had their day. In this country no law
has been passed against trade-unions, and therefore they
flourish here, and have led to deplorable events, such as the
Sheffield outrages, which, for diabolical fury, deserve to be
placed side by side with the doings of the Commune. The

INTERNATIONAL, COMMUNE, &c.

115

reader- will probably remember the fact that men who had
belonged to the Sheffield trade-unions, but withdrew from
them, were assassinated, their houses blown up, and every
imaginable kind of tyranny and persecution practised upon
them for the space of some fifteen years. Still, as the majority
of the Parisian workmen were innocent of the crimes of
the Commune, so the trade-unions were not answerable for
the doings of a restricted number of their members. But
these trade-unions, dating from about the year 1833, are
still to be condemned, because they are the imstigators and
upholders of strikes, the greatest curse, not on the hated
capitalist, but on the poor workman. Now the International
was a combination of trade-unions, with the additional poison
of Communism diffused throughout its system.
503. Histor.1J of the International.-The first attempt at
an international society was made by a small number
of German workmen in London, who had been expelled
from France in 1839 for taking part in the emeute in
Paris. Its members consisted of Germans, Hungarians,
Poles, Danes, and Swedes. Of the few English members, Ernest Jones was one. The society was on friendly
terms with the English Socialists, the Chartists, and the
London French Democratic Society. Out of that friendship
sprang the Society of the Fraternal Democrats, who were in
corresponde.nce with a number of democratic societies in
Belgium. In November I 847 a German Communist Conference was held in London, at which Dr. Karl Marx was
present. J n the manifesto then' put forth, it was declared
that the. aim of the Communists was the overthrow of the
rule of the capitalists by the acquisition of political power.
The practical measures by which this was to be effected were
the abolition of private property in land; the centralisation
of credit in the hanus of the State-the leading agitators of
course to be the chiefs of the State-by means of a national
bank ; the centralisation of the means of transport in the
hands of the State ; national workshops; the reclamation
and improvement of land; and the gratuitous education of
all the children. But all these fine schemes of amelioration,
or rather spoliation, in consequence of the Revolution of
February I 848, ended in smoke ; an9. it was not till the year
18 59, when the. London builders' dispute arose, that new
alliances among the working-men were formed. In 1860
a Trade Unionist, Manhood Suffrage, and Vote by Ballot
Association was established. As if it had not enough of
what might be called legitimate work to do, the association

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also undertook to agitate in favour of Poland, for which

purpose it co-operated with the National League for the
Independence of Poland. The London International Exhibition of 1862 induced the French Government to assist
many French workmen with means to visit that exhibition;
"a visit," said the French press, "which will enable our
workmen to study the great works of art and industry,
remove the leaven of international discord, and replace
national jealousies by fraternal emulation." It is impossible to say how far these French workmen studied the
works of art and industry exhibited in I 862, but it is quite
certain that the old leaven of international discord, which
up to that time had not been very formidable, was speedily
replaced by a new leaven of social discord, not so virulent at
first, it is true, as it subsequently became in the after-days of
the International. Many of the original members of this association, in fact, eventually withdrew from it, as they refused
to be identified with its excesses, which had not bee~ planned
or foreseen by its founders. On the 5th of August, all the
delegates met at a dinner given to them by their English
colleagues at Freemasons' Hall, when an address was read
which formed, as it were, the foundation-stone of the International. The Imperial Commission that had enabled the
French workmen to visit the London Exhibition had no
doubt furnished them with return tickets; but several of
the artizans made no use of their second halves, since profitable employment in London was found for them by their
English brethren, so that they might form connecting links
between the workmen of the two countries. The next year
a new meeting was found necessary. There was no longer
an Exhibition, nor subsidies from the Imperial Government
to pay travelling expenses. The pretext, however, was found
in a demonstration just then made in favour of Poland. Six
French delegates having mulcted their mates in contributions
towards the pleasant trip, came over, and the democrats of
London and Paris were invited to co-operate in the liberation of Poland, and to form an international working-men's
alliance. Various meetings were held, and all the stale
twaddle concerning Poland and the emancipation of the
working classes talked over again. A central committee of
working-men of different countries, to have its seat in London-truly England is the political and social dunghill of
Europe !-was appointed, and a collection of course followed,
which at the most important meeting realised three guineas.
A paltry sum after so much talk ! The members .of the

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committee, holding its powers by the resolution of the public

meeting held on September 28, 1864, at St. Martin's Hall,
then declared the International Working-Men's Association
to be established; and congresses were appointed to be held
at different times and places, to decide on the measures to
be taken to found the working-men's Eldorado. Many
societies at first were affiliated, but dissensions soon broke
out among them, and many, such as the Italian WorkingMen's Society, withdrew again. In 1866, a meeting or congress was held at Geneva, where it was decided that an
inquiry into the condition of the working classes of all
countries should be made respecting rate of wages, hours
of labour, &c. And this inquiry, which never was made on
the part of the International, was to be a preliminary to
practical measures-no wonder that the association produced
nothing practical. At this Geneva Congress resolutions
were passed in favour of transferring railways and other
means of locomotion to the people, and of destroying the
monopoly of the great companies "that subject the working
classes to arbitrary laws, assailing both the dignity of man
and individual liberty." Resolutions were also passed in
favour of direct taxation. How this suggestion would be
received by the working-man has very pleasantly been
pointed ont by Punch or some other comic paper: "Mrs.
Brown (loq. )-'Well, Mrs. Jones, my husband says that if
they tax him, he will take it out in parish relief."' The
abolition of standing armies and the independence of Poland
-Poland again-were also decided on. Both these points
are still decided on, and will probably remain at the same
interesting stage of progress a little longer.
504. Obfects and Aims of International.-To sum up what'
was proposed at the latter congresses : Quarries, coal
and other mines, as well as railways, shall belong to the
social collectivity, represented by the State; b"\lt by the
State regenerated, that will concede them, not, as now, to
capitalists, but to associations of workmen. The soil shall
be granted to agricultural associations ; canals, roads, telegraphs, and forests shall belong collectively to society.
Contracts of lease, or letting, shall be converted into contracts of sale; that is to say, capital shall no longer be
entitled to claim interest. If I borrow woo, I shall have
paid off the debt in twenty years by an annual payment of
so. Such were the doctrines of this society, whose motto
was,}4t:Ilrf2JJ:J::iit.l, c'g!l~_JJI)l. All these, however, were clothed
in veri-fine w~econ.omic evolution," "soci~l collec~
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tivity," "scientific and rational exploitation," "social liquidation," &c.' No congress met in 1870, in consequence of the
war; but the programme that was to have formed the subject
of discussion has been published.. The first question was:
On the necessity of abolishing the .public debt. The third:
Concerning practical means for converting landed and
funded property into social property. The fifth: Conditions of co~operative production on a national scale. The
Belgian Committee proposed as an additional question :
Concerning the practical means for constituting agricultural
sections in the International. Thu's private property was to
be abolished, private enterprise destroyed, and the poison of
Communism, with which large towns are now infected, to be
diffused throughout the country. What would these men
have done could they, according to their intention, have met
in Paris in I 870? Tpe pertinacity with which the cause of
Poland is sought to be identified with the objects of the
International has already been alluded to. Poland seems a
mine that can never be exhausted. Thousands of rogues
and vagabonds of all countries h1we fattened, are fattening,
and will yet fatten on this carcass, as burnt-out tradesmen
have been known t,o flourish on the fire by which they lost
everything!
.
505. 1'he International in England.-In this country, as
we have seen, the International had only a limited success.
It indeed held public meetings and demonstrations, and led
to some insignificant riots, for the occurrence of which our
Government of course was very much to blame. There were,
indeed, alarmists who were led astray by the "bounce" of
the International, and who thus invested. it with greater
importance than intrinsically attached to it. Thus a Paris
paper contained a letter from a London correspondent, which
gave an awful picture of the danger threatening this country
from the spread of socialistic doctrines. The writer said :
"The whole of this vast empire is permeated by secret
societies. The International here holds its meetings almost
publicly. It is said that the greater number of the dispossessed princes of India, a good number of officers belonging to the army and navy, as well as members of Parliament,
and even ministers, are affiliated to it (!). 'rhe Government
is aware of the infernal plan by which, .at a given moment,
the public buildings of London are to b exposed to the fate
which befell s'O many in Paris. Boats are already waiting on
the Thames to receive the treasures of the Bank of England
-an easy prey, say the conspirators-as soon as the main

INTERNATIONAL, COMMUNE, &c.

1 19

artery of the Strand shall have been burnt, and the public
. buildings, the barracks especially, shall have been blown up,
as was three years ago the Clerkenwell prison." Perhaps the
writer was only joking; and if I thought the leaders of the
International possessed any Machiavellian talent, I should
say they themselves caused the letter to be written to give
the world an exaggerated idea of their power-therein imitating the President of the London Republican Club, who
boasted of his power of pulling down the monarchy, as that
would be the readiest means of attracting fresh members ;
for the idea of belonging to a powerful and universally
diffused brotherhood exercises a great fascination over the
minds of only partially educated men, such as form the bulk
of the working classes.
506. The International Abroad. -Abroad, however, its
action was much more marked. It fomented serious riots
in Holland, Belgium, and France ; and in the last-named
country it especially stimulated Communism, and supported the Paris Commune in all its atrocities, which
were spoken of in the most laudatory terms in the .then
recently published pamphlet, "The Civil War in France"
(Truelove, I8JI). But even continental workmen have ere
this discovered the hollowness of the International. The
working engineers of Brussels, instead of receiving during a
recent strike fifteen francs weekly, as promised, were paid
only six francs ; and having imposed upon the masters an
augmentation of fifty per cent. on overtime, the masters, in
order to avoid this ruinous tariff, had no work performed
after the regular hours. The men, finding themselves losers
by this rule, enforced on them by the International, sent
in their resignations as members of the society, which they
described as the " Leprosy of Europe," and the " Company
of Millionaires . . . on paper." At a conference held in
London, the Russian delegate urged that his country espe-;cially offered an excellent field for the spread or socialist
doctrines, and that the students were quite ripe for revolution. Wherefore it was decided that a special appeal should
be addressed to the Russian students and workmen.
507. The Inte1national and the Empi1e.-At the time when.
the International was founded, the French Empire was as
yet in all its strength. None of the parties that secretly
strove against it seemed to have any chance of success; nor
from their political and social characteristics could these
parties, though all bent on the overthrow of the empire,
coalesce and act as one combined force. The International

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refused to ally itself to any of them or to meddle with

politics, but declared social questions paramount to all
political considerations ; and to the position thus assumed by
the association it was due that the Imperial Government did
not molest it, but that the ministers allowed it to develop
itself, hoping at the convenient moment to win it over to
their interest. These ministers considered themselves very
profound politicians, when they had fomented a quarrel between Prussia and Austria; trusting, when these two powers
should mutually have exhausted each other, to seize the
Rhenish provinces. They looked upon themselves as small
Machiavellis when they permitted the International to grow
in order some day to use it against a mutinous bourgeoisie.
The Emperor had an opportunity on September 2, at Sedan,
and the Empress on September 4, at Paris, to judge o the
value of such policy. However, the scheme of the association having been settled in London in I 864, the organisers
opened at Paris a bnrea~t, de correspondance, which was neither
formally interdicted nor regularly authorised by the Prefect
and the Minister. But the constantly-growing power of the
International, shown by the strikes of Roubaix, Amiens,
Paris, Geneva, &c., after a time compelled the Government
either to direct or to destroy it. The Parisian manifesto read
at Geneva was stopped at the French frontier; but M.
Rouher agreed to admit it into France, if the association
would insert some passages thanking the Emperor for what
he had done for the wprking classes-a suggestion which
was received with derision by the members. In the meantime the old revolutionary party looked with suspicion
on the foundation of the International; for, as this last
declared that it would not meddle with politics, the others
called out, 'rreason! and thus the two parties were soon
in a condition of violent opposition. In r867, the Congress of Lausanne voted against war, but at the same
moment the other fraction of the demagogues, assembled at
Geneva, under pretence of forming a congress of peace,
declared war to all tyrants and oppressors o the people.
However, the two parties, the bourgeois demagogues and the
workmen demagogues, eventually united ; and thus it came
to pass that by virtue of this pact the International took part
in two revolutionary manifestations which occurred about six
weeks after-the one at the tomb of Manin in the cemetery
of Montmartre, and the other on the following day on the
Boulevard Montmartre, to protest against the French occupation of Rome. The International having thus been carried

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12t

away to declare war against the Government, the latter determined to prosecute it. The association was declared to
be dissolved, and fifteen of the leaders were each fined one
hundred francs. The International taking no notice of the
decree of dissolution, a second prosecution was instituted,
and nine of the accused were condemned to imprisonment
for three months. The International now hid itself amidst
the multitude of working-men's societies of all descriptions
that were either authorised or at least tolerated, and made
enormous progress, so that its chiefs at last declared themselves able to do without any extraneous support. The
International, said one of the speakers at the Basle Congress
( 1 869 ), is and must be a state within states ; let these go
on as suits them, until our state is the strongest. Then,
on the ruins of these, we shall erect our own fully prepared, such as it exists in every section. The Volksstimme,
the Austrian organ of the society, said : " To us the red
flag is the symbol of universal love of mankind. Let our
enemies beware lest they transform it against themselves into
a flag of terror." To have an organ of its own the International founded the Marseillaise, with Rochefort for its
chief, his association therewith having induced certain capitalists to find the necessary funds. Another personage with
whom it became connected was General Oluseret (669).
Cluseret, as an adventurer, always on the look-out for what
might turn up, saw the power such an association as the
International might command, and the latter found in him a
willing tool. From a letter he addressed from New York to
Varlin, on February 17, 1870, it also appears that all the
crimes of which he has since then been guilty, were premeditated, and that he had from the first resolved not to
perish without involving Paris in his fall. "On that day"
(of the downfall of Louis, Napoleon), he says, "on that
day, we or nothing. On that day Paris must be ours,
or Paris must cease to exist." That this feeling was shared
by other members of the association may be inferred from
the fact that, at the house of one of the affiliated was
found a dictionary which formed the key of their secret
correspondence. Now, besides the usual words, we find
such as nitro-glycerine and picrate of potash ; at the house
of another, recipes were discovered for the manufacture of
nitro-glycerine, and of various other explosive compounds.
Some of the recipes were followed by such directions as
these " To be thrown in at windows," "To be thrown into
gutters," &c. The attempted plebiscite in support of the

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SECRET SOCIETIES

reforms voted by the Senate, in January I8JO, was violently

opposed by the International, who declared in favour of a
republic. On the occasion of the plot of the Orsini shells,
the society, in defending itself against the charge of having
had any share in it, declared that it did not war against
individual perpetrators of coups d'etat, but that it was a
permanent conspiracy of all the oppressed, which shall exist
until all capitalists, priests, and political adventurers shall
have disappeared. Such a declaration of war against all
men that had any interest in the maintenance of public
order, and especially against many men forming the then
Imperial Government, naturally induced a third prosecution.
Thirty-eight members were indicted, many of whom we
meet again as active members of the Commune. Some were
acquitted, others condemned to one year's imprisonment.
No one suspected that the names of these obscure workmen,
condemned as members of a secret society, would soon be
connected with the most horrible disasters of Paris, and that
these men, sentenced to such slight punishments, would at
the end of a year reappear before a military tribunal, after
having for two months and a half filled terrified Paris with
pillage, murder, and incendiary fires.
508. The International and the War.-The International
condemned all war except war against bourgeois, capitalists,
monopolists, parasites- that is to say, the classes that
live not by manual labour, but by intellectual work, or the
savings of any kind of labour. It abolished national wars,
to replace them by social war. For this reason it so pertinaciously insisted on the abolition of all standing armies,
which are of course great obstacles to its own plans. It
therefore protested against the Franco-Prussian war, but as
this opposition ended in mere talk, it need not further be
dilated on. Its only results were to consign some of the
most violent opponents to prison ; and there is no proof that
one single soldier of the regular Prussian army, or even of
the Landwehr, deserted or refused to fight, in order to remain
faithful to the theories of the society. In France the affiliated of the International were only brave in civil war.
On September 3, 1870, the disaster of Sedan became
known at Paris. On the next day, Lyons, Marseilles,
Toulouse, and Paris proclaimed the Republic. This simultaneous movement was the result of an understanding
existing between the leading members of the International
in the various parts of France; but that the "Jules Favres
and Gambettas," that vermine bourgeoise, as the International

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123

calleu them, should obtain any share of power, was very

galling to the demagogues. At Lyons and Marseilles, however, the supreme power fell into the hands of the lowest
wretches. The Commune installed at Lyons began its work
by raising the red flag-that of the International. At Paris
the association pretended at first to be most anxious to fight
the Prussians. When the battalions were sent to the front,
however, it was found that those comprising most Internationals were the most ready "to fall back in good order,"
or even to flee in great disorder at the first alarm ; and
Generai Clement Thomas pointed out this instructive fact
to the readers o the Journal 0./ficiel. But when a few
Prussian regiments entered Paris, the International, through
its central committee, announced that the moment for action
was come ; and so the members seized the cannons scattered
in various parts of the city, and then began that series of
excesse~, for which the Commune will always enjoy an infamous notoriety.
509. The International and the Commune.-One would
have supposed that the International would disavow the
Communists; but, on the contrary, it approved of their
proceedings. Flames were still ascending from the Hotel
de Ville, when already numerous sections of the International throughout Europe expressed their admiration of
the conduct of the Parisian outcasts.
At Zurich, at a meeting of the members of the International, it was declared that " the stn1ggle maintained by
the Commune of Paris was just and worthy, and that all
thinking men ought to join in the contest."
At Brussels the Belgian section of the International protested against the prosecution of the malefactors of Paris.
At Geneva, two days before the entrance of the Versaillais
into Paris, an address to the Commune was voted, declaring
that it (the Commune) represented "the economic aspirations of the working classes." The German Internationalists
were no less positive in their praise of the Communists:
"We are ready to defend the acts of the Commune at all
times, and against all comers," said a socialistic paper published at Leipzig. The Italians sent an address to the
Commune, ending thus: "To capital which said, Ye shall
live by our labour. To
starve, they replied : We
despotism they replied : We are free ! To the cannons
and chassepots of the reactionnaires they opposed their
naked breasts. They fell, but fell as heroes ! Now the
reaction calls them bandits. Shall we permit it ? No !

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Let us invite our brethren to our homes, and protect them.

The principles of the Commune are ours; we accept the
responsibility of their acts." The English Internationalists
were too few to prove their approbation of the Commune
by any public demonstration ; but in private they did so
very energetically. One of the members even declared
that the good time "was really coming." "Soon," said
he, "we shall be able to dethrone the Queen of England,
turn Buckingham Palace into a workshop, and pull down
the York column, as the noble French people has pulled
down the Vendome column." (Be it observed here, that
as this column chiefly commemorated French victories over
the Germans, this act o vandalism has by some authorities
been attributed to the influence of Prussian gold liberally
distributed to certain patriotic members o the Commune.)
But the London section of the International clearly put
forth its views ou the conduct of the Commune. The
pamphlet, "The Civil War in France," published for the
council by Truelove, 2 56 High Holborn, the office of the
International, is a continuous panegyric on the Commune,
and was at first signed by all the mem hers of the council ;
but two of them, Lucraft and Odger, afterwards withdrew
their names, stating that they had, in the first instance,
been appended without their knowledge-which appeared
to be the fact.
5 10. Budget of the International.-One portion of the
organisation of the International, and that the most important-for the chiefs, of course !-its budget, remains to
be noticed. It is scarcely necessary to say that there was a
total absence of official accounts; but the following details,
referring to France and Belgium, will give some idea as to
the way in which funds were raised and applied. Every
mem her on his admission paid a fee of fifty centimes, for
which he received his admission card, which was renewed
annually and gratuitously. He had also to pay a minimum
annual tax of ten centimes, to go towards the general expenses of the association. Then each federation imposed. a
special tax for its own expenses. At Lyons and Paris this
amounted to ten centimes per month. Thus it appears that
the annual tax was very light, amounting only to one franc
thirty cents, which was not paying too dear for the honour
of belonging to a society that aspired to the government of
the world, and commenced by burning it. But this honour
could be had at a still cheaper rate; for the Swiss branch
charged its members only ten centimes a year. Yet even

IN1'ERN.ATIONAL, COMMUNE, &c.

these small sums seemed difficult to be got in, and the
statutes were very severe upon defaulters. But there were
taxes to pay to the sections, which raised the yearly contributions to seven or eight francs. Nor was this all. In
the various legal prosecutions the society had to undergo
there was frequent reference to the caisse federative du sou,
though the expression was nowhere exactly defined. So far
as has been ascertained it alluded to a voluntary weekly
subscription of five centimes, collected in workshops and
factories, from workmen who did not belong to the association, but intended to join it, or to support it without joining
it. In the statutes of the Parisian branch, .Article 9 further
said that the council may, if necessary, vote larger sums than
the general budget would justify, and proportionately increase
the amount of contributions payable by the members. But
the most powerful arm of the association, when any particular
object was to be attained, such, for instance, as the success
of a strike, was subscription. Thus the successful termina.tion of the strike in the building trade of Geneva in I 868,
was thought of such importance as to call forth unusual
exertions. But the delegate who was sent to London to
collect subscriptions from the English workmen met with
but slight success ; not because these were niggardly, but
because, in spite of their avowed hatred of state forms and
aristocratic deliberation, they yet so closely imitated both,
that the Genevese workmen might have been starved into
submission before the English workmen had resolved to
succour them, had not the Parisian workmen at once subscribed ten thousand francs. What these annual subscriptions
may have amounted to, it is impossible to tell. No doubt
the total was very great, considering the large number of
members; and yet it was insufficient, in consequence of the
strikes that were constantly taking place at all places and
times. The journals were full of the fine phrases used by the
chiefs of the International concerning the sufferings of the
workmen. reduced by infamous capitalists to the point of
forsaking their work and of leaving the workshops where
their misery was turned to account. A confidential letter of
Varlin, one of the chiefs of the Paris federation, which was
brought into court at the trial of the International on June
22, I8JO, at Paris, however, showed that the chiefs did not
speak quite so feelingly of these sufferings, when they are
not expected to be heard by their dupes : "This strike
which we declared closed ten days ago, leaves four hundred
workmen on our hands. The day before yesterday they

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wanted to destroy their former workshops and drive away

the mogs that had taken their places. Fortunately we restrained them, but, we are greatly bothered by this affair
(nous sommes bien emMtes par cette affaire)."
5 I 1. Attempt to Revive the International.- An International
Trades Union Congress was held in London in I888 for the
avowed purpose of reviving the International, which collapsed
in I8JI, though branches of it, such as the Jurassic Federation of Workmen, the International Brethren, the Council of
Dynamite, at whose meetings in Chicago the editor of Freihe.it
presided, continue to vegetate. But the discussions ~s to the
means of physically and morally raising the working classes
as yet remain mere talk. As one of the speakers at the
London Congress remarked, "The chief difficulty in the way
of the reconstruction of the International lies in the apathy
and indifference of the workmen themselves," which shows
that the workmen are after all not such fools as agitators
think or wish them to be.
512. Anarchists.-The fear of hell, the only means known
to the churches of all denominations, to keep men from
vice, has never been an efficient one for that purpose. In
the Middle Ages, which, we are told, were permeated by
deep religions feeling, club-law, persecution of the Jews,
and inhuman cruelties indulged iu by Church and State
were the rule. The latter two have in our days become
more civilised, but the masses retain their sting, and men
are driven by wretchedness to attempt its removal by the
destruction of all existing order. Karl Marx in I 864 first
thought of consolidating this principle by a secret society,
the International Union of Working-Men. In I 868 the
Russian, Michael Bakunin, and the Belgian, Victor Dave,
infused into the association the poison of Anarchism, which
in 1871 produced the Paris Commune. But disputes arose
between the more moderate members, the Social Democrats,
and the Anarchists in I 872, who thenceforth formed two
distinct camps. The social democrat and bookbinder, John
Most (born I 846), joined the Anarchists, and in 1879
founded in London the Freiheit, an Anarchist paper of the
most violent character. In 1883 the Anarchists attempted
to blow up the German Emperor and those around him at
the unveiling of the monument in the Niederwald; the two
ringleaders were caught and beheaded, but in I 88 5 Dr.
Rumpf, a high police official, who had been instrumental
in securing the conviction of the criminals, was assassinated
at Frankfort-on-the-Main; only the least ~mportant of the

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assassins, Julius Lieske, twenty-two years of age, was discovered and beheaded. Most then founded another more
secret society of propagandists, to which only the leading
members of the association were admitted. When the
Freiheit applauded the Phcenix Park murders it was suppressed, but reappeared in Switzerland, and lastly in the
United States, to which Most in 1882 emigrated, and the
propaganda of Anarchism, whose secret chief seat was at
Chicago, made rapid progress in the States, as well as in
Europe, and culmiJ;J.ated in the dynamite outrages at Chicago,
assassinations at Strasburg, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Prague.
In the latter city, early in 1883, a secret council of
Anarchists condemned the prefect of the police, who had
had some of the assassins arrested, to death ; lots were
drawn as to who was to do the deed, and it fell on a
journeyman glove-maker, named Dressler, who, however,
committed suicide, to escape becoming a murderer. But
before his death he had written a letter to his parents,
revealing the existence of the society ; the information it
gave enabled the police , to arrest the most important
members. On the 4th July 1883, a shoe manufacturer in
one of the most frequented suburban streets of Vienna was
set upon in his house by two individuals, who held a
sponge saturated with chloroform to his face until he
became unconscious, when he was robbed of 782 florins.
Some weeks after the crime was traced to an .Anarchist
association, and seventeen men and two women were arrested,
who, after investigation, were found to be members of a
secret association, whose aim, according to pamphlets found
on them, was to do away with the throne, altar, and moneybags, and to establish a Red Republic. Small associations,
it appeared, consisting of from ve to nine members each,
had been formed among the Radical workmen, each member
being bound to establish another such small circle. The
trial appears to have broken up the society, though .Anarchists in most countries of Europe and other parts of
the world remain very active, openly avowing the results
they aim at, results in themselves impracticable, and which,
if they could be attained, would render the existence of
society and of civilisation impossible. The .Anarchists,
who wish to reform the world, should begin by reforming
themselves.

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BOOK XIII
POLITICAL SECRET SOCIETIES
" These were days, when my heart was volcanic,
As the scoriae rivers that roll,
As the lavas, that restlessly roll
Their sulphurous currents down Yanik,
In the clime of the boreal pole ;
That groan as they roll down Mount Yanik,
In the clime of the ultimate pole,"
E. A. POE.

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5 I 3 Earliest Secret Chinese Societies.-The earliest notice
we have of a secret Chinese league is towards the close
of the Han dynasty (A.D. ISS) Three patriots, having
then associated themselves, defended the throne against the
"Yellow Cap" rebels, a society numbering among its members the flower of Chinese litterateurs. :From that time until
the establishment of the present Tartar dynasty (twelfth
century), the League showed few signs of vitality. But at
the beginning of the eighteenth century five monks and seven
other persons bound themselves by an oath, which they
ratified by mixing blood from the arm of each, and drinking
it in common, to overthrow the Tsings, the present Tartar
dynasty, and restore the Mings, the dispossessed Chinese
dynasty. The name of the society they founded was Pelin-kiao, or the White Lily. The members relied on a
prophecy that one of them should be emperor of China.
The leaders were Wang-lung and a bonze named Fan-ui.
The former made himself master of the town of Shoo-changhieu; but was soon driven thence, and eventually captured,
and executed with many of his followers. In I777 the
Pe-lin-kiao again appeared, only to be defeated again; the
heads of the leaders, including those of two women, were
cut off and placed in cages for public inspection. In I Sao
a sect called the Wonderful Association, and another, called
the Tsing-lien-kiao, supposed to be the Pe-lin-kiao under a
new name, conspired against the ruling dynasty, but unsuccessfully.. Under the reign of the Emperor Kia-King
(I799-IS2o) arose the Th'ien-Hauw-Hoi'h, that is, the family
of the Queen of Heaven, spread through Cochin-China,
Siam, and Corea, with its headquarters in the southern
provinces of the empire. The society on being discovered
and, as it was thought, exterminated, arose again under
the name of the Great Hung League; Hung literally means
flood, and the leaders adopted the name to intimate that
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their society was to flood the earth. To avoid the appearance of all belonging to one society, they gave different
names-some borrowed from previously existing sects-to
the branches they established. Thus they were known as
the Triad Society, the Blue Lotus Hall, the Golden Orchid
District, and others. These soon attracted the attention of
Government, and for some time they were kept in check.
About 1826 the chief leader of the League was one Kwang
San. It was reported that, to make himself ferocious he
once drank gall, taken out of a murdered man's body, mixed
with wine. He resided chiefly at the tin-mines of Loocoot,
where the brethren then swarmed. The directing power
was vested in three persons; the chief, with the title of
Koh, i.e. the Elder; the two others took that of Hiong
Thi, i.e. Younger Brothers. In the Malacca branches the
three chiefs were called Tai-Koh, eldest brother, Ji-Koh,
second brother, and San-Koh, third brother. The oath of
secrecy was taken by the aspirant kneeling before an image,
under two sharp swords. Whilst the oath was being administered the Hiong Thi had also to kneel, the one on the
right, the other on the left of the aspirant, and hold over
his head the swords in such a fashion as to form a triangle.
The oath contained thirty-six articles, of which the following
was the most important :-"I swear that I shall know
neither father nor mother, nor brother nor sister, nor wife
nor child, but the brotherhood alone; where the brotherhood leads or pursues, there I shall follow or pursue; its foe
shall be my foe." The aspirant, with a knife, then made an
incision into his finger, and allowed three drops of blood to
fall into a cup of arrack ; the three officials did the same
thing, and then drank the liquor. In order further to ratify
the oath, the newly-sworn member cut off the head of a
white cock, which was to intimate that if he proved untrue,
his head should be cut off.
514. More recent Societies.-In 1850 Tae-ping-wang, the
noted revolutionary leader, made a fresh attempt to restore
the Ming dynasty, from whom he pretended to be descended.
With his defeat and death the League again subsided into
obscurity. In the spring of 1863 a quantity of books were
accidentally found by the police in the house of a Chinaman,
suspected of theft, at Padang (Sumatra), containing the
laws, statutes, oaths, mysteries of initiation, catechism, description of flags, symbols, and secret signs of the League,
all of which were published in English in a 4to volume at
Batavia in I 866. But this discovery showed the League to

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be still in existence, and about the year I 870 it started into

activity again ; in Sarawak it assumed such a threatening
aspect that the Government made a law decreeing death to
every member ipso facto. The disturbances at Singapore in
1872 also were due to the secret societies of the Chinese in
the Straits Settlements. On that occasion the Sam-Sings,
or "fighting men," were the chief rioters, taking the part of
the street hawkers, against whom some severe regulations
had been issued. Murder and incendiarism, torturing and
maiming, are the usual practices of the League, which again
made itself very obnoxious in I883 and I885. The section
of the "Black Flag," the remnant of the Taepings, as also
the "White Lily," were the most active in their demonstrations against the Tsing dynasty. 'The last police reports
from the protected state of Perak, in the Malay Peninsula,
say that in I 888 secret societies "caused endless trouble
and anxiety," although in I 887 four members of the Ghee
Hin Association were sentenced to twenty years' imprison.ment for conducting an agency for their society. Half the
Chinese in Perak are members of secret societies, tickets
being found upon them whenever the police have occasion
to search them.
The Straits Tirnes of the I 7th Septem her I 889 contained
full particulars of the trial of a number of prisoners who
were proved to be members of the Ghee Hin or Sam Tian
secret society at Sarawak. The six leaders were shot ;
eleven, being active members, carrying out orders of the
leaders, beating, frightening, or murdering non-members,
were sentenced to receive six dozen strokes with a rattan,
to have their heads shaved, to be imprisoned during the
Rajah's pleasure; seven others, against whom no specific
charges were made out, were dismissed on swearing to have
no further dealings with the society.
Towards the end of the year 1895 a number of Mohammedans rose against the Chinese Government and captured
the capital of the province of Kansu; the secret societies in
Central China joined the Mohammedan insurgents. Their
success, however, was of short duration; in the month of
December of the' same year the insurrection was crushed,
aud some fifteen of the leaders were captured and beheaded.
Others made their escape. Among these was Sun Yet Sun,
or, as he is also called, Sun Wen, a medical man, well known
in Hong-Kong. His being made a prisoner in the house of
the Chinese Ambassador in London in the month of October
I 896, until, at the instance of Lord Salisbury, he was re-

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leased, is no doubt fresh in the memory of the reader. He

asserted that he was kidnapped by the Chinese Ambassador's
people, by being induced to walk into the Ambassador's
house; but it is a curious circumstance that San -Wen, who
evidently knew something of I.ondon, should not have known
where the Chinese Embassy was located, especially after all
the excitement caused by Li Hung Chang's visit to the
Continent and to England.
In justice to the Taepings and other secret associations
in China, it must be stated that the insurrection was and
is the war of an oppressed nationality against foreign invaders. The Mantchoos or Tsing dynasty are an alien tribe,
ruling over the vast Chinese empire ; their government is
one of the most despotic the world has ever seen; their laws are so ruthless and unjust, that it would seem they could
never be carried out, did not the blood of millions, perishing
by every kind of frightful death that the most diabolical
cruelty could invent, attest the fact of their being obeyed.
Yet British ministers did sanction the enlistment of British
officers-Bible Gordon being their leader, what a satire!and men in the service of the Mantchoos, whom they further
supplied with arms and artillery.
51 5 Lodges.- From the book published at Batavia, and
mentioned above, we extract the following information : The lodge is built in a square, surrounded by walls, which
are pierced at the four cardinal points by as many gates ;
the faces are adorned by triangles, the mystic .symbol of
union. Within the enclosure is the hall of fidelity and
loyalty, where the oaths of membership are taken. Here
also stand the altar, and the precious nine-storied pagoda,
in which the images of the five monkish founders are enshrined. The lodges, of course, only appear in out-of-theway places, where they are safe from the observation of
the Mandarins; in towns and populous neighbourhoods the
lodge is dispensed with; the meetings are held at the house
of the president. The instruments of the lodge are numerous.
First in importance is the diploma; then there are numerous
flags; there is the "bushel," which contains among other
articles the "red staff," with which justice is done to
offende:ts against the laws of the society; the scissors, with
which the hair of the neophytes is cut off; a jade foot
measure, a balance, an abacus, &c.
516. Government.-The supreme government is vested in
the grand masters of the five principal lodges, and the affairs
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one master, two introducers, one fiscal, thirteen councillors, several agents, who are otherwise known as " grass
, shoes," " iron planks," or " night brethren," and some
minor officials, who, as indicative of their rank, wear flowers
in their hair.
In times of peace the ranks of the society are filled up by
volunteers, but when the League is preparing to take the field,
threats aud violence are used to secure members. The neophyte, as in Royal .Arch Masonry, is introduced to the Hall of
Fidelity under the" bridge of swords," formed by the brethren
holding up their swords in the form of au arch ; he then
takes the oath, and has his queue cut off, though this ceremony
is dispensed with if he lives amongst Chinese who are faithful to the Tartar rule ; his face is washed, and he exchanges
his clothes for a long white dress, as a token of purity, and
the commencement of a new life. Straw shoes, signs of
mourning, are put on his feet. He is then led up to the
altar, and offers up nine blades of grass and an incense stick,
while an appropriate stanza is repeated between each offering.
.A red candle is then lighted, and the brethren worship heaven
and earth by pledging three cups of wine. This done, the
seven-starred lamp, the precious imperial lamp, and the Hung
lamp are lighted, and prayer is made to the gods, beseeching
them to protect the members. The oath is then read, and each
member draws some blood from the middle finger, and drops
it into a cup partly filled with wine. Each neophyte having
drunk of the mixture, strikes off the head of a white cock, as
a sign that so all unfaithful brothers shall perish. Then each
new brother receives his diploma, a book containing the oath,
law, and secret signs, a pair of daggers, and three Hung
medals. The secret signs are numerous, and by means of
them a brother cau make himself known by the way in which
he enters a house, puts down his urn brella, arranges his shoes,
holds his hat, takes a cup of tea, and performs a number of
other actions.
Henry Pottinger, in a despatch to Lord .Aberdeen (1843),
perhaps alludes to a secret society, saying: "The song being
finished, Ke-Ying, the Chinese commissioner, having taken
from his arm a gold bracelet, gave it to me, informing me,
at the same time, that he had received it in his tender
youth from his father, aud that it contained a mysterious
legend, and that, by merely showing it, it would in all parts
of China assure me a fraternal reception."
517. Seal of the Hung League.-Every member of the
Hung League is provided with a copy of its seal, which is

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printed in coloured characters on silk or calico. The original
is kept in the custody of the Tai-Koh. Various descriptions
of it have been given, and as they differ, it may be presumed that there are more seals than one. But all of them
are pentagonal, and inscribed with a multitude of Chinese
characters, the translations given showing no real meaning;
the whole is a riddle, which it is scarcely worth while attempting to solve. To give but one sample. In an octagonal space
enclosed within the pentagon there are sixteen characters,
which, according to the interpreters, signify: "The eldest
brother unites to battle-order ; every one prepares himself
(at the) signal (of the) chief. (The) swollen mountain
. stream spreads itself (into) canals ; ten thousand of years is
(he) this day." By m;tny members it is worn as a charm,
and great care is-taken to conceal its meaning from the
uninitiated. .As a charm, the seal may be as effective against
wounds or death in battle as were the amulets furnished in
the fifteenth century by the hangman of Passau, until a soldier
.had the curiosity to open one, and read, " Coward, defend
thyself!"
5 I8. The Ko lao Hui.-The secret society which at tbe
present day seems most powerful in China, is that known by
the above name. It was at first a purely military association,
whose object was mutual protection against the plunder and
extortion practised by the civil officials in dealing with the
pay and maintenance of the troops. It is believed that the
initiation consists in killing a cock and drinking the blood,
either by itself, or mixed with wine. It is also believed to
use a planchette, whose movements are attributed to occult
influence ; gradually persons not connected with the army
were admitted ; tbe ticket of membership is a small oblong
piece of linen or calico, stamped with a few Chinese characters. The possession of one of these, if discovered, entails
immediate execution by the authorities.
The society is anti-foreign and anti-missionary, and is
believed to be at the bottom of all the riots against foreigners,
and especially against foreign missionaries, which have lately
occurred in China. Of course, as long as missionaries, instead
of making it their business to convert the heathens at home,
will go among people who don't want them, and in China will .
establish themselves outside Treaty limits, they ought to be
prepared to take the risks they voluntarily incur, but whenever attacked, they make the Chinese Government pay them
liberally for any inconvenience or loss they may have suffered
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the Ko lao Hui, which is also anti-dynastic, caused inflammatory placards to be posted up in various parts of the
empire, which the authorities immediately tore down, only
to be posted up afresh; the society also distributed antimissionary pamphlets, with titles such as this: " The Devil
Doctriners ought to be killed," wherein the missionaries
are charged with every kind of crime against morals and
life; the Roman Catholics are more severely handled than
the Protestants. .
In September r8gr it would appear that the society was
organising a rising against the Government, and a Mr. C. W.
Mason, a British subject, and a fourth-class assistant in the
Customs at Shanghai, was implicated in the project, he
having been instrumental in introducing arms and dynamite
into the country for the use of the conspirators. He was
sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour,
and he was further, at the expiration of that period; to find
two sureties of $z 500 to be of good behaviour, and failing in this he was to be deported from China. This latter
happening on his release, he was sent out of the country in
September 1892.
In November r8gr a famous Ko lao Hui leader named
Chen-kin-Lung fell into the hands of the Chinese Government. He had been staying at an inn with about thirty of
his followers. Gagged and bound, he was taken on board a
steam-launch kept ready to start, and carried to Shanghai.
His examination was conducted with the greatest secrecy by
the magistrate and deputies of the Viceroy and the Governor.
On his person were found several official documents issued
by the Ko lao Hui, and a short dagger with a poisoned
blade. He was addressed in the despatches as the "Eighth
Great Prince," and was evidently the commander of a strong
force. Three examinations were held, but Chen preserved
the strictest silence. Torture was employed, but in vain ;
the only words that could be extracted from him were,
" Spare yourselves the trouble and me the pain ; be convinced that there are men ready to sacrifice their lives for
the good of a cause which will bring happiness to this
country for thousands of generations to come." Then more
gentle means were employed, but with what result is not
known. The Hui League has various offshoots, which being
known to be in reality mutual aid societies, are secret
societies in name only, and therefore attract but little
attention from the Government. One of the largest of
these offshoots is the "Golden Lily Hui," which flourishes

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in the western provinces of China. Its members are divided

into four sections, respectively marshalled under the white,
the black, the red, and the yellow flag.
That the popular feeling against Christian missionaries in
China is very strong cannot be denied, and for the last two
or three years has displayed itself in frequent attacks on
their persons and property. Even at the present time such
outbreaks are almost regularly reported in the European
press. A pretty plain intimation was given to Sir Rutherford Alcock on his bidding adieu to a high Chinese official.
"I wish," said that functionary, "now you are going home,
you would take away with you your opium, and your
Christian missionaries."
A law passed in I 889 in the Straits Settlements for the
suppression of Chinese secret societies, according to a report
issued in I 892 by the Protector of Chinese in those settlements, has led to the disappearance of those dangerous
organisations. But it is admitted that it will take many
years for the Triad element to become extinct ; the action of
the Hung League is merely suspended, and out of it have
sprung many minor societies, as offshoots from the parent
society, who send gangs of roughs to brothels, coolie-depots,
music halls and shops, demanding monthly contributions,
under threat of coming in force and interrupting the business of the establishment. The fighting men of these
societies are kept in the lodges by the head men on the
proceeds of the exactions thus levied. 'rhe expulsion of the
head men, as the speediest remedy of these evils, has been
tried, with as yet only partial success.

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THE COMUNEROS
5 I 9 Introductory Remarks.-The downfall of Napoleon,
by a pleasant fiction, invented by historians who write
history philosophically, that is, chisel and mould history to
fit systems drawn from their inner consciousness, is said to
have made Europe free. True, the battle of Waterloo and the
Congress 9f Vienna restored the kings to their thrones, but
to say that Europe was thereby made free is false. Instead
of one mighty eagle hovering over Europe, the limbs of that
ancient Virgin were now torn to pieces by a flock of harpies ;
instead of one mighty ruler, a host of petty tyrants returned
to revel in the delights of a terreur blanche. Religious despotism, by the restoration of the pope, was to be the fit prelude to the political tyranny which followed the "Restoration."
But the Napoleonic meteor, in its flight across Europe, had
shed some of its light into the dense brains even of the most
slavishly loyal German peasant, accustomed to look up to
the kingly, princely, or grand-ducal drill-sergeant as his
heaven-appointed Landesvater, so that he began to doubt the
ruler's divine mission. Hence secret societies in every
country whose king had been restored by the Congress of
Vienna-in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, .Austria. Some
of those secret societies had been fostered by the princes
themselves, as long as their own restoration was the object
aimed at; but when the societies and the nations they represented demanded that this restoration should involve constitutional privileges and the rights of free citizens, the
" restored " kings turned against their benefactors, and
conspired to suppress them. But such is the gratitude of
kings. However, turn we to the secret societies formed
to undo the evils wrought by Waterloo. I begin with
Spain.
520. Earliest Secret Societies in Spain.-Even before the
French Revolution there existed in Spain secret societies,
some averse to monarchical government, others in favour
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of clerocracy. Among the latter may be mentioned the
"Concepcionistas," or "Defenders of the Immaculate Conception" (523), who carried their zeal for Ferdinand VII. and
their tenderness for the Church to such a degree as to desire
the return of the blessed times of the Holy Inquisition.
They also sought to get hold of the management of public
affairs, to turn them to their own profit; and the dismal
administration of the Bourbons shows that they partly
succeeded. Probably from this association arose that of
the "Defenders of the Faith," Jesuits in disguise, who in
I 820 spread themselves over Spain, taking care of the
throne and altar, and still more of themselves. During
the reign of Ferdinand VII. also arose the "Reali!lts," who,
to benefit themselves, encouraged the king in his reactionary
policy.
52 I. Freemasonry in Spain, the Forerunner of the Oom~t
neros.-After the :French invasion of I 809, Freemasonry
was openly restored in the Peninsula, and a Grand Orient
established at Madrid ; but it confined itself to works of
popular education and charity, entirely eschewing politics.
The fall of Joseph and the Restoration again put an end
to these well-meant efforts. In I 8 I 6, some of the officers
and soldiers, returned from French prisons, joined and
formed independent lodges, establishing a Grand Orient
at Madrid, very secret, and in correspondence with the
few French lodges that meddled with politics. Among
the latter is remembered the lodge of the "Sectaries of
Zoroaster," which initiated several Spanish officers residing
in Paris, among others Captain Quezada, who afterwards
favoured the escape of the patriot Mina. The revolution of
the island of Leon was the work of restored Spanish Masonry,
which had long prepared for it under the direction of Quiroga,
Riego, and five members of the Cortes.
522. The Oomuneros.-After the brief victory, badly-con-
cealed jealousies broke forth; many of the brethren seceded
and formed in I 82 I a new society, the "Confederation of the
. Communists" (Oornuneros), which name was derived from that
~le epoch of Spanish history when Charles V. attempted
to destroy the ancient liberties, and thus provoked the revolution of the Commons in I520, which was headed by John
Padilla, and afterwards by his heroic wife, Maria Pacheco.
In the battle of Villalar the Comuneros were defeated and
scattered, and the revolution was doomed. The new Comuneros, reviving these memories, declared their intentions,
which could not but be agreeable to Young Spain; nearly

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sixty thousand members joined the society: women could be

initiated, who had their own lodges or tarns, or towers, as
their meetings were called, and which were presided over by a
"Grand Castellan." The scope of the society was to promote
by all means.in its power the freedom of mankind; to defend
in every way the rights of the Spanish people against' the
abuses and encroachments of royal and priestly power; and
to succour the needy, especially those belonging to the
society. Some of the more advanced of the Comuneros were
for beheading the king, or exiling him to the Havannah,
on the principle that to put a house, whether domestic or
national, in order, it was first necessary to get rid of all
greedy hangers-on and parasites, and the Spanish throne
and the royal family of Spain with them came under tha
above designations. But the nation thought otherwise.
On being' initiated the candidate was first led into the
"hall of arms," where he was told of the obligations
and duties he was about to undertake. His eyes having
been bandaged he was conducted to another room, where,
after he had declared that he wished to be admitted into
the confederation, a member acting as sentinel exclaimed:
"Let him advance, I will escort him to the guard-house
of the castle." Then there was imitated with great noise
the lowering of a drawbridge, and the raising of a portcullis ; the candidate was then led into the guard-room, unbandaged, and left alone. The walls were covered with arms
and trophies, and with patriotic and martial inscriptions.
Being at last admitted into the presence of the governor, the
candidate was thus addressed: "You stand now under the
shield of our chief Padilla ; repeat with all the fervour you
are capable of the oath I am about to dictate to you."
By this oath, the candidate bound himself to fight for constitutional liberty, and to avenge every wrong done to his
country. The new knight then covered himself with the
shield of Padilla, the knights present pointed their swords at
it, and the governor continued : " The shield of our chief
Padilla will cover you from every danger, will save your life
and honour; but if you violate your oath this shield shall
be removed, and these swords buried in your breast." Both
the Masons and Comuneros sought to gain possession of
superior political influence. The former, having more experience, prevailed in the elections and formed the ministry.
Hence a contest that agitated the country and injured the
cause of liberty. In 1832, the Comuneros endeavoured to
overthrow the Freemasons, but unsuccessfully. Still Masons.

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and Comuneros combined to oppose the reactionary party.
They also succeeded in suppressing Carbonarism, which had
been introduced into Spain by some refugee Italians. These
societies, in fact, though professing patriotic views, were
nothing but egotistical cliques, bent on their own aggrandisement. How little they were guided by fixed principles is
shown by their conduct in Spanish America. In Brazil they
placed on the throne Don Pedro, and in Mexico they established a republican form of government, just as it best suited
their own private interests. But such is the practice of most
patriots.
523. Clerical Societies.-But the royal party also formed
secret societies. Among these we have mentioned the "Concepcionistas," or "Defenders of the Immaculate Conception,"
founded in 1823 (see 520 ante), with the sanction, if not at
the instigation, of Ferdinand VII. This was followed in
I 82 5 by the "Defenders of the Faith," also previously referred to, and in 1827 by a third, known as the "Destroying
.Angels." The existence of the last is denied by clerical
writers, but that it did exist, and that the Minister Calomarde
was its chief, are facts proved beyond dispute. The doings
of these clerical secret societies covered the king, a . despicable character in every way, with disgrace, and involved
the country in constant internecine war and ruin, which are
matters belonging to history. But as specially concerning
the secret societies of Spain, it should be mentioned that
at that period they were split up into four distinct parties :
(I) the .Aristocratic, who received great support from England; its objects were the restoration of the constitution,
and a change of dynasty. (2) The Mineros, whose head
was General Mina. They were chiefly military men, closely
allied with the .Aristocrats, and largely subsidised by England. The .American Government, with a view to the conquest of Mexico, also favoured them. Opposed to them
were (3) the Republicans, whose designation indicates their
object. (4) The Comuneros, who, though also desiring a
republican form of government in Spain, opposed the plans
of the third party.

III
THE HETAIRIA
524. Origin.-'l'he secret society which bore the above
Greek name, signifying the " Union of Friends," is, like
Carbonarism, one of the few secret associations which
attained its objects, because it had a whole people to back
it up ; a support which the Nihilists, for instance, lack as
yet, and hence the present non-success of the latter. The
origin of the Hetairia may be traced back to the Greek poet
Constantinos Rhigas, who lived in the later half of the last
century, and who plotted a Greek insurrection against
Turkey, but was by the Austrian Government, in whose
territory he was then travelling, basely delivered up to the
Porte, and executed at Belgrade in I 798. But the Hetairia
he had founded was not destroyed by his death ; its principles survived, and a new Hetairia was founded in 1812, on
lines somewhat different, however, from those of the old
society.
525. The Hetairia of 1812.-In 1812 a society was formed
at Athens, which called itself the "Hetairia Philomuse."
Since Lord Elgin had carried off whole cargoes of antiques,
the need was felt of protecting the Greek treasures of
antiquity. The object of the Philomuse, therefore, was to
preserve relics of ancient art, to found museums, libraries,
and schools. At the same time the members hoped by
peaceful means to improve the social and political condition
of Greece. They were conservative enough to place their
hopes on princes and the Congress of Vienna. Count Capo
d'Istria, the private secretary of the Czar, who possessed
in the highest degree the confidence of his master, did his
best to gain the goodwill of the Congress. The princes and
diplomatists, composing it, had then drained the cup of
pleasure to the dregs, and it seemed to them a pleasing
variation to surround themselves, amidst fetes, balls, and
amateur theatricals, with the halo of ancient Hellenistic
interests. Ministers, princes, kings, were ready to wear the

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golden or iron ring, on which the ancient Attic obolus was

engraved, the countersign of the Philomuse. The Emperor
Alexander, the Crown Princes of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg,
joined the society and subscribed to its funds. But these
were not the men or the means to deliver Greece from the
Turkish yoke, which had been the object of Rhiga~, and of
those who thought like him.
526. 1'/ic HetaiTia of I 8 f4.-Hence in I 8 I4 a new Hetairia
was founded with purely political objects. It was called the
"Hetairia" or "Society of Friends" only, and stood to the
Philomuse in the same relation the sword stands to the pen.
It was founded at Odessa, where Greek and Russian interests
always met, by a littleknown merchant, Ikufas, of Arta,
and two other obscure men of honour, Athanasius Tsakaloff
and the Freemason, E. Xanthos, of Patmos. These men
dete.rmined to achieve what Europe refused to do-to raise
the Cross above the Crescent; and in the course of years
they succeeded. The fate of Rhigas taught them secrecy.
Tsakaloff, who had years before formed a secret league of
Greek youths settled in Paris, had some experience as to external forms, and so had Xanthos as a Freemason. The number
of grades of their Hetairia was seven-:-Brethren, Apprentices, Priests of Eleusis, Shepherds, Prelates, Initiated, and
Supreme Initiated. The latter two grades were invested with
a military character, and directly intended for war. The
candidates for initiation had to kneel down, at night, in an
oratory, and to swear before a painting of the Resurrection,
fidelity, constancy, secrecy, and absolute obedience. Little,
however, was imparted on admission to a higher degree, the
object being mainly to render the initiation more impressive.
The brother was told to have his arms ready, and fifty cartridges in his cartridge-box; the Priest, that the object of the
Hetairia was the deliverance of Greece : but like all secret
societies, this one did not remain untainted from egotism,
falsehood, and humbug in general. As the priests were
allowed to introduce neophytes, who had to pay them certain
amounts of money, the office of priest was much sought after;
but it must have appeared strange to many of the candidates,
that whilst the priest bade them swear on the Gospel, he at
the same time informed them that he initiated them on the
strength of the power conferred on him by the High-Priest
of Eleusis. The leaders, further, did not hesitate to boast Of
a secret understanding with the Court of St. Petersburg,
yea, it was intimated that Alexander was the Grand Arch.
The Hetairists have been blamed for all this; but it cannot

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145

be expected that a revolutionary military league should in

all points be faultless, and keep within the rules of civic
honesty. Legal means were of no avail; cunning and deceit
are the weapons of the oppressed. Politicians have to
accommodate themselves to the fancies and prejudices of
men.
527. Signs and Passwords.-Some of the signs and passwords were common to all the. degrees, but others were
known to the higher grades only, each of which had its
peculiar mysteries. The Brethren salute9- by placing the
right hand on their friend's breast, and uttering the Albanian
word sipsi (pipe), to which the other, if initiated, responded
with sarroulcia (sandals). The .Apprentices pronounced the
syllable Lon, and the person addressed, if in the secret, completed the word by uttering the syllable don. In the higher
grades the formulas were more complex. The mystical words
of the Priests were, " How are you ? " and " .As well as
you are ; " and again, " How many have you? " and "As
many as you have." If the person accosted had reached the
third degree, he understood the mystical sense of the question,
and replied, "Sixteen." 'ro be sure of his man the questioner then asked, "Have you no more?" to which his
equally cautious friend replied, "Tell me the first, and I will
tell you the second." The first then pronounced the first
syllable of a Turkish word meaning justice, and the other
completed it by uttering the second syllable. The sign of
recognition was given by a particular touch of the right
hand, and making the joints of the fingers crack, afterwards
folding the arms and wiping the eyes. The Prelates pressed
the wrist, in shaking hands, with the index finger, reclined
the head on the left hand, and pressed the right on the
region of the heart. The Prelate addressed responded by
rubbing the forehead. If in doubt, the mystical phrases of
the Priests of Eleusis were repeated, and if the answers were
correctly given, the two repeated alternately the syllables of
the mysterious word va-an-va-da.
528. Short Career of Galatis.-The 8ect consisted at first
of but few members. In 1819 the Directory or Grand .Arch
was composed of the three founders only and four other
persons: Galatis, Komizopulos, A. Sekeris, and .A. Gazis,
with whom afterwards were joined Leven tis, Dikaos, Igoatios,
and Mavrocordato, and finally, Patsimadis and .Alexander
Ipsilanti. Galatis early betrayed, a~d almost ruined, the
cause of the Hetai.ria. Exceedingly vain of his admission
to the Grand .Arch, he went to St. Petersburg, where he
VOL. H.

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proclaimed himself as the ambassador of the Hellenes, in
consequence of which the police arrested him, and an examination of his papers revealed the whole secret of the
Hetairia. The Czar, vacillating between his philo-Hellenism
and the fear of revolution, was persuaded by Capo d'Istria to
set Galatis free, and even . to award him compensation in
money for his imprisonment. Later on, when Skufas conceived the bold idea of attacking the enemy in his very
capital, and had therefore settled at Constantinople, Galatis
excited the suspicion of thinking more of his own advantage
than of that of his country; he was always asking for money,
and when this was refused him, he uttered threats, whilst
alluding to his intimacy with Halet Effendi, the Minister
and favourite of Mahmoud. Thereupon the Hetairia decided
that he must be removed. Towards the end of 1818 he was
ordered on a journey ; a few trusted Hetairists were his
companions. One day, while he was resting near Hermione,
under a tree, a Hetairist suddenly dischargeJ his pistol at
him. With the cry, "What have I done to you? " he expired. The murderers, with a strange mingling of ferocity
and sentimentality, cut these last words of his into the bark
of the tree.

529. Proceedings of the Grand Arch.-Skufas had died

some months before, but thanks to the stupidity of the
Turkish Government, Constantinople remained the seat of
the league. The Grand Arch met at Xantho's house and
instituted a systematic propaganda. In all the provinces of
Turkey and adjoining states "Ephori" superintendents were
appointed, who each had his own treasury, and authority to
act in his district for the best of the common cause; only
in very important cases he was to refer to the Grand Arch.
Gazis undertook preparing the mainland ; Greek soldiers,
who had just then returned from Russia, were sent to the
Morea and the island of Hydra. But it was essential to gain
possession of the most important military point in the Morea,
of Mani, usually called Maina, aud by means of the patriarch
Gregor, who was initiated into the secret of the Hetairia,
Petros Mavromichalis, the powerful governor of Maina, was
seduced from his allegiance. The .emissaries of the Hetairia.
knew how to reconcile tribes who had for centuries been at
feud, and to gain them for their cause, so that in I 820 the
Hetairia had secret adherents all over the Peloponnesus,
on the Cyclades, Sporades, on the coasts of Asia Minor, the
Ionian Islands, and 'even in Jerusalem. It was now felt
to be necessary to appoint a supreme head; the choice la:t

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147

between Capo d'Istria and Alexander Ipsilanti. The former

was a diplomatist, the latter a soldier. Capo d'Istria declined to .mix himself up in the matter, at least openly,
because his master, the Emperor Alexander, was unwilling
to appear as the protector of the Hetairia. Ipsilanti undertook its direction ; and as soon as it was known that he had
done so, the hopes of the con8pirators of the eventual support
of Russia rose to fever-heat, and Ipsilanti in I 820 found it
advisable to leave St. Petersburg and go to Odessa, to be
more in the centre of the movement. But though a soldier,
he was no general, and allowed himself to be carried away
by the enthusiasm he saw around him. Though contributions in cash came in so slowly that he had to make
private loans, he lost none of his confidence. In July he
appointed Georgakis commander of the "army of the
Danube," and Perrhavos chief of the "army of Epirotes."
He himself intended to enter the Peloponnesus, and to set
up at Maina the standard of independence, fancying that
the Peloponnesus was a fortified camp, outnumbering in
soldiers the Turkish contingents. But he was soon convinced of this error, and he was advised to make his first
attempt against the 'l'urkish power in the Danubian principalities; and though other counsellors rejected this proposal,
lpsilanti decided to adopt it, guided by the fact that the
treaties between Russia and the Porte forbade the entry
of an army into tl1e Principalities, unless with the consent
of both parties. Should the Porte, in consequence of the
.Hetairist rising, send. troops. to Bucharest, Russia would be
bounq to support the Greeks.
530. Ipsilanti's Proceedings. -Further hesitation became
impossible. A certain Asimakis, a member of the Hetairia,
in conjunction with the brother of the murdered Galatis,
betrayed to the Turkish police all the details of the conspiracy. Kamarinos, who had been to St. Petersburg, on
his return publicly revealed the futility of Russian promises;
to silence him the Hetairists had him assassinated. They
also endeavoured to take advantage of the quarrel which had
broken out between Ali Pasha and the Sultan, whose be~t
troops were then occupied in besieging Janina, Ali Pasha's
capital. Ali, being sorely pressed by the Turks, promised
the Hetairia his help, their cause being his-the overthrow of
the Sultan. The Suliotes, also, his ancient enemies, were
won over by him, partly in consequence of the bad treatment
they received from the Turks, whose side they had at first
adopted, and pattly because their leaders were initiated

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into the secret of the Hetairia, in whose success they saw
the recovery of their ancient territory, from which Ali had
expelled them. In March 1821, Ipsilanti took up his residence at Jassy, whence he issued pompous proclamations
to the Greeks, Moldavians, and W allachians, and also sent
a manifesto to the princes and diplomatists, who were then
assembled for the settlement of the Neapolitan revolution,
inviting Europe, but especially Russia, to favour the cause of
Greek independence. But the result of the latter step was
fatal to it. Metternich's policy was totally opposed to it; and
the Emperor Alexander, who had .just proclaimed his antirevolutionary views, as applied to the Italian rising, could
not repudiate them when dealing with the Greek question.
Knowing nothing of the share his favourite, Capo d'Istria
had in it, and of the underhand promises of Russian help the
latter had made to the Hetairia, he assured the Emperor
Francis, Metternich, and Bernstorff, of his adherence to
the Holy Alliance, and his opposition to any revolution,
with such zeal and mystical unction, that his listeners
were "deeply moved." Ipsilanti's action was utterly reproved; his name was removed from the Russian Army
List; the Russian troops on the Fruth were instructed
under no pretence to take any part in the disturbances in
the Principalities; and the Porte was informed that the
Russian Government was a total stranger to them. Capo
d'Istria was compelled to write to his friend, whom he
had secretely encouraged, that "he must expect no support,
either moral or material, from Russia, which could be no
party to the secret undermining of the Turkish Empire by
means of secret societies."
53 I. Jpsilanti's Blunders.-Ipsilanti, since his arrival at
Jassy, had taken none of the steps which might have insured the success of his enterprise. He did nothing towards
centralising the Government, or concentrating his troops.
He seemed satisfied with looking upon the Principalities as
a Russian depot, and to be waiting for the hand of the Czar
to raise him on the Greek throne. As if the victory were
already won, he bestowed civil and military appointments
on the swarms of relations and flatterers who surrounded
him. Chiefs of a few hundred adventurers were grandly
called generals ; he placed his brothers on the staffs of his
imaginary army corps, whilst he neglected and snubbed men
who might have greatly advanced the revolution; he favoured
worthless creatures, such as Karavias, who, with a band of
Arnaut mercenaries, had surprised and cut down the Turkish

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149

garrison of Galatz, plundered the town, desecrated the

church~s, and committed every kind of outrage. Ipsilanti
shut h1s eyes when the rabble of J assy, on hearing of the
horrors committed at Galatz, suddenly attacked the Turks
peacefully residing in the former town, and murdered
them in cold blood. He further committed a great mistake in imprisoning a ri<;h banker on some frivolous pretence, and only releasing him on his paying a ransom of
sixty thousand ducats. This act drove a great many wealthy
people to take refuge on Russian or Austrian territory, and
many others to wish for the restoration of Turkish authority,
whose oppression was not quite so ominous as that of the
newly-arrived "liberators."
532. Pro,qress of the lnsu1rection.-At last Ipsilanti, with
an army of two thousand men, whose numbers were
everywhere proclaimed to be ten thousand, left Jassy for
Bucharest. At Fokshany, on the borders of the two
Principalities, he issued another proclamation to the " Dacians," which was as unsuccessful as the former. On the
other hand, his army was here reinforced by the Arnauts of
Karavias, and later on by two hundred Greek horsemen, led
by Georgakis, one of the most heroic of the Greek patriots.
About this time, also, according to the pattern of the
Thebans, five hundred youths, belonging to the noblest
and richest families, formed themselves into a Sacred Battalion. They were clothed in black, and displayed on their
breasts a cross with the words, " In this sign you shall conquer." Their hats were decorated with a skull and crossbones! Still, this battalion henceforth distinguished itself
above all the other troops of Ipsilanti by discipline and
valour. But the chief, instead of affording those youths
an opportunity of displaying their zeal, damped it by his
delays and slow advance. He did not reach Bucharest
before the gth April. Here the higher clergy and the
remaining Boyars declared their adhesion to the cause, in
the hope that the leaders of irregular troops who had joined
Ipsilanti would do the same, and thus subordinate the anarchical elements of the revolution to the general object. But
this hope was only partially fulfilled. Georgakis, indeed,
placed himself under Ipsilanti's orders, but other leaders,
like Savas and Vladimiresko, were far from following this
example. It was even said that the former was secretly
working towards the restoration of Turkish supremacy.
533 Ipsilanti's Approaching Fall.-ln this crisis, Ipsilanti's chief occupation was the erection of a theatre and

SECRET SOCIETIES
engaging comedians, whilst he himself was more of a
comedian than a general. He daily showed himself in the
gorgeous uniform of a Russian general. A numerous staff
of officers rushed from morning till night, with aimless
activity, through the streets of Bucharest. Wealthy people
were visited with arbitrary requisitions; the soldiers of the
Hetairia lived, without discipline, at the expense of citizens
and peasants; the Sacred Battalion only refrained from
these excesses. Under these circumstances arrived the decision from Laybach, and with it the curse of the Chmch.
The Patriarch laid Ipsilanti and the Hetairia under the ban;
Sovas and Vladimiresko now openly joined the Rumelian
opposition to the Greek cause; the Boyars and the clergy
withdrew from it, and from the other classes of the people
there had never been any real prospect of support. Ipsilauti
endeavoured to weaken the force of the double blow which
had befallen him by asserting that the ban of diplomacy and
the Church was a mere form behind which the Czar and the
Patriarch wished to conceal their secret sympathy with the
Hetairia. He asserted that Capo d'Istria had secretly informed him that the Hetairists were not to lay down their
~rms before having learnt the issue of the proposals made by
Russia to the Turks in favour of the Greeks. In the name
of the Greek nation he addressed a number of demands to
the Czar and his Ambassador at Constantinople, declaring
that he would not relinquish the position he had assumed
until these demands were complied with. Minds bolder
than his advised him to make his way through Bulgaria
to Epirus, to relieve Ali Pasha, closely besieged in Janina,
and with the latter's help to set Greece free. But Ipsilanti
was not made of the stuff to execute so daring a coup-demain / and when Vladimiresko strongly supported the plan,
Ipsilanti felt convinced that he and others intended to lead
him into a trap by luring him out of the Principalities. He
therefore, instead of moving towards the Danube, on the
13th April, with his small army, and scarcely any artillery,
turned northwards to the Carpathians, distributing his
soldiers in so wide a belt that if the Turks had had any
forces ready they might easily have exterminated Ipsilanti's
army piecemeal. The revolutionary chief intended, should
the Turks seriously threaten him, to take refuge on Austrian
territory, hoping, through the intercession of the Russian
Ambassador at Constantinople, to secure a free passage for
himself and his followers. The Russian Government having
permitted the advance of Turkish troops into the Princi-

' THE HETAIRIA

J>ruities to quell the insurrection, Ipsilanti had to be prepared
for a speedy encounter. In fact, under the pretence of in~
tending resistance, he ordered intrenchments to be thrown
up, and his troops to be exercised in the nse of the bayonet,
whilst he amused them again with the fable of Russian
assistance.
534 Advance of the Turks.-In the second week of May
the Turks crossed the Danube. The Pasha of Braila undertook the recovery of Galatz, which had been taken by Karavias. The first encounter took place before that town on
the 13th May, on which occasion the Hetairists, by their
bravery, redeemed many of the mistakes committed by their
leaders. About seven hundred of the insurgents held three
redoubts on the road to Braila; they had two guns. Their
position :had been so skilfully chosen by their chief, Athanasius of Karpenisi, that it seemed possible to, defend it for
a long time against a fivefold number of Turks. But the
majority of the defenders consisted of rabble sailors taken
from the ships in the harbour, and of the robbers and murderers who, under the leadership of Karavias, had rendered
themselves infamous, and now felt little inclination to sacrifice themselves for a foreign cause. As soon as the Turks
prepared for the attack, the bulk of them fled, leaving it to
Athanasius and the few Greeks to engage in the fight. The
unequal conflict lasted till night; the redoubts were bravely
held by the small number of Greeks; and when darkness
came, and the fighting was suspended, the Greeks practised
a trick to make their escape. They hung their cloaks outside the redoubts, and the 'l'urks, taking the cloaks for men,
fired at them ; at the same time the Greeks had loaded their
guns in such a way, as to go off one after another as soon as
the garrison should have left the redoubts, by which means
the attention of the Turks would be diverted from the
fugitives. The 1use succeeded; the Greeks escaped, first to
a small peninsula at the mouth of the Fruth, and thence to
.Tassy. The greatest disorder prevailed in that town. Prince
Kantakuzeno, to whom Ipsilanti had entrusted its defence,
could maintain himself but a few days. In the middle of
June, when the Turkish troops advanced against him, he
retreated to Bessarabia, advising Athanasius and the other
Greeks to do the same. But these pronounced him a
despicable coward; they, they said, were determined to
defend the Greek. cause to the last, and to die honourably
or to conquer. With four hundred men and eight guns
they resisted,. behind a weak barricade of trees, near Skuleni:,

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SECRET SOCIETIES
for eight days a vastly superior enemy, and by their heroic
conduct threw a final halo round the Moldavian insurrection.
Athanasius met with the death of a patriot. Nearly a thousand Turks had fallen; three hundred Greeks perished in the
fight or in the waters of the Pruth, the remnant took refuge
on the opposite bank.
535 lpsiltmti's Dijfieulties.-Moldavia was lost; in the
meantime the Pasha of Silistria had entered Bucharest on
the 29th May; Ipsilanti, perfectly helpless, was encamped
at Tergovist. His troops, even the Sacred Battalion, were
thoroughly demoralised; his dissensions with Savas and
Vladimiresko continued. The former had readily surrendered Bucharest to the Turks, and had followed Ipsilanti,
whom on the first favourable opportunity he intended to
take prisoner to give him up to the Turks. Vladimiresko
prepared to withdraw to Little Wallachia, there to await the
result of his negotiations with the Turks; he had proposed
to the Pasha of Silistria to have Ipsilanti and Georgakis
assassinated. But his treachery became known to his intended victims; Georgakis suddenly appeared in his camp,
took him prisoner in the midst of his officers, and carried
him to Tergovist. On being taken before Ipsilanti he protested his innocence, declaring that he had only been trying
to draw the Turks into a snare; but Ipsilanti ordered him at
once to be shot.
536. Ipsilanti's Fall.-Ipsilanti intended to occupy the
strategically important village of Dragatschau, but the
rapid advance from Bucharest of the Turkish vanguard left
him no time to do so. On the 8th June it encountered a
Greek division under Anastasins of Argyrokastro ; another
division, sent for the support of the Greeks from Tergovist,
under the command of Dukas, betook themselves to their
heels, with their leader at their head, and spread such consternation in the camp at Tergovist, that Ipsilanti's troops,
leaving their baggage behind, took to flight. Ipsilanti thereupon with great difficulty made his way to Ribnik, with a
view of being near the Austrian frontier, which he intended
to cross, if necessary. In spite of the losses he had sustained,
he still commanded 7 500 men, with four guns. Georgakis
considered the opportunity favourable by an attack on
Dragatschau, which the Turks had occupied with two thousand men, to raise the sinking courage of his troops. His
dispositions were skilfully arranged to surround the enemy,
inferior in numbers, and on the 19th June 1821, five thou~
sand insurgents were concentred on the heights surrounding

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the village, entirely cutting off the retreat of the 'l'urks.

Ipsilanti's corps had not yet arrived. Georgakis sent messen
ger after messenger to hasten the advance of Ipsilanti, that
he might share in the honours of the day. The Turks were
aware of their dangerous position. Towards mid-day they
attempted a debouch from the village to occupy a height in
front of it; but the attempt miscarried, the Greeks would
not give way. Thereupon the Turks set fire to the village,
in order to effect .their retreat under the shelter of the
flames. Karavias, whom Ipsilanti had appointed colonel
of the cavalry, considered it a favourable moment to gather
cheap laurels ; he took the burning of the village as a sign
of the flight and defeat of the Turks; envious of Georgakis,
he designed to rob him of the honour of this easy victory,
and in spite of orders to the contrary, to adventure with his
five hundred horsemen on storming the village. He persuaded Nicholas Ipsilanti to support the mad attempt with
the Sacred Battalion and his artillery, and, heated with wine,
without even communicating with his chief, he led his men
across the bridge leading to the village. 'l'he Turks at first
retreated, as, in fact, they had already commenced a retrograde
movement, apprehending a general attack. But when they
discovered that Karavias and the Sacred Battalion only were
coming against them, they wheeled round and first threw the
cavalry into disorder; the Sacred Battalion, tender youths
having but lately assumed arms, could not resist the hardy
veteran Spahis. They fell, " like blooming boughs " under
the woodcutter's hatchet. Georgakis arrived in time to recover the standard and two guns and re!:lcue the remainder,
about one hundred men, of the Sacred Battalion. About
thirty of the Arnauts, and twenty of Georgakis' devoted
band, were also slain. By this defeat Ipsilanti's last hope
was destroyed. Having taken refuge at Kosia, he negotiated with the Austrian Government for permission to cross
the frontier. His safety was in danger from his own people.
They talked of handing him over to the Turks and earning
the price set on his head. All discipline disappeared.
The Hetairists robbed and murdered one another. Among
the few men of faith and honour, Georgakis was one of the
most prominent. Though he would have preferred Ipsilanti
remaining, he assisted his flight. Then he joined his friend
Farmakis at Adjile, to continue, faithful to his oath, the
struggle for Greece.
537 Ipsilanti's Manifesto.-Ipsilanti, true to his system
of deceit, continued to spread false reports and letters, stating

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SECRET SOCIETIES

that the Emperor Francis had declared war against the Porte,
that Austrian troops would occupy the Principalities, and that
he was going to have an interview with the Imperial governor.
But once on Austrian territory, Ipsilanti, who there called
himself Alexander Komorenos, was seized and imprisoned in
Fort Arad. There he attempted to justify his forsaking his
companions in arms by shifting the want of success off his
shoulders on those of others. In a boastful manifesto he
said: "Soldiers! But no, I will not disgrace this honourable
name by applying it to you. Cowardly hordes of slaves !
your treachery, and the plots you have hatched, compel me
to leave you. From this moment every bond between you
and .me is sever~d ; to me remains the disgrace of having
commanded you. You have even robbed me of the glory of
dying in battle. Run to the Turks; purchase your slavery
with your lives, with the honour of your wives and children."
538. Ipsilanti'simprisonment and Death.-Treaties between
Austria and Turkey stipulated that fugitives from either side
were only to be received on condition of their being rendered
harmless. Consequently, Ipsilanti was compelled to declare
in writing, and on his honour, that he would make no attempt
at flight. He then was, like a common criminal, taken to
the fortress of Munkacs, surrounded by marshes, and obliged
to take up his residence in a miserable garret. For years
he remained in close confinement, and only when his health
began to give way was he permitted to take up his residence
in a less unhealthy prison at Theresienstadt, a fortified place
of Bohemia. In 1827, at the intercession of the Emperor of
Russia, he was set free, but died next year, as it was said,
of a broken heart. He had lived to see his followers persecuted and slain, his family ruined, and himself unable to
assist, when the people of Greece, more successful than the
Hetairists of the Principalities, fought for liberty and their
fatherland. Romance has thrown its halo around the prisoner
of Munkacs, and the Greeks ended in beholding in him the
martyr of Greek freeuom.

539 Fate of the Hetairists.-The insurrection may be

considered to have ended with Ipsilanti's flight; the remnant
of his followers now fought for honour only. Readily supported by the people-as foolishly as ever supporting their
oppressors-the Turks made rapid progress in annihilating
the remains of Ipsilanti's army. Such Hetairist leaders as
surrendered on good faith were mercilessly executed. The
traitor Savas, in spite of tlie zeal he had shown in the
Turkish cause, shared the same fate; he was shot at

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ISS

Bucharest, together with his officers and soldiers, and their

heads were sent to Constantinople.
540. Georgakis' .Death.-Georgakis and Farmakis, the
bravest and truest leaders of the insurgents, remained.
They were determined not to entrust their lives either to
.Austrian protection or Turkish pity, and therefore again
made their way into Moldavia. Georgakis, who was ill,
had to be carried on a litter. During the long and painful
march the number of his followers was reduced to three
hundred and fifty. The peasants everywhere betrayed to
the Turks in pursuit every one of his movements, and even
before reaching the Moldavian frontier he was surrounded
on all sides. Moreover, he was imprudent enough to take
refuge in a cul-de-sac, by fortifying the monastery of Sekko,
which, with but one outlet, is situate in a deep gorge.
However, on the 17th September, he successfully drove back
,the first attack of the Turkish vanguard, and his confidence
increased. He was, moreover, induced by a treacherous
letter of the Greek bishop, Romanos, not to allow the
treasures of the monastery to fall into Turkish hands, to
prolong his stay. This decision proved fatal to the remnant
of the Hetairia. On the 2oth September, four thousand
Turks, led by Roumanian peasants on hitherto unknown
paths, made their appearance in the rear of the monastery,
traversing the Greek lines of defence, and cutting off the
defenders of the monastery, placed at the entrance of the
gorge, from their comrades. Farmakis threw himself into
the main building of the monastery, while Georgakis, with
eleven companions, took refuge in the bell-tower. The
Turks set fire to piles of wood close to it. "I shall die
in the flames; fly, if you choose, I open you the door!" the
intrepid chief exclaimed; at the same time he threw down
the door, flung a firebrand into the powder-stores, and in
this way buried the Turks who had forced their way in, and
ten of his companions, in the ruins. Only one of the Greeks
escaped, as if by a miracle.
541. Farrnakis' .Death.-Farmakis held the monastery for
eleven days longer, after which time his ammunition and
stores of food were exhausted. On the 4th October he
agreed to a favourable capitulation, which the Pasha of
Braila and the .Austrian Consul (!) guaranteed. The besieged were promised an honourable free marching off with
their arms. But in the night, before the conclusion of the
treaty, thirty-three of Farmakis' soldiers-two hundred altogether-made their escape, because they did not trust the

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SECRET SOCIETIES
Turkish promises. Those who remained had to regret their
confidence. On the following day the Turks slaughtered
the soldiers ; the officers were carried to Silistria, and there
executed; Farmakis was sent to Constantinople, where, after
having been cruelly racked, he was beheaded.
542. Final Success of the Hetairia.-Thus the real Hetairia
perished, but its overthrow was not without benefit to the
cause; for by the brutalities committed by the Turks who
occupied the Principalities, there arose a series o complications between the Cabinets o St. Petersburg and Constantinople, which at last led to an open quarrel. Ipsilanti
lived to see the issue o the diplomatic fencing in the
beginning o the Russo-Turkish war of 1828 and 1829,
when the real Greek people, with genuine means, accomplished to the south o the Balkans what he had vainly
attempted with artificial ones in the north. But in this
the action of the Hetairia, still existing as a remnant,
played only a secondary part, and hence we may here fitly
conclude the history of this secret society.

j.

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.,
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IV
THE CARBONARI
543 History of the Association.-Like all other associations, the Carbonari, or charcoal-burners, lay claim to a very
high antiquity. Some of the less. instructed have even professed a descent from Philip of Macedon, the father of
Alexander the Great, and have attempted to form a high
degree, the Knight of Thebes, founded on this imaginary
origin. Others go back only so far as the pontificate of
Alexander III., when Germany, to secure herself against
rapacious barons, founded guilds and societies for mutual
protection, and the charcoal-burners in the vast forests of
that colmtry lmited themselves against robbers and enemies.
By words and signs only known to themselves, they afforded
each other assistance. The criminal enterprise of Kunz de
Kauffungen to carry off the Saxon princes, 8th July 1455,
failed through the intervention of a charcoal-burner, though
his intervention was more accidental than prearranged.
And in I 514 the Duke Ulrich of Wtirtemberg was compelled
by them, under threat of death, to abolish certain forest laws,
considered as oppressive. Similar societies arose in many
mountainous countries, and they surrounded themselves with
that mysticism of which we have seen so many examples.
'rheir fidelity to each other and to the society was so great,
that it became in Italy a proverbial expression to say, "On
the faith of a Carbonaro." At the feasts of the Carbonari, the
Grand Ma~ter drinks to the health of Francis I., King of
~'ranee, the pretended founder of the Order, according to the
following tradition :-During the troubles in Scotland in
Queen Isabella's time-this Isabella is purely mythicalmany illustrious persons, having escaped from the yoke of
tyranny, took refuge in the woods. In order to avoid all
suspicion of criminal association, they employed themselves
in cutting wood and making charcoal. Under pretence of
carrying it for sale, they introduced themselves into the
villages, and bearing the name of real Carbonari, they easily
157

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SECRET SOCIETIES
met their partisans, and mutually communicated their different plans. They recognised each other by signs, by touch,
and by words, and as there were no habitations in the forest,
they constructed huts of an oblong form, with branches of
trees. Their lodges (vendite) were subdivided into a number
of baracche, each erected by a Good Cousin of some distinction. There dwelt in the forest a hermit of the name of
Theobald; he joined them, and favoured their enterprise.
He was proclaimed protector of the Carbonari. Now it
happened that Francis I., King of France, hunting on the
frontiers of his kingdom next to Scotland (sic), or following
a wild beast, was parted from his courtiers. He lost himself
in the forest, but stumbling on one of the baracche, he was
hospitably entertained, and eventually made acquainted with
their secret and initiated into the Order. On his return to
France he declared himself its protector. The origin of this
story is probably to be found in the protection granted by
Louis XII. and continued by Francis I. to the W aldenses,
who had taken refuge in Dauphine. But neither the Hewers
nor the Carbonari ever rose to any importance, or acted any
conspicuous part among the secret societies of Europe till
the period of the Revolution. As to their influence in and
after that event, we shall return to it anon.
The Theobald alluded to in the foregoing tradition, is said
to have been descended from the first Counts of Brie and
Champagne. Possessed of rank and wealth', his fondness
for solitude led him to leave his father's house, and retire
with his friend Gautier to a forest in Suabia, where they
lived as hermits, working at any chance occupation by which
they could maintain themselves, but chiefly by preparing
charcoal for the forges. 'rhey afterwards made several pilgrimages to holy shrines, and finally settled near Vicenza,
where Gautier died. Theobald died in 1066, and was canonised by Pope Alexander III. From his occupation, St.
'rheobald was adopted as the patron saint of the Carbonari,
and is invoked by the Good Cousins in their hymns; and .a
picture, representing him seated in front of his hut, is usually
hung up in the lodge.
544 Real Origin of the Oa1boneria.-The first traces of a
league of charcoal-burners with political objects appear in the
twelfth century, probably caused by the 8evere forest laws
then in existence. About that period also the Fendeurs
(hewers), large corporations with rites similar to those of the
Carbonari, existed in the French department of i he Jura;
where the association was called le bon cousinage (the good

. THE CARBONARI.

riS9.

cousinship), whjch title was also assumed by the Carbonari.

Powerful lords, members of the persecuted Order of the
Temple, seeing the important services men scattered over so
large an extent of country could render, entered into secret
treaties with them. It further appears that the Fendeurs
formed the first and the Carbonari the second, or higher,
degree of the society collectively called the Carbone1ia. It
is also probable that before the French Revolution the then
French Government attempted by means of the society, which
then existed at Genoa under the name of the Royal Carboneria,' to overthrow the ancient oligarchical government.
and annex Genoa to France. It is certain th&t from I 770
to 1790 most of the members of the French chambers
belonged to the Order of the Fendeurs, which continued to
.exist even under Napoleon I. The Carboneria was intro
duced into Southern Italy by returning Neapolitan exiles,
who had been initiated in Germany and Switzerland, and as
early as 1807 Salicetti, the Neapolitan minister of police,
spoke of a conspiracy instigated by the Carbonari against
the French army in the Neapolitan states. But the society
was as yet powerless; when, however, the Austrian war
broke out in 1809, and French troops had largely to be
withdraonn from Italy, the first and head Vendita was formed
at Capua, its rules and ordinances being written in English,
because the English Government desired to employ the
society as a lever for the overthrow of N apol~on. Before,
however, proceeding with the history of the Order, we will
give particulars of their ritual and ceremonies.
545 The Vendita or Lodge.-From the" Code of Carbon
arism" we derive the following particulars respecting the
lodge :-It is a roor.n of wood in the shape of a barn. The
pavement must be of brick, in imitation of the mosaic floor
of the Masons' lodge, the interior furnished with seats without
backs. At the end there must be a block supported by thre~
legs, at which sits the Grand Master; at the two sides there
must be two other blocks of the same size, at which sit the
orator and secretary respectively. On the block of the Grand
Master there must be the following symbols :-a linen cloth,
water, salt, a cross, leaves, sticks, fire, earth, a crown of white
thorns, a ladder, a ball of thread, and three ribbons, one blue,
one red, and one black. There must be an illuminated
triangle, with the initial letters of the password of the
second rank in the middle. On the left hand there must be
a triangle, with the arms of the Vendita painted. On the
right three transparent triangles, each with the initiallettera

t6o

SECRET SOCIETIES

of the sacred words of the first rank. The Grand Master,

and first and second assistants, who also sit each before a
large wooden block, hold hatchets in their hands. The
masters sit along the wall of one side of the lodge, the
apprentices opposite.
546. Ritttal of Initiation.-The ritual of Carbouarism, as
it was reconstituted at the beginning of the present century,
was as follows. In the initiation:"The Grand Master having opened the lodge, says, First
Assistant, where is the first degree conferred?
A. In the hut of a Good Cousin, in the lodge of the
Carbonari.
G. M. How is the first degree conferred?
A. A cloth is stretched over a block of wood, on which
are arranged the bases, firstly, the cloth itself, water, fire,
salt, the crucifix, a dry sprig, a green sprig. At least three
Good Cousins must be present for an initiation; the introducer, always accompanied by a master, remains outside
.the place where are the bases and the Good Cousins. 'rhe
master who accompanies the introducer strikes three times
with his foot and cries : 'Masters, Good Cousins, I need
succour.' The Good Cousins stand around the block of wood,
against which they stl'ike the cords they wear round the
;waist and make the sign, carrying the right hand from the
left shoulder to the right side, and one of them exclaims,
'I have heard the voice of a Good Cousin who needs help,
perhaps he brings wood to feed the furnaces.' The introducer
is then brought in. Here the Assistant is silent, and the
Grand Master begins again, addressing the new-comer:'My Good Cousin, whence come you?
I. From the wood.
G. M. Whither go you ?
I. Into the Chamber of Hononl", to conquer my passions,
submit my will, and be instructed in Carbonarism.
G. M. What have you brought from the wood?
I. Wood, leaves, earth.
G. }f. Do you bring anything else?
I. Yes ; faith, hope, and charity.
G. M. Who is he whom you bring hither?
I. A man lost in the wood.
G. M. what does he seek ?
I. To enter our order.
G. M. Introduce him.'
The neophyte is then brought in. The Grand Master
puts .several questions to him regarding his morals and

THE CARBONA.RI

161

religion, and then bids him kneel, holding the crucifix, and
pronounce the oath : ' I promise and bind myself on my
honour not to reveal the secrets of the Good Cousins ; not
to attack the virtue of their wives or daughters, and to
afford all the help in iny power to every Good Cousin needing it. So help me God ! "
547 l!'irst IJegree.-A.fter some preliminary questioning,
the Grand Master addresses the novice thus : " What means
the block of wood ?
N. Heaven and the roundness of the earth.
G. M. What means the cloth ?
N. That which hides itself on being born.
G. M. The water?
N. That which serves to wash and purify from original
sm.
G. M. The fire ?
N. To show us our highest duties.
G. }II. The salt?
N. That we are Christians.
G. M. The crucifix?
N. It reminds us of our redemption.
G. M. What does the thread commemorate ?
N. The Mother of God that spun it..
G. M. What means the crown of white thorns?
N. The troubles and struggles of Good Cousins.
G. Jyf. What is the furnace?
N. The school of Good Cousins.
G. M. What means the tree with its roots up in the air?
N. I all the trees were like that, the work of the Good
Cousins would not be needed."
The catechism is much longer, but I have given only so
much as will suffice to show the kind of instruction imparted
in the first degree. Without any explanations following,
one would think one was reading the catechism of one of
those religions improvised on American soil, which seek by
the singularity of .form to stir up the imagination. But as
in other societies, as that of the Illuminati, the object was
not at the first onset to alarm the affiliated ; his disposition
had first to be tested before the real meaning of the ritual
was revealed to him. Still, some of the figures betray themselves, though studiously concealed. The furnace is the
collective work at which the Oarbonari labour; the sacred
fire they keep alive, is the flame of liberty, with which they
desire to illumine the world. They did not without design
choose coal for their symbol ; for coal is the fountain of
VOL. II.

162

SECRET SOCIETIES

light and warmth, that purifies the air. The forest represents Italy, the wild wood of Dante, infested with wild
beasts-that is, foreign oppressors. The tree with the roots
in the air is a figure of kingdoms destroyed and thrones
overthrown. Catholic mysticism constantly reappears; the
highest honours are given to Christ, who was indeed the
Good Cousin of all men. Carbonarism did not openly assail
religious belief, but made use of it, endeavouring to simplify
and reduce it to first principles, as Freemasonry does. The
candidate, as in the last-named Order, was supposed to perform journeys through the forest and through fire, to each
of which a symbolical meaning was attached; though the
true meaning was not told in this degree. In fact, to all
who wished to gain an insight into the real objects of
Carbonarism, this degree could not suffice. It was necessary
to procted .
.~ 54&l The Second Degree.-The martyrdom of Christ occupies
nearly the whole of the second degree, imparting to the
' catechism a sad character, calculated to surprise and terrify
the candidate. The preceding figures were here invested
with new and unexpected meanings, relating to the minutest
particulars of the crucifixion of the Good Cousin Jesus;
which more and more led the initiated to believe that the
unusual and whimsical forms with stupendous artifice served
to confound the ideas and suspicions of their enemies, and
cause them to lose the traces of the fundamental idea. In
the constant recurrence to the martyrdom of Christ we
may discern two aims-the one essentially educational, to
familiarise the Cousin with the idea of sacrifice, even, if
necessary, of that of life ; the other, chiefly political, intended
! to gain proselytes among the superstitious, the mystics, the
souls loving Christianity, fundamentally good, however, prejudiced, because loving, and who constituted the greater
number in a Roman Catholic country like Italy-then even
more than now. The catechism, as already observed, haH
reference to the Crucifixion, and the symbols are all explained
as representing something pertaining thereto. Thus the
furnace signifies the Holy Sepulchre ; the rustling of the
leaves symbolises the flagellation of the Good Cousin the
1
Grand Master of the Universe ; and so on. The candidate
\ for initiation into this degree has to undergo further trials.
' He represents Christ, whilst the Grand Master takes the
name of Pilate, the first councillor that of Caiaphas, the
second that of Herod; the Good Cousins generally are called
the people. The candidate is led bound from one officer to

THE CARBON.ARI
the other, and finally condemned to be crucified; but he is \
pardoned on taking a second oath, more binding than the
first, consenting to have his body cut in pieces and burnt, I
as in the former degree. But still the true secret of the /
Order is not revealed.
-. 549 The Degree of Grand Elect.-This degree is only to be
conferred with the greatest precautions, secretly, and to Carbonari known for their prudence, zeal, courage, and devotion
to the Order. Besides, the candidates, who shall be introduced into a grotto of reception, must be true friends of the
liberty of the people, and ready to fight against tyrannica1
governments, who are the abhorred rulers of ancient and
beautiful Ansonia. 'l'he admission of the candidate takes
place by voting, and three black balls are sufficient for his
rejection. He must be thirty-three years and three months old,
the age of Christ on the day of His death. But the religious
drama is now followed by one political. The lodge is held
in a remote and secret place, only known to the Grand Masters
already received into the degree of Grand Elect. The lodge
is triangular, truncated at the eastern end. The Grand
Master Grand Elect is seated upon a throne. Two guards,
from the shape of their swords called flames, are placed
at the entrance. The assistants take the name of Sun
and Moon respectively. Three lamps, in the shape of sun,
moon, and stars, are suspended at the three angles of the
grotto or lodge. The catechism here reveals to the candidate
that the object of the association is political, and aims at the
overthrow of all tyrants, and the establishment of universal
liberty, the time for which has arrived. 'fo each prominent
member his station and duties in the coming conflict are
assigned, and the ceremony is concluded by all present
kneeling down, and pointing their swords to their breasts,
w,hilst the Grand Elect pronounces the following formula : ,,-1, a free citizen of Ansonia, swear before the G-rand Master
of the Universe, and the Grand Elect Good Cousin, to de-~
vote my whole life to the triumph of the principles of liberty,
equality, and progress, which are the soul of all the secret
\ and public acts of Carbonarism. I promise that, if it be I
impossible to restore the reign of liberty without a struggle, \
I will fight to the death. I consent, should I prove false to 1
, my oath, to be slain by my Good Cousins Grand Elects ; to 1
: be fastened to the cross in a lodge, naked, crowned with \
\ thorns ; to have my belly torn open, the entrails and hear~
\ taken out and scattered to the winds. Such are our con' ditions; swear!" The Good Cousins reply: "We swear."

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SECRET SOCIETIES
There was something theatrical in all this; but the organisers
no doubt looked to the effect it had on the minds of the
initiated. If on this ground it could not be defended, then
there is little excuse for judicial wigs and clerical gowns,
episcopal gaiters, aprons, and shovel-hats, lord mayors' shows,
parliamentary procedure, and royal pageants.
550. Degree of Grand Jl{aster Grand Elect.-This, the
highest degree of Carbonarism, is only accessible to those
who have given proofs of great intelligence and resolution.
'fhe Good Cousins being assembled in the lodge, the candidate is introduced blindfolded; two members, representing
the two thieves, carry a cross, which is firmly planted in the
ground. One of the two pretended thieves is then addressed
as a traitor to the cause, and condemned to die on the cross.
He resigns himself to his fate, as fully deserved, and is tied
to the cross with silken cords ; and, to delude the candidate,
whose eyes are still bandaged, he utters loud groans. The
Grand Master pronounces the same doom on the other robber,
but he, representing the non-repentant one, exclaims: "I
shall undergo my fate, cursing you, and consoling myself
with the thought that I shall be avenged, and that strangers
shall exterminate you to the last Carbonaro. Know that I
have pointed out your retreat to the chiefs of the hostile
army, and that within. a short time you shall fall into their
hands. Do your worst." The Grand Elect then turns to
the candidate, and, alluding to the punishment awarded to
.traitors as done on the present occasion, informs him that he
also must be fastened to the cross if he persists in his intention to proceed, and there receive on his body the sacred
marks, whereby the Grand Masters Grand Elects of all the
lodges are known to each other, and must also pronounce
the oath, whereupon the bandage will be removed, he will
descend from the cross, and be clothed with the insignia of
the Grand Master Grand Elect. He is then firmly tied to
the cross, and pricked three times on the right arm, seven
times on the left, and three times under the left breast.
The cross being erected in the middle of the cave, that
the members may see the marks on the body, on a given sign,
the bandage being removed, the Cousins stand around the
candidate, pointing their swords and daggers at his breast,
and threatening him with even a worse death should he turn
traitor. They also watch his demeanour, and whether he
betrays any fear. Seven toasts in his honour are then
drunk, and the Grand Elect explains the real meaning of the
symbols, which may not be printed, but is only to be written

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THE CARBONARI
down, and zealously guarded,- the owner promising to burn
or swallow it, rather then let it fall into other hands. The
Grand Master concludes by speaking in praise of the revolution already initiated, announcing its triumph not only in the
peninsula, but everywhere where Italian is spoken, and exclaims: "Very soon the nations weary of tyranny shall celebrate their victory over the tyrants ; very soon " . . . Here
the wicked thief exclaims : " Very soon all ye shall perish ! "
Immediately there is heard outside the grotto the noise of
weapons and fighting. One of the doorkeepers announces
that the door is on the point of being broken open, and an
assault on it is heard directly after. 'l'he Good Cousins rush
to the door placed behind the crosses, and therefore unseen by
the candidate ; the noise becomes louder, and there are heard
the cries of Austrian soldiers; the Cousins return in great
disorder as if overpowered by superior numbers, say a few
words of encouragement to the candidate fastened to the
cross, and disappear through the floor, which opens beneath
them. Cousins, dressed in the hated uniform of the foreigner,
enter and marvel at the disappearance of the Carbonari.
Perceiving the persons on the crosses, they, on finding them
still alive, propose to kill them at once; they charge and prepare to shoot them, when suddenly a number of balls fly into
the cave, the soldiers fall down as if struck, and the Cousins
re-enter through many openings, which at once close behind
them, and shout : "Victory ! Death to tyranny! Long live
the republic of Ansonia ! Long live liberty ! Long live the
government established by the brave Carbonari!" In an instant the apparently dead soldiers and the two thieves are
carried out of the cave ; and the candidate having been helped
down from the cross, is proclaimed by the Grand Master, who
strikes seven blows with his axe, a Grand Master Grand Elect.
55 r. Signification of the Symbols.-N ot to interrupt the
narrative, the explanation of the meaning of the symbols,
given in this last degree, was omitted in the former paragraph, but follows here. It will be seen that it was not
without reason that it was prohibited to print it. The cross
serves to crucify the tyrant that persecutes us. The crown
of thorns is to pierce his head. The thread denotes the cord
to lead him to the gibbet ; the ladder will aid him to mount.
The leaves are nails to pierce his hands and feet. The pickaxe will penetrate his breast, and shed his impure blood. The
axe will separate his head from his body. The salt will prevent the corruption of his head, that it may last as a monument
of the eternal infamy of despots. The pole will serve to put

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SECRET SOCIETIES

his head upon. The furnace will burn his body. The shovel
will scatter his ashes to the wind. The baracca will serve to
prepare new tortures for the tyrant before he is slain. The
water will purify us from the vile blood we shall have shed.
The linen will wipe away our stains. The forest is the place
where the Good Cousins labour to attain so important a
result. These details are extracted from the minutes of the
legal proceedings against the conspiracy of the Carbonari.
552. Other Ceremonies and Regulations.-The candidate
having been received into the highest degree, other Good
Cousins entered the cave, proclaiming the victory of the
Carbonari and the establishment of the Ausonian republic,
whereupon the lodge was closed. The mem hers all bore
pseudonyms, by which they were known in the Order. These
pseudonyms were entered in one book, whilst another contained their real names; and the two books were always kept
concealed in separate places, so that the police, should they find
one, should not be able to identify the conspirator. Officers
of great importance were the Insinuators, Censors, Scrutators,
and Coverers, whose appellations designate their duties. 'l'he
higher officers were called Great Lights. Some of the affiliated, reserved for the most dangerous enterprises, were
styled the Forlorn Hope; others Stabene, or the" Sedentary,"
who were not advanced beyond the first degree, on account
of want of intelligence or courage. Like the Freemasons,
the Carbonari had their own almanacs, dating their era from
Francis I. They also had their passwords and signs. The
decorations in the Apprentice degree were three ribbonsblack, blue, and red ; and in the Master's degree they wore a
scarf of the same three colours. The ritual and the ceremonies,
as partly detailed above, were probably strictly followed on
particularly important occasions only; as to their origin, little
is known concerning it-most likely they were invented
among theN eapolitans. Nor were they always and at all places
alike, but the spirit that breathed in them was permanent
and universal ; and that it was the spirit of liberty and
justice can scarcely be denied, especially after the events of
the last decades. The following summary of a manifesto
proceeding from the Society of the Carbonari will show this
very clearly.
553 The Ausonian Republic.-The epoch of the following
document, of which, however, an abstract only is here given,
is unknown. The open proceedings of Carbonarism give us
no clue, because in many respects they deviate from the
programme of this sectarian charter; sectarian, inasmuch as

----~--?~-,

THE OARBON.ARi

16]

the document has all the fulness of a social pact. But to

whatever time these statutes belong, they cannot be read
without the liveliest interest.
Italy, to which new times shall give a new name, sonorous
and pure, Ansonia (the ancient Latin name), must be free
from its threefold sea to the highest summit of the Alps.
The territory of the republic shall be divided into twentyone provinces, each of which shall send a representative to
the National .Assembly. Every province shall have its local
assembly; all citizens, rich or poor, may aspire to all public
charges; the mode of electing judges is strictly laid down ;
two kings, severally elected for twenty-one years, one of
whom is to be called the king of the land, the other of the
sea, shall be chosen by the sovereign assembly; all .Ausonian
citizens are soldiers ; all fortresses not required to protect
the country against foreigners shall be razed to the ground ;
new ports are to be constructed along the coasts, and the
navy enlarged; Christianity shall be the State religion, but
every other creed shall be tolerated ; the college of cardinals
may reside in the republic during the life of the pope reigning at the time of the promulgation of this charter-after
his death, the college of cardinals will be abolished; hereditary titles and feudal rights are abolished ; hospitals, charitable institutions, colleges, lyceums, primary and secondary
schools, shall be largely increased, and' properly allocated;
punishment of death is inflicted on murderers only, transportation to one of the islands of the republic being substituted for all other punishments ; monastic institutions are
preserved, but no man can become a monk before the age
of forty-five, and no woman a nun before that of forty,
and even after having pronounced their vows, they may
re-enter their own families. Mendicity is not allowed; the
country finds work for able paupers, and succour for invalids.
The tombs of great men are placed along the highways;
the honour of a st~tue is awarded by the sovereign assembly.
The constitutional pact may be revised every twenty-one
years.
554 Most Sec1et Carbonaro Degree.-lt was stated in sect.
550 that the Grand Master Grand Elect was the highest Carbonaro degree. But this requires qualification ; there was
one still higher, called the Seventh, to which few members
were admitted. To the Principi Summo Patriarcho alone
the real object of Oarbonarism was revealed, and that its
aims were identical with those of the Illuminati (356).
Witt von Dorring (b. r8oo), an initiate, tells us in his

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SECRET SOCIETIES

Autobiography, that the candidate swore destruction to every

government, whether despotic or democratic. "The Summo
Maestro," he says, "laughs at the zeal of the common
Carbonari, who sacrifice themselves for Italian liberty and
independence ; to him this is not the object, but a means.
I received this degree under the name of Giulio Alessandro
Jerimundo Werther Domingone." As there were two modes
of initiation, one in open lodge and another by "communication," the supreme chief notifying by a document to the new
member his election, which was done in De Witt's case, he
never took the oath of secrecy, and thus considered himself
at liberty to divulge what had been communicated to him.
555 IJe Witt, Biographical Notice qf.-As Jean de Witt
was a prominent character in the secret associations of this
century, we give a few biographical notes concerning him.
Born in I 8oo at Altona, he was early placed under the
tuition of Pastor Meier of Alsen, who had been a member
of the Jacobiu club. At the age of seventeen he went to
the University of Kiel, and afterwards to that of Jena;
in I 818 he joined the Burschenschaft, and was soon after
initiated into the sect of the Black Knights, in consequence
of which he had to flee to England, where he contributed many
articles on German politics and princes full of scandalous
details to the Morning Chronicle. Invited by his maternal
uncle, the Baron Eckstein, Inspector-General of the Ministry
of Police, to come to Paris, he there became acquainted
with Count Serre, Minister of Justice, who protected him,
whilst De Witt was in close communication wi'th French
and Italian conspirators. In I 82 I he was at Geneva as
Inspector-General of Swiss and German Carbonari. He
was soon after seized in Savoy, ~nd thence taken to Turin,
where, however, the Austrian Field-Marshal Bubna, who
then commanded all the troops in Upper Italy, and who was
a Freemason, treated him with the greatest respect, for as
a Freemason De Witt occupied a much higher rank than
Bubna; and when the ambassadors of all the Courts at Turin,
that of England excepted, insisted on De Witt's extradition
to their respective states, he allowed him, on his giving his
word of honour to make no attempt at escape, to go to
Milan, where he was received with great honour in the
house of the Chief of Police, Baron von Gohausen. Bubna
had made himself personally answerable to his government
for the safe custody of De Witt, and this latter had promised not to escape, though he was allowed to go about
almost like a freeman. But when he found that the Austrian

THE CARBONARI
authorities intended to begin his trial, he wrote to Bubna
that he was determined to make his escape. Orders were
sent to watch him closely; but within a week he was in
possession of false keys, which fitted all the doors of his
prison, and the head gaoler, who had shown himself too
zealous in watching him, was transferred to Mantua, and
I 200 lire were provided for his journey. He escaped to
Genoa, intending thence to sail for Spain, where he was
sure of meeting with friends, but finding all vessels bound
for that country under close police surveillance, he made his
way into Switzerland. Under different names and various
disguises he stayed there and in Germany for about a year.
All the German Governments offered a large reward for his
apprehension, and at last he was seized at Bayreuth, though
he had previously been warned that the police were on his
traces, a warning which could only have come from highlyplaced officials. And as soon as he was taken some of them
waited on him with offers of friendship and protection. But
Berlin was then the seat of the Prussian masonic chiefs,
and through them De Witt was secretlyinformed of all the
charges which would be brought against him, and the result
was that he was acquitted of them all, and restored to
liberty, as also was Cousin, a fellow-conspirator and fellowprisoner. Cesare Cantu, the Italian historian, accuses De
Witt of having, by his own admission, been thoroughly
initiated into all the revolutionary plots in Europe but in
order to betray them, and stir np discord among them (see
Il Conciliatore e i Carbonari, Milano, I8J8, p. I64). De
Witt's subsequent career seems to lend some support to this
charge. In I 828 he married a wealthy lady, and purchased
an estate in Upper Silesia~ where he was living in I855,
professing highly conservative principles, in fact, to such
a degree as to be charged with belonging to the Ultramontanes, in consequence of which he was detested, and
frequently attacked, by the democratic party.
556. Carbonaro Charter proposed to England.-A charter
or project, said to have been proposed by the Oarbonari to
the English Government in 1813, when the star of Napoleon
was fast declining, is to the following effect :-Italy shall be
free and independent. Its boundaries shall be the three
seas and the Alps. Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the seven
islands, and the islands along the coasts of the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Ionian Seas shall form an integral
portion of the Roman Empire. Rome shall be the capital of
the empire. . . . As soon as the French shall have evacuated

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the peninsula, the new emperor shall be elected from among

the reigning families of Naples, Piedmont, or England. Illyria
shall form a kingdom of itself, and be given to the King of
Naples as an indemnity for Sicily. This project in some respects widely differs from the one preceding it, and there is
great doubt whether it ever emanated from the Carbonari.
557 Carbonarism and ..tlfurat.-The excessive number of
the affiliated soon disquieted rulers, and especially Murat,
King of Naples, whose fears were increased by a letter from
Dandolo, Councillor of State, saying: " Sire, Carbonarism is
spreading in Italy ; free your kingdom from it, if possible,
because the sect is opposed to thrones." Maghella, a native
of Genoa, who became Minister of Police under Murat, advised that king, on the other hand, to declare openly against
Napoleon, and to proclaim the independence of Italy, and for
that purpose to favour the Carbonari ; but Murat was too
irresolute to follow the course thus pointed out, and declared
against the Carbonari. The measures taken by him, however, only increased the activity of the sect and the hopes
of the banished Bourbons, who in the neighbouring Sicily
watched every turn of affairs that might promise their
restoration. Murat proscribed the sect, which induced it to
seek the assistance of England, as we have already seen.
It also grew into favour with the Bourbons and Lord William
Bentinck. 'rhe emissaries sent to Palermo, to come to terms
with the exiled royal family, returned to N:aples with a plan
fully arranged, the results of which were soon seen in Calabria and the Abruzzi. The promise of a constitution was
the lure with which England-whose chief object, however,
was the overthrow of Napoleon-attracted the sectaries; the
Bourbons, constrained by England, promised theN eapolitans
a liberal constitution on their being restored to the throne.
The Prince of Moliterno suggested to England that the only
means of defeating France was to favour Italian unity ; and
the idea was soon widely promulgated and advocated throughout the country. Murat sent General Manhes against the
Carbonari, with orders to exterminate them. Many of the
leaders were captured and executed, but the sect, nevertheless, succeeded in effecting a partial and temporary revolution
in favour of the Bourbons ; which, however, was soon quelled
by the energetic measures of Queen Caroline Murat, who
was regent during her husband's then absence. About this
time, also, dissensions arose among the members of the sect;
its leaders, seeing the difficulty of directing the movements
of so great a confederacy, conceived the plan of a\reform,

THE CARBONARI

IJI

and executed it with secrecy and promptitude. The members who were retained continued to bear the name of Carbonari, while those who were expelled, according to some
accounts, took that of Calderari (Braziers), and an implacable
hatred arose between the rival sects. Murat wavered for
some time between the two parties, and at last determined
on supporting the Carbonari, who were most numerous. But
it was too late. They had no confidence in him ; and they
also knew his desperate circumstances. Murat fell.
558. Trial of Carbonari.-An extensive organisation for
the union of all secret Carbonaro societies was discovered
in 1817 by an attempt, which was to have been made at
Macerata, on the 24th J nne in that year, to raise the standard
of revolt, but which failed through a mere accident-the premature firing of two muskets. . A great many of the leading
Carbonari were apprehended, and conveyed to the Castle
of St. Angelo and other prisons in Rome, where they were
tried in October 1818 by order of the pope; five of the)ll
were sentenced to death, but the pope mitigated their punishment to perpetual confinement in a fortress ; three were
sentenced to the galleys for life, which punishment was
reduced by the pope to ten years. We learn from. this
Roman trial that the Republican Brother Protectors-one of
the branches of Carbonarism-swore over a phial of poison
and a red-hot iron, "never to divulge the secrets of the society,
and to submit in case of perjury to the punishment of dying
by poison, and having their flesh burnt by the red-hot iron."
559 Oarbonaris1n and the Bombons.-King Ferdinand,
having, to recover his crown, favoured the Carbonari, when
he thought himself again firmly seated on the throne, and
secretly disliking the society, endeavoured to kick down the
ladder by which he had mounted. The Carbonari, who had
restored not only the king, but order in Calabria and the
Abruzzi, and rendered roads and property secure-the Carbonari, so highly extolled at one time, that the pope had
ordered priests and monks to preach, that making the signs
of the Carbonaro would suffice to justify Saint Peter to open
the gate of Paradise-these same Carbonari were now declared
the enemies of God and man. The king refused to keep the
promises he had matle, and forbade the holding of Carbonari
meetings. The Prince of Canosa, who became Minister of
Police in 1819, determined to exterminate them. For this
purpose he formed the Brigands, who had played a part in
tlie sanguinary scenes of 1799, into a new society, of which he
himself became the head, inviting all the old Calderari to join

..

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SECRET SOCIETIES

him, on ac('J)unt of their enmity to the Carbonari. He required them to take the following oath:-" I, .A. B., promise
and swear upon the Trinity, upon this cross and upon this
steel, the avenging instrument of the perjured, to live and
die in the Roman Catholic and .Apostolic faith, and to
defend with my blood this religion and the society of
True Friendship, the Calderari. I swear never to offend,
in honour, life, or property, the children of True Friendship, &c. I swear eternal hatred to all Masonry, and its
atrocious protectors, as well as to all Jansenists, Materialists
(Molinists ?), Economists, and Illuminati. I swear, that if
through wickedness or levity I suffer myself to be perjured,
I submit to the loss of life, and then to be burnt, &c." But
the king having learnt what his Minister had been attempting without his knowledge, deprived him of his office and
banished him; and thus his efforts came to nothing. In
1819 took place the rising at Cadiz, by which the King of
Spain, Ferdinand VII., was compelled to give Spain constitutional privileges. This again stirred up the Carbonari;
but there was no unanimity in their counsels, and their intrigues only led to many being imprisoned and others
banished. .An attempt made in 1820 extorted a constitution;
the leader was the .Abbe Menichini. The influence of the
Carbonari increased; lodges were established everywhere.
Between 18 r 5 and 1820, in the Neapolitan states alone,
more than two hundred thousand members were affiliated,
comprising all classes, from the palace to the cottage; it
included priests, monks, politicians, soldiers. Giampietro
was then chief of the Neapolitan police, who used the most
cruel means to suppress the sect; but public discontent was
brought to a climax in July 1820, when two officers, Morelli
and Silvati, with one hundred and twenty non-commissioned
officers and privates, deserted from their regiment at Nola,
and, accompanied by the priest Menichini and some leading
Carbonari, took the road to .Avellino. Lieutenant-Colonel
De Concili, also a Carbonaro, who was in command of the
troops at .Avellino, joined the insurgents. When the news of
these events reached Naples, the students of the University,
as well as many of the soldiers forming the garrison of the
capital, hastened to De Concili's camp. The house of the
advocate Colletta became the centre of action at Naples; all
the Carbonari prepared to second the action of their brethren.
The king, advised to send General Pepe against the insurgents, declined the proposal, because Pepe was suspected of
being a LiberaL In his stead he sent General Carrascosa,.

THE CARBONARI

IJj

who left Naples on the 4th July; on the 5th he despatched

General N unziante from Nocera, and General Campana from
Salerno, against the insurgents. Carrascosa, unwilling to
shed the blood of his countrymen, wished to negotiate. But
before he could do so, General Campana had suffered a
defeat, and the soldiers of N unziante raised the standard of
the Carbonari, and, joining the troops of De Concili, placed
themselves under his command. Carrascosa, with the king's
connivance, proposed to bribe the leaders of the insurrection
with large sums of money to give up the enterprise and leave
the country, but before he had an opportunity of making the
attempt, the soldiers remaining in Naples, as well as the
population, rose against the king, who found himself entirely
forsaken. He was compelled to yield. The Duke of Piccotellis and five other Carbonari presented themselves in the
palace and compelled the king to grant them a personal
interview, at which they demanded the immediate publication
of a Constitution. The king promised one in "perhaps two
hours." Piccotellis drawing out his watch held it up to the
king's face and said, "It is now one o'clock in the morning;
at three o'clock the Constitution must be proclaimed." And
he turned his back on the king, and with his attendants left
the room. The king granted the Constitution, though with
the mental reserve of overthrowing it on the first favourable
opportunity. lie swore, nevertheless, in the most solemn
manner to keep it ; the Carbonari leaders were invited to
Naples; the king's son, the Duke of Calabria, became a
member of the sect, a fatal concession on its part, for now
all its secrets, signs, words, and symbols were openly proclaimed; Carbonarism, in fact, was cunningly betrayed by
the king and his satellites. Russia, Austria:; and Prussia
threatened to interfere in Neapolitan affairs in favour of
Ferdinand; at a secret meeting of some of the oldest Carbonari it was proposed to shut up the king in the Castle of
St. Eleno. Unfortunately this advice was not immediately
acted on. The Holy Alliance, to save the king's life, which
they knew to be in danger, invited him to join the congress
at Laybach, that, in common with the European potentates,
he might assist in the settlement of the affairs of his own
kingdom. Unwisely the Neapolitan parliament allowed him
to depart; yet even on board ship the treacherous despot
repeated his assurances of maintaining the Constitution he
had granted his subjects. But on his arrival at Laybach
he declared that, in granting the Constitution, ~e had only
yielded to superior force, and that he was determined to

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SECRET SOCIETIES

return to Naples as an absolute monarch. The pope absolved

him from the oath he had taken, and even in a solemn encyclical commanded priests to violate the secret of the confessional whenever wives, mothers, sisters, or daughters had
declared relations to belong to the sect of the Carbonari.
At the request of Ferdinand himself an Austrian army of
50,000 men, with a Russian army in reserve, marched upon
Naples. The king on his way south stopped at Florence,
where he decorated the Chapel of the Annunciation with
gorgeous gold and silver lamps, and the inscription : "Mariw
genitrici JJei Ferd. L Utr. Sic. rex JJon. d. d. anno I 82 r ob
pristinum imperii decus, ope eius prestantissima recuperatum.
(To Mary, the Mother of God, Ferdinand I., King of the Two
Sicilies, for the restored splendour of the kingdom, by means
of her most valiant help, dedicated these in the year I 82 I.)
Proving once more, if proof were necessary, that "bloodthirsty tyrants are most zealous saints." Every one of the
king's immediate attendants had upon him a new cockade
bearing the inscription: " Viva l'assolt~to potere di Fe1dinando l !"
560. The King's Revenge.-General Pepe, who in his youth
had for three years been a prisoner in the horrible prison of
Marettimo-a rock-hewn cistern turned into a dungeonendeavoured to arrest the advance of the foreigner, but his
raw militia were ill prepared to meet the disciplined forces
of Austria, who defeated Pepe at Rieti, and followed up this
victory by marching on the 23rd March into Naples. Then
the king glutted his desire for vengeance. All the past.
treaties with his subjects were considered as void, and all
previous acts of pardon annulled. Not a day passed without
the sound of the bell tolling for an execution; thousands of
the most respected citizens of Naples were condemned to
horrible dungeons in the penal islands off Sicily and Naples
or the rock-dungeons of San Stefano and Pantelleria, while
numbers fled the country as exiles. Morelli and Silvati were
hanged for having deserted their standard, and been the
prime movers of the revolution. But the king had entered
into a treaty with his people, and sworn to uphold the Constitution he had granted in consequence of the revolution,
hence their execution is condemned by logic and justice.
561. Revival of Oarbonarism.~Carbonarism marks a transition period in the history of secret societies. From secret
societies occupied with religion, philosophy, and politics in
the abstract, it leads us to the secret societies whose objects
are more immediately and practically political. And thus in

THE CARBONARI
France, Italy, and other States, it gave rise to numerous and
various sects, wherein we find the men of thought and those
of action combining for one common object-the progress,
as they understood it, of human society. Carbonarism, in
fact, was revived about the year 1825, and some ten years
after combi~ed, or rather coalesced, with the society known
as Young Italy, whose aims were identical with those of the
Oarbonari-the expulsion of the foreigner from Italian soil,
and the unification of Italy.
The Duke of Modena had for some time coq netted
with the Carbonari, in the hope of obtaining through them
the sovereignty of the minor duchies, the kingdom of Sardinia and the Lombardo-Venetian states, and had thus
encouraged Menotti, the foremost patriot of Central Italy,
in counting on his help in driving out the foreigner. When,
however, he found that France, on whose co-operation he had
relied, would disappoint him, he abandoned the Oarbonari
and denounced them, but they compelled the Duke to fly
to Mantua. They also drove Maria Louisa, the Duchess of
Parma, and widow of Napoleon I., into exile. But their
triumph lasted only twenty-eight days. At the end of that
period the Duke of Modena and the Duchess of Parma were
restored by the assistance of Austrian troops, and the Duke
caused Menotti to be hanged. From that day the prisons
of Modena were filled with Italian patriots. Count Charles
Arrivabene said of them, "No words,can give an idea of the
horrors of the prisons of Modena when I saw them. . . .
;Excepting the infamous dens of the Papal and Neapolitan
states, there is nothing that can be compared with them."
But Carbonarism continued to be at work under the name
of Unita Italiana, whose signs and passwords were made
public by the prosecution it underwent at Naples in 1850.
562. Oarbonan'sm, and the Ohnrch.-The Carbonari in the
Roman States aimed at the overthrow of the papal power,
and chose the moment when the pope was expected to die to
carry out their scheme. They had collected large forces and
provisions at Macerata; but the sudden recovery of the pope
put a' stop .to the enterprise. The leaders were betrayed
into the hands of the government, and some of them condemned to death and others to perpetual imprisonment,
though the pope afterwards commuted the sentences (558) .
.563. Garbonarism in Northern Italy.-In Lombardy and
Venetia also the Oarbonari had their lodges, and their object
was the expulsion of the foreigner, the Austrian. The most
important and influential was the Italian Federation. ,But

..

-,. ,-,'

SECRET SOCIETIES
here also they failed; and among the victims of the failure
were Silvio Pellico, Confalonieri, Castiglia, Torelli, Maroncelli,
and many others, who, after having been exposed on the
pillory at Milan and other places, were sent to Spielberg and
other German fortresses.
564. Oa1bonarism in FTance.-Carbonarism was introduced into France under the names of Adelphes or Philadelphians, by Joubert and Dugied, who had taken part in
revolutionary movements in their own country in I 820, and
after having for some time taken refuge in Italy, where they
had joined the Carbonari; brought their principles to France
on their return from their expatriation. The sect made
rapid progress among the French ; all the students at the
different universities became members, and ventas were
established in the army. Lafayette was chosen their chief.
Lodges existed at La Rochelle, Poitiers, Niort, Bordeaux,
Colmar, Neuf-Brisach, and Belfort, where, in I82I, an unsuccessful attempt was made against the governmentunsuccessful, because in this, as in other attempts, the government knew beforehand the plans of the conspirators, betrayed
to them by false Carbonari. Risings in other places equally
failed; and though the society continued to exist, and had a
share in the events of the revolution of I830, still, considering
the number of its members, and the great resources and influence it consequently possessed, it cannot be said to have
produced any adequate results.
s65. OaTbonarism in Germa.ny.-Carbonari lodges existed
in all parts of Germany, but I will mention one only, beca:use
of the excitement its diecovery caused at the time. In I849
the police of Bremen arrested one Hobelmann, who was tutor
in the family of a Thuringian nobleman, and who proved to
be the chief of a Carbonaro sect calling itself the 1'odtenburul,
or " Society of Death," since its aim was to kill all who
should oppose its objects. Its statutes, and. a long list of
persons condemned to death, were found by the police.
s66. CarbonaTism in Spain.-The sect was introduced into
Spain by refugee Italians about 1820, spreading chiefly in
Catalonia, without, however, acquiring much influence at
first. Their importance dates from the time of the quarrPl
between the Spanish Freemasons and the Comuneros (I 822 ),
when they sided with the former ; but when the Freemasons
and the Comuneros were reconciled (I823), the carbonari
were opposed by both parties, and lost all influence (522).
567. Giardiniere.-As the Freemasons had their Adoptive
Lodges, so the Carbonari admitted women, who were collec-

.A'

THE CARBONARI

177

tively called giardiniere, garden-women, each sister taking

the name of a flower. Their mission, of course, was to
act as lures or spies. But they also fulfilled higher functions ; they alleviated the condition of the prisoners of despotism, especially in Italy, where many lady members of the
Societa della Misericordia were Giardiniere,,and, having free
access to the Austrian prisons in Piedmont, supplemented
the scanty food allowed to the imprisoned Carbonari by the
authorities with liberal additions.

VOL, II.

cr

I' )'

. au

v
MISCELLANEOUS ITALIAN SOCIETIES
568. Guelphic Knights.- One of the most important societies that issued, about the year 1816, from the midst o the
Carbonari was that of the Guelphic Knights, who were very
powerful in all parts of Italy. A report of the Austrian
police says : "This society is the most dangerous, on account
of its origin and diffusion, and the profound mystery which
surrounds it. It is said that this society derives its origin
from England or Germany." Its origin, nevertheless, was
purely Italian. The councils consisted of six members, who,
however, did not know each other, but intercommunicated
by means of one person, called the "Visible," because he
alone was visible. Every council also had one youth of
undoubted faith, called the " Clerk," to communicate with
students of universities, and a youth called a " Friend," to
influence the people ; but neither the Clerk nor the Friend
were initiated into the mysteries of the Order. Every council
assumed a particular name, such as "Virtue," "Honour,"
" Loyalty," and met, as if for amusement only, without
apparatus or writing of any kind. A supreme council sat
at Bologna ; there were councils at Florence, Venice, Milan,
Naples, &c. They endeavoured to gain adherents, who
should be ignorant of the existence of the society, and should
yet further its ends. Lucien Bonaparte is said to have been
a "great light" among them. Their object was the independence of Italy, to be effected by means of all the secret
societies of the country united under the leadership of the
Guelphs.
569. Guelphs and Carbonari. -The Guelphs in reality
formed a high vendita or lodge of the Carbonari, and the
chiefs of the Carbonari were also chiefs among the Guelphs ;
but only those that had distinct offices among the Carbonari
could be admitted among the Guelphs. There can be no
doubt that the Carbonari, when the sect had become very
numerous, partly sheltered themselves under the designation
178

ntrWMt'

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ITALIAN SOCIETIES

179

of Guelphs and Adelphi or Independents, by affiliating them

selves to these societies.
570. The Latini.-This sect existed about 1817. Only
those initiated into the higher degrees of Carbonarism could
become members. In their oath they declared: "I swear
to employ every means in my power to further the happi
ness of Italy. I swear religiously to keep the secret and
fulfil the duties of this society, and never to do aught that
could compromise its safety; and that I will only act in
obedience to its decisions. If ever I violate this oath, I will
submit to whatever punishment the society may inflict, even
to death." The most influential vendite were gradually
merged in this degree.
57 r. 'l'he Centres.-An offshoot of Carbonarism was the
society formed in Lombardy, under the designation of the
"Centres." Nothing was to be written; and conversation
on the affairs of the Order was only to take place between
two members at a time, who recognised each other by the
words, " Succour to the unfortunate," and by raising the
hand three times to the forehead, in sign of grief. The
Centres once more revived the hopes of Murat. A rising
was to take place unde:r his auspices against the detested
Austrians ; the ringing of the bells of Milan was to be the
signal for the outbreak; and it is said that "Vespers" had
been arranged, from which no Austrian was to escape alive.
But on the appointed day fear or horror held the hand that
was to have given the signal, that of General Fontanelli.
Hence, fatal delay and the discovery of the secret. For
Bellegarde or Talleyrand sent a certain Viscount SaintAignan among the conspirators, who after having discovered
all their plans, betrayed them to Austria, and was never
heard of again. Austria seized the ringleaders and instituted
proceedings against them, which lasted about three years,
and were finally closed by delivering-it is not known
why, but probably through Carbonaro influence-very mild
sentences against the conspirators.
572. Italian Litterateurs.- This sect, introduced into
Paler~o in 1823, had neither signs nor distinctive marks.
In every town there was a delegate, called the " Radical,"
who could affiliate unto himself ten others or more, acquiring the name of "decurion," or "centurion." 'rhe initiated
were called "sons," who in their turn could affiliate unto
themselves ten others, and these could do the same in their
turn ; so that thus a mighty association was formed. The
initiated were called "Brethren Barabbas," Christ repre-

1.-,',

-~

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SECRET SOCIETIES

enting the tyrant, and Barabbas the people-a singular

confusion of ideas, by which the victim slain on the cross
for the redemption of human conscience and thought was
considered as an example and upholder of tyranny. But
it was a symbolism which concealed juster ideas, and more
conformable with truth. They recognised each other by
means of a ring, and attested their letters by the wellknown initials I. N. R. I. The society was much feared
and jealously watched, and helped to fill the prisons. It
only ceased when other circumstances called forth other
societies.
573 Societies in Calabria and the Abruzzi.-These districts, by their natural features and the disposition of their
inhabitants, were at all times the favourite resorts of conspirators. We there find the sects of the "European
Patriots or White Pilgrims," the "Philadelphians," and the
"Decisi," who thence spread into other Italian provinces,
with military organisation, arms, and commanders. The
first two partly came from France ; nor were their operations, as the names intimate, confined to the peninsula. The
lodges of the "Decisi" (Decided) were called "Decisions,"
as the assemblies of the Patriots were called "Squadrons,"
each from forty to sixty strong, and those of the Philadelphians, "Camps." The Decisi, whose numbers amounted
perhaps to forty thousand, held their meetings at night,
carefully guarded by sentinels; and their military exercises
took place in solitary houses, or suppressed convents. Their
object was to fall upon Naples and proclaim a republic; but
circumstances were not propitious. Their leader, Ciro Annichiarico, a priest, was a man of great resources and vast
influence, so that it was necessary to despatch against him
General Church, who captured him and had him shot. As
Ciro was rather a remarkable perwnage, a brief account of
him may not be uninteresting.
574 Giro Annichiarico.-This priest was driven from
society by his crimes. He was accused of murder, committed in a fit of jealousy, and sentenced to fifteen years of
exile, although there is strong reason to believe that he was
innocent. But instead of being permitted to leave the
country, according to the sentence, he was for four years
kept in prison, whence at last he made his escape, took
refuge in the forests, and placed himself at the head of a
band of outlaws, and, as his enemies declare, committed all
kinds of enormities. At Martano, they say, he penetrated
into one of the first houses of the place, and, after having

ITALIAN SOCIETIES

181

offered violence to its mistress, massacred her with all her

people, and carried off 96,ooo ducats. He was in correspondence with all the brigands; and whoever wished to get
rid of an enemy, had only to address himself to Ciro. On
being asked, after his capture, how many persons he had
killed with his own hand, he carelessly answered, " Who can
remember? Perhaps sixty or seventy." His activity, artifice, and intrepidity were astonishing. He was a first-rate
shot and rider; his singular good fortune in extricating himself from the most imminent dangers acquired for him the
reputation of a necromancer, upon whom ordinary means of
attack had no power. Though, a priest himself, and exercising the functions of one when he thought it expedient, he
was rather a libertine, and declared his clerical colleagues to
be impostors without any faith. He published a paper against
the missionaries, who, according to him, disseminated illiberal
opinions among the people, and for bade them on pain of
death to preach in the villages, "because, instead of the true
principles of the Gospel, they taught nothing but fables and
impostures." Probably Ciro was pretty correct in his estimate of their performances. He could be generous on
occasions. One day he surprised General D'Octavio, a Corsican, in the service of Murat-who pursued him for a long
time with a thousand men-walking alone in a garden.
Ciro discovered himself, remarking, that the life of the
general, who was unarmed, was in his hands; "but," said
he, "I will pardon you this time, although I shall no longer
be so i.pdulgent if you continue to hunt me about." So
saying, he leaped over the wall and disappeared. His physiognomy was rather agreeable; he was of middle stature,
well made, and very strong. He had a verbose eloquence.
Extremely addicted to pleasure, he had mistresses, at the
period of his power, in all the towns of the province over
which he was continually ranging. When King Ferdinand
returned to his states on this side the Taro, he recalled such
as had been exiled for political opinions. Ciro attempted to
pass for one of these, but a new order of arrest was issued
against him. It was then that he placed himself at the head
of the Decisi. Many excesses are laid to their charge. A
horde of twenty or thirty of them overran the country in
disguise, masked as punchinellos. In places where open
force could not be employed, the most daring were sent to
watch for the moment to execute the sentences of secret
death pronounced by the society. It was thus that the justice of the peace <>f Luogo Rotondo and his wife were killed

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in their own garden; and that the sectary, Perone, plunged

his knife into the bowels of an old man of seventy, and
afterwards massacred his wife and servant, having introduced
himself into their house under pretence of delivering a letter.
As has already been intimated, it was finally found necessary
to send an armed force, under the command of General
Church, against this band of ruffians. Many of them having
been taken, and the rest. dispersed, Ciro, with only three
companions, took refuge in one of the fortified farm-houses
near Francavilla, but after a vigorous defence was obliged
to surrender. The Council of War, by which he was tried,
condemned him to be shot. A missionary offered him the
consolations of religion. Ciro answered him with a smile,
" Let us leave alone this prating; we are of the same profession; don't let us laugh at one another." On his arrival
at the place of execution, Ciro wished to remain standing;
he was told to kneel, and did so, pre~enting his breast. He
was then informed that malefactors like himself were shot
with their backs to the soldiers ; he submitted, at the same
time advising a priest, who persisted in remaining near him,
to withdraw, so as not to expose himself. Twenty-one balls
took effect, four in the head, yet he still breathed arid muttered in his throat ; the twenty-second put an end to him.
This fact was confirmed by all the officers and soldiers present at his death. "As soon as we perceived," said a soldier
very gravely, "that he was enchanted, we loaded his own
musket with a silver ball, and this destroyed the spell."
After the death of the leader, some two hund~;ed and
thirty persons were brought to trial; nearly half of them,
having been guilty of murder and robbery with violence,
were condemned to capital punishment, and their heads exposed near the places of their residence, or in the scene of
their crimes.
575 Certificates of the Decisi.-To render the account of
the Decisi as complete as it need be, I subjoin a copy of one
of their patents or certificates :-

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Tristezza.
Death's
Head.

llforte.

S(alentina).
D(ecisione).
(Salute).

Death's
Head.

N V. Grandi Muratori.

L. D. D. G. T.--E. D. T. D. U,l

Il Mortale Gaetano Caffieri e un F. D. Numero Quinto,

appartenente alla D del Tonante Giove, sparsa Rulla
superficie della Terra, per la sua D avuto il piacere di
far parte in questa R. S. D. Noi dunque invitiamo
tutte le Societa Filantropiche a prestar il loro braccio
forte al medesimo ed a soccorerlo ne' suoi bisogni, essendo
egli giunto alla D di acquistare la Liberta o Morte..
Oggi li 29 Ottobre 1817.

Pietro Gargaro.

Il G. M. D. N. 1.

V 0 de Serio 2 Deciso
Gaetano Caffieri
Registratore
de' Morti.
Cross bones.
Terror.

Cross bones.
Struggle.

Translation.
The Salentine Decision.
Health l
No.- s, Grand Masons.
The Decision of Jupiter Tonans (the name of. the lodge) hopes to
make war against the tyrants of the universe, &c.
The mortal Gaetano Caffieri is a Brother Decided, No. 5, belonging to
the DecisiE>n of Jupiter the Thunderer, spread over the face of the earth,
has had the pleasure to belong to this Salentine Republican Decision. We
invite, therefore, all PhilanthroJ?iC Societies to lend their strong arm to
the same, and to assist him in h1s wants, he having come to the decision
to obtain liberty or death. Dated this day, the 29th October 1817.
Pietro Gargaro, the Decided Grand Master, No.1.
Vito de Serio, Second Decided.
Gaetano Caffieri, Registrar of the Dead.
1 That is: La Decisione di Giove Tonante-Esterminatore dei Tiranni
dell' Universo.
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The letters in italics in the original were written in blood.
upper seal represents fasces planted upon a death's head,
surmounted by the Phrygian cap, and flanked by hatchets ;
the lower, thunderbolts casting down royal and imperial
crowns and the tiara. The person in whose favour the certificate is issued, figures himself among the signatures with the
title of Registrar of the Dead, that is, of those they immolated
to their vengeance, of whom they kept a register apart.
The four points observable after the signature of Pietro
Gargaro indicate his power of passing sentence of death.
When the Decisi wrote to any one to extort contributions,
if they added these four points, it was known that the person
they addressed was condemned to death in case of disobedience. If the points were not added he was threatened with
milder punishment. Their colours, yellow, red, and blue,
surrounded the patent.
576. The Calderari.-This society, alluded to before, is
of uncertain origin. Count Orloff, in his work, "Memoirs
on the Kingdom of Naples," says they arose in 1813, when
the reform of Carbonarism took place. Canosa, on the other
hand, in .a pamphlet published at Dublin, and entitled, "The
Mountain Pipes," says they arose at Palermo, and not at
Naples. In the former of these towns there existed different
trade companies, which had enjoyed great privileges, until
they lost them by the constitution of Lord William Bentinck.
The numerous company of braziers (calderari) felt the loss
most keenly, and they sent a deputation to the Queen of
Naples, assuring her that they were ready to rise in her defence. The flames of the insurrection were communicated to
the tanners aud other companies, and all the Neapolitan emigrants in Sicily. Lord William Bentinck put the emigrants
on board ship and sent them under a neutral flag to Naples,
where Murat received them very kindly. But they were not
grateful. Immediately on their arrival they entered into
the secret societies then conspiring against the French
Government, and their original name of Calderari was communicated by them to the conspirators, before then called
"Trinitarii." We have seen t.hat on the return of Ferdinand,
Prince Canosa favoured the Calderari. He styled them the
Calderari of the Counterpoise, because they were to serve as
such to Carbonarism. The fate of Canosa and that of the
Calderari has already been mentioned (557, 559).
577 The Independents.-Though these also aimed at the
independence of Italy, yet it appears that they were not disinclined to effect it by means of foreign assistance. The

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report at that time was that they actually once intended to
offer the crown of Italy to the Duke of Wellington ; but this
is highly improbable, since our Iron Duke was not at all
popular in Italy. But it is highly probable that they sought
the co-operation of Russia, which, since IS I 5, maintained
many agents in Italy-with what purpose is not exactly
known ; the collection of statistical and economical information was the ostensible object, but Austria looked on them
with a very suspicious eye, and watched them narrowly.
The Independents had close relations with these Russian
agents, probably, as it is surmised, with a view of. turning
Russian influence to account in any outbreak against
Austria.
578. The Delphic Priestkood.-This was another secret
society, having the same political object as the foregoing.
The Delphic priest, the patriotic priest, the priest militant,
spoke thus: "My mother has the sea for her mantle, high
mountains for her sceptre;" and when asked who his mother
was, replied : "The lady with the dark tresses, whose gifts
are beauty, wisdom, and formerly strength: whose dowry is
a flourishing garden, full of flagrant flowers, where bloom the
olive an.d the vine; and who now groans, stabbed to the
heart." The Delphics entertained singular hopes, and would
invoke the "remedy of the ocean" (American auxiliaries)
and the epoch of "cure" (a general European war). They
called the partisans of France "pagans," and those of Austria,
"monsters"; the Germans they styled "savages." Their
place of meeting they designated as the "ship," to foreshadow the future maritime greatness of Italy, and the help
they expected from over the sea; their chief was the
"pilot."
579 Egyptian 'Lodges.-Immediately after the downfall
of Napoleon, societies were formed also in foreign countries
to promote Italian independence. The promoters of these
were chiefly exiles. Distant Egypt even became the centre
of such a propaganda; and under_ the auspices of Mehemet
Ali, who aspired to render himself independent of the Sublime Porte, there was established the Egyptian rite of
Cagliostro with many variations, and under the title of the
"Secret Egyptian Society." Under masonic forms, the
Pacha hoped to further his own views ; and especially, to
produce political changes in the Ionian Islands and in Italy,
he scattered his agents all over the Mediterranean coasts.
Being masonic, the soclety excluded no religion; it retained
the two annual festivals, and added a third in memory of

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Napoleon, whose portrait was honoured in the lodge. The

rites were chiefly those of the ancient and accepted Scotch.
Women were admitted, Turks excluded ; and in the lodges
of Alexandria and Cairo, the Greek and Arab women
amounted to more than three hundred The emissaries,
spread over many parts of Europe, corresponded in cipher;
but of the operations of the society nothing was ever positively known.
580. American Hunters.-The Society of the "American
Hunters" was founded at Ravenna, shortly after the prosecutions of Macerata, and the measures taken by the
Austrian Government, in I 8 r 8, against the Carbonari. Lord
Byron is said to have been at its head, having imbibed his
love for Italy through the influence of an Italian beauty,
the Countess Guiccioli, whose brother had been exiled a
few years before. Its ceremonies assimilat~d it to the
" Comuneros " of Spain, arid it seems to have had the same
aims as the Delphic Priesthood. The saviour was to come
from America, and it is asserted that .Joseph Bonaparte, the
ex-King of Spain, was a member of the society. It is not
improbable that the partisans of Napoleon gathered ne'w
hopes after the events of I 8 IS A sonnet, of which the
first quatrain is here given, was at that time very popular
in Central Italy, and shows the direction of the political
wind'
" Scandalised by groaning under :hlngs so fell,
Filling Europe with dismay in ev'ry part,
We are driven to solicit Bonaparte
To return from Saint Helena or from hell."

. The restored sect made itself the centre of many minor

sects, among which were the " Sons of Mars," so called
because composed chiefly of military men; of the "Artist
Brethren " ; " the Defenders of the Country " ; the " Friends
of Duty;" and others, having the simpler and less compromising forms of Carbonarism. In the sect of the "Sons
of Mars," the old Carbonari vendita was called "bivouac";
the apprentice, "volunteer "; the good cousin, "corporal " ;
the master, " sergeant" ; the grand master, "commander" ;
and the chief dignitaries of Carbonarism still governed, from
above and unseen, the thoughts of the sect. Many other
sects existed, of which scarcely more than the names are
known, the recapitulation of which would only weary the
reader.
581. Secret Italian Society in London.-London was a gr~at
centre of the sectaries. In I 822, a society for liberating

ITALIAN SOCIETIES
Italy from the Austrian yoke was formed in that city,
counting among its members many distinguished Italian
patriots. Austria took the alarm, and sent spies to discover
their plans. These spies represented the operations of the
society as very extensive and imminent. An expedition
was to sail from the English coasts for Spain, to take on
board a large number of adherents, land them on the Italian
shores, and spread insurrection everywhere. The English
general, Robert Wilson, was said to be at the head of the
expedition; of which, however, nothing was ever heard, and
the Austrian Government escaped with the mere fright.
582. Secret Italian Societies in Paris.-A society of Italians
was formed in Paris, in 1829; and in 1830, French Liberals
formed a society under the title of "Cosmopolitans," whose
object was to revolutionise all the peoples of the Latin race,
and form them into one grand confederacy. La Fayette
was at its head, but the man who was the real leader of
the movement was totally unknown to the public. Henry
Misley seemed occupied only in the sale of the nitre and wheat
of his native country, Modena, and afterwards was engaged
in the construction of railways in Italy and Spain. But
he was the intimate friend of Menotti, and the connecting
link between the Italian Carbonari and the revolutionary
movement in France. He was also active, from I 8 50 to
1852, in placing Louis Napoleon at the head of the French
nation, co-operating with Lord Palmerston, who, as a Mason,
was the great friend and protector of the European revolution, and was the first to recognise Louis Napoleon as
Emperor of the French, not hesitating, to further his objects,
to falsify despatches which had already received the royal
signature. But when Garibaldi, in 1864, visited England,
Lord Palmerston co-operated with Victor Emmanu~l and
Louis Napoleon in restraining the Italian patriot from com. ing in contact with the revolutionary leaders then in this
country, lest he, in conjunction with them, should plan
expeditions, which might have interfered with his (Lord
Palmerston's) or the King of Italy's plans. Garibaldi was
surrounded with a brilliant suite, and overwhelmed with
official fetes. Then Dr. Fergusson declared that Garibaldi's
health demanded his immediate return to Italy. His intended visit to Paris was stopped by the Duke of Sutherland
taking him in his yacht to the Mediterranean; but Mazzini
informed Garibaldi of the scheme to keep him an honoured
prisoner, and Garibaldi insisted at Malta on returning at
once to Caprera.

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583. Mazzini and Young Italy.-Joseph Mazzini, who

sixty years ago was a prisoner in Fort Savona for revolutionary speeches and writings, may be looked upon as the
chief instigator of modern secret societies in Italy having
revolutionary tendencies. The independence and unity of
their country, with Rome for its capital, of course were the
objects of Young Italy. One of the earliest of these societies
was that of the Apophasimenes, many of whom Mazzini drew
over to his " Young Italy" association.
Here are some of the articles of the " Organisation of
Young Italy" :-I. The society is founded for the indispensable destruction of all the governments of the Peninsula, in
order to form one single State with the republican government. 2. Fully aware of the horrible evils of absolute power,
and the even worse results of constitutional monarchies, we
must aim at establishing a republic, one and indivisible. 30.
Those who refuse obedience to the orders of this secret
society, or reveal its mysteries, die by the dagger without
mercy. 3 I. The secret tribunal pronounces sentence, and
appoints one or two affiliated members for its execution. 32.
Who so refuses to perform such duty assigned to him, dies
on the spot. 3 3 If the victim escapes, he shall be pursued,
until struck by the avenging hand, were he on the bosom of
his mother or in the temple of Christ. 34. Every secret
tribunal is competent not only to judge guilty adepts, but to
put to death any one it finds it necessary to condemn.(Sig.) Mazzini.
.
We have seen, in the account of the Mafia (329), that
Mazzini constantly recommended the use of the daggerthough he took good care to avoid personal danger ; and, to
give but one instance, that he did not hesitate to employ it,
by proxy, was proved in the case of Signor Emiliaui, who
was assassinated, by Mazzini's order, which is still existing,
signed by Mazzini, and countersigned by the secretary La
Cecilia, in the streets of Rhodez, a town in the department
of the Aveyron, seventy miles from Toulouse. Mazzini had
come from Geneva on purpose to sit in judgment on Signor
Emiliani, who was accused of having opposed the plans of
the Mazzinists.
Committees were established in all parts of the Peninsula ;
the presses, not only of Italy, but also of Marseilles, London,
and Switzerland, were largely employed to disseminate the
views of the conspirators ; and the police, though they considered themselves well informed, were always at fault.
Thus Livio Zambeccari, a leading member, went from

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Bologna to Naples, thence into Sicily, held interviews with
the conspirators, called meetings, and returned to Bologna,
whilst the police of Naples and Sicily knew nothing at all
about it. General .Antonini, under a feigned name, went to
Sicily, passed himself off for a dagnerreotypist, and lived
in great intimac.v with many of the officials without being
suspected. .A Piedmontese officer, who had fought in the
Spanish and Portuguese revolutionary wars, arrived at Messina under a Spanish name, with letters of introduction from
a Neapolitan general, which enabled him to visit and closely
inspect the citadels, this being the object of his journey.
Letters from Malta, addressed to the conspirators, were intercepted by the police, but recovered from them before they had
read them, by the address and daring of the members of Young
Italy. A thousand copies of a revolutionaryprogramme, printed
at Marseilles, were smuggled into Italy in a despatch addressed
to the Minister Delcaretto. Though occasionally the correspondence fell into the hands of the authorities-as, for
instance, on the 4th June 1832, the Custom-house officers of
Genoa seized on board the steamer Sully, coming from Marseilles, a trunk full of old clothes, addressed to Mazzini's
mother, in the false bottom of which were concealed a large
number of letters addressed to mem hers of Young Italy,
revolutionary proclamations, lists of lodges, and instructions
as to the proposed rising. Then the revolutionary correspondence was carried on by means of the official letters
addressed to the Minister Santangelo,' at Palermo. .A wellknown Spanish general, who was one of the conspirators,
whose departure and object had been publicly announced in
the French papers, Wel;lt from Marseilles to Naples, and the
police were unable to catch him. Italian and other Continental revolutionists in those days, and later on, received
much moral support from Lord Palmerston, wherefore it
was a saying of .Austrian Conservatives" If the devil has a son,

Surely it's Lord Palmerston."

Panizzi also, a Carbonaro, exiled from Italy, and for many

years Chief Librarian of the British Museum, was an ardent
supporter of Italian unification.
584. Mazzini, the Evil Genius of Italy.-Gregory XVI. died
in 1846. The Italians thought this the favourable moment
for general action, and the revolutions of Rome, Naples,
Palermo, Florence, Milan, Parma, Modena, and Venice followed in quick succession. But they failed, and their failure-

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notably that of the operations of Charles :Albert-was due

to the political intrigues caTried on by the Mazzinists, who
tampered with the fidelity and discipline of the Sardinian
army. Mazzini, in those days, ruined the national cause,
and rejoiced in that ruin, because he was not the leader of
the enterprise. Later on, his Roman triumvirate led to the
French occupation of Rome, and to the return to that city
of Italy's greatest curse, the pope. Many of Garibaldi's
noble efforts were thwarted or frustrated by Mazzini's revolutionary fanaticism ; and yet-such is the mockery of
Fate !-that selfish demagogue who, to gratify his political
crotchets, sent hundreds of misguided youths to a violent
death, has a statue in the Palazzo del Municipio at
Genoa, an honour which posterity will certainly rescind.
Like O'Donovan Rossa, he planned his murderous schemes
at a safe distance, taking care never to imperil himself
personally, and if danger came near, to run away. In the
expedition to Savoy in January I 8 34. Mazzini at Carra
brandished his rifle to rush to the combat, but was conveniently seized by a fit and carried across the border in
safety. In I833 Louis Mariotti (a pseudo-name), provided
with a passport and money by Mazzini, attempted Charles
Albert's life ; shortly after another man made the same
attempt-he had a dagger which was proved to have belonged to' Mazzini: this hero was one of the first to take
flight when Radetzky entered Milan. When in that city
he thwarted the endeavours of the royal commissioners to
procure men and money, and fed the repuplican animosities
towards the Piedmontese in every part of Italy. The king
knew of the Mazzinian manceuvres, and therefore did not
make peace after his defeat, for the republicans would have
said he had thrown up the cause of Italy.
585. Assassination of Ros8i.-This adventurer was born
at Carrara, and began his public career as a member of the
provisional government of Bologna, when Murat attempted
the conquest of Italy. At his master's defeat, he fled into
Switzerland, where the Diet entrusted him with the revision
of the pact of I 8 I 5 ; in the changes he proposed, radicalism
was carried to its utmost limits, and aimed at the overthrow
of the Federal Government. With such antecedents, it was ,
but natural that Rossi became a member of Young Italy ;
though Mazzini placed no faith in him, for he knew that the
ci-devant Carbonaro had no fixed political convictions. For
this once violent demagogue, having, in the July revolution
of 1830, assisted Louis Philippe to ascend the French throne,

ITALIAN SOCIETIES
accepted from him the title of count and peer of France,
and was sent as ambassador to Rome. Though he had once
belonged to the secret societies of Italy, and by Gregory XVI.
been designated as the political renegade, he eventually
accepted office under Pins IX., who in 1848, a short time
before his flight from Rome, had no one to appeal to, to
form a new ministry, but this very adventurer, who did so
by keeping three of the portfolios in his own hands, viz.,
those of Finances, Interior, and Police, whilet the other
ministers mutually detested each other ; a fact from which
Rossi expected to derive additional advantages. His political programme, which excluded all national participation
or popular influence, filled Young Italy with rage. At a
meeting of Young Italy, held at the Hotel Feder at Turin,
the verdict went forth : Death to the false Carbonaro ! By
a prearranged scheme the lot to kill Rossi fell on Canino,
a leading man of the association, not that it was expected
that he would do the deed himself, but his position and
wealth were assumed to give him the most ready means of
comma.nding daggers. A Mazzinian society assembled twice
a week at the Roman theatre, Capranica. At a meeting of
one hundred and sixteen members, it was decided, at the
suggestion of Mazzini, that forty should be chosen by lot to
protect the assassin. Three others were elected by the same
process-they were calledjerato1i; one of them was to slay
the minister.
The 15th of November 1848, the day fixed upon for the
opening of the Roman Chambers, was also that of Rossi's
death. He received several warnl.ngs, but ridiculed them.
Even in going to the Chancellerie, he was addressed by a
priest, who whispered to him, "Do not go out ; you will be
assassinated." "They cannot terrify me," he replied; "the
cause of the Pope is the cause of God," which is thought by
some to have been a very noble answer, but which was' simply
ridiculous, because not true, and was, moreover, vile hypocrisy on the part of a man with his antecedents. When
Rossi arrived . at the Chancellerie, the conspirators were
already awaiting him there. One of them, as the minister
ascended the staircase, struck him on the side with the hilt
of a dagger, and as Rossi turned round to look at his
assailant, another assassin plunged his dagger into Rossi's
throat. The minister soon after expired in the apartments
of Cardinal Gozzoli, to which he had been carried. At that
very instant one of the chiefs of Young Italy at Bologna,
looking at his watch, said, "A great deed h~J,s just been

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accomplished; we no longer need fear Rossi." The estimation in which Rossi was held by the Chamber cannot have
been great, for the deputies received the news of his death
with considerable sang-froid; and at night a torchlight
procession paraded the streets of Rome, carrying aloft the
dagger which had done the deed, whilst thousands of voices
exclaimed, " Blessed be the hand that struck Rossi ! Blessed
be the dagger that struck him ! " A pamphlet, published at
Rome in I 8 50, contains a letter from Mazzini, in which occur
the words : " The assassination of Rossi was necessary and
just."
In the first edition I added to the foregoing account the
following note : " P.S.-Since writing the above I have met with documents
which induce me to suspend my judgment as to who were
the real authors of Rossi's assassination. From what I have
since learnt it would seem that the clerical party, and not
the Carbonari, planned and executed the deed. Persons
accused of being implicated in the murder were kept in
prison for more than two years without being brought to
trial, and then quietly got away. Rossi, shortly before his
death, had levied contributions to the extent of four million
scudi on clerical property, and was known to plan further
schemes to reduce the influence of the Church. But the
materials for writing the history of those times are not yet
accessible."
More than twenty years after the above was written, now
in 1896, the question is as much involved in doubt as ever.
True, one Santa Constantini, a radical fanatic, as he was
called on his conviction, has been proved to have struck the
fatal blow, but as to who instigated him to do the deed,
opinions are still divided ; the secret has not oozed out.
The reasons for attributing the death of Rossi to the
Carbonari or the Jesuits are of equal weight on both sides.
The assassination of Rossi and the commotions following
it, led, as is well known, to the pope's flight .to Gaeta.
During his absence from Rome, Mazzini was the virtual
ruler of that city, which was during his short reign the
scene of the greatest disorders, of robberies, and assassinations. But Jtome gained nothing by the restoration .of the
pope through French arms; the papalians, when once more
in power, raged as wildly against the peaceful inhabitants as
the Mazzinists had done. The Holy Father personally, and
the cardinals and other dignitaries of the Church, caused
thousands of the inhabitants of Rome to be cast into noisome

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193

dungeons, many of them underground, where they were

starved or killed by bad treatment, or after long-delayed
trials COI?-demned to the most unjust punishments. I could
give numerous instances, did they enter into the scope
of this work. The subsequent action of Carbonarism, its
renewal of the war against the pope, the collapse of the
latter's army, largely composed of Irish loafers, who entered
Rome in potato sacks, with a hole for the head and two
for the arms, and his final overthrow, are matters of public
history.
586. Sicilian Societies.-Sicily did not escape the general
influence. In I 827 there was formed a secret society in
favour of the Greek revolution, the "Friends of Greece,"
who, however, also occupied themselves with the affairs of
Italy. There was also the "Secret Society of the Five,"
founded ten years before the above, which prepared the
insurrection of the Greeks. In Messina was formed the
lodge of the "Patriotic Reformers," founded on Oarbonarism,
which corresponded with lodges at Florence, Milan, and
Turin, by means of musi-cal notes. But the Sicilian Carbonari did not confine themselves to political aims : to them
was due in a great measure the security of the roads throughout the island, which before their advent had been terribly
infested by malefactors of every kind, who almost daily committed outrages against peaceful travellers.
587. The Consistorials.- But the conspirators against
thrones and the Church were not to have it all their own
way ; clerical associations were formed to counteract their
efforts. The sect of the " Oonsistorials " aimed at the
preservation of feudal and theocr~tic dominion. The rich
and ambitious patricians of Rome and other Italian states
belonged to it; Tabot, an ex-Jesuit and Confessor to the
Holy Father, was the ruling spirit. It is 'said that this
society proposed to give to the Pope, Tuscany; the island
of Elba and the Marches, to the King of Naples; Parma,
Piacenza, and a portion of Lombardy, with the title of King,
to the Duke of Modena ; the rest of Lombardy, Massa
Carrara, and Lucca, to the King of Sardinia; and to Russia,
which, from jealousy of Austria, favoured these secret designs,
either Ancona, or Genoa, or Oivita Vecchia, to turn it into
their Gibraltar. From documents found in the office of the
Austrian governor at Milan, it appears that the Duke of
Modena, in I 81 8, presided at a general meeting of the
Consistorials, and that Austria was aware of the existence
and intentions of the society.
VOL, II,

SECRET SOCIETIES

194

588. The Roman Catholic Aposbolic Gongregation.-It was

foriJ?.ed at -the period of the imprisonment of Pius VII. The
members recognised each other by a yellow silk ribbon with
five knots ; the initiated into the lower degrees heard of
nothing but acts of piety and charity; the secrets of the
society, known to the higher ranks, could only be discussed
between two ; the lodges were composed of five members ;
the password was "Eleutheria," i.e. Liberty; and the secret
word "Ode," i.e. Independence. This sect arose in France,
among the Neo-catholics, led by Lammenais, who already,
in the treatise on "Religious Indifference," had shown that
fervour which afterwards was to carry him so far. 'rhence
it passed into Lombardy, but met with but little success,
and the Austrians succeeded in obtaining the patents which
were given to the initiated, two Latin texts divided by this
sign

I , meaning Oongregazione Catholica Apostolica

~ ~

Romana, and their statutes and signs of recognition. Though

devoted to the independence of Italy, the Congregation was
not factious ; for it bound the destinies of. nations to the
full triumph of the Roman Catholic religion. Narrow in
scope, and restricted in numbers, it neither possessed nor,
perhaps, claimed powers to subvert the political system.
589. Sanfedisti.-This society was founded at the epoch
of the suppression of the Jesuits. There existed long before
then in the Papal States a society called the " Pacific" or
"Holy Union," which was establislied to defend religion,
the privileges and jurisdiction of 'Rome, and the temporal
power of the popes. Now from this society they derived the
appellation of the Society of the Holy Faith, or Sanfedisti.
The way in which the existence of the society was discovered, was curious. A friend of De Witt (555) during
carnival time in I 82 I, entered a shop in the Oontrada di
Po at Turin to purchase a costume. He was examining a
cassock, when he noticed a pocket in it, containing some
papers. He bought it and t,ook it home. The papers gave
the statutes, signs, passwords, &c., of the SanfedistL The
owner of the cassock, one of the highest initiates, had
been struck by apoplexy, and his belongings had been sold.
Finding themselves discovered, the Sanfedisti changed the
password and sign, making, instead of the former one, an
imperceptible cross with the left hand on the left breast.
They had been in existence long before I 8 2 I ; in France
they conspired against Napoleon, who sent about twenty of
them to prison at Modena, whence they were released by

ITALIAN SOCIETIES

195

Francis IV. The 'supposed chiefs, after 1815, were the

Duke of Modena and Cardinal Consalvi. The first had
frequent secret interviews with the cardinals, and even the
King of Sardinia was said to be in the plot. Large sums
also are said to have been contributed by the chiefs to
carry on the war against Austria, which, however, is doubtful. Some attribute to this society the project of dividing Italy into three kingdoms, expelling the Austrians and
the King of Naples; others, the intention of dividing it
into five, viz., Sardinia, Modena, Lucca, Rome, and Naples;
and yet others-and these latter probably are most in the
right-the determination to perpetuate the status quo, or to
re-establish servitude in its most odious forms. They also
intrigued with Russia, though at certain times they would
not have objected to subject all Italy politically to the
Austrian eagle, and clerically to the keys of St. Peter.
Their machinations at home led to much internal dissension
and blood~hed ; their chief opponents were the Carbonari.
At Faenza the two part~es fought against one another under
the names of "Cats" and "Dogs." They caused quite
as much mischief and bloodshed as any of the bands of
brigands that infested the country, and their code was quite
as sanguinary as that of any more secular society. 'l'hey
swore with terrible oaths to pursue and slay the impious
liberals, even to their children, without showing pity for age
or sex. Under the pretence of defending the faith, they
indulged in the grossest licentiousness and most revolting
atrocity. In the Papal States they were under the direction of the inquisitors and bishops, who, especially under
Leo XII., gave them the greatest encouragement; in the
kingdom of Naples, under the immediate orders of the police.
They spread all over Germany, where Prince HohenlohSchillingsftirst, Bishop of Sardica, protected them. Prince
Julius de Polignac was head of the society in France.

VI
NAPOLEONIC AND ANTI-NAPOLEONIC
SOCIETIES

590. The Philadelphians.-As early as the year 1780 a

society of about sixty young men had formed at Besangon a
masonic lodge under the above name. Colonel James Joseph
Oudet, who, though he served under Napoleon, hated him,
and had for some time been looking out for dupes to assist
him in bringing back to France the detested Bourbon race,
whose secret agent he was, pitched on the members of that
lodge, still composed of enthusiastic, but inexperienced,
youths, as suitable for his purpose. Having been initiated
into nearly every secret society in Europe, Oudet soon invested the Philadelphians with all the machinery of one on a
more elaborate scale than they had hitherto thought necessary. According to the approved pattern, every member
assumed a pseudonym ; Oudet called himself Philopremen ;
General Moreau, who, as we shall see, succeeded him as chief
of the Order, took the name of Fabius, and so on. Oudet
fnrther created a dignity, sovereign, monarchical and absolute, with which, of course, he invested himself, and under
which were two degrees : the first, that of Frank Federate,
and the second, that of Frank Judge ; this second degree
comprehended the complement of all the secrets, up to the
secret belonging, and known to the supreme chief alone.
But to give his adepts something to think and talk about, he
told them the establishment of a Sequanese (from Sequana,
Seine) republic was his object, whilst he really intended the
total overthrow of Napoleon. He introduced the Philadelphian rites into the army, simultaneously into the 9th, 68th,
and 69th regiments of the line, into the 2oth of dragoons,
the 15th of light infantry, and from thence into all the army.
Bonaparte heard of the society, and suspected Oudet, who
was sent back to his corps, which then occupied the garrison
of St. Martin, in the Isle of Rhe. General Moreau took his
xg6

ANTI-NAPOLEONIC SOCIETIES

197

place, but shortly after had to resign it again to Oudet, he,

Moreau, having been implicated in the conspiracy of Pichegru. Before then the conspiracy of Arena to assassinate
Bonaparte had been discovered, and a book, seized among
the papers of Arena, and entitled "The Turk and the French
Soldier," certainly was written by Oudet. The Philadelphians next attempted to seize Bonaparte while traversing
the forests and mountains of the Jura attended by a very
small retinue ; but the attempt failed, one of the Order
having betrayed the plot. Oudet was killed at the
battle of Wagram ( 1809), and with his death the society
collapsed.
591. The Rays.-During the power of Napoleon, he was
opposed by secret societies in Italy, as well as in France.
But his fall, which to many seemed a revival of liberty, to
others appeared as the ruin of Italy; hence they sought to
re-establish his rule, or at least to save Italian nationality
from the wreck. The "Rays" were an Anti-Napoleonic
society, composed of officials from all parts, brought together
by common dangers and the adventures of the field. They
had lodges at Milan and Bologna. The Sanfedisti also were
an Anti-Napoleonic society (589).
592. Secret League in Tirol.-A very powerful association
against Napoleon was in the year r 809 formed in Tirol.
This country had by the treaty of Presburg (r8o5) been
ceded by Austria to Bavaria. But the Tirolese, strongly
attached to their former master, resented the transfer, and
when in r8o8 a renewal of the war between France and
Austria was imminent, secret envoys, among whom was the
already famous Andreas Hofer, were sent to Vienna to concert measures for reuniting the Tirol with Austria. But
in consequence of the battle of Wagram, and the truce of
Znaim, which followed it, Tirol was again surrendered to
French troops. Then the Tirolese, betrayed by Austria, formed
a number of secret societies among themselves, to drive out
the French. The results of these associations are matters of
history; but to show how the secret societies worked, and tested
the character and loyalty of some of the leading members, the
following incident, communicated by the hero of the adventure, may be mentioned. He had once enjoyed Napoleon's
confidence, but having unjustly become suspected by him,
he was obliged to take refuge in the most alpine part of the
Austrian provinces, in Tirol. . There he formed connections
with one of the societies for the overthrow of Napoleon, and
went through a simple ceremony of initiation. Two months

&

198

2&2--

SECRET SOCIETIES

elapsed after this without his hearing any more of the society;
when at last he received a letter asking him to repair to a
remote place, where he was to meet a number of brothers
assembled. He went, but found no one. He received three
more similar summonses, but always with the same result.
He received a fifth, and went, but saw no one. He was just
retiring, disgusted with the often-repeated deception, when
he heard frightful cries, as from a person in distress. He
hastened towards the spot whence they proceeded, and found
a bleeding body lying on the ground, whilst he saw three
horsemen making their escape in the opposite direction, who,
however, fired three shots at him, but missing him. He was
about to examine the body lying at his feet when a detachment of armed force, attracted by the same cries, darted
from the forest ; the victim on the ground indicated our
hero as his assailant. He was seized, imprisoned, accused
by witnesses who declared they had seen him commit the
murder-for the body of the person attacked had been removed as dead-and he was sentenced to be executed the
same night, by torchlight. He was led into a courtyard,
surrounded by ruinous buildings, full of spectators. He had
already ascended the scaffold, when an officer on horseback,
and wearing the insignia of the magistracy, appeared, announcing that an edict had gone forth granting a pardon to
any man condemned to death for any crime whatever, who
could give to justice the words of initiation and signs of recognition of a secret society, which the officer named; it
was the one into which the ci-devant officer of Napoleon
had recently been received. He was questioned if he knew
anything about it; he denied all knowledge of the society,
and being pressed, became angry and demanded death.
Immediately he was greeted as a brave and faithful brother,
for all those present were members of the secret society, and
had knowingly co-operated in this rather severe test.
593 Societies in Favou1 of Napoleon.-Many societies in
favour of the restoration of Napoleon were formed, such as
the "Black Needle," the "Knights of the Sun," "Universal
Regeneration," &c. They were generally composed of the
soldiers of the great captain, who were condemned to inactivity, and looked upon the glory of their chief as something in which they had a personal interest. Their aim was
to place Napoleon. at the head of confederated Italy, under
the title of " Emperor of Rome, by the will of the people
and the grace of God." The proposal reached him early in
the year 1815. Napoleon accepted it like a man who on

NAPOLEONIC SOCIETIES

199

being shipwrecked perceives a piece of wood that may save

him, and which he will cast into the fire when he has reached
the land. The effects of these plots are known-Napoleon's
escape from Elba, and the reign of a hundred days.
According to secret documents, the machinations of the
Bonapartists continued even in I 842, the leaders being
Peter Bonaparte, Lady Christina Stuart, the daughter of
Lucien Bonaparte, the Marchioness Pepoli, the daughter of
the Countess Lipona (Caroline Murat), and Count Rasponi.
Then appeared the sect of the "Italian Confederates," first
called "Platonica," which in I 842 extended into Spain.
Another sect, the "Illuminati, Vindicators or Avengers of
the' People," arose in the Papal States; also those of "Regenerjtion," of "Italian Independence," of the "Communi:Bts," the "Exterminators," &c. Tuscany also had its
secret societies-that of the "Thirty-one," the "National
Knights," the "Revolutionary Club," &c. A "Communistic
Society " was formed at Milan ; but none of these sects did
more than excite a little curiosity for a time. Scarcely anything of their ritual is known.
594 The Illuminati.-This society, not to be confounded
with an earlier one of the same name (3 5 I et seq.), was founded
in France, but meeting with too many obstacles in that
country, it spread all over Italy. Its object was to restore
the Napoleon family to the French throne, by making MarieLouise regent, until the King of Rome could be set on the
throne, and by bringing Napoleon himself from St. Helena,
to command the army. The society entered into correspondence with Las Casas, who was to come to Bologna,
the chief lodge, and arrange plans; but the scheme, as need
scarcely be mentioned, never came to anything.
595 Various othm Societies.-At Padua a society existed
whose members called themselves Selvaggi, "Savages,"
because the German democrat, Marr, had said, that man
must return to the savage state to accomplish something
great. They cut neither their nails nor their hair, cleaned
neither their clothes nor boots; the medical students who
were members of the sect surreptitiously brought portions of
human bodies from the dissecting-rooms of the hospitals to
their meetings, over which the initiated performed wild and
hideous ceremonies. Not being able to obtain human blood
for the purpose, they purchased bullocks' blood in which to
drink death to tyrants. One of the members having overgorged himself was found dead in the street. The medical
examination of his body led to the discovery of the cause,

200

SECRET SOCIETIES

and by the police inquiry resulting therefrom, to the exposure of the society, their statutes, oaths, and ceremonies.
The members of the Unita Italiana, discovered at Naples
in 1850, recognised each other by a gentle rubbing of noses.
They swore on a dagger with a triangular blade, with the
inscription, "Fraternity-Death to Traitors-Death to
Tyrants," faithfully to observe all the laws of the society,
on pain, in case of-want of faith, to have their hearts pierced
with the dagger. Those who executed the vengeance of the
society called themselves the Committee of Execution. In
1849 the grand council of the sect established a "Committee
of Stabbers," comitato de' pugnalatori. The heads of the
society were particular as to whom they admitted into it;
the statutes say, "no ex-Jesuits, thieves, coiners, and other
infamous persons are to be initiated." The ex-Jesuits are
placed in good company truly!
In I 849 a society was discovered at Ancona calling itself
the " Company of Death," and many assassinations, many of
them committed in broad daylight in the streets of the town,
were traced to its members. The "Society of Slayers,"
Ammazzatori, at Leghorn; the "Infernal Society," at Sinigaglia; the " Company of Assassins," Sicarii, at Faenza ;
the " 'l'errorists" of Bologna, were associations of the same
stamp. The "Barbers of Mazzini," at Rome, made it their
business to "remove" priests who had rendered themselves particularly obnoxious. Another Bolognese society
was that of the "Italian Conspiracy of the Sons of
Death," whose object was the liberation of Italy from
foreign sway.
596. The Accoltellatoti.-A secret society, non-political,
was discovered, and many of its members brought to trial, at
Ravenna, in 1874 Its existence had long been surmised,
but the executive did not dare to interfere ; some private
persons, indeed, tried to bring the assassins to justice, but
wherever they succeeded a speedy vengeance was sure to
follow. To one shopkeeper who had been particularly active
a notice was sent that his life was forfeited, and the same
night a placard was posted up upon the shutters of his shop
announcing that the establishment was to be sold, as the
proprietor was going away. In many cases there were
witnesses to the crimes, and yet they dared not interfere
nor give evidence. One of the gang at last turned traitor;
he gave the explanation of several "mysterious disappearances," and the names of the murderers. The gang had
become too numerous, and amongst the number there were

ANTI-NAPOLEONIC SOCIETIES

201

members whose fidelity was suspected. It was resolved to

sacrifice them. They were watched, set upon and murdered
by their fellow-accomplices. This society was known as the
Accoltellatori, literally "knifers "-cut-throats. It originally
consisted of twelve members only, who used to meet in the
Cafe Mazzavillani-a very appropriate name; mazza means
a club or bludgeon, and villano, villainous-at Ravenna,
where the fate of their victims was decided. 'l'he trial
ended in most of the members being condemned to penal
servitude.

--

4'

VII
FRENCH SOCIETIES
597 Varim~s Societies after the Restoration.-One would
think that, according to the "philosophical" historians, no
nation ought to have been more content and happy, after
being delivered from their tyrant Napoleon, than the French.
But, in accordance with what I said in sect. 519, no nation
had more reason to be dissatisfied and unhappy through the
restoration of a king "by grace of God" and "right divine."
Draconian statutes were promulgated by the Chambers, the
mere tools of Louis XVIII., which led to the formation of a
secret society called the "Associated Patriots," whose chief
scenes of operation were in the south of France. But
Government had its spies everywhere; many members of
the society were arrested and sentenced to various terms of
imprisonment. Three leaders, Pleignier, a writing-master,
Carbonneau, a leather-cutter, and Tolleron, an engraver,
were sentenced to death, led to the place of execution with
their faces concealed by black veils, as parricides were
formerly executed, and before their heads were cut off, their
right hands were severed from their arms-for had they not
raised them against their father, the king? The conspiracy
of the Associated Patriots collapsed. But other societies
arose. In 1 820 the society of the " Friends of Truth," consisting of medical students and shopmen, was established in
Paris, but was soon suppressed by the Government. The
leading members made their escape to Italy, and on their
return to France founded a Carbonaro society, the leadership of which was given to General Lafayette. It made two
attempts to overthrow the Government, one at Belfort, and
another at La Rochelle, but both were unsuccessful, and the
Carbonaro society was dissolved. 'rhe society of the " Shirtless," founded by a Frenchman of the name of Manuel, who
invoked Sampson, as the symbol of strength, had but a very
short existence. That of the "Spectres meeting in a Tomb,"
which existed in 1822, and whose object was the overthrow of
202

l!'RENOH SOCIETIES

203

the Bourbons, also came to a speedy end. The "New Reform of France," and the "Provinces," which were probably
founded in 1820, only admitted members already initiated
into Oarbonarism, Freemasonry, the European Patriots,
or the Greeks in Solitude. A mixture of many sects, they
condensed the hatred of many ages and many orders against
tyranny, and prescribed the following oath : " I, M. N.,
promise and swear to be the eternal enemy of tyrants, to
entertain undying hatred against them, and, when opportunity offers, to slay them." . In their succinct catechism
wore the following passages : " Who art thou ? " " Thy
friend."-" How knowest thou me?" "By the weight pressing on thy brow, on which I read written in letters of blood,
To conquer or die."-" What wilt thou?" "Destroy the
thrones and raise up gibbets."-" By what right?" "By
that of nature."-" For what purpose?" "To acquire the
glorious name of citizen."-" And wilt thou risk thy life?"
"I value life-less than liberty."
Another sect was that of the "New French Liberals,"
which existed but a short time. It was composed of but few.
members; they, however, were men of some standing, chiefly
such as had occupied high positions under Napoleon. They
looked to America for assistance. They wore a smalL black
ribbon attached to their watches, with a gold seal, a piece of
coral, and an iron or steel ring. The ribbon symbolised the
eternal hatred of the free for oppressors; the coral, their
American hopes; the ring, the weapon to destroy their
enemies; and the gold seal, abundance of money as a means
of success.
After the July revolution in 1830, the students of the
Quartier Latin formed the society of " Order and Progress,"
each student being, in furtherance of these objects, provided
with a rifle and fifty cartridges. And if they nevertheless
did not distinguish themselves, they afforded the Parisians a
new sensation. About three o'clock on the afternoon of the
4th January 1831, the booming of the great bell of Notre
Dame was heard, and one of the towers of the cathedral was
seen to be on fire. The police, who, though forewarned of
the intended attempt, had taken no precautionary measures,
speedily made their way into the building, put out tne fire,
and arrested six individuals, young men, nineteen or twenty
years old, and their leader, a M. Oonsidere. The young
men were acquitted, Oonsidere was sentenced to five years'
imprisonment. And thus ended this farcical insurrection.
Another association, called the "Society of Schools," ad-

SECRET SOCIETIES
vocated the abolition of the universities and the throwing
open of all instruction to the public gratuitously. The
"Constitutional Society," directed by a man who had powerfully supported the candidature o the Duke of Orleans,
Cauchois-Lemaire, insisted on the suppression of monopolies,
the more equal levy of taxes, electoral reform, and the aboliti{)n of the dignity of the peerage. The "Friends of the
People" was another political society, one section of which,
called the "Rights of Man," adopted for its text-book the
"Declaration of the Rights of Man" by Robespierre, and
drew to itself many minor societies, too numerous, and in
most;cases too unimportant, to be mentioned. Their efforts
ended in the useless insurrection of Lyons on the 13th and
14th April 1834.
598. The Acting Gompany.-But a separate corps of the
Rights of Man, selected from among all the members, was
formed and called the Acting Company, under the command
of Captain Kersausie, a rich nobleman with democratic predilections. On certain days the loungers on the boulevards
would notice a crowd of silent promenaders whom an unknown object seemed to draw together. No one understood
the matter except the police ; the chief of the Acting Company was reviewing his forces. Accompanied by one or two
adjutants he would accost the chief of a group, whom he
recognised by a sign, hold a short conversation with him, and
pass on to another ; the police agents would follow, see him
enter a carriage, which was kept in waiting, drive up to a
house which had a back way out, whence he would gain one
of his own-for he had several-residences, and keep in
doors for three or four days.
The Rights of Man society arranged the plot, proposed
by Fieschi, to assassinate the king, Louis Philippe, on the
28th July 1835. Delahodde, the police spy, in his Memoirs,
says that by the imprudence of one of the conspirators,
Boireau, the police obtained a hint of what was intended,
but that it was so vague, that it could not be acted on.
This is evidently said to screen the police, for on the trial
of :Fieschi and the other conspirators, it was proved that on
the morning of the attempt Boireau had sent a letterdoing which was not a mere irnprudence-to the Prefect
of Police, giving full information as to the means to be
employed, the individuals engaged in the plot, and the very
house in which the infernal machine was placed-all which
was more than a mere hint-but the letter was thrown aside
by the Prefect as not worth reading! The failure of the

FRENCH SOCIETIES

205

attempt broke up the society of the Rights of Man, but the

remnants thereof formed themselves in the same year into
a new society, called the " Families," under the leadership
of Blanqui and Barbes. Admission to this new society was
attended with all the mummery and mystification considered
necessary to form an orthodox initiation. Its object, of
course, was the overthrow of the monarchical government
and the establishment of a republic; but the society having
in 1836 been discovered and suppressed, many of its leaders
being sent to prisons, the members who remained at liberty
reconstituted themselves into a new society, called the
"Seasons," into the meeting-place of which the candidate
was led blindfolded, and swore death to all kings, aristocrats, and other oppressors of mankind, and to sacrifice his
own life, if needful, in the cause. On the 12th May the
"Seasons," led by Blanqui and Barbes, rose in insurrection,
but were defeated by the Government. Blanqui was sentenced to be transported, and BarMs condemned to death ;
the king, however, commuted the sentence of the latter to
imprisonment. After a time the "Seasons" were reorganised,
and about 1840, Communism first began to be active in
Paris, and various attempts were made against the king's
life. Considering the number of police spies in the pay
of Government, it is surprising that secret societies should
have continued to flourish, and should at last have succeeded
in overthrowing the throne of Louis Philippe. The spies
would get themselves introduced into the secret societies,
and then betray them. One of the most notorious of these
spies was Lucien Delahodde, who sent his reports to Government under the pseudonym of "Pierre." When, in consequence of the revolution of 1848, "Citizen" Caussidiere
became Prefect of Police, and overhauled the secret archives
of that department, he found voluminous papers, containing
more than a thousand informations, signed "Pierre," proving
that the writer had got hold of all the secrets of the "Rights
of Man," the "Families" (though strong suspicion rests
on Blanqui of having supplied the Minister of the Interior
with a secret report on the latter, when under sentence of
death), the "Seasons," and sold them to the Government.
But who was this Pierre? Unluckil,- for himself Lucien
Delahodde, or Pierre himself, wrote a letter to Oaussidiere,
asking to be employed in the police. Oaussidiere was
struck by the writing, compared it with that of the secret
reports, and found it to be identical. Delahodde was invited
to meet Caussidiere at the Luxembourg, where he was made

'!

ll

'
I

206 '

SECRET SOCIETIES

to confess, and declare in writing, that he was the author

of all the reports signed "Pierre." Some members of the
provisional government were for shooting him, but he got
off with a few months' imprisonment in the Oonciergerie.
On recovering his liberty Delahodde went to London, where
he published a small journal, attacking the Republic and the
Republicans.
599 The Communistic societies of the Travaillet~rs Egalitaires and Oommunistes Revohttionnaires introduced some of
their members into the provisional government that preceded
the accession of Louis Napoleon; and their influence even to
the present day is too notorious to need specification here.
The "Mountaineers," or "Reds of the Mountain," a revival
'of the name given during the French Revolution to the
leaders of the J acobins, was one of the societies that brought
about the events of 1848. According to the Univers of the
znd February 1852, they swore on a dagger, "I swear by
this steel, the symbol of honour, to combat and destroy all
political, religious, and social tyrannies." Secret societies
continued to play at hide-and-seek after the accession of
Louis Napoleon, but were not immediately put down, though
he issued the most severe prohibitions against them, and the
members who could be apprehended were condemned to
transportation to Cayenne or Algiers; they continued to
exist for some years after the cmtp d'etat.
6oo. Causes of Secret Societies in France.-The succession
of secret associations against the government of Louis
Philippe is not to be wondered at. The king himself was
solely bent on the aggrandisement of his own dynasty,
either by foreign marriages, or conferring on the members
of his own family every office in the state which could secure
the paramount power in directing the destinies of France.
The princes had re-established the orgies of the Regency ;
the court, the ministers, the aristocrats, the inferior functionaries made the public offices and national institutions
the objects of shameful corruption ; the deputies speculated
with their political functions ; peers of France patronised
gambling in the funds and railway scrip; princes, ministers,
ambassadors, and other personages in high positions were
constantly making their appearance in the assize courts and
found guilty of .swindling, forgery, rape, and murder; commercial and manufacturing interests were fearfully depressed,
hence the frequent risings of the working classes; hence
secret associations to put an end to this rotten condition
of society.

. I
I

1't'f'

POLISH SOCIETIES
601. Polish Patriotism.-It is the fashion to express great
sympathy with the Poles and a corresponding degree of
indignation against Russia, Austria, and Prussia; the Poles
are looked upon as a patriotic race, oppressed by their more
powerful neighbours. But all this rests on mere misapprehension and ignorance of facts. The Polish people under
their native rulers were abject serfs. The aristocracy were
everything, and possessed everything; the people possessed
nothing, not even political or civil rights, when these clashed
with the whims or interests of the nobles. It is these last
whose power has been overthrown-it is they who make war
on and conspire against Russia, to recover (as is admitted by
some of their own writers) their ancient privileges over their
own countrymen, who blindly, like most nations, allow themselves to be slaughtered for the benefit of those who only seek
again to rivet on the limbs of their dupes the chains which
have been broken. It is like the French and Spaniards and
Neapolitans fighting against their deliverer Napoleon, to
bring back the Bourbon tyrants, and with them the people's
political nullity, clerical intolerance, lettres de cachet, and the
Inquisition. How John Bull has been gulled by these Polish
patriots ! Many of them were criminals of all kinds, who
succeeded in breaking out of prison, or escaping before they
could be captured; and, managing to come over to this country, have here called themselves political fugitives, victims
of Russian persecution, and have lived luxuriously on the
credulity of Englishmen! Moreover, the documents published by Adolf Beer from the Vienna, and by Max Duncker
from the Berlin archives (1874), show that the statement of
Frederick the Great, that the partition of Poland was the only
way of avoiding a great European war, was perfectly true.
602. Various Revolutionary Sects.-One of the first societies
formed in Poland to organise the revolutionary forces of the
country was that of the "True Poles" ; but, consisting of
2"7

208

SECRET SOCIETIES

few persons only, it did not last long. In I 8 I 8 another

sect arose, that of "National Freemasonry," which borrowed
the rites, degrees, and language of Freemasonry, but aimed
at national independence. The society was open to persons
of all classes, but sought chiefly to enlist soldiers and officials,
so as to turn their technical knowledge to account in the day
of the struggle. But though numerous, the society lasted
only a few years ; for disunion arose among the members,
and it escaped total dissolution only by transformation. It
altered its rites and ceremonies, and henceforth called itself
the "Scythers," in remembrance of the revolution of I794,
in which whole regiments, armed with scythes, had gone
into battle. They met in I 82 I at Warsaw, and drew up
a new revolutionary scheme, adopting at the same time the
new denomination of "Patriotic Society." In the meanwhile the students of the University of Wilna had formed
themselves into a secret society; which, however, was discovered by the Russian Government and dissolved. In
1822 the Patriotic Society combined with the masonic
rite of "Modern Templars," founded in Poland by Captain
Maiewski; to the three rites of symbolical masonry was
added a fourth, in which the initiated swore to do all in his
power towards the liberation of his country. These combined societies brought about the insurrection of I830. In
1834 was established the society of "Young Poland"; one
of its most distinguished members and chiefs being Simon
Konarski, who had already distinguished himself in the insurrection of I830. He then made his escape, and in order
better to conceal himself learned the art of watchmaking.
Having returned to Poland and joined "Young Poland,"
he was discovered in I838, and subjected to the torture to
extort from him the names of his accomplices. But no
revelations could be obtained from him, and he bore his
sufferings with such courage that the military governor of
Wilna exclaimed, "This is a man of iron ! " A Russian
officer offered to assist him in escaping, and being detected,
was sent to the Caucasian army for life. Konarski was
executed in I839, the people tearing his clothes to pieces
to possess a relic of him. The chains he had been loaded
with were formed into rings and worn by his admirers .
Men like these redeem the sins of many so-called " Polish
patriots."
603. Secret National Government.-Some time before the
outbreak of the Crimean war a secret national governme11t
was formed in Poland, of course with the object of organising

POLISH SOCIETIES

209

an insurrection against Russia. Little was known for a

long time about their proceedings. Strange stories were
circulated of midnight meetings in subterranean passages;
of traitors condemned' by courts composed of masked and
hooded judges, from whose sentence there was no appeal
and no escape; of domiciliary visits from which neither the
palace nor the hovel was exempt ; and of corpses found
nightly in the most crowded streets of the city, or on the
loneliest wastes of the open country, the dagger which
had killed the victim bearing a label stamped with the
well-known device of the insurrectionary committee. So
perfectly was the secret of the modern Vehmgericht kept
that the Russian police were completely baffled in their
attempts to discover its members. At that period the Poles
were divided into two parties, the" whites" and the" reds";
the former representing the aristocratic, the latter the democratic element of the nation. Each had its own organisation.
The whites were mostly in favour of strictly constitutional
resistance ; the reds :were for open rebellion and an immediate appeal to arms. But a union was brought about between the two parties in consequence of the conscription
introduced by Russia into Poland in 1863, which set fire to
the train of rebellion that had so long been preparing. But
Langiewicz, the Polish leader, having been defeated, the
movements of the insurgents in the open field were arrested;
though the rebellion was prolonged in other ways, chiefly
with a view of inducing the Western Powers to interfere in
behalf of Poland. But these naturally thought that as the
Polish people, the peasantry, had taken very little share
in the insurrection, and as Alexander II. had really introduced a series of reforms which materiaUy improved the
position of his -Polish subjects, there was no justification for
the outbreak; and therefore justice was allowed to take its
course. Subsequent attempts at insur1ection, with a view
to re-establish the independence of Poland, were defeated
by the action of Italian and other revolutionary sects, because, as Petrucelli della Gatina declared in the Chamber of
Deputies at Turin in 1864, the Poles, being Roman LJatholics,
would, immediately on their emancipation, throw themselves
at the.feet of the pope and offer him their swords, blood,
and fortunes. These revolutionists are far more astute than
our beloved diplomatists.

VOL. II.

II
l

!
I

IX

THE OMLADINA
6o4. The Panslavists.-The desire of the Sclavonic races,
comprising Bohemians, Moravians, Silesians, Poles, Croats,
Servians, and Dalmatians, to be united into one grand confederation, is of ancient date. It was encouraged by Russia
as early as the days of Catherine II. anq of Alexander I., who,
as well as their successors, hoped to secure for themselves
the hegemony in this confederation. But the Sclavonians
dreaded the supremacy of Russia, and in the earlier days
the Sclavonian writers subject to Austria wished to give the
proposed Panslavist movement the appearance more of an
intellectual and literary, than of a political and social league.
But the European revolution of I 848 infused a purely
political tendency into Panslavist ideas, which already in
J nne of the above year led to a Sclavonic-democratic insurrection at Prague, which, however, was speedily put down,
Prince Windischgratz bombarding the town during two
days. The further progress of the Panslavistic movement
is matter of public history; but a society arose out of the
Sclavonic races, whose doings have of late been brought into
prominence; this society is the Omladina. The exact date
of the origin of this society is not at present known ; probably
it arose at the time when the Italian party of action, led
by Mazzini, about r863, attempted, by assisting the so-called
national party of Servia, Montenegro, and Roumania, to
cripple Austria in Italy, and so render the recovery of the
Venetian territory more easy. Simon Deutsch, a Jew, who
had been expelled from Austria for his revolutionary ideas,
and afterwards, on the same grounds, from Constantinople,
who was the friend of Gambetta, an agent of the International,
and of" Young Turkey," was one of the most active members
of the society, whose inne:r organisation was known as the
Society Slovanska Liga, the Slav Limetree. This latter,
however, did not attract the attention of the authorities till
1876, when its chief, Miletich, a member of the Hungarian
210

I
)

THE OMLADINA

211

Diet, was arrested at Neusalz. But the society continued

to exist, and occasionally gave signs of life, as, for instance,
in 1882; when it seriously talked of deposing the Prince of
Montenegro, and electing Menotti Garibaldi perpetual president of the federation of the Western Balkans. At last,
in January 1894, seventy-seven members of the Omladina,
including journalists, printers, clerks, and artisans, mostly
very young men, were put on their trial at Prague for being
members of a secret society, and guilty of high treason.
When the arrests began, one Mrva, better known as Rigoletto
di Toscana, was assassinated by Dolezal, who afterwards was
seized, and was one of the accused included in the prosecution. This Mrva had been a member of the Omladina, and
was said to be a police spy. He made careful notes of all
the proceedings of the society, as also of another with which
he was connected, and which was called "Subterranean
Prague," the object of which was to undermine the houses
of rich men, with a view to robbing them. His papers and
pocket-books, which after his death fell into the hands of
the police, served largely in drawing up the indictment
against the Omladina. The result of the trial, ended on the
21st February 1894, was that all the prisoners but two were
convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging
from seven months to eight years. Whether the Omladina
is killed or only scotched, remains to be seen; probably it
is the latter, for the Panslavic movement it represents is
alive, and will some day lead to the solution of the Eastern
question. For Panslavism-of which the Omladina was the
outcome-means Muscovite patriotism, and its war-cry,
"Up against the unbelieving Turkish dogs!" finds an echo
in all Russia ; and though the Berlin Congress has for a time
checked the progress of Panslavism, yet, as we said above, it
is alive.

TURKISH SOCIETIES

6os.' Young Turkey.- The vivifying wave of revolutionary

ideas which swept over Europe in the first half of this cen-.
tury extended even to Turkey, and, in imitation of its ~ffects
in other countries, produced a Young 'furkey, as it had produced a Young Germany, a Young Poland, a Young Italy,
and so on. Mr. David Urquhart, as violent a Turcophile as
he was a Russophobe, attributed to Moustapha Fazyl-Pacha,
whom he calls a Turkish "Catiline," the doubtful honour
of having been the founder of Young Turkey, whose aims
were the abolition of the Koran and of the Sultan's authority,
the emancipation, in fact, of Turkey from religions and civil
despotism. The society did not make much progress in the
earlier half of the century, hence, in 1867, a new ase>ociation
with the same title, and under the same chief, was formed
at Constantinople, Paris, and London Its objects were the
same as those of the first society, with the additional aim of
destroying Russian influence in the East by the emancipation
of the Christian subjects of the Porte. The members of the
directing committee in Paris and London were Zia Bey,
Aghia-Effendi, Count Plater, a Pole, living at Zurich, Kemal
Bey, and Simon Deutsch. The chief agent of the committee
at Constantinople was M. Bonnal, a French banker at Pera.
Moustapha Pacha agreed to contribute annually three hundred thousand francs to the funds of the association. Murad
Bey, the brother of the present Sultan, is now the leader of
the Young Turkey party, of which Midhat Pacha was a
prominent member. Murad Bey attributes to the Sultan
himself and the palace camarilla all the evils from which the
country is now suffering.
6o6. Armenian Society.-We shall see further on (637)
that the Armenians of Russia formed a secret society against
that country in r888; recent events (1896) have prominently
brought before Europe the existence in Turkey of Armenian
societies. They are organised in the same way as the old
venditas of the Carbonari; that is to say, the committees do
not know one another, nor even the central committee from
which they receive orders. They number five, and comprise
altogether about two hundred members. Each C!)mmittee
212

TURKISH SOCIETIES

213

has a significant name. They are called Huntchak (Alarm),

Frochak (Flag), Abdag (Bellows), Gaizag (Thunderbolt), and
V otchintchak (Destruction). The last two are the most recently created. The committees act according to a piau fixed
by the occult central committee. Thus the Huntchak organised the demonstration in 1895 at the Porte, while the
attack on the Ottoman Bank (1896) devolved on the Frochak
committee. There remain three, who will have to act successively. In the following month of October the Armenian
revolutionary leaders sent a letter to the French Embassy at
Constantinople, threatening further outrages. The latest
detailed account of the society, published in December 1896,
says : The discovery of seditious papers found in the possession of Armenian conspirators, when arrested in December
. 1896 at Kara Hissar Oharki, reveals all the details of the
revolutionary programme, circulated by the leaders of the insurrection, and imposed on their adherents. The programme
includes thirty-one draconic rules, to which the members of
the numerous Armenian bands have to submit. For instance,
each band must be composed of at least seven members, who
take an oath that they will submit to torture, and even to
death, rather than betray the secrets of the society. By Rule
14 the bap.d is ordered to carry off into the mountains any
unjust or cruel Ottoman official, to compel him to reveal any
State secret which he may possess, and even to put him to
death. Rule I 5 authorises the band to attack and plunder
the mails and couriers, but it must not assail any person
found travelling alone on the roads, unless it is absolutely
necessary in the interest of the band to do so. Any member
showing cowardice, when fighting, is tobe shot at once. The
chief is the absolute master of the band, and may punish
as he chooses any member with whom he is dissatisfied
Amongst some of the most stringent clauses is one which
orders the members to act as spies upon each other, and to
report to the chief all the doings and movements of one
another. One of the characteristic features of the Armenian
revolution is the use of numerous disguises, which enable
them to go secretly through towns and circulate arms and
seditious literature, pamphlets, and even pictures, with the
view of inciting the Armenian population against the Imperial Government. The English agitation of the present
day in favour of the Armenians shows the crass ignorance
existing in this country as to the true character of that people.
If the Armenians were worthy of, or fit for, the liberty they
claim, they would do as the Swiss-a poor nation, whilst the
Armenians are rich-did five hundred years ago in fighting
Austria-they would fight Turkey.

'}'

':.r: .--

. XI
THE UNION OF SAFETY
607. Historical Sketch of Society.-Russia has ever beeu a
hotbed of secret societies, but, to within very recent times
such societies were purely local; the Russian people might
revolt against some local oppression, or some subaltern tyrant,
but they never rose against the emperor, they never took up
arms for a political question. Whatever secret associations
were formed in that country, moreover, were formed by the
aristocracy, and many of them were of the most innocent
nature ; it was at one time almost fashionable to belong to
such a society, as there are people now who fancy it an
honour to be a Freemason. But after the wars of Napoleon,
the sectarian spirit spread into Russia. Some of the officers
of the Russian army, after their campaigns in Central Europe,
on their return to their native country felt their own degradation and the oppression under which they existed, and conceived the desire to free themselves from the same. In 1822
the then government of Russia issued a decree, prohibiting
the formation of a new, or the continuance of old, secret
societies. The decree embraced the masonic lodges. Every
employe of the State was obliged to declare on oath that he
belonged to no secret society within or without the empire ;
or, if he did, had immediately to break off all connection
with them, on pain of dismissal. The decree was executed
with great rigour; the furniture of the masonic lodges was
sold in the open streets, so as to expose the mysteries of
masonry to ridicule. When the State began to prohibit secret
societies, it was time to form some in right earnest. Alexander Mouravief founded the Union of Safety, whose rites
and ceremonies were chiefly masonic-frightful oaths, daggers,
and poison figuring largely therein. It was composed of three
classes-Brethren, Men, and Boyards. The chiefs were taken
from the last class. The denomination of the last degree
shows how much the aristocratic element predominated in
the association, which led, in fact, to the formation of a
214

THE UNION OF SAFETY

215

society still more aristocratic, that of the "Russian Knights,"

which aimed at obtaining for the Russian people a constitutional charter, and counteracting the secret societies of
Poland, whose object was to restore Poland to its ancient
state, that is to say, absolutism on the part of the nobles,
and abject slavery on the part of the people. The two societies eventually coalesced into one, under the denomination
of the "Union for the Public Weal"; but, divided in its
counsels, it was dissolved in 1821, and a new society formed
under the title of the "Union of the Boyards." The programme of this union at first was to reduce the imperial
power to a level with that of the President of the United
States, and to form the empire into a federation of provinces.
But gradually their views became more advanced; a republic
was proposed, and the emperor, Alexander I., was to be put
to death. The more moderate and respectable members
withdrew from the society, and after a short time it was
dissolved, and its papers and documents carefully burnt.
The revolutions of Spain, Naples, and Upper Italy led
Peste], a man who had been a member of all the forme1
secret societies, to form a new one, wi:th the view of turning
Russia into a republic; the death of .Alexander again formed
part of the scheme. But circumstances wer~ not favourable to the conspirators, and the project fell to the ground.
.Another society, called the North, sprang into existence, of
which Pestel again was the leading spirit. In 1824, the
" Union of the Boyards " heard of the existence of the Polish
P-atriotic Society. It was determined to invite their cooperation. The terms were speedily arranged. The Boyards
bound t:P.emselves to acknowledge the independence of
Poland; and the Poles promised to entertain or amuse the
.Archduke Constantine at Warsaw whilst the 'revolution was
being accomplished in Russia. Both countries were to adopt
the republican form of government. This latter condition,
however, made by the Poles, displeased the Boyards, who,
themselves lusting after power, did not see in a republic the
opportunity of obtaining it. The Boyards therefore united
themselves with another soCiety, that of the "United Slavonians,'' founded in 1823 by a lieutenant of artillery, named
Borissoff, small in numbers, but daring. .As the name implied,
it proposed a Slavonian confederation under the names of
Russia, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, Dalmatia, and
Transylvania. The insurrection was on the point of breaking
out; but the Emperor .Alexander had already (in 'June 1823),
by the revelations of Sherwood, an Englishman in Russian

SECRET SOCIETIES
service, who was ennobled, received some intimation of the
plot, but seems to have neglected taking precautions; whilst
he was lying ill at Taganrog, Count De Witt brought him
further news of the progress of the conspiracy, but the
emperor was too near his death for active measures. He
died, in fact, a few days after of typhoid fever he had caught
in the Crimea. It was rumoured that he died o poison, but
such was not the case: the report of Sir James Wylie, who
was with him to the last, disproves the rumour. Besides, it
is certain that the conspirators were guiltless of the emperor's
death, since it took them unprepared and scattered at inconvenient distances over the empire. Immediately on Alexander's death General Diebitsch, commanding at Kieff,
ordered Colonel Pestel and about a dozen officers to be
arrested. But the conspirators did not therefore give np
their plan. They declared Nicholas, who succeeded Alexander, to be a usurper, his elder brother Constantine being
the rightful heir to the throne. But Constantine had some
years before signed a deed of abdication in favour of his
brother, which however was not publicly known; and Alexander I. having died without naming his successor, the conspirators took advantage of this neglect to further their own
purposes. But they were not supported by the bulk of the
army or the people; still, when it came to taking the oath
of fidelity to the new emperor, an insurrection broke out
at St. Petersburg, which was only quelled by a cruel and
merciless massacre of the rebellious soldiers. Pestel, with
many others, was executed, but his equanimity never deserted
him, and he died with sealed lips, though torture is said to
have been employed to wring confessions from him. Prince
'froubetskoi, who had been appointed Dictator by the con.spirators, but who at the last moment pusillanimously
betrayed them, was nevertheless by the merciless Nicholas I.
exiled to Siberia for life, and condemned for fourteen years
to work in the mines, and he belonged to a family which had,
with the Romanoffs, competed for the throne !
These secret societies, with another discovered at Moscow
in 1838, whose members were some of the highest nobles of
the empire, and who were punished by being scattered in
the army as private soldiers-these secret societies were the
precursors of the Nihilists, whose history we have now to tell.

!'

.......

XII

THE NIHILISTS
"There are alarmists who confer upon the issuers of these revolu.
tionary [NihilisticJtracts the dignified title of a secret society, . . . but
the political atmosphere of the country [RussiaJ . . . is no longer so
favourable as it used to be to their development.'
-ATHENlEUM, 29th January 1870.
"A political movement that is perhaps the most mysterious and
romantic the world has ever known."-ATHENlEUM, 23rd September 1882.
"Nihilism is the righteous arid honourable resistance of a people
crushed under an iron foe; Nihilism is evidence of life. . . . Nihilism
is crushed humanity's only means of making the oppressor tremble."
-WENDELL PHILLIPS (in speech at Harvard University).

6o8. Meaning of the term Nihilist.- When the first edition

of this work was published, but scanty information concerning this society had as yet reached Western Europe. .As will
be seen by the first quotation above, its scope and importance
were at that date not understood; twelve ye~trs after, the
same publication in eloquent and-coming from such an
authority-significant language paid due honour to it. .And
indeed since 1870 the Nihilists have made their existence
known to the world both by burning words and astounding
deeds, which we will record as concisely as possible.
The term " Nihilist " was first used by Turgheneff, the
novelist, in his "Fathers and Sons," where one of the characters, .Arkadi, describes his friend Bazaroff as a "Nihilist."
".A Nihilist? " says his interlocutor. ".As far as I understand
the term, a Nihilist is a man who admits nothing."-" Or
rather, who respects nothing," is the reply. ".A man who
bows to no authority, who accepts no principle without
examination, however high this principle may stand in the
opinions of men." This was Turgheneff's original definition
of a Nihilist; at present he means something very different.
The term was at first used in a contemptuous sense, but
afterwards was accepted from party pride by those against
whom it was employed, just as the term of Gueux had in a.
217

SECRET SOCIE'l,IES
former age been adopted by the nobility of the Netherlands.
609. Founders of Nihilism.-The original Nihilists were
not conspirators at all, but formed a literary and philosophical society, which, however, now is quite extinct. It
flourished between I86o and 1870. Its transformation to
the actual Nihilism is due, in a great measure, to the Paris
Communists and the International, whose proceedings led
the youth of Russia to form secret societies, having for their
object the propagation of the Liberal ideas which had long
before then been preached by Bakunin and Herzen, who
may indeed be looked upon as the real fathers of Nihilism,
with whom may be joined Cernisceffski, who, in 1863, published his novel, "What is to be Done?" for which he was
sentenced to exile in Siberia, but which mightily stirred up
the revolutionary spirit of Russia. Herzen, who died in
1869, aimed only at a peaceful transformation of the Russian
empire; but Bakunin, who died in 1878, dreamt of its
violent overthrow by means of a revolution and fraternisation with other European States equally revolutionised.
Even during his lifetime an ultra-Radical party was formed,
having for its organ the Onward, founded in I 874 by Lavroff,
whose programme was, " The party of action is not to waste
its energies on future organisation, but to proceed at once
to the work of destruction."
610. Sergei Nechayejf.-.Another important and influential
personage in the early days of Nihilism was Sergei Nechayeff,
a self-educated man, and at the time when he first became
active as a conspirator, in 1869, a teacher at a school in St.
Petersburg. He advocated the overthrow, though not the
death, of the Tsar. But the conspiracy was prematurely
discovered; Nechayeff had an intimate friend, the student
Ivanoff, but ultimately they disagreed in political matters,
and Ivanoff, declaring that his friend was going too far,
threatened to leave the secret association. This was looked
upon as an act of treason, and on the 2Hit November 1869
Nechayeff slew Ivanoff in a grotto near the .Academy of
.Agriculture at Moscow. This murder led to the discovery
of the society, and eighty-seven members thereof were tried.
in 1871. Prince Cherkesoff was implicated in this attempt;
.he had on several occasions supplied the required funds.
lie was deprived of his rights and privileges, and banished
to Siberia for five years. Nechayeff himself escaped to
Switzerland, but so great were his powers of organisation
and persuasion that the Russian Government set a high

'l'HE NIHILISTS

219

price on his head, and finally succeed~d in obtaining his

extradition from Switzerland, no less than 20,000 francs being
paid to the Zurich Prefect of Police, Pfenniger, who facilitated the extradition, which, according to all accounts, was
more like an act of kidnapping. The Municipal Council
strongly protested, and passed a resolution that even
common criminals should not be given up to such .Governments as those of Russia and Turkey. Nechayeff was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude in Siberia, but he
was too important a person to be trusted out of sight, and
so he was confined in the most secure portion of the fortress
Peter and Paul. For a time he was kept in chains fastened
to a metal rod, so that he could neither lie down, stand up,
nor sit with any approach to ease. But even in prison he
never lost an opportunity of making converts ; he received
visits from high officials, nay, the emperor himself "interviewed " him. Of course all these visits were paid with a
view of sounding him about the forces and prospects of the
revolutionary party, but he remained true to them; and with
wonderful self-abnegation preferred remaining in prison to
delaying the killing of the Tsar, which delay would have
been necessary had his friends undertaken his deliverance.
In 1882 the friendl;v guards around him were arrested, and
nothing more was ever heard of N echayeff beyond the fact
that he was cruelly beaten with rods in consequence of a
dispute with the inspector of the prison, and died shortly
after. Some suppose that he committed suicide, others that
he was killed by the effects of the blows. He was keenly
lamented by all the Nihilists, for all recognised his ability,
his courage, and utter disregard of self.
611. Goring among the People.-One of the earliest effects
of the newly-awakened enthusiasm for social and political
freedom was the eagerness with which young men, and
.women too, went "among the people." 'rhe sons and
daughters, not only of respectable, but of wealthy and
aristocratic, families renounced the comforts and security of
home, the love and esteem of their relatives, the advantages
of rank and position, to associate with the working classes
and the peasantry, dressing, faring, and working like and
witli .them, with the object of instilling into them ideas as
to the rights of humanity and citizenship ; of expounding to
them the principles of Socialism and of the revolution. Thus
in the winter of 1872, in a hovel near St. Petersburg, Prince
Krapotkine gathered round him a number of working-men;
Obuchoff, a rich Cossack, did the same on the banks of the

{
SECRET SOCIETIES
river Don; Leonidas Sciseko, an officer, became a handweaver in one of the St. Petersburg manufactories to carry
on the propaganda there; Demetrius Rogaceff, another
officer, and a friend of his, went into the province of Tver,
as sawyers, to spread their doctrines among the peasants ;
Sophia Perovskaia, who, like Krapotkine, belonged to the
highest aristocracy-her father was Governor-General of
St. Petersburg-took to vaccinating village children; in the
secret memoir drawn up in 1875 by order of Count Pahlen,
the then Russian Minister of Justice, we also find the names
of the daughters of three actual Councillors of State, the
daughter of a general, LOschern von Herzfeld, as engaged
in this propaganda ; and from the same document it appears
that as early as the years 1870 and 1871 as many as thirtyseven revolutionary "circles" were in existence in as many
provinces, most of which had established schools, factories,
workshops, depi'>ts of forbidden books, and "flying sheets," for
the propagation of revolutionary ideas. But though the propagandists met with some successes among the more educated
classes, and received great pecuniary assistance from them
-thus Germoloff, a student, sacrificed his whole fortune,
maintaining several friends at the Agricultural Academy of
Moscow ; V oinaralski, an ex-Justice of the Peace, gave forty
thousand roubles to the propaganda- yet among the
peasantry their successes were not equal to their energy
and zeal. 'l'he Russian peasants, too ignorant to understand
their teachers, or too timid to follow their advice, were not
to be stirred up to assert the rights belonging to the citizens
of any State. Moreover, the young men and women, who
went fort,h as the apostles of revolution, were lacking in
experience and caution ; hence they attracted the attention
of Government, and many were arrested. How many was
never known. The propaganda was stamped out with every
circumstance of cruelty, the gaols were filled with prisoners,
the penal settlements with convicts ; half the students at the
universities were in durance, and the other half under the
ban of the law.
6 I 2. Nihilism becomes Aggressive.- Nihilism doctrinaire
having thus proved a failure, it became Nihilism militant.
The Nihilists who had escaped the gallows, imprisonment,
or exile, determined that revolutionary agitation was to
take the place of a peaceful propaganda. They began by
forming themselves into groups in different districts, whose
object it was to carry on their agitation among those
peasants only whom they knew as cautious and prudent

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people. The St. Petersburg group was at first, 1876-78,

contemptuously called "The Troglodytes," but afterwards,
after the paper published by them," Laud and Liberty." There
was also a large "group" at Moscow. Most of its members
had been students at the Zurich University; it included
several girls, one of whom was Bardina, of whom more in
the next section. Some of them had entered into sham
marriages, which they themselves, in their letters, called
farces, and which were performed without any religious
ceremony, and were, in most cases, never consummated,
their object being simply to render the women independent,
and to enable them to obtain passports, and at many a trial
it was proved that these women had, in spite of their
adventurous lives and intimate association with men, preserved their virtue unimpaired. But the groups, though
they held their ground with varying fo!tunes for several
years, remained without results; the immensi~y of Russia,
the vis inertia of the peasantry, and the necessity of acting
with the utmost circumspection, rendered these local efforts
futile. The leaders at Moscow wrote despairingly. Thus in
a letter from Sdanowitch to the members at Ivanovo, a
village of cotton-spinners, we read: " The news from the
south are unsatisfactory. . . . We send you books and
revolvers. . . . Kill, shoot, work, create riots ! " There
seems to have been no scarcity of books or money: one
member of the association was found in possession of
8545 roubles in cash, a note for 1100 roubles, and 300
prohibited books, and with another 2450 prohibited books
were discovered. The central administration at Moscow,
which became necessary when, after the arrests in March
1875, the members went to the provinces, provided books,
money, addresses, and false passports; carried on correspondence (in cipher), gave warning of approaching danger
and notice of the arrest of brethren, and kept up communication with prisoners. But this Moscow society was
discovered in August 1875, and totally extinguished.
613. Sophia Bardina's and other Trials.-But Nihilism
was not to be suppressed. It continued to gather strength,
even among the peasantry, as was shown by the trial of
Alexis Ossipoff, who in 1876 was condemned to nine years'
penal servitude for having distributed prohibited books.
For the same offence Alexandra Boutovskaia, a young
girl, was sentenced in the same year to four years' penal
servitude.
In March 1877 a new revolutionary society was dis-

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covered at Moscow ; of fifty prisoners,, whose ages ranged

from fifteen to twenty-five years, three were condemned
to ten years' penal servitude, six to nine years (two of them
were young girls), one to five years; the rest were shut
up in prisons, or exiled to distant provinces.
Sophia
Bardina, then aged twenty-three, was one of the prisoners,
the daughter of a gentleman ; she had on leaving college
received a diploma and a gold medal; but to further the
Socialistic propaganda, she took a situation as an ordinary
work-woman in a factory. Accused of having distributed
Liberal pamphlets among the factory hands, she was imprisoned, and kept in close confinement for two years,
without being brought to trial; she was included in the
trial of the fifty, and sentenced to nine years' penal servi-.
tude in Siberia. On being asked what she had to say why
sentence should not be passed, she made one of the most
splendid speeches ever heard in a court of law. In her
peroration, she said, "I am, convinced that our country, now
asleep, will awake, and its awakening will be terrible. . . .
It will no longer allow its rights to be trampled under
foot, and its children to be buried alive in the mines of
Siberia. . . . Society will shake off its infamous yoke, and
avenge us. And this revenge will be terrible. . . . Persecute, assassinate us, judges and executioners, as long as
you command material force, we shall resist you with moral
force ; . . . for we have with us the ideas of liberty and
equality, and your bayonets cannot pierce them I "
Then came the monster trial of the one hundred and
ninety-three. The whole number of persons implicated in
this prosecution originally amounted to seven hundred and
seventy. Of the one hundred and ninety-three who were
tried, ninety-four were acquitted; thirty-six were exiled to
Siberia, and Myschkin, one of the leaders, sentenced to ten
years' penal servitude. Seventy prisoners are said to have
died before they were brought, to trial; the investigations
in the trial lasted four years.
At these and other trials which took place in various
provinces of Russia, the prisoners conducted themselves
with the utmost courage and resolution. The Russian
people appreciated their self-sacrificing patriotism. "They
are saints! " was the exclamation frequently heard from
the lips of even such person"s as did not approve of the
objects of the accused.
6r4. The Party of Terror.-The Nihilists continued to
put forth manifestoes, in which they distinctly stated their

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demands. Whilst (justly) accusing the highest officials and

'dignitaries of dishonourable conduct, avarice, and barbarous
brutality, they demanded their removal from the entourage
of the emperor, to whom they then intended no harm. It
was the court camarilla they were aiming at, and the suppression of the emperor's private chancellery, commonly
called "the Third Division." But the more ardent Nihilists
were for more drastic measures, and a portion of the party,
represented by their organ, Land and Liberty, seceded, and
took the name of the "Party of the People," which section
was in 1878 divided again, and the seceders called themselves
the " Party of Terror," and were represented by the Will
of the People. The party had no definite plans at first; its
first overt act was Solovieff's attempt on the life of the
emperor (6r;). And the Government seemed to play into
the hands of the Terrorists. It did everything it could to
goad. the people to desperation : the merest suspicion led to
arrest; ten, twelve, fifteen years of hard labour were in,flicted for two or three speeches made in private to a few
working-men; spies were employed by Government to obtain,
by false pretences, admittance to Nihilistic meetings, in
order to betray the members. Naturally the Nihilists retaliated by planting their daggers into such traitors as they
discovered and could reach. Thus Gorenovitch, originally a
member of the propaganda, who had betrayed his companions, was, in September 1876, dangerously wounded,
and his face disfigured for life by sulphuric acid; in the
same month and year, Tawlejeff was assassinated at Odessa;
and in July 1877, Fisogenoff at St. Petersburg.
615. Vera Zassulic.-But the signal for the outbreak of
the terrorism, which distinguished the latter phases of
Nihilism, was given, unintentionally, by the shot fired by
the revolver of Vera Zassulicon 24th January 1878. General
Trepoff, the chief of the St. Petersburg police, had ordered
a political prisoner, Bogolinboff, to be flogged for a slight
breach of prison discipline. Vera Zassulic made herself
the instrument to punish this offence. Her life had been
an apprenticeship for it. She was then twenty-six, and at
the age of seventeen she had been arrested and kept in confinement two years, because she had received letters for a
revolutionist. She had then passed her first examination as
a teacher, and was working at bookbinding. At the end of
two years she was released, but in a very few days was seized
again, and sent from place to place, and finally placed at
Kharkoff, nearly two years under police supervision. At the

SECRET SOCIETIES
end of 187 5 she returned to St. Petersburg. Her experiences had prepared her for her deed : she knew what solitary confinement was, and the resentment of Russian society
against Trepoff- for even persons without revolutionary
tendencies called him the Bashi-bazouk of St. Petersburgbecame in her mind a conviction that he must be punished,
though she had no personal acquaintance either with Bogolinboff or Trepoff. She waited on the latter, presented a
paper to him, and while he was reading it, fired her revolver
at him, inflicting a dangerous wound, and then allowed herself to be seized, without offering any resistance. Though
the attempt was :rtot denied at her trial, the jury pronounced
her "Not guilty," and the verdict was unanimously approved
as the expression of public opinion in Russia. Men saw in
the acquittal a condemnation of the whole system of police,
and especially of its chief, General Trepoff. Vera Zassulic
was declared to be free; but in the adjoining street her carriage was stopped by the police ; a riot ensued, for the people
would not allow her to be seized again, and in the commotion
Zassulic made her escape, and after a while found refuge in
Switzerland. The emper6r was furious at her acquittal,
went in person to pay a visit of condolence to his vile tool
'frepoff-w hom he made a .Councillor of State-and then
ransacked the whole city in search of Zassulic, to put her in
prison again.
616. Officials Killed m Threatened by the Nihilists.-The
attempt of Zassulic was followed on the 16th August by the
more successful one on General Mesentsoff, chief of the
third section of police, who had become notorious by being
implicated in a trial about a forged will and false bills of
exchange. Taking advantage of his irresponsible position,
he caused all the witnesses who might have appeared against
him to be assassinated. It was known that he starved the
prisoners under his charge, subjected them to all kinds of
cruelty, loaded the sick with chains, "all by express orders
of the emperor." The Nihilists resolved he must die. On
16thAugust 1878, just as he was leaving a confectioner's
shop in St. Michael's Square, two persons fired several shots
at him with revolvers. He fell, and his assailants,l leaping
into a droschky which was waiting for them, made good
their escape, and fled in the direction of the N ewski
Prospect. One of them was a literary man, who in 1883
lived in Germany. His name was frequently mentioned in

1 Stepniak, after his death in 1895, was accused by the Russian press
of having been one of them. See section 645.

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225

connection with German literature. General Mesentsoff

died the same day at five in the afternoon. In a pamphlet
entitled Death for Death, which appeared directly after,
the writer declared political assassination to be both a just
and efficacious means of fighting the Government, which the
writer's party would continue to use, unless police persecutions ceased, political accusations were tried before juries,
and a full amnesty granted for all previous political offences.
But the Government showed no intention of granting any
such reforms. Its severity was increased, and trial by jury,
in cases of political offences, entirely suspended. Special
courts were instituted, guaranteed to pass sentences in
accordance with the 'rsar's wishes. In September 1878, the
St. Petersburg organisation called "Land and Liberty," and
consisting of about sixty members, was broken up. A great
many were imprisoned, others made their escape, but by the
energy of four or five members the society was not only
re-established, but was enabled to erect a printing-press, on
which their paper, called after the. society, was regularly
printed. The Tsar having appealed to "Society" to assist
him in putting down the revolutionary agitators, the attempts
of "Society" to do so led to numerous riots, and in St.
Petersburg and Kieff, meetings of students were dispersed
by policemen and Cossacks, many of the students being
wounded, and some killed. An association of working-men,
comprising about two hundred members, whose objects in
reality were only Socialistic, was betrayed by the Jewish
spy Reinstein, and about fifty of the working-men were
imprisoned. Reinstein, however, met his reward by being
killed soon after by the Nihilists.
On the 9th February 1879, Prince Alexis Krapotkine, a
cousin of the famous agitator, Peter Krapotkine, and
Governor of Kharkoff, was shot on returning home from
a ball, as a punishment of his inhuman treatment of the
prisoners under his charge, which had led the latter to
organise "hunger-mutinies" (638), many of them preferring starving themselves to death rather than any
longer undergoing the cruelties the governor practised
upon them. Goldenberg, their avenger, made good his
escape.
On March I 2, General Drenteln, the Chief of the Secret
Police, was fired at by a Nihilist called Mirski, who managed
to escape. The causes of the attempt were : firstly, that
Drenteln had caused a prisoner to be hanged for trying to
escape; secondly, his general cruelty, which had provoked
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SECRET SOCIETIES

another "hunger-mutiny "; and lastly, his having sent many

Nihilists to prison.
617. First Attempts against the Emperor's Life.-Thus we
see that the persons aimed at by the Nihilists gradually rose
in rank, and the logical conclusion of aiming at the highest,
at the Tsar himself, could not be evaded. 'l'he idea came to
several persons simultaneously. As early as the autumn of
1878 a mine was laid at Nikolaieff, on the Black Sea, to
blow up the emperor; but it was discovered by the police,
the only one they did discover. About the same time
A. Solovieff, who had been a teacher, but who on becoming
a Socialist learned the trade _of a blacksmith that he might
thus place himself into closer connection with the labouring
classes, came to St. Petersburg with the intention of killing
the e:mperor. At the same period Goldenberg, still elated
with his successful attempt on Prince Krapotkine, also
reached the Russian capital with the same object in viewthe death of the Tsar. Solovieff and Goldenberg entered
into communication with some of the chiefs of " Land and
Liberty," and eventually Solovieff undertook the task. On
the 2nd April I 879, he fired four shots at the emperor as
the latter was walking up and down in front of the palace.
Solovieff was seized, tried on the 6th J nne following, of
course found guilty, and hanged on the 9th of the same
month. At the trial he declared himself a foe of the Government and a foe of the emperor, and at his execution he
preserved his composure to the last.
618. Numerous Executions.-After Solovieff's attempt a
virtual state of siege was established throughout the whole
Russian empire, and a police order was issued at St. Petersburg requiring each householder to keep a dvornik, or watchman, day and night at the door of the house to see who
went in and out, and that no placards were affixed. In the
month of May there were 4700 political prisoners in the
Fort Petropowlovski, who were removed in one night to
eastern prisons, to make room for those newly arrested.
Eight hundred prisoners, under strong escort, were drafted
off from Odessa to Siberia. In the same month the trial
took place at Kieff of the persons who, about a year before,
had resisted the police sent to arrest them for being in
possession of a secret printing-press. Four of the accused
were cited as unknown persons, because they refused to give
their names and were unknown to the police, but during
the trial the names of two of them oozed out. Ludwig
Brandtner and one of the unknown, but calling himself

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227

Antonoff, were sentenced to be shot. The Governor-General

of Kieff, however, ordered them to be hanged. Three obhers,
and Nathalie Armfeldt, daughter of a State Councillor, Mary
Kovalevski, ranked as a noble, and Ekaterine Sarandovitch,
daughter of a civil servant, were condemned to hard labour
for fourteen years and ten months. Ekaterine Politzinoy,
the daughter of a retired staff-captain, for not informing the
police of what she knew of the doings of the other prisoners,
was sentenced to four years' hard labour. At another trial,
held a day after, two other Nihilists, Osinsky and Sophia
von Herzfeldt, were condemned to be shot.
619. The Moscow Attempt against the Ernperor.-Gn the
17th to the 2 1st J nne the Nihilists held a congress at
Lipezk (province of 'l'omboff), at which Scheljaboff, a prominent leader, maintained, as we learn from his "Life,"
written by Tichomiroff, that since the Government officials,
such as Todleben at Odessa, and Tschertkov at Kieff, were
simply the tools of the Tsar, this latter must be personally
punished, which was agreed to by his colleagues. It was
decided to blow up the imperial train during the journey
of the emperor from the Crimea to St. Petersburg. The
mines under the railway line were laid at three different
points-near Odessa, near Alexandrovsk, and near Moscow.
But owing to a change in the emperor's itinerary, the Odessa
mine had to be abandoned ; in that at , Alexandrovsk, the
capsule, owing to some defect, did not explode, though the
battery was closed at the right moment, and the imperial
train passed uninjured over a precipice, to the bottom of
which it would have been hurled by the slightest shock ;
near Moscow alone the terrorists made at least an attempt.
They had purchased a small house close to the railway, and
Leo Hartmann, an electrician, Sophia Perovskaia, and others,
excavated a passage, commencing in the house and ending
under the rails. The work was nearly all done by hand, and
owing to the wet weather the passage was always full of
water, so that the miners had to work drenched in freezing
water, standing in it up to their knees. The attempt to blow
up the emperor's carriage was made on the 1st December
1879, but his train, fortunately for him, preceding instead
of following the baggage-train, the latter only suffered.
When, after the explosion, the cottage was searched some of
the apparatus, and even an untouched meal, were found; but
the inmates had all disappeared, and were not afterwards
apprehended, though many hundreds were sent to prison
on the denunciation of Goldenberg (616), who a few days

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SECRET SOCIETIES

before the Moscow attempt had been seized by the police

with a quantity of dynamite in his possession, and who, to
benefit himself, as he hoped, betrayed a great number of his
fellow-Nihilists. Finding that he did not thereby obtain
any alleviation of his own fate, he committed suicide.
620. Various Nihilist Trials.- Another great trial of
Nihilists took place at Odessa in August. Twenty-eight
prisoners were tried, of whom three were sentenced to be
hanged. They were Joseph Davidenko, son of a private
soldier, and Sergay Tchoobaroff and Dmitri Lizogoob, gentlemen. The latter, who had sacrificed nearly his whole fortune, a large one, to the "cause," and of whom Stepniak
gives so moving an account in his "Underground Russia,"
justly styling him "The Saint of Nihilism," was betrayed
by his steward, Drigo, the Government having promised to
give him what still remained of Lizogoob's patrimony, about
4000. The other prisoners were sentenced to various
terms of hard labour in the mines, ranging from fifteen to
twenty years.
In December another important trial of Nihilists was
heard before the Odessa military tribunal. The most prominent prisoner was Victor Maleenka, a gentleman, who was
tried for the attempt made three years before to murder
Nicholas Gorenovitch, for having betrayed some of his
fellow-Nihilists (614). It appeared that Gorenovitch had
been enticed to a lonely place in Odessa, where Maleenka
felled him with blows ou the head, while a companion threw
sulphuric acid over what was supposed to be the corpse of
Gorenovitch, in order to destroy all traces. But the victim
survived, and appeared as a witness at the trial. He presented a horrible appearance : the acid had destroyed his
sight and all his features, and even his ears; consequently
his head was enveloped in a white cloth, leaving nothing
but his chin visible. It may, by the way, be mentioned,
that he was then inflict~ng his awful presence on poor people
as a scripture reader, being led about by a devoted sister.
Maleenka and two of his fellow-prisoners were sentenced
to be hanged.
621. Explosion in the Winter Palace.-The failure of the
Moscow attempt did not discourage the Nihilists. They
now adopted the title of "The Will o the People," and
though in January 1880 two o their secret printing-presses
were discovered and seized by the police, and numerous arrests
were m:tde, they managed to issue on the 26th January a
programme, in which they declared that unless the Govern-

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ment granted constitutional rights, the emperor must die.

The emperor replied by ordering greater severity and more
arrests. 'l'hen the Nihilists planned a fresh attempt, more
daring than any previous one, to blow up the emperor in his
own palace. Its execution was undertaken by Chalturin, the
son of a peasant, a very energetic agitator and experienced
organiser of workmen's unions. Being also a clever cabinetmaker he easily, under the assumed name of Batyschkoff,
obtained a situation in the imperial palace; he ascertained
that the emperor's dining-hall was above the cellar in which
the carpenters were at work, though between it and the latter
there was the guardroom, used by the sentinels of the palace,
and his plans were made accordingly. So blind and stupid
were the Russian police that-though towards the end of the
year 1879 (Chalturin found employment in the palace in the
month of October) a plan of the Winter Palace, in which
the dining-hall was marked with a cross, was found on a
member of the Executive Committee who had been apprehended, in consequence of which the police made a sudden
irruption into the carpenters' quarters-nothing was discovered, yet Chalturin used a packet of dynamite every night
for his pillow ! A gendarme, however, was installed in the
carpenters' cellars, and a stricter surveillance exercised over
all persons entering or leaving the palace. This rendered the
introduction of dynamite exceedingly difficult, and greatly
delayed the execution of the project.
It may here incidentally be mentioned that what may
appear to the reader to have been an exceptionally difficult
undertaking, viz., to introduce dynamite into the imperial
palace itself, was, after all, very easy. The Winter Palace, till
then always-a change was made after the attempt-had been
a refuge for numberless vagabonds, workmen, friends of servants, and others, many without passports, who could not have
lived anywhere else in the capital with impunity. It appears
there is an old law which gives right of sanctuary, as far as
regards the ordinary police, to criminals taking refuge in an
imperial palace. When General Gourko searched the Winter
Palace, it was found that no fewer than five thousand persons
had been living in it, and no one knew the precise duties of
half of them. Chalturin gave startling accounts of the disorder pervading the palace, and of the robberies committed
by servants. They gave parties of their own, invited scores
of friends, who freely went in and out, yea, stayed overnight, whilst the grand staircase remained inaccessible to even
highly-placed officials. The servants were such thieves that

SECRET SOCIETIES
Chalturin, not to excite their suspicions, was compelled occasionally to take food and other trifles as "perquisites." True,
the wages of the upper domestic servants were only fifteen
roubles a month.
To reeume our narrative. Chalturin suffered terribly from
headaches, caused by the poisonous exhalation of the nitroglycerine on which his head rested at night. However, he
continued to work on without exciting any suspicion, yea, the
gendarme on guard tried to secure the clever workman, who
at Christmas had received a gratuity of a hundred roubles,
for his son-in-law. At last fifty kilogrammes of dynamite
had been introduced; the Executive Committee urged Chalturin to action; and on the sth February I88o the explosion
took place, Chalturin having had time to leave the palace
before it occurred. It pierced the two stone floors, and
made a gap ten feet long and six feet wide in the dininghall, in which a grand dinner in honour of the Prince of
Bulgaria was laid. Through an accidental delay the imperial
family had not yet assembled, and thns escaped total destruction. The explosion killed five men of the palace guard, and
injured thirty-five-some accounts say fifty-three. Some of
the parties implicated in the plot were brought to trial in
November I88o, but Chalturin was not captured till early
in I 882 ; he was hanged on the 22nd March of that year,
and only then recognised as the cabinetmaker of the Winter
Palace. The Executive Committee, in a proclamation, regretted the soldiers who had perished, but expressed its
determination to kill the emperor, unless he granted the
constitutional reforms asked for. The Tsar, in reply, invested
Count Loris-Melikoff with unlimited authority as Dictator.
The attempt on the latter's life, made on 3rd March by Hipolyte Joseph Kaladetski, for which he suffered death on the 5th,
was not prompted by the Executive Committee, who, on the
contrary, expressed their disapproval of it, because Count
Melikoff had shown some tendency towards Liberal ideas.
622. Assassination of the Empe1or.-During the. remainder
of the year I88o, large numbers of suspected persons were
arrested, tried by a secret tribunal, and many of the prisoners
condemned to death or transportation to Siberia. In the
previous year, I 1,448 convicts were despatched eastward,
and in the spring of I 880 there were in the prisons at
Moscow 2973 prisoners awaiting transportation to Siberia
and hard labour in the mines or government factories.
But the Nihilistic movement, instead of being killed, acquired fresh strength by these wholesale persecutions; the

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Tsar, in his blind fury, seemed bent on his destruction-and

it was nearer than he anticipated. The Executive Committee determined that now the emperor must die. Fortyseven volunteers presented themselves to make the' attempt
on his life. On the 13th March 1881, the Tsar was assassinated. Returning from a military review near St. Petersburg, a bomb was thrown by Ryssakoff, which exploded in
the rear of the carriage, injuring several soldiers.
The
emperor alighted, and a second bomb, thrown with greater
precision, by Ignatius Grinevizki, exploded and shattered
both the legs of the emperor below the knees, tore open the
lower part of his body, and drove one of his eyes out of its
socket. Within one hour and a half the Tsar was dead.
Grinevizki was seized, but he was himself so injured that he
died shortly after his arrest. He was the son of a small
farmer, who with great difficulty for some time managed to
keep his family, consisting of eleven persons, but eventually
fell into difficulties ; his farm was sold, and he became insane.
Ignatius, in the greatest poverty, attended several schools.
In 1875 he was sent, as the best scholar of his class, to the
Technological Institution at St. Petersburg; there he joined
the students' unions for Radical purposes, in which, by his
activity and address, he soon acquired great influence. In
I 879 he would have been satisfied with a moderate constitution, but seeing that there was no prospect of even that
small boon, he joined the Terrorists, working with and for
them till the great work of his life was assigned to him. The
Nihilists ascribe to him the fame of a Brutus, of Harmodius,
and Aristogeiton ! Return we to the other actors in this
historic tragedy.
The signal for throwing the bombs had been given by
Jessy Helfmann and Sophia Perovskaia, who were on the
watch, waving their handkerchiefs. She and Helfmann were
arrested, as also some of the other conspirators, Kibalcie,
Micailoff, and Ryssakoff, and, with the exception of Helfmann, who, being four months pregnant, was reprieved,
were hanged on the I 5th April following. All the prisoners
died like heroes ; Perovskaia even retained the colour in her
cheeks to the last. But the execution was a "butchery."
(See Kolnische Zeitung and London Times of 16th April
I 88 1.)
623. The Mine in Garden Street.-On the 25th March the
revolutionary correspondence found on the prisoners led to
the discovery of the conspirators' quarters in Telejewskaia
Street, where Timothy Michailoff was arrested. A copy of

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SECRET SOCIETIES

the proclamation of the new Tsar's ascent to the throne was

found on him, on the back of which were marked in pencil
three places of the city, with certain hours and days against
each. One place thus indicated was a confectioner's shop at
the corner of Garden Street. Just round the corner from
this confectioner's in Garden Street was a cheesemonger's
shop, kept by one Kobizoff and his wife, whose mysterious
disappearance on the day of the assassination led to the discovery of a mine under the street. From subsequent discoveries it became evident that this mine was not intended
to blow up the emperor, but to stop his carriage, and afford
others time to assassinate him, after the fashion of the hay-
cart, which stopped General Prim's carriage at Madrid.
624. Oonstitntion said to have been Granted by late Emperor.
-It was said that the day before his death the emperor
had signed a Constitution, and that by their action the
Nihilists had deprived their country of the benefits it
would have conferred. But what he had signed was merely
the appointment of a representative commission to consider
whether provincial institutions might not be widened, and
the calling together of the zernskij sobor, or communal
council, a measure Loris-Melikoff had strongly advised him
to adopt, as a means of enlisting the people's co-operation in
putting down Nihilism, the minister taking care to remind
the emperor that such an assembly would, after all, be only
deliberative, and that the final decision would always remain
with the crown. The whole scheme was a mere blind to
allay public discontent, with no intention on the Tsar's part
of relinquishing any portion of his absolute prerogatives.
'rhe. emperor's death thus did not deprive the Russian of
auy substantial benefit, but saved them a delusion.
625. The Nihilist Proclarnation.-'l'en days after the Tsar
Alexander II. had been put to death, the Executive Committee issued their nobly-conceived and expressed proclamation to his successor, Alexander III., in which, on condition
of the emperor granting ( r) complete freedom of speech,
(2) complete freedom of the press, (3) complete freedom of
public meeting, (4) complete freedom of election, and (5) a
general amnesty for all political offenders, they declare their
party will submit unconditionally to the National Assembly
which meets upon the basis of the above conditions.
Hundreds of Easter eggs containing this proclamation were
scattered about the streets of Moscow at Easter time. Nay,
a rumour was then universally current in St. Petersburg, that
the Nihilists had deputed one of their number to wait on

THE NIHILISTS

233

'

',!

.,
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the Emperor Alexander and explain to him in unambiguous

words what they really wanted. The emperor received
him, and after having heard what he had to say, ordered
him to be placed in durance in the Fortress Petropowlovski;
the police, however, failed to find any clue to his identity.
So runs the story, and there is nothing improbable in it,
considering the daring self-sacrifice which characterises all
the acts of the Nihilists.
626. The Emperor's Reply the1eto.-The emperor's reply
to the Nihilistic proclamation, asking for such constitutional
rights as are possessed by every civilised nation, was given
in a manifesto, issued on the I Ith May, in which the
emperor expressed his determination fully to retain and
maintain his autocratic privileges. Furthermore, fresh executions were ordered, thousands of his subjects were exiled
to Siberia, greater rigour was exercised against the press
and every Liberal tendency. Not only did the emperor not
grant any reforms, but he even retracted concessions already
made, as, for instance, the reduction of the redemption money,
whereby nearly four millions of his subjects continued to
be kept in virtual serfdom. Ignatieff, the newly-appointed
Minister of the Interior, whilst bravely seconding his master
in his oppressive measures, tried to open a safety-valve to
public dissatisfaction and indignation by fomenting antiJewish riots, the blame of which was laid to the charge of
the Nihilists, who, however, published a very spirited reply,
showing that it was not their policy to incite the people
against the Jews, they being, as was proved at many a trial,
and especially those of Southern Russia, great supporters of
the Nihilistic movement. But irrespective of this, it was no
part of Nihilistic tactics to set one race or religion against
another in the empire. Nor did the despoiling of private
individuals, such as distinguished the violence against the
Jews, enter into their plans. They robbed, they admitted,
but only in the interest of the "cause " and of the people.
They warned the emperor against listening to pernicious
counsel. But the emperor closed his ears to this advice.
Trembling for his life, he shut himself up at Gatshina, to
which place he had fled. The day when he was to start, four
imperial trains were ostentatiously ready at four different
stations in St. Petersburg, with all the official and military
attendants, while the emperor fled in a train without attendance, which had been waiting at a siding.
When in June 1881 the Court removed to Peterh.off, the
railway between the two places was strictly guarded by

,
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~,_.,.:,:c;~":i"::~~;;:;;:;;::~""'''' . _.,..

I,
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234

SECRET SOCIETIES

troops; for every half verst-about one-third of a mile

English-there was a sentinel with a tent. Besides this,
the photographs of all the railway officials were lodged in
the Ministry of Ways and Communications, so that any
Nihilist, disguised in railway costume, might the more easily
be detected.
627. Attempt against General Tcherevin.-On November.
25, a young man presented himself, at the Department
of State Police, which was the old third section or secret
police under a new name, and asked to see General Tcherevin, the chief director of measures for assuring the safety
of the emperor, stating that he had to disclose some business gravely affecting the State. On being ushered into
tha presence of General Tcherevin, he immediately drew a
revolver and fired at the general, but missed him, and was
secured. He declared that he was acting as the instrument
of others, and for the good of Russia, but named no accomplices. His own name was Sankofsky. As the Russian
Government suppressed as far as possible all allusions to
the event-and we have no account as to what became of
Sankofsky-he was probably tried with closed doors, and
what was his punishment remains unknown.
628. Trials and other Events in I882.-Numerous arrests,
and trials of persons who had long been in prison, took place
in I 882. Of twenty prisoners tried in February, ten, including
one woman, were sentenced to be hanged. On I 2th J nne
Count Ignatieff, having rendered himself unpopular to
the public by his anti-Jewish schemes, and incurred the
disfavour of his imperial master by intimating to him that,
without the introduction of the ancient States-General of
the Tsars, the government of the country could not be satisfactorily carried on, under the time-honoured fiction of illhealth sent in his resignation.
Count Tolstoi, who was
known to disapprove of the anti-Semitic policy of Count
Ignatieff, was appointed his successor.
Five days after, the Nihilists received a terrible blow. In
a house occupied by them on an island in the Neva, there
was discovered a great number of bombs and a large quantity
of dynamite; but of more importance were the papers found
on the Nihilists apprehended at the same time, from which
it appeared that they were kept a?t courant of the Government correspondence in cipher with foreign countries, as far
as it referred to themselves, which information they had
received from V olkoff, one of the higher officials in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In July a secret printing-press

THE NIHILISTS

235

o the Nihilists was discovered in the Ministry o Marine ;

its director committed suicide. Encouraged by the disasters
which had befallen the Nihilists, the emperor ventured to
return to St. Petersburg, and on the I rth of September
attended the fete of Alexander N evsky, the patron-saint of
the emperor, but slightly guarded, without evil results; and
in the exuberance of his feelings he went so far as to extend
his clemency even to the Nihilists, for on October 4 he
graciously commuted the sentence of death, passed by a
secret tribunal, on two Nihilists for having murdered a
police spy, to perpetual labour in the mines-and yet the
Nihilists were not conciliated! For when, on the zrst
November, the emperor and ,empress paid a visit to St.
Petersburg extra precautions were taken on the part of the
police and military authorities; all along the route, from the
railway-station to the palace, police-officers in sledges and
on foot were met with at every half-dozen yards ; policemen
were posted at regular intervals in the centre of the street,
and the bridges over the canals were closely guarded by the
marine police. But the emperor maintained his serenity.
As the Official Gazette informed its readers : " Towards the
end of December the new chief of police, General Grossler,
had the honour of exhibiting before his Imperial Majesty
several policemen attired in the latest new and last old
uniforms of the force. His Majesty carefully examined the
difference, consisting mainly in alterations of colours and
buttons." He also began to think of his coronation, which
was announced to take place at various d~tes during the
current year; but the ceremony was postponed from time to
time, and did not finally take place until 27th May 1883.
629. Coronation, and Causes of Nihilistic Inactivity.-Great
surprise was excited by the peaceful nature of the coronation; but it appeared by the trial (in April 1883) of seventeen Nihilists at Odessa, five of whom were sentenced to
death, that the conspirators !lad made the most extensive
preparations for killing the emperor at his coronation, as
proposed in r88r and r882; but by the vigilance of the
police, and the denunciation of spies. their schemes were
frustrated, and the terrorists found it impracticable to make
the attempt in 1883. As they themselves declared afterwards, they came to the conclusion that such an attempt
would damage their interests. They argued that the revolutionary movement in Russia embraces many persons of moderate views, whose opinions must ,be taken into consideration ;
that the people, who came to the coronation would not

t
SECRET SOCIETIES

I
1

fI
f

belong to a class likely to approve of a revolutionary plot.

But the Nihilists profited in another way by the coronation.
The whole force of the Government, and its most intelligent
spies, being concentrated at Moscow, the Nihilists seized this
occasion to spread their doctrines and to enrol supporters
at St. Petersburg and other large centres, to which may be
attributed the great riots which, after the coronation, occurred
at St. Petersburg, which were intensified by the fact that
none of the expected constitutional reforms were granted.
The manifesto issued by the emperor on the coronation day
consisted simply of a remission of arrears of taxes; C!iminals
condemned without privation of civil rights had one-third
of their terms remitted; exiles to Siberia for .life had their
sentences commuted to twenty years' penal servitude; those
still lying under sentence for the Polish troubles in 1863
were to be set free ; but confiscated property was not to be
restored. Much more had been expected, and the Burgomaster of Moscow had been bold enough, in his congratulatory address to the emperor, to express those hopes, for
which ",presumption" he was visited with the emperor's
displeasure. But the disappointment of the people's expectation of an amnesty and a constitution greatly favoured the
spread of Nihilistic doctrines. The Nihilists continued to
hold secret meetings, issue their papers, flying sheets, and
manifestoes. In September 1883 a number of officers were
arrested, and a large depot discovered at Charkoff, containing arms of every kind, large quantities of gunpowder,
dynamite bombs, and new printing apparatus. It was found
that dynamite was being manufactured in Kolpino, close
by St. Petersburg. Here I 38 naval and I 7 artillery officers
were arrested and conveyed to the St. Peter and Paul fortress. In Simbirsk an artillery colonel was arrested, who
had gained an enormous influence with the peasants, and
incited them to revolutionary deeds.

630. Colonel Sudeikin shot by Nihilists.-On the 28th

December the Nihilists took their revenge by shooting
Colonel Sndeikin, the Chief of the Secret Police, in a house
to which he had been enticed by the false information of an
intended Socialist meeting. They also left a letter stating
that the next victims would be Count Tolstoi, Minister of
the Interior, and General Grossler, the Chief of the St.
Petersburg police. "If ever assassination could be palliated," says the Evening Standard of the 31st December
I 88 3, "it is in such a case as the present.
When men know
that sons, or brothers, or wives are being driven to madness

THE NIHILISTS

237

or death by prolonged and deliberate cruelty, no Englishman

can blame them very greatly if they take vengeance on their
tyrants. In a free country, under just laws, assassination of
officers for a fancied wrong is altogether unjustifiable and
wicked ; but under su'ch a regime as exists in Hussia, it can
hardly be judged in the same way. Men ihay shudder, but
they cannot unreservedly condemn."
631. Attempt against the Emperor at Gatshina.-The
Nihilists continued to issue journals and proclamations, and
to extend their influence among the working classes. Of
course they also continued to meet with checks. Early in
January 1884 numerous arrests were made among the
factory hands at Perm, on the Kama, and, many revolutionary documents were found in their possession. Towards
the end of the month of December of the preceding year
the emperor had met with what was thought, or at lea:,t
officially represented, to be au accident; while out hunting,
his horses took fright, upset the sledge, and the emperor
sustained a severe injury to his right shoulder. But in the
following January it was rumoured that the accident was
really a Nihilist attempt at assassination. It was said that
about a fortnight before the murder of Colonel Sudeikin,
Jablonski, alias Degaieff, who had sent Sudeikin the letter
which led to his death, accompanied by a woman, arrived at
the house of the imperial gamekeeper at Gatshina, and producing a letter from Colonel Sudeikin, informed him that
the woman was to be received into his house in order to
assist the detectives already at Gatshina. The woman remained, and whenever the Tsar went shooting, she attended,
disguised as a peasant boy. On the day of the "accident"
the woman was not there, but made her appearance next
day and reported that the Tsar had met with an accident,
one of the gamekeepers having carelessly discharged his gun
close to the imperial sledge and frightened the horses. On
the day after the assassination of Sudeikin, and when it
was known that Jablonski had played the chief part in the
tragedy, three detectives arrived at Gatshina and arrested
the woman. She was said to be a sister of Streiakoff, who
was hanged for complicity in the murder of Alexander II.,
and there were rumours current afterwards that she had
secretly been hanged in one of the casemates of the Petropowlovski Fortress for the attempted murder at Gatshina.
Odessa then became notorious for the frequent murders
and attempted assassinations of officers of the gendarmerie
hy Nihilists. During the summer, Colonel Strielnikoff and

SECRET SOCIETIES

'

lf
1

Captain Gezhdi were killed; on the 19th August a determined attempt to kill Captain Katansky, the successor of
Strielnikoff, was made by a seco~d Vera Zassulic. The girl,
Mary Kaljushnia, who made the attempt, was a merchant's
daughter, barely nineteen, and her object, to avenge her
brother, who had been sentenced to penal servitude for life
in Siberia. She had for some time been under police supervision; she earned a miserable subsistence by giving lessons,
maintaining herself on about fourpence a day. Her requests
to be allowed to go abroad were persistently refused. On
the date above named, she called on Captain Katansky,
avowedly with the object o renewing her request, but in
the course o conversation she suddenly drew a revolver and
fired straight into the officer's face. But the ball only
grazed his ear ; she was seized before she could fire again,
and on the IOth September following sentenced to twenty
years' hard labour. She was tried by the Odessa Military
Tribunal with closed doors. Several political arrests were
made about the same time, especially of students and young
ladies, one of the latter a doctor of medicine.
632. Trial of the Fourteen.-In the month of October a
trial took place in St. Petersburg of fourteen Nihilists, including six officers and the celebrated female revolutionist
Figner, alias Vera Filipava, who had offered shelter to the
regicide Sophia Perovsky, and of another woman, named
Volkenstein, who had been implicated in the murder of
Prince Krapotkine at Kharkoff in 1879 (616). The tribunal.
was virtually a court-martial with closed doors, and the
greatest secrecy was observed throughout the week for
which the trial lasted. The six officers and the two women,
Figner and Volkenstein, were condemned to death, and the
others sentenced to hard labour in the mines.
633. Reconstruction of the Nihilist Party.-After a years'
silence, the organ published clandestinely in Russia by the
Nihilists, the N arodnaia Vvlia (The Will of the People), reappeared, dated I 2th October 1884, in large 4to. The losses
suffered by the party were admitted; their type aud printingmachines had fallen into the hands of the police, and some
of their chief men were in prison. These losses they attributed to the denunciations of Degaieff, the asi'assin of
Colonel Sudeikin, who had been a leading Nihilist, had
turned traitor, but finding the Government not grateful
enough, and fearing the vengeance of the Nihilists, had purchased his safety by acting again for the latter and killing
Sudeikin. This, latter being killed, and Degaieff rendered

THE NIHILISTS

239

harmless, the Committee was able to reconstitute the party.

The Will of the People also gave a summary of the principal
Nihilistic events during the year, comprising some interesting
details concerning the great development of agrarian Socialism in the south of Russia,. facts till then studiously concealed by the Government. The paper further stated that the
revolutionary group, which had at one time separated itself
from the party of the Will of the People, "The Party of the
People" (614) and the revolutionary party of Poland, had coalesced with the Russian Nihilists. Among the other subjects
treated, there was an obituary notice of Professor N eoustraie:ff, who was shot at Irkutsk for striking the governorgeneral of the province. The last pages of the paper were
filled with a long list of arrests made, and a paragraph
incidentally mentions that M. Larroff never belonged to the
Executive Committee, though he is recognised as one of the
editors of the review Onwards, published by the Nihilists at
Geneva, and as a warm friend of the party.
634. Extension of Nihilism.- With such a constant hidden
enemy in their very midst, the Government and people of
Russia were in a state of chronic alarm. Count Tolstoi, the
Minister of the Interior, whilst diligently searching for
Nihilists, was also their especial victim. He daily received
threatening letters; he scarcely dared stir out of doors, and
whenever he did so, the extra precautions that had to be
taken involved an outlay of five hundred roubles. And whilst
despotism was more violent and resolute than ever, the trials
constantly going on showed that Nihilism had extended its
influence .to the army, and that the military Nihilists did
not belong to the lower ranks. Whilst the emperor shut up
Nihilists in one fortress, he was a prisoner in another. The
official press of Russia about this time (end of I 884) was
very sore on the subject of the comments of the English
press on Russian affairs, accusing it of basing its opinions
about Russia upon the prejudiced writings of expatriated
Nihilists, and further charging the English Government w~th
allowing Nihilists to use the very City of London as a place
whence to send not only criminal proclamations, but explosive substances, such as dynamite, to Russia. "A family,"
it was said, "making inquiries about their son, accidentally
came across an entire office of Russian Nihilists within the
boundaries of the City proper." Of course had the English
Government been cognisant of these proceedings, it would
readily have put an end to them.
635. beeline of Nihilism.-Bnt Nihilism apparently began

,,.

SECRET SOCIETIES

;
I.

(
j

to decline. A Nihilist manifesto, published in August 1885,

lamented : " Truth compels us to own that the fierce struggle
with the Russian Government, and the spirit of national discontent, which gave strength to our party, which was, in fact,
its raison d'tre, has ended in the triumph of absolutism." In
the following December a trial took place at Warsaw, at which
six persons belonging to the revolutionary association called
the Proletariate, including a justice of the police and a captain
of Engineers, were sentenced to be hanged; eighteen were
condemned to sixteen years' hard labour in the mines, two
to ten years and eight months' penal servitude, and two
others to transportation to Siberia for life. Early in Jan.uary.
1886 the police discovered a Nihilist rendezvous opposite
the Annitchkine Palace, at St. Petersburg. A number of
explosive bombs and a printing-press were seized, and several
arrests were made. In April it was reported that a Nihilist
conspiracy, directed against the life of the emperor, had
been discovered at a place near Novo Tcherkask, the capital
of the Don Cossacks, to which the emperor was expected to
make a visit. Early in December some five hundred students
attempted to celebrate the anniversary of a certain Bogolinboff, a once popular poet; but the police interfered, and a
number of arrests were made, including many lady students,
eighteen of whom were sent off from St. Petersburg by an
administrative order, without the least notion whither they
were to be taken, or what was to become of them.
Such are the scanty notices we have of Nihilism in 1886.
636. Nihilistic Proceedings in 1887.-In 1887 the Nihilists
displayed greater activity. In February another conspiracy
was discovered, but the details were not allowed to transpire.
All that became known was that a young prince, a cadet
in one of the military schools, attempted to commit suicide
by shooting himself, the reason alleged being his complicity
in some plot which he thought had been discovered. An
inquiry into the matter in one or two of the military and
naval schools resulted in the arrest of a large number of
young men, as well as of two or three naval officers.
On Sunday, the 13th March, the anniversary of the assassination of Alexander II., a determined attempt to kill his
successor was made. The Russian police had previous information that such an attempt would be made, from Berlin, London,
and Bucharest. On Saturday night a couple of men in a restaurant on theN evsky attracted the attention of the detectives,
who followed and watched them all night. Next day the police
were able to watch the posting of six individuals, including

THE NIHILISTS
three students, at three different parts of the route to be followed by the Tsar. They carried bombs in the shape of books,
of a bag, an opera-glass, and a roll of music. As soon as they
had apparently taken their po~tions they were pounced upon
by the police and secured. Altogether :fifteen persons were
arrested, twelve men and three women, one of the latter
being the landlady of the house at Paulovna, on the Finnish
railway, where th~ bomb manufactory was discovered a day or
two after the attempt of ,the 13th. Nine of the twelve men
were students, and the other three were two Polish nobles from
Wilna and an apothecary's assistant. Seven of the accused
were condemned to be ha;nged, and the other eight to various
terms of imprisonment with hard labour, from twenty years
downwards. It was reported at the time that each prisoner
was found to have a small bottle containing a most active
poison suspended round the neck, next to the bare ekin. In
. case of failure, or refusal at the last moment to accomplish
the task, secret agents of the party, who were on the watch
all the time, were to strike the chest of the faint-hearted
or unsuccessful conspirator, thus smashing the bottle and
causing the poison to enter the wound made by the broken
glass. The Nihilists seem not to have been discouraged by
the last failure, for on the 6th April next a fresh attempt
on the emperor's life appears to have been made, though particulars, beyond those of the seizure of several suspected
persons, were not allowed to transpire. But it was reported
from Odessa that in the month of the same year (1887) 482
officers of the army arrived in that town under a strong
military escort. They were accused of participation in the
last attempt on the Tsar's life, and were to be transported to
Eastern Asia.
In June the trial of twenty-one Nihilists, accused of
various revolutionary acts in the years 1883 and 1884, took
place at St. Petersburg. The prisoners included the sons
of college councillors, priests, superior officers, a Don
Cossack, tradesmen, peasants, and two women, one of them
a staff-captain's daughter. Fifteen were condemned to
death, but on the Court's recommendation, eight death
sentences were mitigated to from four to :fifteen years' hard
labour, and subsequently the emperor for once reprieved
the remaining seven, :five of whom were to undergo hard
labour in Siberia for life, and the others from eighteen to
twenty years each.
Another blow was sustained by the Nihilists at the end
of November, when the police discovered laboratories for
VOL. II.

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SECRET SOCIETIES
the manufacture of dynamite in the V assili, Ostrou, and
Peski quarters of St. Petersburg. No wonder that they
began to utter cries of despair towards the end of the year
1887. "Liberalism," they said, in one of their publications,
"has not eradicated the feeling of loyalty in society. . . .
Even the 'intelligent Liberals' have rejected the invitation
to establish free printing offices, . . . or even to serve the
revolutionary press abroad by sending it articles for publication." The Messenger of the Will of the People, which was the
official exponent of the party during the year, ceased to
appear "for want of intellectual and material aid from
Russia." "Little is to be expected," the Nihilists said elsewhere, "from the present generation of Russians. . . .
Russian society, with its dulness, emptiness, and ignorance,
is to blame. . . . Most of the so-called cultured classes
belong to that category of passengers who are made to
travel in cattle-trucks. . . . Russian society has become a
flock of sheep, driven by the whip and the shepherds' dogs."
637. Nihilism in I888.-Little or nothing was heard of
Nihilism in that year. There was indeed a rumour in
January that a new Nihilist conspiracy against the life of
the Tsar had been discovered at St. Petersburg, and that
many officers and others had been arrested; but it went
no further than a rumour. Extensive police precautions
were adopted at St. Petersburg early in March, in anticipation of Nihilist manifestations on March I 3, the anniversary
of the death of the late Tsar ; but the day went by without
disturbances of any kind. The accident which occurred to
the Tsar's train in November I888 is very generally supposed to have been the result of a Nihilist plot. But the
unchangeable despotic character of the Russian Government
was again exemplified during the year by its anti-Semitic
policy at two extremities of European Russia. Some two
thousand Jews received notice to quit Odessa, and the
expulsion laws against the persecuted Hebrews were also
enforced in Finland. The Finnish Diet having refused to
adopt the Russian view of the case, the Government determined upon enforcing the law as it exists in Russia; all the
Jews to leave within a year, with the exception of those who
had served in the army. According to the emperor's own
statement, this wholesale expulsion of the Jews was due to the
fact that Jews have been mixed up with all Nihilistic plots.
In December I 888 the papers reported the discovery by
the Russian Government of a ramification of secret societies .
among the young and educated Armenians, upon the model

THE NIHILISTS

243

of the "Young Italy " societies, as they were constituted

in 1848. The object of the Armenian societies is. revolution
against Russian rule, and the establishment of Armenian
union and independence.
638. Slaughter of Siberian Exiles, and Hunger-Strikes.Towards the end of the year 1889, the civilised world was
horrified by the account of the slaughter of a number of
exiles at Y akutsk, on their way to the extreme east of
Siberia, near the shore of the Polar Sea. These exiles were
not criminals, but exiled by "administrative order," that is
to say, they had not been tried and convicted by any
tribunal : Government, not the Law, arbitrarily had ordered
them to Siberia as suspects. Simply for asking to take
with them sufficient food and clothing for the terrible
journey still before them, they were declared to have
resisted the authorities, and a number of them shot down;
a woman, Sophie Gourewitch, was ripped open by bayonets;
the vice-governor himself twice fired at the exiles. Not
satisfied with this butchery, the surviving exiles were tried
by court-martial; three were sentenced to death, and many
others to long terms of penal servitude in the mines. Early
in 18go, still more horrifying details of hunger-strikes among
the exiles reached Europe, and of the means adopted by the
Russian Government to repress them. One lady, Madame
Sihida, was dragged out of bed, where she lay ill, and received
one hundred blows. She died in two days from the effects.
Many of her companions in misery took poison ; so did many
of the male prisoners. This occurred at Kara, in Eastern
Siberia. In fact, the condition of Russian prisons, especially of those where political prisoners are confined, is too
horrible to be described in these pages; the moral and
physical suffering wantonly inflicted on the victims of a
Tsarish cruelty is without a parallel in the history of absolutism. The Tsar cannot be absolved from personal responsibility in the matter: to say that he was not aware of the
cruelties practised in his name, is saying in as many words
that his neglect of inquiring into them encouraged them ;
but he must know them; they had been frequently communicated to Alexander III., notably in a long letter written
in March 1890 by Madame Tshebrikova, a lady of position, and not in any way connected with the Nihilists ; but
for writing it she was arrested, and sent to Penza, in the
Caucasus, and placed under strict police surveillance.
639. Occurrences in 1890.-The Russian students having
in recent times sl?-own decidedly Liberal tendencies, Govern-

244

SECRET SOCIETIES

ment endeavoured to repress them, which led to repeated

riots and endless arrests, as many as five hundred and fifty
students, who had protested against the new and oppressive
statutes promulgated by the authorities, being arrested at
:Moscow in :March I 890. In April all the police stations
and prisons of St. Petersburg were full of arrested students ;
the ringleaders, mostly young men belonging to good
families, were eventually sent as private soldiers into the
disciplinary battalions near Orenburg.
In :May, fourteen Russians were arrested in Paris, which
has always been a favourite place of residence with Nihilists,
Colonel Sokoloff, who was expelled from France, Krukoff,
a printer, and Prince Krapotkine being among their chiefs.
The prisoners above mentioned were proved to have been in
possession of bombs, many of which had been manufactured
in Switzerland. There were two women among the accused;
they were acquitted, the men were sentenced to three years'
imprisonment.
In November in the same year the Russian General Seliverskoff was found in his room in a Paris hotel, shot in the
head ; he died on the following day without having recovered
consciousness. He had been a Russian spy on the Nihilists.
In the same month five Nihilists were tried at St. Petersburg, one of them being a woman, Sophie Giinzburg, who
was arrested in Russia, in possession of bombs and revolutionary proclamations. Four of the prisoners were condemned to death. Another trial took place about the same
time, and as in the first-mentioned trial the principal figure
was a woman, so in this second trial the chief personage was
a young girl, Olga Ivanovsky, niece of Privy Councillor
Idinsky, director of a department of the Holy Synod. As
the names of high ecclesiastical functionaries were concerned
in the affair, the authorities shrouded it in more than the
usual secrecy, so that no details have reached the outer
world.
640. Occurrences from 189! to Present Date.-The Nihilists appear to have been rather, but not quite, inactive
during these later years. In :May 1891 a secret printingpress was discovered and seized at St. Petersburg. In
November of the same year a far-reaching political conspiracy was discovered at Moscow, and some sixty persons,
belonging to the nobility, the literary profession, and the
upper middle class, were arrested. In December a great
number of arrests were made, some of the accused being
found to be in possession of plans and details of the imperial

THE NIHILISTS

245

palaces. In 1892 a number of Nihilists were arrested at

Moscow, for an alleged conspiracy to kill the Tsar on his
return journey from the Crimea. An anonymous letter had
warned the authorities that the attempt was to be made
at a small railway s~ation. The line was examined, and a
bomb discovered under each line of rails. In spite of these
failures, the Nihilistic agitation was actively carried on.
The revolutionists endeavoured to stir up the lower classes
against the Tsar by telling them that, though he pretended to supply the masses with food during the famine, he
allowed his subordinates to rob the people. The insinuation, however, had but little success with the Russian people
of the lower class, brought up in slavish adoration of the
emperor, who can do no wrong. In the month of December,
Major-General Droszgovski was assassinated at Tashkend, in
Russian Turkestan. He had been acting as president of a
court-martial for the trial of a number of Nihilists, most of
whom were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
To avenge them their friends killed the president.
In May 1893 the decapitated body of a Russian student
was discovered in a forest, near Plussa Station, on the Warsaw railway. The deceased was supposed to have been a
member of a secret society, and to have been killed to prevent his revealing its secrets. Two young men were arrested
for the crime, and immediately hanged. A widespread
Nihilistic conspiracy against the life of the Tsar was discovered (in September 1893) at Moscow, in consequence of
which eighty-five university students, eight professors, and
five ladies belonging to the, aristocracy, were arrested.
Early in 1894 the Government Commission appointed to
inquire into the condition of Siberian prisons issued its
report, in which instances without number were recorded
of merciless floggings, lopping off of arms and fingers by
sabre cuts, of cannibalism under stress of famine. During
the whole of 1892 there was an almost continuous string of
convoys of corpses from Onor, the prison on the island of
Saghalien, to Rykovskaya, the residence of the authorities,
and most of the bodies were terribly mutilated. In 1893, if
any one of a band of convicts failed in his work, he was at
once put on half rations, then on third rations; and when he
could work no more, the inspector finished him with a revolver bullet. What wonder, then, that in November 1894
three secret printing-presses, in full working order, with a
great quantity of Nihilistic literature, were discovered at
Kieff, at Kharkoff, and at Nicolaieff respectively ? The

SECRET SOCIETIES

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press at Kharkoff was being worked by the students of the

university in that city. Upwards of eighty persons were
arrested. In September 1895, it was reported that a widespread Nihilistic plot against the life of the Tsar and the
imperial family had been discovered by the Russian police.
Some of the leaders were quietly arrested, while dynamite
bombs, arms, and piles of revolutionary pamphlets were
seized during a number of domiciliary visits at Moscow. In
March of the year I 896 six officers of the garrison of
Kieff, including a, colonel, were arrested for participating
in a Nihilist conspiracy. According to the Central News,
in October 1896 the Russian Custom-house officers confiscated on the Silesian frontier a quantity of light canes
destined for sale to the upper classes, and containing in
their hollow interior thousands of Nihilist proclamations,
printed on tissue paper. The Nihilists, evidently, are still
at work. There is a Nihilist club, composed chiefly of Jews,
in London, who publish a paper, similar in character to
Most's Freiheit (512) in Yiddish, and printed with Hebrew
type.
641. Nihilistic Finances.-The number of active Nihilists
never amounted to more than a few dozen men and women ;
they may have had twelve or thirteen hundred supporters,
who assisted the leaders by distributing their books, pamphlets, &c., concealing them when pursued by the police or
otherwise in danger, assisting them to escape from prison,
assisting them with money, &c. ; though those who sympathised with the Nihilists, without, however, taking any active
part in the propaganda, may be assumed to have been perhaps one hundred thousand. Whence did the Nihilists
obtain the means for executing their schemes? for creating
a literature, purchasing materials, travelling, carrying out
terroristic measures, supporting and delivering prisoners?
In 1869 Nechayeff had obtained from Herzen the revolutionary fund collected in Switzerland, and amounting to
more than 1000; the members of the society, of course,
gave their contributions ; Lizogoob sacrificed his fortune of
about 200,000 roubles to the "cause"; the Justice of the
Peace Voinaralski gave 40,000 roubles; a Dr. Weimar, ~
very active Nihilist, supplied large sums ; rich people, who
sympathised with Nihilism, but would not compromise themselves, contributed money either anonymously, or ostensibly
for charitable purposes. Besides these voluntary contributions, the Nihilists obtained compulsory ones by threatening
timorous rich men, or such as were known to have enriched

THE NIHILISTS

247

themselves at the expense of the State, that unless they

assisted the Nihilistic cause, they would be condemned to
death by the Executive Committee. The Nihilists also
occasionally helped' themselves to the Government cash; in
I879 they robbed the State bank of Kharkoff by means of a
subterranean passage, and carried off one million and a half
of roubles. But their outgoings were considerable; the
Moscow mine and the other two attempts made at the same ,
time, for illstance, cost nearly 4000, and consequently the
Nihilists were often hard pressed for money. The most extravagant reports were circulated at times as to their financial resources; thus the Cologne Gazette in April I 879 declared
the Nihilistic propaganda to count as many as I9,000 members, and to b~ possessed of a fund amounting to two millions of
roubles. The Nihilists accomplished their objects with a tenth
of that amount. In fact, in I 88 I they were driven to imitate
the device of Peter's Pence and the Red Cross. In January
I 882 they founded the association of the Red Cross, and
made appeals in the Will of the People for contributions.
This appeal was published by Lavroff in the Paris paper
L'Intransigeant, which led to his expulsion from France.
However, according to the Will of the People and other
Nihilistic publications, 53,000 roubles were received in I88I.
But the figures dealing with Nihilistic finances can never
be anything but approximate. They received contributions
from French, Swiss, German, English, Italian, and Austrian
sympathisers, a fact showing the international unity of the
Revolutionists, and the extensive foreign connections of the
Russian Nihilists.
642. The Secret Press.-The revolutionary party early felt
the necessity of propagating their opinions by 'the press,
hence in the earliest stages of the movement, as far back as
the year I 860, secret printing-presses were set up; and all
the various organisations .established afterwards, attempted
to have their own presses ; but the difficulty of maintaining
secrecy was too great; one after the other they were discovered and seized. At last, in I876, Stephanovitch, a leading spirit among the Nihilists, succeeded in establishing a
~ecret printing-press at Kieff. He lived in one house, and
had the press at another. A friend of his who lodged with
him was arrested; he sent a note to Stephanovitch to warn
him; but the messenger handed the note to the police,
which led to the arrest of Stephanovitch. His sole object
now was to save the printing apparatus. A woman and her
husband presented themselves before the landlord of the

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SECRET SOCIETIES

house where the printing office was, and producing the key of
the rooms, the woman told the landlord that she was Stephanovitch's sister, who had given it her, and given her and her husband permission to occupy the rooms till his return. The
landlord had no suspicion, and made no objection. The pair
secretly removed all the printing apparatus and left the
house. Soon after the police made their appearance; they
had made a house to house visitation at Kieff in search of
the printing office, and the few types and proofs they found
here and there left in corners, satisfied them that they had
come too late. The printing apparatus was carried to
Odessa, but what became of it there, is not known.
A clever and enterprising Jew, Aaron Zundelevic, a native
of Wilna, in I 877 managed to smuggle into St. Petersburg
all the necessary apparatus for a printing office, which could
print works of some size. He learned the compositor's art,
and taught it to four other persons. For four years the
police discovered nothing, until treachery and an accident
came to their aid. Not only the members of the organisation "Land and Liberty," which maintained the office, but
even the editors and contributors of the journal printed there,
did not know where it was. It was occupied by four persons. Mary Kriloff, who acted as mistress of the house, was
a woman of about forty-five. She had been implicated in
various conspiracies. A pretty, fair girl passed as the servant
of Madam~ Kriloff. Intercourse with the outer world was
maintained by a young man of aristocratic, but silent, manners. He was the son of a general, and nephew of a senator,
and was supposed to hold a ministerial appointment, but his
portfolio contained only MSS. and proofs of the prohibited
paper. The other compositor, Lubkin, was only known by
the nickname of the "bird," given to him on account of his
voice. He was only twenty-three years of age ; consumption was written on his face; having no passport, he was
compelled always to remain indoors. When after four hours'
desperate resistance the printing office of" Land and Liberty"
fell into the hands of the military, he shot himself.
The apparatus, as a rule, was extremely simple ; a few
cases of various kinds of type, a small cylinder of a kind
of gelatinous substance, a large cylinder covered with cloth,
which served as the press, a few jars of printing ink, a
few brushes and sponges. Everything was so arranged that
in a quarter of an hour it could be concealed in a large
cupboard. 'fo allay any suspicion the dvornik could conceive, they made him enter the rooms under various pre-

THE NIHILISTS

249

tences, having first removed every vestige o the printing

operation.
We have seen in preceding paragraphs how the capture
by the police of one printing-press speedily led to the
setting up of another; and that the number scattered all
over Russia must have been great is evident from the
number which were discovered, and from which the multitude of those undiscovered may be inferred. And their
publications were scattered all over the country. Handbills and placards seemed to grow out of the earth. . The
army was deluged with them, the labourer found them in
his pocket, the emperor on his writing-table. Nihilists
wandered all over Russia, leaving them in thousands at
every halting-place. Jessy Helfmann was a travelling postoffice; her pockets were always full of proclamations, newspapers, handbills, and tickets for concerts and balls for
the benefit of prisoners, or of the secret press.
643. Nihilistic Measures of Safety.-When Nihilism began
to assume terroristic features, and the vigilance of the police
consequently became more strict, and arrests were of daily
occurrence, the Nihilists had to adopt various means for
their self-protection. .A. primary condition was the possession of a passport, for in Russia every one above the peasantry must be registered, and have a passport. Many
young men matriculated as students, not with a view of
attending university lectures, but to obtain the card of
legitimation. Non-students at first paid high prices for
passports, but eventually took to manufacturing them.
Every society established its own passport office, forging
seals and signatures. One of these offices, furnished with
every necessary appliance, was discovered by the police at
Moscow in I 882.
"Illegal" men, that is to say, those
who lived with a false passport, or one lent by a friend,
of course did not go by their true names, and their correspondence was taken care of by friends. The Nihilist had
to lead a very regular life, not to excite the suspicions
Their larger meetings took place in
of the dvornik.
"conspiracy-quarters," which were carefully selected. The
windows must be so placed that signals can easily be displayed or changed. The walls of the room must not be
too thin, and the doors close accurately, so that sounds may
not reach the outside. There must be a landing outside,
to command the staircase, so that in case of a surprise a
few resolute men can resist a troop of gendarmes, until
all compromising papers and other objects are removed.

(
SECRET SOCIETIES
The conspiracy-quarters generally were regular arsenals;
at the storming of the office of the Will of the People, every
one of the five Nihilists was armed with two revolvers; the
dozen gendarmes were afraid to advance, and soldiers had
to be sent for ; from eighty to a hundred shots were fired
on that occasion. When to some of the Nihilists all these
precautions became irksome, and they consequently neglected
them, Alexander Michailoff, to whom they therefore gave
the nickname of dvornik, severely censured them ; he would
follow his associates in the street, to see if they behaved
with caution, or he would suddenly stop one, .and ask him
to read a signboard, and if he found him shqrtsighted,
insist on his wearing glasses. He insisted on their dressing
respectably, and would often himself find the means for
their doing so. He himself lived like the Red Indian on
the war-path. He endeavoured to know all the spies, to
beware of them; he had a list of about three hundred
passages through houses and courtyards, and by his intimate knowledge of places of concealment, saved many a
companion from arrest. The Nihilists frequently change
their lodgings, and keep them secret. Then they rely also
for their safety on the Ukrivabeli, or Concealers, who form a
large class in every position, beginning with the aristocracy
and the upper middle class, and reaching even down to the
police, who, sharing the revolutionary ideas, make use of
their social or official position to shelter the combatants by
concealing, whenever necessary, both objects and men.
Strange causes sometimes led to the most unlikely people
becoming " Concealers." Thus a Madame Horn, a Danish
lady, seventy years of age, became one. She had married
a Russian, who held some small appointment in the police.
When the Princess Dagmar became the wife of the hereditary Prince of Russia, Madame Horn wished the Danish
ambassador to obtain for her husband some appointment in
the establishment of the new archduchess. The ambassador
was rude enough to laugh at her. This turned her in favour
of the Nihilists, who she hoped would punish the ambassador. She began by taking care of the Nihilists' forbidden
books, attended to their correspondence, and eventually concealing the conspirators themselves. Thanks to her age, her
prudence, presence of mind, she escaped all suspicion. Her
husband, whom she ruled absolutely, had to furnish her with
all the police intelligence he could gather.
644. The Nihilists in P1ison.-In spite of all their precautionary measures, many of the Nihilists, as we have seen, fell

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THE NIHILISTS
into the hands of the police. The historian, unfortunately,
has no impartial reports to rely on as to their treatment in
prison ; only once, during the ministry of Count Loris-Melikoff, Russian papers were allowed to partly reveal the secrets
of Russi'an imprisonment and Siberian exile, which virtually
confirmed all the "underground " literature had asserted,
and these revelations are horrifying. They show up the
imperfection and cruelty of Russian state institutions, the
brutality- and irresponsible arbitrariness of Russian officials.
We find that the accused are kept in prison-and what prisons!
-for two or three years before being brought to trial, and
for what crime? simply for having given away a Socialistic
pamphlet. We find women in large numbers undressed in
the presence of, or even by, the gendarmes themselves, and
searched by them, to the accompaniment of coarse jokes. We
are told how prisoners were tortured, how nervous prisoners
were disturbed in their sleep, to entice them in their state of
excitement to make confessions. Condemned prisoners were
treated with the same refined cruelty. There is a large
prison at Novobfelgorod, near Kharkoff, whence the prisoners addressed in 1 878-that is, before the attempts on
the emperor's life-an appeal to Russian society, from which
we will quote a few facts. In a dark cell, whose window
is partly smeared over with dark paint, lay Plotnikoff, on
boards only thinly covered with felt, without covering or
pillow, terribly weakened by years of solitary confinement.
One day he rose from his boards and began reciting the
words of a favourite poet. Suddenly his gaoler rushed in.
"How dare yon speak loud here ! " he cried ; " perfect silence must reign here. I shall have yon put in irons." The
p:t:isoner vainly pleaded that his legal term for being in irons
had expired, and that he was ill. The irons were again fastened on him.
Alexandroff, another prisoner, heard some peasants singing
in the distance; their song found an echo in his heart, and
he sang the melody. He had ceased for some time when
the guard entered his cell. " Who has allowed you to sing ? "
he said ; "I will give you 'a reminder," and with his fist
struck him in the face. Even common criminals are better
treated. They are allowed to sit together, two or three in
one cell. Serakoff was put into the career for not saluting
a gaoler standing a little way off. The career is a cage
totally dark, and so small, that a prisoner has to remain in it
in a stooping position. It is behind the privy, whence the
soil is but seldom removed.

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The prisoners in the fortress Petropaulovski are no better
off. Their cells are dark, cold, and damp ; the windows
being darkened with paint, lights have to be burnt nearly
all day. Their food consists of watery soup and porridge
for dinner, and a piece of bread morning and evening. The
stoves are heated only once every three days, hence the walls
are wet, and the floors literally full of puddles. The prisoners
are allowed to take exercise every other day, but for a
quarter of an hour only. They have no other distraction.
When Subkoffski once made cubes of bread to study stereometry, they were taken away from him. "Prisoners are not
allowed amusements,"he was told. No wonder that disease, insanity, attempts at suicide, and deaths are of daily occurrence.
Hunger-mutinies were another consequence of this treatment. A very serious one occurred at Odessa in December
1882. It arose in this way. A prisoner asked for invalid's
food, but the prison doctor replied, " You are a workman ;
invalid's food costs seventy kopecks; you will do without it."
Another prisoner, a st)ldent, asked for some medicine for a
diseased bone in his hand. The same doctor replied, " Suck
your hand, you have plenty of time." When this prisoner
shortly after wanted to consult another surgeon, the prison
doctor replied, "You want no doctor, but a hangman." The
final circumstance which brought about the mutiny was the
order of the gaoler to confine a prisoner who was consumptive, and had asked for a hammock, in the career.
Then the prisoners sent for the head of the police, but he
only abused them. Then the hunger-mutiny broke out.
The prisoners refused to take their food, but the governor
of the prison ordered those who could not be persuaded to
eat to be kept alive by means of injections.
The horrors of transportation to Siberia have often been
described. We need not repeat the fearful tale. But we
may state that these horrors are intensified for political
prisoners, whilst common criminals are allowed to soften
them if they have means. Thus Yokhankeff, the wellknown forger, who was tried at St. Petersburg in 1879 for
embezzling thousands, instead of having to make his way
partly on foot and partly by rail, was allowed to travel with
every comfort, accompanied by a female, and to put up at
the best hotels en route.
The Russian Government, even under Alexander II.,
became ashamed, it seems, of the many trials, and resorted,
to avoid this public scandal, to removing suspected persons
by what is called the administrative process, an extra-

THE NIHILISTS

253

judicial procedure under which hundreds of persons were

dragged away from their homes and families without trial
of any kind, no one knowing what became of them. We
may, however, surmise that many were sent to Siberia, since
in I 880 further prison accommodation had to be constructed
in Eastern Siberia in consequence of the great influx of
political prisoners.
What I have stated as to the treatment of prisoners is but
what is based on authentic documents. Had I quoted from
the " underground " press, I should be accused of exaggeration; but taking the above statements only, does such
conduct become a civilised government?
645. Nihilist .Emigrants.-It is difficult to estimate their
number. Many of them conceal themselves to escape the
Russian spies scattered all over the Continent, and not to
involve the countries affording them an asylum in diplomatic
difficulties. There may be about one hundred exiles in
Switzerland; there are said to be about seventy in Paris,
and perhaps fifty in London; but these numbers can only be
approximate, and from the nature of circumstances, must
always be changing. Some of these fugitives date from the
earliest stages of the revolutionary movement before 1863,
as, for instance, M. Elpidin, the bookseller, at Geneva. Others,
like Lavroff, were involved in the conspiracies of 1866 and
I 869.
Others belong to the Socialistic prdpaganda, like
Prince Krapotkine. Others, again, were members of the
"Land and Liberty" or "Black Division" parties. After
1878 there was a large addition to the emigration.
But few of these exiles have been able to save any portion
of their property. Before engaging in the movement some
sold their estates, others leased them to their relations, and
allowed them to be burdened with debts, so that in the
end but little remains to be confiscated by the Government.
Most, even those who receive assistance from home, are
compelled to rely on their own exertions. Some give lessons
in music, in H.ussian, in science; others write for H.ussian
and foreign newspapers. Others, again (about twenty), are
employed in the three Russian printing-offices at Geneva ;
and perhaps the same number practise the trades of locksmiths, carpenters, and shoemakers, which they once learned
for the purposes of the propaganda. Many, unable to work,
their mental and physical powers having been broken by long
incarceration, are supported by the contributions of the party.
To suppose, as it often has been supposed, that the
Nihilistic movement in Russia is directed by these emigrants,

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is a mistake. The telegraph cannot be employed by them,

and correspondence is too slow and unsafe. Whatever has
to be done in Russia, must be decided on and carried out by
the members residing there. The exile ceases to take any
active part in the revolution at home, though he may indirectly influence it by his literary efforts, as, for instance,
Krapotkine ai\d Stepniak have done to a large extent. The
death of this latter, so well known by his brilliant and
authoritative work, La Russia Sotterranea, caused great
sorrow to all true lovers of Russia. He was accidentally
killed on the 23rd December 1895, when crossing the
railway near Ohiswick, by being caught by the engine of
a train, knocked down, and fearfully mutilated.
Stepniak's real name was Serge Michaelovitch Kravchinsky. After his death the St. Petersburg press asserted
that it was he who assassinated Adjutant-General Mesentsoff (616), the chief of the political police, by stabbing him
with a dagger. But this was never proved.
According to Dalziel, six officers of the garrison of Kieff,
including a colonel, were arrested in March 1896 for participation in a Nihilist plot; whence it would appear that
Nihilism is not dead yet, nor is it likely to die until it has
attained its aim ; and the present emperor does not seem
likely to voluntarily satisfy it.
646. Nihilistic Literature._:_The bibliography of Nihilism
is already an extensive one. Among the most important
newspapers and periodicals we have:I. The Bell (Kolokol), edited by Herzen and Bakunin, from
1st July 1857 to 1869. London and Geneva. After Herzen's
death it was revived for a short time in 1870; six numbers
in 4to appeared.
2. Flyin_q Sheets. Heidelberg, 1862. 78 pp. 8vo.
3 Free Word. Berlin, 1862. 590 pp. 8vo.
4 Liberty. 1863. Two numbers, the organ of the party
"Land and Liberty."
5 The Underground Word, by M. Elpidin. Geneva, 1866.
Two pamphlets.
6. Cause of the People, by Bakunin and Elpidin. 1868 and
I 869.
Nine pamphlets.
7 Onwa1ds, a review in nine volumes. 1873-77. Two
thousand copies.
8. Onwards, a fortnightly publication of three thousand
copies in large 4to. 1875 and 1876. Published in London.
9 The Tocsin. Monthly. 1875 to 1881.
10. General Cause. Monthly. Geneva.

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I I. The Commune, nine numbers of which appeared at

Geneva in I 878.
I2. Land and Liberty. I878 and I879
I 3 Will of the People, the organ of the Terroristic Executive Committee. I879
14- Black Division.
I 88o-8 I.
I 5 Free Word.
Of books we have :I. The Filled a~d the Hungry, published by the Anarchists at Geneva.
2. The Terroristic Struggle, N. Morosoff. London, I 88o.
3 Terrorism and Routine, W. Tarnoffski. London, I88o.
4 Biographies of Perofskaia, Scheljabow, and others.
Geneva, I 882.
5. Le Nihilisme en R~tssie, S. Podolinski. Paris, I879 .
6. La Russia Sotte1'ranea, by Stepniak. Milan, I 882. An
English translation appeared in London, I883.
7 Buried Alive ; Report concerning the Prisoners in the
Peter and Paul Citadel at St. Petersburg. 1878.
8. Almanack of the Will of the People. Geneva, 1883.
I have given the more important periodical publications
and books only; besides these, there are published by
Nihilists numerous flying sheets, proclamations, addresses,
reports of trials, &c.
647. Trials of Nihilists.-The following list is taken from
the " Almanack of the Will of the People " : -

c"'
E-<

Date.

.....0

""'

"'~
"-<!j"
.....0

.
"'

Sentences.
.;
0::

,;

-""
"'"'" ~E f"''~

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~

O:o1

;<1

r:n.
"'

s"'0::

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...."'

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. "'

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.2l

...
...

...

~.

~0'
o.~
.....=
=
"
"' -<!j"
P-o
:z;
.....13
-"'- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2
88 ...
...
27
' I
... 4I ...3 . ... ... 54
I
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...
.
I3 ...
5
3
5
2
...
. ...
2
...
7 ...
5
2
6
12 ...
I
...
5
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29
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104
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8
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7
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4
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22
I66 I6 66
28
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1874
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SECRET SOCIETIES
Subsequent Trials Collected fiont other Sources.

.;

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Date.

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.c

1884
188 5
1886
1887

Sentences.

..9

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1883

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22

~---------~--~--~----~--~----------~--------~

The above sentences are those pronounced by the tribunals ;

but many of the accused were, in reality, punished more
severely than is apparent. Those who were acquitted were,
as a rule, placed under police supervision, imprisoned, or
banished to no one could tell where. The table, moreover,
does not show those who were never tried, but dealt with
administratively, as it is mildly termed: they died in prison,
or were hanged without trial. This has frequently been the
case since 1883, whence it is impossible to give the numbers with the same fulness as before that date. How many
victims were so quickly "removed," it will probably be impossible ever to ascertain.

f
XIII
GERMAN SOCIETIES

648. The Mosel Club.- In I 7 37 there was a carpenter

named Vogt, living at Weimar, who, being a native of Trau
bach, on the Mosel, was, according to the custom of craftsmen, called "the Moseler." He established a tavern, which
was largely patronised by students, who, in time, formed a
club, which called itself the Mosel Club, and in I 762 became a
secret political club, whose object was to raise Prussia to the
ruling power of Germany, to effect which the members even
pledged themselves to send Frederick II., who was a Freemason, armed assistance. In I7JI a more secret league was
formed within the Mosel Club, consisting chiefly of Alsatians
and Badois, and calling itself the " Order of Friendship."
None was received into it who was not a member of the
Mosel Club. The sign was a peculiar pressure of the hand,
and touching the face. The members wore a cross attached
to a yellow ribbon. After the year 1783 the candidate had
to swear fidelity to the Order over four swords, laid crosswise on a table, on which four candles were burning. The
words were : "If I become unfaithful to my oath, my
brethren shall be justified to use these swords against me."
Lodges were established at Jena, Giessen, Erfurt, Gottingen,
Marburg, and Erlangen. The students defied the statutes
of the universities, which in 1779 led to a judicial inquiry
and the abolition of the Order, which, however, was quickly
re-formed under the new name of the "Black Order"; at
Halle it assumed that of the "Unionists." But in the
course of a few years the Order became extinct. Still Germany continued till the middle of this century to be a hotbed
of secret societies, in which the students of its many universities were the chief actors. Between the years IS I9 and
1842 such associations were especially numerous; legal
investigations on the part . of the different governments
proved in the latter year the existence of thirty-two of
them. How much the members of such societies loved
VOL. II.

,; .!-

:tr

wrir:,.,

257

... ~
i

, I

SECRET SOCIETIES

I
i \

!
'

the rulers " restored " to them, appears from the fact that
"Young Germany" amused itself on the king's (of Prussia)
birthday with shooting at his portrait. Their statutes were
very severe against treason, or even mere indiscretion. A
Dr. Breidenstein wrote to Mazzini in June 1834 that one
Strohmayer, a member of the society, had been sentenced to
death, not that he was a traitor, but his indiscretion was to
be feared. Sixteen months after, on the morning of 4th
November 1835, a milkman found the body of the student
Louis Lessing, pierced with forty-nine dagger wounds, in
the lonely Sihl valley, near Zurich. Though the legal investigation did not positively prove it, yet it was the general
opinion that Lessing had acted as spy on the "German
Youth" society, and been sentenced to death by them.
Still, what those obscure students aimed at is now an
accomplished fact ; and the prediction of Carl Julius Weber
in his" Democritos" (published in 1832), that Prussia, united
with the smaller German states, would be the dictator of
Europe, a reality. But a sad reality for Europe, since it has
"Thrust back this age of sound industriousness
To that of military savageness ! "

Yes, Germany seems to be retrograding to the days of

Hildebrand ; for has not Bismarck gone to Canossa, in spite
of his assertion he would not do so? and has not the
mighty emperor-king knelt to the Pope?
649. German Feeling against Napoleon.-Napoleon, whilst
he could in Germany form a court composed of kings and
princes obedient to his slightest nod, also found implacable
and incorruptible individualities, who swore undying hatred
to him who ruled hal the world. Still, those who opposed
the French emperor had no determined plan, and were misled
by fallacious hopes; and the leaders, always clever in taking
advantage of the popular forces, threw the more daring ones
in front like a vanguard, whose destruction is predetermined,
in order to fill up the chasm that separates the main body
from victory.
650. Formation and Scope of Tugendbund.-Two of the
men who were the first, or amongst the first, to meditate the .
downfall of the conqueror before whom all German govern-
ments had fallen prostrate, were Count Stadion, the soul of
Austrian politics, and Baron Stein, 1 a native of Nassau, who
I The original MS. of the great reorganisation projects for the Prussian
State, r8o7, was found in r88r, in the gartenhaus o the Stein family, at GrossKoch berg, Saalfeld, in Thuringia.

-~

GERMAN SOCIETIES

Ill

259

possessed great influence at the Prussian Court. The latter,

devoted to monarchical institutions, but also to the inde~
pendence of his country, groaned when he saw the Prussian
Government degraded in the eyes of Europe, and undertook
to avenge its humiliation by founding in 1812 the secret
society of the "Union of Virtue" ( Tu,qendbund), whose first
domiciles were at Konigsberg and Breslau. Napoleon's
police discovered the plot ; and Prussia, to satisfy France, had
to banish Stein and two other noblemen, the Prince de Wittgenstein and Count Hardenberg, who had joined him in it.
But the Union was not dissolved; it only concealed itself
more strictly than before in the masonic brotherhood. During
Stein's banishment, also, the cause was taken up by Jahn,
Professor at the Berlin College, who, knowing the beneficial
influence of bodily exercise, in I 8 I I founded a gymnasium,
the first of the kind in Germany, which was frequented by
the flower of the youth of Berlin, and the members of which
were known as l'1trner, an appellation which is now familiar
even to Englishmen. These Turner seemed naturally called
upon to enter iuto the Union of Virtue; and Jahn thought
the moment fast approaching when the rising against the
oppressor was to take place. Among his coadjutors were
the poet Arndt; the enthusiastic Schill, who with 400 hussars
expected in I 809 to rouse Westphalia and overthrow Jerome
Bonaparte; Doremberg, the La Rochejaquelein of Germany,
and several others. Stein, in the meanwhile, continued at
the court of St. Petersburg the work on account of which
he had been exiled. The Russian Court made much of Stein,
as. a man who might be useful on certain occasions. He was .
especially protected by the mother of the emperor, in whom
he had enkindled the same hatred he himself entertained
against France. He kept up his friendship with the Berlin
patricians, and had his agents in the court of Prussia, who
procured him and Jahn adherents of note, such as General
Blucher. Still there was at the Prussian Court a party
opposed to the Tugendbund, whose chiefs were General Bulow
and Schuckmann, who preferred peace to the dignity of their
country, and possibly to royal and serene drill-sergeants. who, though no friends to Napoleon, were indifferent to the
public welfare. A. party quite favourable to the Union of
Virtue was that headed by Baron Nostitz, who formed the
society of the "Knights of the Queen of Prussia," to defend
and avenge that princess, who considered herself to have
been calumniated by Napoleon. This party was anxious to
wipe away the disgrace of the battle of Jena, so injurious to

SECRET SOCIETIES
the fate, and still more to the honour, of Prussia; and therefore it naturally made common cause with the Tugendbund,
which aimed at the same object, the expulsion of the French.
65 I. Divisions among Mernbel's of Tugendbund.-The bases
of the organisation of the Tugendbund had been laid in 1807
at the assembly at Konigsberg, where some of the most noted
patriots were present-Stein, Stadion, Blucher, Jahn. The
association deliberated on the means of reviving the energy
and courage of the people, arranging the insurrectionary
scheme, and succouring the citizens injured by foreign occupation. Still there was not sufficient unanimity in the
counsels of the association, and an Austrian party began
to be formed, which proposed the re-establishment of the
German Empire, with the Archduke Charles at its head ;
but the opposition to this scheme came from the side from
which it was least to be expected, from the Archduke himself. Some proposed a northern and a southern state ; but
the many small courts and provincial interests strongly
opposed this proposal. Others wanted a republic, which,
however, met with very little favour.
652. Activity of the T~tgendbund.-One of the first acts of
the Union of Virtue was to send auxiliary corps to assist the
Russians in the campaign of 1813. Prussia having, bY, ,the
course of events, been compelled to abandon its temporising
policy, Greisenau, Scharnhorst, and Grollmann embraced
the military plan of the Tugendbund. A levy en masse was
ordered. The conduct of these patriots is matter of history.
But, like other nations, they fought against Napoleon to
impose on their country a more tyrannical government than
that of the foreigner had ever been. They fought as men
only fight for a great cause, and those who died fancied they
saw the dawn of German freedom. But those who survived
saw how much they were deceived. The Tugendbund, betrayed in its expectations, was dissolved; but its members
increased the ranks of other societies already existing, or
about to be formed. The" Black Knights," founded in 1815,
and so called because they wore black clothes, said to be the
old German costume, beaded by J abn, continued to exist
after the war, as did "The Knights of the Queen of Prussia."
Dr. Lang placed himself at the head of the " Concordists," a
sect founded in imitation of similar societies already existing
in the German universities. A more important association
was that oft he "German Union" ( Deutsche1 Bund), founded in
r8ro, whose object was the promotion of representative institutions in the various German states, which Union comprised

GERMAN SOCIETIES

261

within itself the more secret one of the "Unconditionals"

(Die Unbedingten), whose object was the promotion of Liberal
ideas, even without the concurrence of the nation. The
Westphalian Government was the first to discover the existence of this society. Its seal was a lion reposing beside the
tree of liberty, surmounted by the Phrygian cap. All these
societies were in correspondence with each other, and peacefully divided the territory among themselves; whilst the
German Union, true to its name, knew no other limits than
those of the German confederation. Dr. Jahn was active in
Prussia, Dr. Lang in the north, and Baron N ostitz in the
south. This latter, by means of a famous actress of Prague,
Madame Brode, won over a Hessian prince, who did not
disdain the office of grand master.
653. Hostility of Governrnents against Tugendbund.-After
the downfall of Napoleon the German Government, though
not venturing openly to attack the Tugendbund, yet sought
to suppress it. They assailed it in pamphlets written by
men secretly in the pay of Prussia. One of these, Councillor
Schmalz, so libelled it as to draw forth indignant replies
from Niebuhr and Schleiermacher. What the Germans could
least forgive was the scurrilous manner in which Schmalz
had calumniated Arndt, the "holy." Schmalz had to fight
several duels, and even the favour of the Court of Prussia
could not protect him from personal outrages. The king
then thought it fit to interfere. He published an ordinance,
in which he commanded the dispute to cease; admitted that he
had favoured the "literary " society known as the Tugendbnnd during the days when the country had need of its
assistance, but declared that in times of peace secret societies
could not be beneficial, but might do a great deal of harm,
and therefore forbade their continuance. The action of the
Government, however, did :qot suppress the secret societies,
though it compelled them to change their names. The Tugendbund wasrevived,in 1818, in the Bu?schenschajt, or associations of students of the universities, where they introduced
gymnastics and martial exercises. These associations had
been projected as early as the year 1810, as appears from
Jahn's papers. Their central committee was in Prussia;
and sub-committees existed at Halle, Leipzig, Jena, Gottingen, Erlangen, Wtirzburg, Heidelberg, Ttibingen, and
Freiburg. Germany was divided into ten circles, and there
were two kinds of assemblies, preparatory and secret. This
secret section was that of the Black Knights, mentioned in
the preceding paragraph. The liberation and independence

SECRET SOCIETIES
of Germany-so, Waterloo had not effected these objects?was the subject discussed in the latter; and Russia being
considered as the greatest opponent of their patriotic aspirations, the members directed their operations especially against
Russian influences. It was the hatred against Russia that
put the dagger into the hand of Charles Louis Sand, the
student of Jena, who stabbed Kotzebue (9th March 1819),
who had written against the German societies, of which there
was a considerable number. This murder led to a stricter
surveillance of the universities on the part of governments,
and secret societies were rigorously prohibited under stem
penalties ; the Prussian Government, especially, being most
severe, and prosecuting some of the most distinguished professors for their political opinions. The Burschenschajt was
broken up, and its objects frustrated, to be revived in
1830; the insurrectionary attempt made by some of the
students at Frankfort on the 3rd April 1833, the object of
which was the overthrow of the despotic, in order to establish a
constitutional, government, led to the prosecution of many
members of the B1trschenschajt, and to the suppression-at
least nominally and apparently-of all their secret societies.

XIV

THE BABIS
654. Bab, the .Founder.-His name-for Bah is a title-was
Ali Mohammed, and he is said to have been a Seyyid, or
descendant of the family of the Prophet. He was born in
I8I9 at Shiraz, where his father was a merchant. Ali at
first engaged in trade himself, but in I840 he began to
preach his new doctrine, declaring himself to be the Bah, 1
i.e: Door of Truth, the Mahdi. In I 843 he made the
pilgrimage to Mecca, but on his return was arrested by
order of the Shah, and from I844 to I849 ,kept in semicaptivity at Ispahan and Tauris, at which latter place he was
sentenced to be shot. He was suspended by cords from the
walls of the citadel, and a dozen soldiers were ordered to
fire at him. When the s~p.oke from their discharges was
dispelled the Bah had disappeared-a cleverly-managed
manceuvre to establish a miracle. But he was soon after
reapprehended, and again condemned to death. The details
of his execution are not known ; it is reported that he was
shot. His long captivity and mysterious death were favourable to the spreading of his doctrine, as also the fact that
during his life he was subject to occasional fits of frenzy,
and in the East-and sometimes in the West-a madman is
considered to be inspired. And the Bah, like all prophets,
did not disdain availing himself of mundane means to propagate his new doctrines ; he was greatly assisted therein by
the eloquence, combined with marvellous personal beauty, of
Kurratu'l 'Ayn, a young lady of good family, who early embraced Babism, and suffered martyrdom for it (655). The
Bah was examined as to his teaching in I 848 by N asreddin,
then Crown Prince of Persia, afterwards Shah, and a number
of Mullahs, the result of which inquiry was that he was
sentenced to the bastinado, in consequence of which it is
1 Babin Arabic and Chaldean means door, gate, or court ; hence we have
Babylon, the court of Bel; Babel-Mandeb, the gate of sorrow, probably so
called on account of its dangerous navigation and rocky environs.

63

. SECRET SOCIETIES
said he recanted and revoked all his claims; but as we have
none but Mussnlman historians-his enemies-to rely on, as
the examination was held with closed doors, we ma,y doubt
this statement.
655. Progress of Babism.-The Bah's teaching had not only
theological, but also political aims. Persian rulers have
always been conservative, but Babism was reformatory, and
the common people readily embraced it, as it seemed favourable to the breaking down of the despotic powers exercised
by provincial governors, by whom the country was fearfully
oppressed. When, therefore, the Babis considered themselves strong enough they seized Mazanderan, about fourteen
miles south-east of Barfurush; but the Shah's troops having
cut off all supplies, they had to surrender, and were all slain.
This was in 1847. In I 848, on the accession of the late
Shah a thousand Babis rose against him; they, however,
were defeated by Mehdi Kouli Mirza, uncle of the new Shah,
and the three hundred survivors who surrendered cruelly
slaughtered, though they had been promised their lives.
Moulla Moh,.;J,mmed Ali, a Bah leader, in 1849 converted
seven thousand of the twelve thousand inhabitants of Zanjan,
seized the town, and drove the governor from the citadel ;
eighteen thousand royal soldiers were sent against him, and
more than eight thousand of the combatants killed, and the
surviving Babis had to surrender, and were put to death
with horrible tortures. In 1850 a follower of Bah, ambitious
rather than fanatical, Sayid Yahya Darabi, preached Babism
at Niriz, and gathered round him two thousand followers,
with whose help he hoped to hold the town. But the Shah's
troops attacked him ; he was assassinated by being strangled
with his own girdle; the starved-out Babis had to yield, and
were all cruelly butchered. In I 8 52 some Babis attempted
to murder the Shah ; the inquiry following thereon proved
that at Ispahan and in all the great towns of Persia there
was a vast association of Babis and Lolitis, whose object was
the overthrow of the reigning dynasty. All convicted of
Babism were seized, and executed openly or in secret ; terrible
scenes were enacted by the Shah's orders in many towns of
Persia during a reign of terror, which lasted nearly two
years. The Shah's anger at the attempt, but especially his
alarm, was so great, that to test the loyalty of his subjects
he devised the " devilish scheme," as one writer calls it, of
making all classes of society share in the revenge he took
on the Babis. Thus the man who had fired the shot which
wounded the king was killed by the farrashes-literally, the

THE BA.BIS
carpet-spreaders, but officially, the lictors of Eastern rulers.
They first tortured him by the insertion of lighted candles
in incisions made in his body. When the candles were
burnt down to the flesh, the fire was for some time fed by
that. In the end he was sawn in two. The Master of the
Horse and the attendants of the royal stables showed their
loyalty by nailing red-hot horse-shoes to the feet of the
victim handed over to them, and finally " broke up his head
and body with clubs and nails." Another Babi had his eyes
plucked out by the artillerymen, and was then blown from a
gun. Another Babi was killed by the merchants and shopkeepers of Teheran, every one of whom inflicted a wound
on him until he died. Vambery, in his "Wanderings and
Experiences in Persia," mentions one Kasim of Niriz, who
was shod with red-hot horse-shoes, had burning candles
inserted in his body, all his teeth torn out, and was eventually killed by having his skull smashed in with a club. These
are but a few specimens of the cruelties inflicted by order of
the amiable gentleman who, on his visits to this country, was
so loudly cheered by the assembled crowds. Among the
victims of that persecution was Kurratu'l 'Ayn (the Consola
tion of Eyes), a beautiful and accomplished woman, who professed and preached Babism. The manner of her death is
uncertain; some say she was burnt, others that she was
strangled. Dr. Polak, who actually witnessed her execution,
in his "Persia, the Land and Its Inhabitants," simply says,
"I was a witness to the execution of Kurratu'l 'Ayn, which
was performed by the Minister of War and his adjutants ;
the beautiful woman underwent her slow death with superhuman fortitude." He gives no details as to the manner of
it. In spite of this persecution, or rather, in consequence
of it, Babism spread with astonishing rapidity throughout
Persia, even penetrating into India. Not only the lower
classes, but persons of education and wealth have joined the
sect. The only portion of the Persian population not
affected by its doctrines appear to be the N useiriyeh and
the Christians.
656. Babi .Doctrine.-lt is contained in the Biyyan, the
"Expositor," attributed to the Bab himself, and consisting
of three parts written at different periods. It is to a great
extent rhapsodical, frequently unintelligible. It abounds
with mysticism, degenerate Platonism, beliefs borrowed
from the Guebres, vestiges of Magism, and in many places
displays the influence of a transformed Christianity and
French philosophy of the last century, propagated as far

l
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SECRET SOCIETIES
as Persia through masonic lodges, though they were never
tolerated in Persia. We shall see further on how one
recently established came to grief. The Babi Koran inculcates, among other superstitions, the wearing of amulets,
men in the form of a star, women in that of a circle ; the
cornelian is particularly recommended to be put on the
fingers of the dead, all which implies a return to Aramean .
Paganism. The book maintains the divinity of the Bah;
he and his disciples are incarnations of superior powers;
forty days after death they reappear in other forms.
"God," says the Biyyan, "created the world by His Will;
the Will was expressed in words, but words are composed
of letters; letters, therefore, possess divine properties." In
giving their numerical value to the letters forming the words
expressing God, they always produce the same total, viz.
19. Hence the ecclesiastical system of the Babis; their
colleges are always composed of 19 priests; the year is
divided into I 9 months, of I 9 days each; the fast of the
Ramadan lasts 19 instead of 30 days. During his life Ali
Mohammed chose eighteen disciples, called " Letters of the
Living," who, together with himself, the "Point" (the Point
of Revelation, or "First Point," from which all are created,
and unto which all return), constituted the sacred hierarchy
of nineteen, called the "First Unity." Now, Mirza Yahya
held the fourth place in this hierarchy, and on the death of
the "Point," which occurred, as already stated, in I849, and
the first two "Letters," rose to be chief of the sect; but
Beha, whose proper name is Mirza Huseyn Ali of Nur, was
also included in this unity, and he asserted that he was the
one by whom God shall, as Bah had prophesied, make His
final revelation; for, be it observed, the Babi Koran, which at
present consists of eleven parts only, shall, when complete,
contain nineteen, and when that revelation is made, Babism
will be finished, and with it will come the end of this present world; for, according to the belief of his followers, the
Bah was the forerunner of Saheb-ez-Zeman, the Lord of
Ages, who resides in the air, and will not be seen till the
day of resurrection. 1 In consequence of the claim of Beha
the sect was split up into two divisions, the Behais and the
followers of Mirza Yahya Subh-i-Ezel (the Morning of Eternity), and after him called Ezelis. The majority of the sect
are Behais, and the exiled chief Yahya lives at :F'amagusta,

I
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ft

1 I find this mentioned by one writer only, Professor de Filippi, in his

"Viaggio in Persia nel 1862," published in the Italian periodical Politecnico,
vol. xxii. p. 252, where there is a lengthy account of the Babis.

-,,.~

'\'

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THE BABIS
in Cyprus, where Mr. Browne, the translator of the work
"A Traveller's Narrative," visited him in 18go, as he also
visited Beha, at Acre, shortly after. The Babis are so far in
advance of their Eastern brethren that they wish to raise
.the statp.s of woman, maintaining that she is entitled tOlthe
same civil rights as man; and one of their first endeavours
to attain that end is that of abolishing the veil. Various
charges, as against all new sects, are made against them ;
they are accused of being communists, of allowing nine
husbands to a woman, of drinking wine, and of other unlawful practices; but proofs are wanting. It is said that
they have special modes of salutation, and wear a ring of
peculiar form, by which they re;ognise one another. They
arrange their hair in a characteristic manner, and, as a rule,
are clothed in white, all which practices, on the part of
people who have to conceal their opinions, appears very
strange to outsiders. The Bah forbade the use of tobacco,
but the prohibition was withdrawn by Beha. Though only
half a century old, the sect already possesses a mass of controversial writings on points of faith-for in all ages men
have disputed most on what they understood least. The
Babis may yet become a great power in the East; in the
meantime they afford us an excellent opportunity of watching within our own day the genesis and development of a
new religious creed, in which vast power and authority is
conferred on the priests, greatly overshadowing that of the
king himself, unless he is a member of the sect, which, in
fact, if the creed becomes paramount, he must be to preserve his dignity; for, according to the teaching of the
founder, he who is not a Babi has no right to any possession, has no civil status. 'fo enhance the influence of the
priests, divi~e service is to be performed with the utmost
pomp; the temples are to be adorned with the costliest
productions of nature and art.
But it is certain the doctrines of the Babis suit neither
the Sunnites nor the Shiites,! the latter of whom are the
dominant religious party in Persia, and who particularly
objected to the Bah's claim of being the promised Mahdi,
whose advent was to be ushered in by prodigious signs,
which, however, were not witnessed in the Bah's case. The
latter also was opposed by the new Sheykhi school. Early
1 According to the doctrine of the Sunnites, the Imamate, or viceregency of the prophet, is a matter to be determined by the choice and
election of his followers; according to the Shiites, it is a matter altogether
spiritual, having nothing to do with popular choice or approval.

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268

SECRET SOCIETIES

in this century Sheykh Ahmad of Ahsa preached a new doctrine, considered heterodox by true believers ; still he found
many adherents, and on his death, about the year 1827, was
succeeded by his disciple Haji Seyyid Kazim of Resht. He
died in I 844, prophesying the coming of one greater than
himself. Then Mirza Ali Mahammad, who came in contact
with some disciples of the deceased Seyyid Kazim, saw his
opportunity, and proclaimed himself the Bah; the old Sheykhi
party strongly supported him. But some of the followers of
Seyyid Kazim did not accept the new prophet, and became,
as the new Sheykhi party, hi~ most violent persecutors. The
Bah consequently called the leader of the latter party the
"Quintessence of Hell-fire," whilst he, in his turn, wrote a
treatise against the Bah, entitled, "The Crushing of Falsehood." From such mutual courtesies the transition to mutual
recrimination and accusation of objectionable teaching and
practice is easy, and consequently quite usual, and therefore
not to be too readily believed.
657. Recent History of Babism.-The fearful reprisals the
late Shah in 1852 took on the sect of the Babis, whatever
may be thought of their moral aspect, appear to have had
the desired political effect. Prom that day till the recent
assassination of the Shah, the outcome of old grievances,
and of an uncalled-for renewal of a fierce persecution, they
have committed no overt act of hostility against the Persian
Government or people, though their number and strength
are now double what they were in 1852. But this has not
softened the feeling of the Shah or of the Mullahs against
them. This was clearly shown in 1863. In that year a
Persian who had travelled in Europe suggested to the Shah
the establishment of a masonic lodge, with himself as the
grand master, whereby he would have a moral guarantee of
the fidelity of his subjects, since all persons of importance
and influence would no doubt become members, and masonic
oaths cannot he broken. The Shah granted permission,
without, however, being initiated himself; a lodge, called
the Feramoush-Khanek, the" House of Oblivion "-since on
leaving the lodge the member was supposed to forget all
he had seen in it-was speedily opened, and the Shah urged
all his courtiers to join it. He then questioned them as to
what they had seen in it, but their answers were unsatisfactory ; th~y had listened to some moral discourse, drunk tea,
and smoked. The Shah could not understand that the terrible
mysteries of Freemasonry, of which he had heard so much,
could amount to no more than this; he therefore surmised

THE BABIS
that a great deal was withheld from him, and became dissatisfied. This dissatisfaction was taken advantage of by
some of his friends who disliked the innovation, and they
suggested to him that the lodge was probably the home of
the grossest debauchery, and, finally, that it was a meetingplace of Babis. Debauchery the Shah might have winked
at, but Babism could not be tolerated. The lodge was immedia~ely ordered to be closed, and the author of its establishment banished from Persia. In quite recent times the Babis
have undergone grievous persecutions. In I 888 Seyyid
Hasan and Seyyid Huseyn were put to death by order of
the then Shah's eldest son, Prince Zillu's Sultan, for refusing
to abjure Babism. When dead their bodies were dragged
by the feet through the street and bazaars of Ispahan, and
cast out of the gate beyond the city walls. In the month of
October of the same ye~r Aga Mirza Ashraf of .Abade was
murdered for his religion, and the Mullas mutilated the poor
body in the most savage manner. In 1890 the Babi inhabitants of a district called Seh-deh were attacked by a mob,
and seven or eight of them killed, and their bodies burnt
with oil. But it appears that on various occasions the Shah
restrained the fanaticism of would-be persecutors of the
Babis; it did not, however, save him from the vengeance
sworn against him by the sect for former persecutions. On
the 1st May 1896 Nasreddin Shah, the Defender of the
Faith, was shot in the mosque of Shah .Abdul Azim, near
Teheran, and died immediately after he was brought back to
the city. The assassin, who was at once arrested, was Mirza
Mahomed Reza of Kirman, a follower of Jemal-ed-din, who
was exiled for an attempt at dethroning the Shah in 1891.
After J emal's departure Mahomed Reza was imprisoned;
after some time he was set free, but continuing to speak
against the Persian Government, he was again imprisoned,
but some time after obtained his release, and even a pension
from the Shah. He confessed that he was chosen to kill the
Shah, and that he bought a revolver for the purpose, but had
to wait two months for a favourable opportunity. His execution, some months after the deed-has it inspired the Babis
with sufficient dread to deter them from similar attempts in
the future?

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IRISH SOCIETIES
658. The White-Boys. -Ireland, helpless against misery
and superstition, misled by hatred against her conquerors,
the rulers of England, formed sects to fight not so much the
evil, as the supposed authors of the evil. The first secret
society of Ireland, recorded in public documents, dates from
176 I, in which year the situation of the peasants, always
bad, had become unbearable. They were deprived of the
right of free pasture, and the proprietors, in seven cases out
of nine not Irish landlords, but Englishmen by blood and
sympathy, began to enclose the commons. Fiscal oppression
also became very great. Reduced to despair, the conspirators had recourse to reprisals, and to make these with more
security, formed the secret society of the "White-Boys," so
called, because in the hope of disguising themselves, they
wore over their clothes a white shirt, like the Camisards of
the Cevennes. They also called themselves "Levellers,"
because their object was to level to the ground the fences
of the detested enclosures. In November 1761 they spread
through Munster, committing all kinds of excesses during
the next four-and-twenty years.
659. Eight-Boys and Oalc-Boys.-In 1787 the above society
disappeared to make room for the "Right-Boys," who by
lPgal means aimed at obtaining the reduction of imposts,
higher wages, the abolition of degrading personal services,
and the erection of a Roman Catholic church for every Protestant church in the island. Though the society W!\_S guilty
of some reprehensible acts against Protestant pastors, it
yet, as a rule, remained within the limits of legal opposition.
The vicious administration introduced into Ireland after the
rising of 1788, the burden of which was chiefly felt by the
Roman Catholics, could not but prove injurious to the Protestants also. The inhabitants, whether Catholic or Protestant, were subject to objectionable personal service-hence
petitions rejected by the haughty rulers, tumults quenched
270

IRISH SOCIETIES .
in blood, whole populations conquered by fear, but not subdued, and ready to break forth into insurrection when it
was least expected. Therefore the Protestants also formed
societies for their security, taking for their emblem the oaklea, whence they were known as the "Oak-Boys." Their
chief object was to lessen the power and imposts of the
clergy. Established in 1764, the society made rapid progress, especially in the province of Ulster, where it had
heel). founded. UnabJe to obtain legally what it aimed at,
it had recourse to arms, but was defeated by the royal troops
of England, and dissolved.
660. Hearts-of-Steel, Threshers, Brealc-of-JJay-Boys, lJejende?s, United Irishmen, Ribbonmen.-Many tenants of the
Marquis of Donegal having about eight years after been
ejected from their farms, because the marquis, wanting to raise
wo,ooo, let their holdings to Belfast merchants, they, the
tenants, formed themselves into a society called "Hearts-ofSteel," thereby to indicate the perseverance with which they
intended to pursue their revenge against those who had succeeded them on the land, by murdering them, burning their
farms, and destroying their harvests. They were not suppressed till 1773, when thousands of the affiliated fled to
America, where they entered the ranks of the revolted
colonists. The legislative union of Ireland with England in
1 8oo did not at first benefit the former country much.
New
secret societies were formed, the most important of which
was that of the "'l'hreshers," whose primary object was the
reduction of the exorbitant dues claimed by the clergy of
both persuasions, and sometimes their conduct showed both
generous impulses and grim humour. 'l'hus a priest in the
county of Longford had charged a poor woman double fees
for a christening, on account of there being twins. The
Threshers soon paid him a visit, and compelled him to pay a
sum of money, with which a cow was purchased, and sent
home to the cabin of the poor woman. This was in 1807.
Government called out the whole yeomanry force to
oppose these societies, but without niuch success. Political
and religious animosities were further sources of conspiracy.
Two societies of almost the same nature were formed about
1785. The first was composed of Protestants, the "Breakof-Day-Boys," who at dawn committed all sorts of excesses
against the wretched Roman Catholics, burning their huts,
and destroying their agricultural implements and produce.
The Roman Catholics in return formed themselves into a
society of "Defenders," and from defence, as was natural,

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SECRET SOCIETIES

proceeded to aggression. During the revolt of I 798 the

Defenders combined with the "United Irishmen," who had
initiated the movement. The United Irish were defeated,
and their leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, having been betrayed by Francis Higgins, originally a pot-boy, and afterwards proprietor of the Freeman's Journal, was taken and
condemned to death ; but he died of his wounds before the
time fixed for his execution. The society of the United
Irish, however, was not dispersed. Its members still continued to hold secret meetings, and to reappear in the political arena under the denomination of "Ribbonmen," so
named because they recognised each other by certain
ribbons. The Ribbonman's oath, which only became known
in 1895, was as follows:-" In the presence of .Almighty
God and this my brother, I do swear that I will suffer my
right hand to be cut off my body and laid at the gaol door
before I will waylay or betray a brother. That I will persevere, and will not spare from the cradle to the crutch or
the crutch to the cradle, that I will not pity the groans or
moans of infancy or old age, but that I will wade knee-deep
in Orangemen's blood, and do as King James did."
661. St. Patrick Boys.-These seem to have issued from
the ranks of the Ribbonmen. Their statutes were discovered
and published in 1833. Their .oath was: "I swear to have
my right hand cut off, or to be nailed to tlie door of the
prison at .Armagh, rather than deceive or betray a brother;
to persevere in the cause to which I deliberately devote
myself; to pardon neither sex nor age, should it be in
the way of my vengeance against the Orangemen." The
brethren recognised each other by dialogues. "Here is a
fine day!" ".A finer one is to come."-" The road is very
bad." " It shall be repaired."-" What with?" "With
the bones of Protestants."-" What is your profession of
faith?" "The discomfiture of the Philistines."-" How
long is your stick?" "Long enough to reach my enemies."
-"To what trunk does the wood belong?" "To a French
trunk that blooms in .America, and whose leaves shall shelter
the sons of Eriu." Their aim was chiefly the redress of
agrarian and social grievances.
662. The Orangemen.-This society, against which the St.
Patrick Boys swore such terrible vengeance, was a Protestant
society. Many farms, taken from Roman Catholics, having
fallen into the hands of Protestants, these latter were, as we
have seen (66o), exposed to the attacks of the former. The
Protestants in self-defence formed themselves into a society,

...

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IRISH SOCIETIES

273

taking the name of " Orangemen," to indicate their Protestant character and principles. Their first regular meeting
was held on the 21st September 1795, at the obscure village
of Loughgall, which was attended by deputies of the Breakof-Day-Boys (66o), and constituted into a grand lodge,
authorised to found minor lodges. At first the society had
only one degree: Orangeman. Afterwards, in 1796, the
Purple degree was added; after that, the Mark Man's
degree and the Heroine of Jericho (see 701) were added,
but eventually discarded. The oath varied but little from
that of the entered Apprentice Mason, for Thomas Wilson,
the founder of the Order, was a Freemason. The password
was Migdal (the name. of the place where the Israelites
encamped before they passed through the Red Sea-Exod.
xiv. 2); the main password was Shibboleth. The pass sign
was made by lifting the hat with the right hand, three fingers
on the brim, then putting the three fingers on the crown,
and pressing the hat down ; then darting off the hand to
the front, with the thumb and little finger together. This
sign having been discovered, it was changed to exhibiting
the right hand with three fingers on the thigh or knee, or
marking the figure three with the finger on the knee. This
was the half sign ; the full sign was by placing the first
three fingers of each hand upon the crown of the hat, raising
the eloows as high as possible, and then dropping the
hand perpendicularly by the side. This sign was said to be
emblematical of the lintels and side-posts of the doors, on
which the blood of the passover lamb was sprinkled. 'rhe
distress word of a brother Orangeman was, " Who is on
my side? who?" (2 Kings ix. 32). The grand hailing sign
was made by standing with both hands resting on the hips.
In the Purple degree the member was asked, "What is your
number?"-" 'l'wo and a half." The grand main word was,
"Red Walls" (the Red Sea). The password was Gideon,
given in syllables. The society spread over the whole island,
and also into England, and especially into the manufacturing districts. A grand lodge was established at Manchester,
which was afterwards transferred to London, and its grand
master was no less a person than the Duke of York. At the
death of that prince, which occurred in 182 1, the Duke of
Cumberland, afterwards King of Hanover, succeeded him~
both of themmen to have the interests of religion confided
to them! In 1835 the Irish statutes, having been revised,
were made public. The society bound its members over to
defend the royal family, so long as it remained faithful to
~Ln

13..

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274

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SECRET SOCIETIES

Protestant principles. In the former statutes there were

obligations also to abjure the supremacy of the Court of
Rome and the dogma of transubstantiation; and although
in the modern statutes these were omitted, others of the
same tendency were substituted, the society declaring that
its object was the preservation of the religion established
by law, the Protestant succession of the crown, and the
protection of the lives and property of the affiliated. To
concede something to the spirit of the age, it proclaimed
itself theoretically the friend of religious toleration ; but
facts have shown this, as in most similar cases, to be a mere
illusion. From England the,sect spread into Scotland, the
Colonies, Upper aud Lower Canada, where it reckoned 12,000
members; and into the army, with some fifty lodges. In
the United States the society has latterly been showing its
toleration! Its political action is well known ; it endeavours
to influence parliamentary elections, supporting the Whigs.
The efforts of the British House of Commons to suppress
it have hitherto been ineffectual.
That the custom of indulging in disgraceful mummeries
at the ceremony of initiation into this Order has not gone
out of fashion, is proved by an action brought in January
1897, in the Middlesex (Massachusetts) Superior Court by
one Frank Preble against the officers of a lodge, he having at
his initiation been repeatedly struck, when blindfolded, with
a rattan, hoisted on a step-ladder, and thrown into a sheet,
from which he was several times tossed into the air. Afterwards a red-hot iron was brought to his breast, and he was
severely burnt. The jury disagreed, but the outside world
will not disagree as to the character of such proceedings.
Other Irish societies, having for their chief object the
redress of agrarian and religious grievances, were the
"Corders," in East and West Meath ; the " Shanavests "
and" Caravats" in Tipperary, Kilkenny, Cork, and Limerick;
the Whitefeet and Blackfeet, and others, which need not be
more fully particularised.
663. Molly Maguires.-This Irish sect was the successor
of the White-Boys, the Hearts of Oak, and other societies,
and carried on its operations chiefly in the West of Ireland.
It afterwards spread to America, where it committed great
outrages, especially in the Far West. Thus in 1870 the
Molly Maguires became very formidable in Utah, where no
Englishman was safe from their murderous attacks, and the
officers of the law were unable, or unwilling, to bring the
criminals to justice. This led to the formation of a counter-

~~- .,.,_~~-:-""

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IRISH SOCIETIES

;;.;f,~~-~~--~-~-. -~~-----.--_

275

society, consisting of Englishmen, who united themselves

into the Order of the Sons of St. George, who were so
successful as to cause many of the murderers to be apprehended and executed, and ultimately the Molly Maguires
were totally suppressed. The Order of St. George;however,
. continued to exist, and still exists, as a flourishing benefit
society; it has lodges in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and other
towns in Utah. The name of Molly Maguires was afterwards adopted by a secret society of miners in the Pennsylvanian anthracite districts; with the name of their Irish
prototypes they assumed their habits, the consequence of
which was that in 1890 ten or twelve members of the society
were hanged, and the society was entirely broken up.
664. .Ancient Order of Hibernians.-This Order is widely
diffused throughout the United States, where it numbers
about 6ooo lodges. It is divided into two degrees, in the first
of which, counting most members, no oath is exacted, and no
secrets are communicated. But the second consists of the
initiated, bound together by terrible oaths, and who receive
their passwords from a central committee, called the Board
of Erin, who meet either in England, Scotland, or Ireland,
and every three months send emissaries to New York with
a new password. Their avowed object is the protection of
Irishmen in America-they receive only Roman Catholics
into the society-but they are accused of having given great
encouragement and assistance to the Molly Maguires, above
spoken of, and also of having greatly swelled the ranks of
the Fenians. The bulk, however, of the Hibernians ignore
the criminal objects of their chiefs; hence the toleration
they enjoy in the" States, a toleration they undoubtedly
deserve, for they have recently (November 1896) nobly
distinguished themselves by providing 10,000 for the
endowment of a chair of Celtic in the Roman Catholic
University of New York.
665. Origin and Organisation of Fenianism.-The founders
of Fenianism were two of the Irish exiles of 1848, Colo:rtel
John O'Mahoney and Michael Doheny, the latter one of the
most talented and dangerous members of the Young Ireland
party, and a fervent admirer of John Mitchel. O'Mahoney
belonged to one of the oldest families in Munster, but becoming implicated in Smith O'Brien's machinations and
failure, he made his escape to France, and thence to America,
where, in conjunction with Doheny and General Corcoran, he
set the Fenian Brotherhood afloat. It was at first a semk
secret association ; its meetings were secret, and though its

SECRET SOCIETIES

chief officers were publicly known as such, the operations

of the Brotherhood were hidden from the public view. It
rapidly increased in numbers, spreading through every State
of the American Union, through Canada, and the British
provinces. But in November 1863 the Fenian organisation
assumed a new character. A grand national convention of
delegates met at Chicago, and avowed the object of the
Brotherhood, namely, the separation of Ireland from England, and the establishment of an Irish republic, the same
changes being first to be effected in Canada. Another grand
convention was held in 1 864 at Cincinnati, the delegates at
which represented some 250,000 members, each of which
members was called upon for a contribution of five dollars,
and this call, it is said, was promptly responded to. Indeed,
the reader will presently see that the leaders of the movement were never short of money, whatever the dupes were.
One of the resolutions passed at Cincinnati was that " the
next convention should be held on Irish soil." About the
same time a Fenian Sisterhood was established, and the
ladies were not inactive; for in two months from their
associating they returned upwards of 200,000 sterling to
the Fenian exchequer for the purpose of purchasing arms
and other war material. At that period the Fenians confidently relied on the assistance of the American Government.
The New York press rather favoured this notion. In Ireland
the Brotherhood never attained to the dimensions it reached
in the United States, and without the assistance of the latter
could do nothing. Still the Irish, as well as the American
Fenian, association had its chiefs, officers, both civil and military, its common fund and financial agencies, its secret oaths,
passwords, and emblems, its laws and penalties, its concealed
stores of arms, its nightly drills, its correspondents and
agents, its journals, and even its popular songs and ballads.
But traitors soon set to work to destroy the organisation
from within. Thus the Head Centre O'Mahoney, who was
inreceipt of an official salary of 2000 dollars, is thus spoken
of in the Official Report of the Investigating Committee of
the Fenian Brotherhood of America (1866) : " After a careful examination of the affairs of the Brotherhood, your Committee finds in almost every instance the
cause of Ireland made subservient to individual gain; men
who were lauded as patriots sought every opportunity to
plunder the treasury of the Brotherhood, but legalised their
attacks by securing the endorsement of John O'Mahoney.
. . . In John O'Mahoney's integrity the confidence of the

IRISH SOCIETIES

277

Brotherhood was boundless, and the betrayal of that confidence, whether through incapacity or premeditation, is not
a question for us to determine. . . . Sufficient that he has
proved, recreant to the trust. . . . Never in the history of
the Irish people did they repose so much confidence in their
leaders; never before were they so basely deceived and
treacherously dealt with. In fact, the Moffat mansion (the
headquarters of the American Fenians) was not only an
almshouse for pauper officials and hungry adventurers, but
a general telegraph office for the Canadian authorities and
Sir Frederick Bruce, the British Minister at Washington.
These paid patriots and professional martyrs, not satisfied
with emptying our treasury, connived at posting the English
authorities in advance of our movements."
From this report it further appears that in I 866 there
was in the Fenian treasury in the States a sum of !85,000
dollars ; that the expenses of the Moffat mansion and the
parasites who flocked thither in three months amounted to
104,000 dollars; and that Stephens, the Irish Head _Centre,
in the same space of time received from America, in money
sent to Paris, the sum of upwards of I06,ooo dollars, though
John O'Mahoney in many of his letters expressed the greatest
mistrust of Stephens. He no doubt looked upon the latter as
the more clever and daring rogue, who materially diminished
his own share of the spoil. Stephens's career in Ireland is
sufficiently well known, and there is scarcely any doubt that
whilst he was leading his miserable associates to their ruin,
he acted as spy upon them, and that there existed some
understanding between him and the English authorities.
How else can we explain his living for nearly two months in
the neighbourhood of Dublin, in a house magnificently furnished, whilst he took no precautions to conceal himself, and
yet escaped the vigilance of the police for so long a time ?
His conduct when at last apprehended, his bravado in the
police court and final escape from prison, his traversing the
streets of Dublin, sailing for Scotland, travelling through
London to France without once being molested-all point to
the same conclusion. 'rhe only other person of note among
the Fenians was John Mitchel, who had been implicated in
the troubles of l848, was transported, escaped, and made his
way to the United States. During the civil war which raged
in that country he was a supporter of the Southern cause,
was taken prisoner by the North, but liberated by the President at the request of the Fenians in America.
The Fenian agitation also spread into England. Meetings

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SECRET SOCIETIES

were held in various towns, especially at Liverpool, where

men of considerable means were found to support the Fenian
objects and organisations; and on one occasion as much as
zoo was collected in a few minutes in the room where a
meeting was held. But disputes about the money thus collected were ever arising. The man who acted as treasurer
to the Liverpool Centre, when accused of plundering his
brethren, snapped his fingers at them, and declared that if
they bothered him about the money he would give evidence
against them and have the whole lot hanged. The I!'enians,
to raise money, issued bonds to be redeemed by the future
Irish Republic, of one of which the following is a facsimile:----,------c---------------- ----

Harp.

Goddess of Liberty.

Shamrock.

Ninety days after the establishment of

THE IRISH REPUBLIC

Redeemable by _ _ __
Sunburst.

Board of
Finance.

666. Origin of Name.-Irish tradition says that the Fenians

were an ancient militia employed on home service for protecting the coasts from invasion. Each of the four provinces had
its band, that of Leinster, to which Fionn and his family ,
belonged, being at t.he head of the others. This I!'ionn is
the Fingal of MacPherson, and the leaders of the movement
no doubt saw an advantage in connecting their party with
the historical and traditionary glories of Ireland. But the
Fenians were not confined to Erin. The name was invented
for the society by O'Mahoney, but the Irish never adopted it ;
they called their association the Irish Republican Brotherhood,
or briefly, the I. R. B. Fenianism was officially restricted to
the American branch of the movement.
667. Fenian Litany.-From the Patriotic Litany of Saint
Lawrence O'Toole, published for the use of the Fenian
Brotherhood, the following extract may suffice : "Call to thine aid, 0 most liberty-loving O'TDole, those
Christian auxiliaries of power and glory-the soul-inspiring
cannon, the meek and faithful musket, the pious rifle, and the
conscience-examining pike, which, tempered by a martyr's
faith, a Fenian's hope, and a rebel's charity, will triumph

IRISH SOCIETIES

279

over the devil, and restore to us our own in our own land for
ever, Amen.
O'Toole, hear us.
From English civilisation,
From British law and order,
From Anglo-Saxon cant and freedom,
From the hest of the English Queen,
From Rule Britannia,
From the cloven hoof,
From the necessity of annual rebellion,
From billeted soldiery,
From a pious church establishment,

0' Toole, deliver us I

Fenianism to be stamped out like the cattle plague !

We will prove them false prophets, 0' Toole.
Ireland reduced to obedience,
}
It is a
Ireland loyal to the crown,
Ireland pacified with concessions,
falsehood,
Ireland to recruit the British army,
O'Toole.
Ireland not united in effort,
Ireland never again to be dragged at the tail of any other
nation!
Proclaim it on high, 0' Toole.

668. Eventsfrmn 1865 to 1871.-In speaking of Stephens,

it was mentioned that he was a spy on the Fenians, but he
was not the only informer that betrayed his confederates
to the English Government; which latter, in consequence of
"information thus received," made its first descent on the
Brotherhood in 1865, at the office of the Irish People, and
captured some of the leading Fenians. Shortly after, it
seized Stephens, who, however, was allowed to make his
escape from Richmond Prison, where he had been confined,
in.the night of November 24 of the above year. Further
arrests took place in other parts of Ireland, and also at
Liverpool, Manchester, and other English towns. The
prisoners were indicted for treason-felony, and sentenced to
various degrees of punishment: Various raids into Canada,
and the attempt on Chester Castle, all ending in failure,
next showed that Fenianism was still alive. But it was
more prominently again brought before the public by the
attack at Manchester, in Se.ptember 1867, on the police van
conveying two leaders of the Fenian conspiracy, Kelly and
Deasey, to the city prison, who were enabled to make their

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SECRET SOCIETIES

escape, whilst Sergeant Brett was shot dead by William

O'Meara Allen, who was hanged for the deed. A still more
atrocious and fatal Fenian attempt was that made on the
Clerkenwell House of Detention, with a view of liberating
two Fenian prisoners, Burke and Casey, when a great
length of the outer wall of the prison was blown up by
gunpowder, which also destroyed a whole row of houses
opposite, killed several persons, and wounde<l and maimed
a great number. On that occasion again Government had
received information of the intended attempt by traitors in
the camp, but strangely enough failed to take proper precautionary measures. On December 24, 1867, the Fenians
made an attack on the Martello Tower at ]'ota, near Queenstown, Co. Cork, and carried off a quantity of arms and
ammunition; and their latest exploit, in 187I, was another
Canadian raid, when they crossed the border at Pembina,
and seized the Canadian Custom-House and Hudson's Bay
post. They were, however, attacked and dispersed by
American troops, and General O'Neil was made prisoner.
This raid, the object of which was to secure a base of action,
and also to receive from the American Government a recognition of belligerency, was carried out totally independently
of the new Irish Fenian confederation, of which O'Donovan
Rossa was the moving spirit; and the Irish papers therefore
pooh-poohed the account of this fiasco altogether, or merely
gave the telegrams, denying that the enterprise had any
connection with Fenianism. About this time it seemed as
if the Fenian Brotherhood was breaking up ; O'Donovan
Rossa retired from the "Directory" of the confederation,
and went into the wine trade. The Fenians themselves
denounced the notorious Stephens, who reappeared in
America, as a "traitor" and government informer; and
though the acquittal of Kelly for the murder of head-constable Talbot seemed to point to a strong sympathy surviving amongst the Irish people with Fenianism, the jury perhaps
could give no other verdict than the one they arrived at,
the prosecution having been altogether mismanaged by the
Government.
669. The Soi-disant General Oluseret.-Another personage
had in the meantime become connected with the ]'enians, a
soi-disant General Cluseret, who had been a captain in the
French army, but had been compelled to quit it in consequence of some irregularity in the regimental funds, of
which Cluseret had kept the books and the cash. He afterwards served with Garibaldi in Sicily, and Fremont in the

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United States, after which he bestowed on himself the rank

of General. He came to Europe with the mission of reporting to the Fenians of New York on English arsenals, magazines, and ports of entry. In an article published by him
in F1aser in I 872, entitled, "My Connection with Fenianism,"
he tells the world that he offered to command the Fenians
if IO,OOO men could be raised, but the money to do so was
not forthcoming. He asserted that he had communications with the Reform League, whose members favoured his
designs; but he failed, as he says, because he had a knot
of self-seekers and ignorant intriguers to deal with ; "and
traitors," he might have added, for it is certain that the
intended attack on Chester Castle failed because the English
Government had had early notice of the plot. A rising
Cluseret attempted to head in Ireland came to grief, and the
general speedily made his escape to France, where he became
mixed up with the Commune (507).
670. Plu:enw Park Murders, and Oonsequences.-Fenianism
for a time was quiescent, but about I 880 the Land League
was established, and by its agents, the "Moonlighters," entered
on a course of outrages, chiefly against farmers for paying
rent, which has not yet ceased, though their leader, D.
Connell, aud a number of his followers were apprehended
early in I882. This year was farther distinguished in the
annals of crime by the murder of Lord F. Cavendish, the
Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Mr. Thomas Burke, the
Under-Secretary, in Phrenix Park, Dublin; but the assassins
were not apprehended until January I883, one of the guilty
parties, James Carey, having turned informer. He received
a pardon, and was sent out of the country, but shortly after
shot by O'Donnell, who was executed for this murder. The
law, of course, cannot sanction the slaying of an informer,
but public sentiment says, "Served him right," especially in
this case, as Carey was as deeply implicated in the Phrenix
Park murders as any of the other criminals. The trial of
these led to the disclosure of an organisation known as the
"Irish Invjncibles," whose chief was P. J. 'rynan, who
passed under the sobriquet of Number One, and which
organisation was the instigator and executor of the Phrenix
Park and of many other murders, including, for instance, the
massacre of the Maamtrasna family.
671. Dynamite Outrages.-In this year (I882) the Fenians
began the use of dynamite; a large quantity of this material
was discovered, together with a quantity of arms, concealed in a vault in the town of Cork ; later on the Fenians

SECRET SOCIETIES

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attempted the storing up of dynamite and arms in London

and other English towns ; a considerable number of rifles
and large quantities of ammunition were seized in a house
at Islington in July I882; dynamite was sent to this
country from America, but its introduction being difficult,
the Fenians attempted to manufacture it here; a laboratory, stocked with large quantities of the raw and finished
material, was discovered at Ladywood, near Birmingham, in
April I883. Still, the explosive and infernal machines
continued to be smuggled into this country, and attempts
were made to blow up public buildings in London and
elsewhere, the attempts, however, doing, fortunately in most
cases, but little harm. One of the most serious was the
one made at Glasgow early in 1883. In a manifesto issued
in April 1884 by the Fenian brotherhood, signed by Patrick
Joyce, secretary, the Fenians call this "inaugurating scientific warfare," and declare their intention to persevere until
they have attained their object, the freedom of Ireland.
In December I 884 an attempt to blow up London Bridge
with dynamite had no other result but to blow up the
two men who made the attempt; the chief instigators of all
these attempts were two American organisations; the first
was that of O'Donovan Rossa, the second that of the
association called the Clan-na-Gael. Rossa had agents in
Cork, London, and Glasgow; but two of the most important,
Fetherstone (whose real name is Kennedy) and Dalton,
were apprehended, and sentenced to penal servitude for life.
Since then the party of Rossa has been powerless. An
unsuccessful attempt on O'Donovan Rossa's life was made
early in I 88 5 by an English lady, a Mrs. Dudley. Within a
fortnight after an advertisement appeared in O'Donovan's
paper, offering a reward of ten thousand dollars for the
body of the Prince of Wales, dead or alive. And yet, but
a few months ago (I 896), this would-be assassin, or instigator of assassination,. was permitted to walk about in
England, in perfect freedom, and even to enter the Houses
of Parliament! The Clan-na-Gael is a more serious affair;
originally it was a purely patriotic scheme for the removal
of British power over Ireland; it did not advocate the
slaughter of innocent people by the indiscriminate use of
dynamite. But eventually a certain violent faction obtained
control, and gained possession of the large funds of the Clan,
the bulk of which they absorbed for their own enrichment.
Dr. Cronin, who could have proved this, was murdered.
The branches of the Clan-na-Gael extend over the whole

IRISH SOCIETIES
of the United States. Its heads are three in number:
Alexander Sullivan, of Chicago; General Michael Kerwin,
of New York ; and Colonel Michael Bolan<I, of the same
city. Sullivan was a great friend of Patrick Egan, the
treasurer of the Land League. One of the agents of the
Olan-na-Gael was John Daly, who intended to blow up
the House of Commons by throwing a dynamite bomb on
the table of the House from the Strangers' Gallery. He
was arrested at Chester in April 1884, and sentenced to
penal servitude for life. The attempts on the House of
Commons, and the explosions at the Tower and Victoria
Railway Station, were also the work of the Olan-na-Gael,
twenty-five members of which have been condemned to
penal servitude, two-thirds of them for life. John S.
Walsh, residing in Paris, and the Ford family in America,
are also known as dangerous agents of the association.
The dynamiters were not quite so active after the capture
and conviction of so many of their party, but confined
themselves to occasional and comparatively insignificant
attempts, but murder was rife in Ireland. These events,
however, are now, thanks to the Report of the Judges of
the Parnell Commission, so easily accessible to every reader,
that they need not be specified here.
672. The National League.-This is scarcely an association,
though generally considered such. It is not an Irish production, but created in a foreign land, and directed by
foreign agents, whose designs are unknown. The people
have given their allegiance to it because of the large bribes
it offered to their cupidity, and the fear it inspired. The
secret societies give the League their assistance; without
which it would be powerless. But the real heads who
direct the operations of the rank and file keep carefully
out of the way; but whilst the rank and file know they
have nothing to fear from the people, who will not give
them up, they know that any one of their own body may
at any time betray them by turning informer. The Invin.cibles held their own for a long time, but once the police
got hold of them, informers appeared in every direction.
This shows, .according to Ross - of - Bladensburg, in
M1trray's Magazine, December 1887, from which I quote,
that the Irish have no real faith in their own cause; that
they are not, like the Nihilists, honest patriots, prepared
to suffer in a cause they consider just, but. a people led
astray by a band of selfish agitators, whose machinations
.are pleasantly exposed in the following passages, with which

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f\

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.SECRET SOCIETIES
I will endeavour to give an enlivening finish to this necessarily dry account of the Fenian movement up to I 888.
673. Comic Aspects of Fenianism.-In "The New Gospel
of Peace according to St. Benjamin," an American publication of the year 1867, the author says: "About those
days there arose certain men, Padhees, calling themselves
Phainyans, who conspired together to wrest the isle of
Ouldairin from the queen of the land of Jonbool. Now it
was from the isle of Ouldairin that the Padhees came
into the land of Unculpsalm. . . . Although the Padhees
never had established government or administered laws in
Ouldairin, they diligently sought instead thereof to have
shyndees therein, first with the men who sought to establish
a government for them ; but if not with them, then with
each other. . . . Now the Padhees in the land of Unculpsalm
said one to another, Are we not in the land of U nculpsalm,
where the power of Jonbool cannot touch us, and we are
many and receive money ; let us therefore conspire to make
a great shyndee in the isle of Ouldairin. . . . And they
took a large upper room and they placed men at the
outside of the outer door, clad in raiment of green and
gold, and having drawn swords in their hands. For they
said, How shall men know that we are conspiring secretly,
unless we set a guard over ourselves? And they chose a
chief man to rule them, and they called him the Hid-Sinter,
which, being interpreted, is the top-middle; for, in the
tongue of the Padhees, hid is top, and sinter is middle. . . .
And it came to pass that after many days the Hid-Sinter
sent out tax-gatherers, and they went among the Padhees,
and chiefly among the Bidhees throughout the city of Gotham, and the other cities in the land of Unculpsalm, and
they gathered tribute, . . . and the sum thereof was great,
even hundreds of thousands of pieces of silver. Then the
Hid-Sinter and his chief officers took unto themselves a great
house and spacious in the city of Gotham, . . . and fared
sumptuously therein, and poured out drink-offerings night
and day unto the isle of Ouldairin. And they set up a
government therein, which they called the government of
Ouldairin, and chose unto themselves certain lawgivers, which
they called the Sinnit. . . . Now it came to pass when certain of the Padhees, Phainyans, saw that the Hid-Sinter and
his chief officers . . . fared sumptuously every day, . . . and
lived as if all their kinsfolk were dying day by day, and there
was a ouaic without end, that their souls were moved with
envy, and they said each within his own heart, Why should

.....

IRISH SOCIETIES
I not live in a great house and fare sumptuously? But unto
each other and unto the world they said : Behold, the HidSinter and his officers do not govern Ouldairn righteously,
and they waste the substance of the people. Let us therefore declare their government to be at an end, and let us set
up a new government, with a new Hid-Sinter, and a new
Sinnit, even ourselves. Aud they did so. And they declared that the first Hid-Sinter was no longer Hid-Sinter,
but that their Hid-Sinter was the real Hid-Sinter, . . . and
moreover they especially declared that tribute-money should
no more be paid to the first Hid-Sinter, but unto theirs.
But the first Hid-Sinter and his officers would not be set at
nought, . . . and so it came to pass that there were three
governments for the isle of Ouldairn ; one in the land of
Jonbool, and two in the city of Gotham in the land of Unculpsalm. But when thE) Phanyans gathered unto themselves men, Padhees, in the island of Ouldairin, who went
about there in the night-time, with swords and with spears
and with staves, the governors sent there by the queen of
Jonbool took those men and cast some of them into prison,
and banished others into a far country," &c.
674- Eventsjrom 1888 to I896.-The revelations made in
I 888 and I 890 before the "Special Commission," have rendered the history of the Fenian conspiracy quite familiar up
to that date. Of subsequent events the following are noteworthy. On the 22d October I 890 the Convention of the
Fenian brotherhood in America was held at New Jersey,
when it was resolved to make it an open association-de
facto, it was already so after the disclosures before the Commission-the council only being bound by oath, and that the
object should be to form naval and military volunteer forces
to aid the United States in the event of war with any foreign
State. At a convention held at New York in July 1891, it
was again argued that the only organisation now advisable
was one with a military basis. The Clan-na-Gael continued
to hold abortive meetings; outrages of every kind, including
murder, were rife in Ireland up to I 892, since which time Ireland is supposed to be pacified, though the frequently repeated
dynamite outrages in England, and the revival of Fenianism
in America, would lead to a very different conclusion. As
to this revival, the Irish Convention, commonly called "the
physical force convention," met in September I 89 5 at Chicago, and resolved on the formation of a permanent organisation for the recovery, by arms, of Irish independence.
Among the delegates-there were more than one thousand

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SECRET SOCIETIES

present-were O'Donovan Rossa and Tynan (No. 1), and the

chairman, Mr. John Finerty, ex-member of Congress.
In August 1896 a Belfast paper stated that, owing to
the discovery of a secret society of Ribbonmen in Armagh,
special detective duty had been ordered by the constabulary
authorities at Dublin Castle.
And yet, in spite of all this, Government has recently
released some of the most atrocious dynamiters, originally
and justly sentenced to lifelong penal servitude!
In September I 896, the notorious Patrick Tynan, known
under the name of No. I, and who was implicated in the
Phrenix Park murders, was arrested at Boulogne ; but the
demand of the British Government for his extradition was
refused by that of France, on the grounds that sufficient
evidence identifying him with No. I had not been produced ;
that even if such identification were established, there was
not sufficient proof to identify Tynan as one of the men who
participated in the murder of Mr. Burke; and, lastly, that
his case was covered by "prescription," which in France is
acquired after ten years, an extension to twenty years being
allowed only after a trial at which the accused had been
present. But Tynan had effected his escape after the murders. And so he was set at liberty by the French Government, though it was shown that he had been in frequent
communication whilst at Boulogne with English dynamiters,
plotting against England at that very time. Of course the
French acted on the strict letter of the Code Napoleon and
of the Extradition Treaty between the two countries ; but
when the law and the treaty afford such loopholes to the
vilest of criminals, it is high time both were revised. On
his release from the French prison, Tynan wrote a long letter
to his wife-why should it be published ?-in which he expresses his admiration of Russian civilisation (!), and thanks
God for tempering the wind to the shorn lamb(!). Beware
of a murderer who gives vent to such language; he is more
dangerous than the one who is violent and brutal in his
speech.
675. Most Recent Revelations.-One of the dynamiters
whom Tynan had been in close and recent communication
with was Edward J. Ivory, alias Bell, an American, who had
been apprehended on British territory, and was charged at
the Bow Street Police Court, on the 13th November 1896,
'with conspiring with others to cause dynamite explosions
within the United Kingdom. He was committed for trial,
but when that took place at the Old Bailey, in January 1897,

IRISH SOCIE'riES
the prosecution, in spite of the fact that the prisoner's movements gave room for very grave suspicions, suddenly collapsed
on a purely technical point, and Ivory was, by the judge's
direction, pronounced "Not guilty" by the jury, and of
course immediately discharged. Were it necessary to vindicate the impartiality of English justice, and its tender regard
for the interests and claims of a person accused, the issue of
this trial would afford a very striking and honourable instance of both. How far the interests of justice, the maintenance of law, and the dignity of the country are served by
such verdicts, is altogether a different question, the answer to
which cannot be satisfactory.

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BOOK XIV
MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

VOL. II.

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MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES
676. A B 0 F1iends, The.-A society whose avowed scope
was the education of children, its real object the liberty of
man. They called themselves members of the A B C, letters
which in French are pronounced abaisse; but the abased that
were to be raised were the people. The members were few,
but select. They had two lodges in Paris during the Restoration. Victor Hugo has introduced the society in Les
Miserables, part iii. book iv.
677. Abelites.-A Christian sect, existing in the neighbourhood of' Hippo, in North Africa, in the fourth century.
The members married, but abstained from conjugal intercourse, because, as they maintained, Abel had lived thus,
since no children of his are inentioned. To maintain the
sect, they adopted children, male and female.
A sect having the same name existed in the middle of the
last century, who professed to imitate Abel in all his virtues.
They had secret signs, symbols, passwords, and rites of initiation. Their principal meetings were held at Greifswald, near
Stralsund, at which they amused themselves with moral and
literary debating.
678. Academy of the Ancients.-It was founded at Warsaw
by Colonel Toux de Salverte, in imitation of a similar society,
and with the same name, founded in Rome towards the beginning of the sixteenth century. The object of its secret
meetings was the cultivation of the occult sciences..
679. Almusseri.-This is an association similar to that of
"Belly Paaro," found among the negroes of Senegambia and
other parts of the African continent. The rites of initiation
bear some resemblance to the Orphic and Cabiric rituals. In
the heart of an extensive forest there rises a temple, access
to which is forbidden to the profane. The receptions take
place once a year. The candidate feigns to die. At the appointed hour the initiated surround the aspirant and chant
funereal songs; whereupon he is carried to the temple,
placed on a moderately hot plate of copper, and anointed
with the oil of the palm-a tree which the Egyptians dedicated to the sun, as they ascribed to it three hundred and
29I

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SECRET SOCiETIES

sixty-five properties. In this position he remains forty days

-this number, too, constantly recurs in antiquity-his relations visiting him to renew the anointing, after which period
he is greeted with joyful songs and conducted home: He is
supposed to have received a new soul, and enjoys great consideration and authority among his tribe.
680. Anonymous Society.-This society, which existed for
some time in Germany, with a grand n;taster resident in
Spain, occupied itself with alchymy.
681. Anti-Masonic Party.-In I826 a journalist, William
Morgan, who had been admitted to the highest masonic
degrees, published at New York a book revealing all their
secrets. The Freemasons carried him off in a boat, and he
was never afterwards seen again. His friends accused the
Masons of having assassinated him. The latter asserted that
he had drowned himself in Lake Ontario, and produced a.
corpse, which, however, was proved to be that of one Monroe.
Judiciary inquiries Jed to no result. Most of the officers, it
is said, were themselves Masons. The indignation caused by
the crime and its non-punishment led to the formation, in
the State of New York, of an Anti-Masonic party, whose
object 'Yas to exclude from the public service all members
of the masonic fraternity. But the society soon degenerated
into an electioneering engine. About fifty years after the
occurrence, Thurlow Weed published, from personal knowledge, precise information as to Morgan's assassination by
the Freemasons. His grave was discovered in 188I at Pembroke, in the county of Batavia, State of New York, and in
the grave also was found a paper, bearing on it the name of
a Freemason called John Brown, whom, at the time, public
rumour made one of the assassins of Morgan. To this latter
a statue was erected at Batavia in I 882. Certain American
travellers, indeed, asserted having, years after, met Morgan
at Smyrna, where he taught English; but their assertions
were supported by no proofs.
682. Anti-Masons.-This was a society founded in Ireland,
in County Down, in I 8 I I, and composed of Roman Catholics,
whose object was the expulsion of all Freemasons, of whatever creed they might be.
683. Apocalypse, Knights of the.-This secret society was
formed in Italy -in 1693, to defend the Church against the
expected Antichrist. Augustine Gabrino, the son of a
merchant of Brescia, was its founder. On Palm-Sunday,
when the choir in St. Peter's was intoning the words,
Quis est iste Rex Glorice ? Gabrino, carrying a sword in 'his

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

293

hand, rushed among the choristers, exclaiming, Ego sum Rex

GloriC13. He did the same in the church of San Salvatore,
whereupon he was shut up in a madhouse. The society,
however, continued to flourish until a wood-carver, who had
been initiated, denounced it to the Inquisition, which imprisoned the knights. Most of them, though only traders
and operatives, always carried a sword, even when at work,
and wore on the breast a star with seven rays and an appendage, symbolising the sword seen by St. John in the Apocalypse. The society was accused of having political aims.
It is a fact that the founder called himself Monarch of the
Holy Trinity, which is not extraordinary in a madman, and
wanted to introduce polygamy, for which he ought to be a
favourite with the Mormons.
684. .Areoiti.-This is a society of Tahitian origin, and
has members throughout that archipelago. 'l'hey have their
own genealogy, hierarchy, and traditions. They call themselves the descendants of the god Oro-Tetifa, and are divided
into seven (some say into twelve) degrees, distinguished by
the modes of tattooing allowed to them. The society forms
an institution similar to that of the Egyptian priests; but
laymen also may be admitted. The chiefs at once attain to
the highest degrees, but the common people must obtain
their initiation through many trials. Members enjoy great
consideration and many privileges. They are considered as
the depositaries of knowledge, and as mediators between
God and man, and are feared as the ministers of the taboo,
a kind of excommunication they can pronounce, like the
ancient hierophants of Greece or the court of Rome. Though
the ceremonies are disgusting and immoral, there is a foundation of noble ideas concealed under them; so that we may
assume the present rites to be corruptions of a formerly
purer ceremonial. The meaning that underlies the dogmas
of the initiation is the generative power of nature. The
-legend of the solar god also here plays an important part,
and regulates the festivals; and a funereal ceremony, reminding us of that of the mysteries of antiquity, is performed at the winter solstice. Throughout Polynesia,
moreover, there exists a belief in a supreme deity, Taaroa,
Tongola, or Tangaroa, of whom a cosmogonic hymn, known to
the initiated, says: "He was; he was called Taaroa; he called,
but no one answered; he, the only ens, transformed himself
into the universe; he is the light, the germ, the foundation;
he, the incorruptible; he is great, who created the universe,
the great universe."

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SECRET SOCIETIES

685 . .Avengers, or Vendicatori.-A secret society formed

about II86 in Sicily, to avenge public wrongs, on the principles of the Vehm and Beati Paoli. At length .Adiorolphus
of Ponte Corvo, grand master of the sect, was hanged by
order of King William II. the Norman, and many of the
sectaries were branded with a hot iron.
686. Belly Paaro.-Among the negroes of Guinea there
are mysteries called "Belly Paaro," which are celebrated
several times in the course of a century. The aspirant,
having laid aside all clothing, and every precious metal, is
led into a large wood, where the old men that preside at the
initiation give him a new name, whilst he recites verses in
honour of the god Belly, joins in lively dances, and receives
much theological and mystical instruction. The neophyte
passes five years in absolute isolation, and woe to any woman
that dares to approach the sacred wood! After this novitiate
the aspirant has a cabin assigned to him, and is initiated into
the most secret doctrines of the sect. Issuing thence, he
dresses differently from the others, his body being adorned
with feathers, and his neck showing the scars of the initiatory
incisions.
687. Californian Society.- Several Northern Californian
tribes have secret societies, which meet in a lodge set apart,
or in a .sweat-house, and engage in mummeries of various
kinds, all to frighten their women. The men pretend to converse with the devil, and make their meeting-place shake
and ring again with yells and whoops. In some instances
one of their number, disguised as the master-fiend himself,
issues from the lodge, and rushes like a madman through
the village, doing his best to frighten contumacious women
and children out of their senses. This has been the custom
from time immemorial, and the women are still gulled by it.
688. Carnbridge Secret Society.-In 1886 a number of
young men formed the "Companions of St. John" secret
society, under the leadership of the Rev. Ernest John HerizSmith, M.A., Fellow of Pembroke College. In 1896 it was
supposed to number upwards of one thousand members.
The primary and avowed object was to inculcate High Church
principles and confession; its real object to be a member of
a secret society. They took an oath; the candidate had his
hands tied, knelt at a table, had his eyes bandaged, and took
a vow to obey the head of the society in all things, and
never to mention anything relating to the society except to
a member. If he disobeyed he was sent to his room, and
tied to a table leg. They wore for some time a badge with

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MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

295

the letters L and D (Love and Duty) ; afterwards they

wore it concealed under their clothes, whence the members
were named "Belly-banders." Whether this society still
exists, or whether ridicule has killed it, we cannot say.
689. Oharlottenburg, Order of -This was one of the
numerous branches grafted on the trunk of the Union of
Virtue.
6go. Church Masons.-This is a masonic rite, founded in
this country during this century, with the scarcely credible
object of re-establishing the ancient masonic trade-unions.
691. Oougourde, The.-An association of Liberals at the
time of the restoration of the Bourbons in France. It arose
at Aix, in Provence, and thence spread to various parts of
France. Its existence was ephemeral. Cougourde is French
for the calabash gourd.
692. Druids, Modern.- This society, the members of which
pretend to be the successors of the ancient Druids, was
founded in London in 1781. They adopted masonic rites,
and spread to America and Australia. Their lodges are
called groves; in the United States they have thirteen
grand groves, and ninety-two groves, twenty-four of which
are English, and the remainder German. The number of
degrees are three, but there are also grand arch chapters.
The transactions of the German groves are printed, but those
of the English kept strictly secret. In 1872 the Order was
introduced from America into Germany. The Order is simply

a benefit society.
693. Duk-Duk.-A secret association on the islands of
New Pomerania, originally New Britain, whose hideously
masked or chalk-painted members execute justice, and collect
fines. In carrying out punishment they are allowed to set
houses on fire or .kill people. They recognise one another
by secret signs, and at their festivals the presence of an
uninitiated person entails his death. Similar societies exist
in Western Africa (see 723).
694. Egbo Society.-An association said to exist among
some of the tribes inhabiting the regions of the Congo.
Egbo, or Ekpe, is supposed to be a mysterious person, who
lives in the jungle, from which he has to be brought, and
whither he must be taken back by the initiates alone after
any great state ceremonial. Egbo is the evil genius, or
Satan. His worship is termed Obeeyahism, the worship of
Obi, or the Devil. Ob, or Obi, is the old Egyptian name
for the spirit of evil, and devil-worship is practised by many
barbarous tribes, as, for instance, by the Ooroados and the

SECRET SOCIETIES
Tupayas, in the impenetrable forests between the rivers
Prado and Doce in Brazil, the Abipones of Paraguay, the
Bachapins, a Caffre tribe, the negroes on the Gold Coast, and
firmly believed in by the negroes of the West Indies, they
being descended from the slaves formerly imported from
Africa.
In the ju-ju houses of the Egbo society are wooden statues,
to which great veneration is paid, since by their means the
society practise divination. Certain festivals are held during
the year, when the members wear black wooden masks with
horns, which it is death for any woman to see. There are
three degrees in the Egbo society; the highest is said to
confer such influence that from rooo to I 500 are paid
for attaining it.
695. Fraticelli.-A sect who were said to. have practised
the custom of self-restraint under the most trying circumstances of disciplinary carnal temptation. They were found
chiefly in Lombardy; and Pope Clement V. preached a
crusade against them, and had them extirpated by fire and
sword, hunger and cold. But they were guilty of a much
higher crime than the one for which they were ostensibly
persecuted ; they had denounced the tyranny of the popes,
and the abuses of priestly power and wealth, which of
course deserved nothing less than extermination by fire and
sword!
696. Goats, .'Z'he.-About the year 1770 the territory of
Limburg was the theatre of strange proceedings. Churches
were sacked, castles burnt down, and robberies were committed everywhere. The country people were trying to
shake off the yoke feudalism had imposed on them. During
the night, and in the solitude of the landes, the most daring
assembled and marched forth to perpetrate these devastations. Then terror spread everywhere, and the cry was
heard, "The Goats are coming! " They were thus called,
because they wore masks in imitation of goats' faces over
their own. On such nights the slave became the master,
and abandoned himself with fierce delight to avenging the
wrongs he had suffered during the day. In the morning all
disappeared, returning to their daily labour, whilst the castles
and mansions set on fire in the night were sending their
lurid flames up to the sky. The greater the number of
malcontents, the greater the number of Goats, who at last
became so numerous that they would undertake simultaneous expeditions in different directions in one night.
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form of a goat, was believed to transport them from one

place to another. The initiation into this sect was performed in the following manner :-In a small chapel situate
in a dense wood, a lamp was lighted during a dark and
stormy night. The candidate was introduced into the chapel
by two godfathers, and had to run round the interior of the
building three times on all-fours. After having plentifully
drunk of a strong fermented liquor, he was put astride on
a wooden goat hung on pivots. The goat was then swung
round, faster and faster, so that the man, by the strong
drink and the motion, soon became giddy, and sometimes
almost raving mad; when at last he was taken down, he
was easily induced to believe that he had been riding through
space on the deyil's crupper. From that moment he was
sold, body and soul, to the society of Goats, which, for
nearly twenty years, filled Limburg with terror. In vain
the authorities arrested a number of suspected persons; in
vain, in all the communes, in all the villages, gibbet and
cord were in constant request. Prom 1772 to 1774 alone the
tribunal of Foquemont had condemned four hundred Goats
to be hanged or quartered. The society was not exterminated till about the year 1780.
697. Grand Army of the Republic.-A secret society
founded after the Civil War in the Northern States of
America, to afford assistance to indigent veterans and their
families. The Order is a purely military one; its chief is
called the Commandant-General, the central authority the
National Camp, and subordinate sections are styled Posts.
In 1887 the society counted 370,000 members ..
698. Green lsland.-A society formed at Vienna in 1855.
The language used at their meetings was a parody on the
knightly style as it was supposed to have been; its object
was merely amusement. The society reckoned many literary
men of note among its members. Whence it took its name
is not clear, but it appears to have been a revival of the
Order of Knights founded in 1771. See infra, under
"Knights, Order of."
699. Harngari.-A secret society, dating from 1848,
among Germans in North America. They pretended to
be descended from an ancient German order of knighthood, and possess about two hundred lodges, with 16,000
members. The diffusion of the German language is one of
their chief objects. But why surround themselves with the
mist of secrecy but from a childish love for mysterymongering?

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700. Hemp-smokers, African.-At Kashia-Calemba, the

capital of the natives of Bashilange-Balu ba, in Africa (lat.
3 6', long. 21 24'), a sacred fire is always kept up in the
central square by old people, appointed for the purpose,
who also have to cultivate and prepare for smoking the
chiam ba (Cannabis indica); it is known in Zanzibar as
Changi or Chang. It is smoked privately, and also ceremonially as a token of friendship, and is also administered
to accused persons as a species of ordeal. As the symbol
of friendship, it is considered as a religious rite, known
as "Lubuku," practised by an.....organisation, of which the
king is ex officio the head ; a social organisation only inIts rules, signs, and
directly of political importance.
working are secret; its aims and objects unknown to
outsiders; its initiatory rites have never been witnessed
by an uninitiated person, much less by any European.
Certain external evidences of its inward nature are however sufficiently obvious to all who care to investigate the
subject. Chiamba-smoking has a most disastrous effect
on both the health and wealth of its devotees. A dark
inference of its true nature may be drawn from the lax,
and indeed promiscuous, intercourse between the sexes.
Another indication of its licentiousness is afforded by the
customs observed at the marriages of its male members, and
repeated for three successive nights, in which all decency
is outraged in the most revolting and most public way
imaginable. The initiatory rites are performed generally
by the king, or by Meta Sankolla, the present king's sister,
on an islet in the Lulua, an affiuent of the Sankoro River,
a short distance above Luluaburg, a European station on
the top of a hill 400 feet above the river. The public
smoking is begun by the chief or senior man present placing
the prepared weed in the" Kinsu dhiamba," or pipe, and after
smoking a little himself, passing it on to the man next to
him. The pipe consists of a small clay bowl, inserted in
the larger end of a hollow gourd, the smaller end of which
has a large aperture, against which the smoker places his
mouth and inhales the smoke in great gulps, till his brain
is affected, and he becomes for a time a raving madman.
701. Heroine of Jericho.-This degree is conferred, in
America, exclusively on Royal Arch Masons, their wives
and widows. Its ritual is founded on the story of Rahab,
in the second chapter of the Book of Joshua. The first
sign is in imitation of the scarlet line which Rahab let
down from the window to assist the spies to make their

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escape. It is made by holding a handkerchief between the

lips and allowing it to hang down. The grand hailing sign
of distress is given by raising the right hand and arm,
holding the handkerchief between the thumb and forefinger, so that it falls perpendicularly. The word is given
by the male heroine (not the candidate's husband) placing
his hand on her shoulder and saying, "My Life," to which
the candidate replies, "For yours." The male then says,
"If ye utter not," to which the candidate answers, "This
our business." The word Rahab is then whispered in the
lady's ear. The latter swears never to reveal this grand
secret. She is told that Rahab was the founder of the
Order, but it was most probably invented by those who
were concerned in the murder of William Morgan (681),
who, by swearing their female relatives to conceal whatever
criminal act perpetrated by Masons might come to their
knowledge, hoped to protect themselves.
702. Human Leopards.-A black secret society in the
country near Sierra Leone, who indulge in cannibalism,
buying young boys, feeding them up, and then killing,
baking, and eating them. They also attack travellers,
and, if possible, kill them for the same purpose. Three
members of the society were hanged in the Imperi country,
a British colony, on the 5th August 1895, for this crime.
Dressed in leopard skins, they used to secrete themselves
in the bush near a village and kill a passer-by, to be
eaten at a cannibal feast. One of those three men had
been a Sunday-school teacher at Sierra Leone. His conversion to Christianity had evidently not been very profound. Cannibalism is as prevalent on the east coast of
Africa as on the west, but in the former, where the natives
eat father and mother and any other relations as soon as
they grow old, it has a sort of sacramental meaning, the
fundamental' idea being that the eater imbibes the properties of the person eaten. At the meeting of the British
Association in September 1896, Mr. Scott Elliott read a paper
on the Human Leopards.
703. Hunters, The.-In 1837, after the first Canadian
insurrection, a society under the above title was formed,
whose object was to bring about a second insurrection. The
United States supported them. MacLeod, one of the
insurgents of Upper Canada, came to St. Albans, the
centre of the society's operations, and was initiated into
all the degrees, which he afterwards promulgated through
Upper Canada. There were four degrees-the Hunter,

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the Racket, the Beaver, and the Eagle. This last was
the title of the chief, corresponding with our rank of
colonel ; the Beaver was a captain, commanding six Rackets,
every Racket consisting of nine men; the company of the
Beaver consisted of seventy affiliates or Hunters. Every
aspirant had to be introduced by three Hunters to a Beaver,
and his admission was preceded by fear-inspiring trials and
terrible oaths. Though the society lasted two years only,
it distinguished itself by brave actions in the field; many
of its members died on the scaffold.
704. Huseanawer. - The natives of Virginia . gave this
name to the initiation they conferred on their own priests,
and to the novitiate those not belonging to the priesthood
had to pass through. The candidate's body was anointed
with fat, and he was led before the assembly of priests, who
held in their hands green twigs. Sacred dances and funereal
shouts alternated. Five youths led the aspirant through a
double file of men armed with canes to the foot of a certain
tree, covering his person with their bodies, and receiving in
his stead the blows aimed at him. In the meantime the
mother prepared a .funeral pyre for the simulated sacrifice,
and wept her son as dead. Then the tree was cut down,
and its boughs lopped off and formed into a crown for the
brows of the candidate, who during a protracted retirement,
and by means of a powerful narcotic called visocean, was
thrown into a state of somnambulism. Thence he issued
among his tribe again and was looked upon as a new man,
possessing higher powers and higher knowledge than the
non-initiated.
705. Indian (North .American) Societies.-Nearly all the
Indian tribes who once roamed over the vast plains of North
America had their secret societies and sacred mysteries, but
as the different tribes borrowed from one another religious
ceremonies and symbols, there was great similarity between
them all, though here and there characteristic signs or tokens
distinguished the separate tribes. Dancing with all of
them was a form of worship from the aborigines of Hispaniola to those of Alaska, as, in fact, it was with all savage
nations, whether African, American, or Polynesian. The
Red Indian tribes all had their medicine-huts and men, their
kivas, council-rooms, or whatever name they gave to what
were really their religious houses. Most tribes kept up a
sacred fire, which was extinguished once a year, and then
relighted. The sacred dogmas and rites of the Indians of
the Gulf States bore so close a resemblance to those of the

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ancient Jews, that it was long seriously contended by ethnologists and historians that they were the Lost Tribes ! The
Cherokees, Delawares, and Chippewas kept records on sticks,
six inches in length, and tied up in bundles, which wer~
covered with devices and symbols, which were called Kepnewin when in common use, and Keknowin when connected
with the mysteries of worship. The most remarkable record
was that contained in the Walum-Olum, or red score; it
contains the creation myth and the story of the migrations
of the tribes, represented in pictorial language. Such pictographs are owned by every tribe. The Ojibwas have produced some very elaborate ones, showing the inside of the
medicine-lodge filled with the presence of the Great Spirit,
a candidate for admission standing tperein, crowned with
feathers, and holding in his hand an otter-skin pouch ; the
tree with the root that supplies the medicine ; the goods
offered as a fee for admission ; an Indian walking in the
sky, a drum, raven, crow, aud so on. 'l'he Iroquois mysteries were elaborate, but are not well known; but it appears
they were instituted to console Manabozko for the disappearance of Chibiabos, who afterwards was made ruler of the
dead-the parallel in this case to Persephone is as curious as
is the similarity of the instrument used in the Kurnai initiation to the Greek pop,{3o<; (72). The Iroquois were originally
made up of five different tribes, which afterwards were increased to seven, and their national organisation was based,
not on affinity, but on an artificial and arbitrary brotherhood,
having signs and countersigns resembling those of modern
secret societies. The secret associations of the Dakotas
were more numerous and more marked than those of the
Iroquois, but some of them were mere social societies, while
others were simply religious. Miss Alice Fletcher, who has
lived among them, and the Rev. J. 0. Dorsey, testify to the
number of societies among them, but to their secrets they
were not admitted. Mr. Frank Cushing was, in 1883,
initiated into the secret societies of the Zunis ; Dr. Washington Matthews has given us descriptions of the sacred
ceremonies of the Navajos, and Captain R. G. Bourke of the
snake-dance of the Moquis. Dr. Franz Boos has described
the customs of the Alaskans, and shown that there are
many societies among them, some of which require that a
person should be born into them to be a member. In 1890
the Sioux ghost-dance attracted much attention. But what
of all these Indian mysteries which in recent years have been
endoweq with a factitious interest and importance ? They

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may have a special attraction for the comparative ethnologist ; to the general reader they merely convey the conviction that from China to Peru, and from the Arctic to the
Antarctic Pole, man is everywhere ruled by the same instincts, fears, and aspirations, which reveal themselves in
the same customs, beliefs, and religious rites.
706. Invisibles, The.- We know not how much or how
little of truth there is in the accounts, very meagre indeed,
of this society, supposed to have existed in Italy in the last
century, and to have advocated, in nocturnal assemblies,
atheism and suicide.
707. Jehu, Society oj.-This society was formed in France
during the Revolution, to avenge its excesses by still greater
violence. It was first established at Lyons. It took its
name from that king who was consecrated by Elisha to
punish the sins of the house of Ahab, and to slay all the
priests of Baal ; that is to say, the relations, friends, and
agents of the Terrorists.. Ignorant people called them the
Society of Jesus, though this name scarcely suited them,
since they spread terror and bloodshed throughout France.
The society disappeared under the Consulate and the Empire,
but reappeared in I 814-15 under the new name of "Knights
of Maria Theresa," or "of the Sun," and by them Bordeaux
was betrayed into the hands of the English, and the assassins
of the Mayor of Toulouse at Bordeaux, of General Ramel at
Toulouse, and of Marshal Brune at Avignon, were members
of this society.
708. Karpokratians.-A religious society founded by Karpokrates, who lived in the time of the Emperor Adrian at
Alexandria. He taught that the soul must rise above the
superstition of popular creeds and the laws of society, by
which inferior spirits enchain man, and by contemplation
unite with the Monas or highest deity. To his son Epiphanes a temple was erected after his death on the island
of Cephalonia. 'rhe sect, in spite of its moral worthless.ness, continued to exist to the sixth century; the members
recognised each other by gently tickling the palm of the
hand they shook with the points of their fingers.
709. Klobbergoll.-Associations on the Micronesian Islands,
living together in houses apart, and bound to accompany
their chiefs on their war expeditions, and perform certain
services for them. There are on these islands also female
clubs, the members of which attend at festivities given to
foreign guests, and render them various services.
710. Knights, the Order of-A satirical order to ridicule

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES
medireval knighthood, founded curiously enough by Frederick von Gone, a Knight of the Strict Observance, who
himself believed in the descent of the Freemasons from the
Knights Templars. It was instituted at Wetzlar in I77I.
The members assumed knightly names; thus Gothe, who
belonged to it, was Gotz von Berlichingen. They held the
"Four Children of Haimon" to be symbolical, and Gothe
wrote a commentary thereon. The Order was divided into
four degrees in sarcastic derision of the higher degrees
of spurious masonry, called, (I) Transition, (2) Transition's
Transition, (3) Transition's Transition to Transition, (4)
Transition's Transition to Transition of Transition. The
initiated only could fathom the deep meaning of these
designations !
7 I 1. Know-Nothings.-This was an anti-foreign and nopopery party, formed in 1852 in the United States of
America, and acting chiefly through secret societies, in ord'er
to decide the Presidential election. In I 8 56 it had almost
become extinct, but came to life again in I 888, having reestablished secret lodges throughout the country, but being
especially strong in New York and California. It then
held large meetings for the purpose of renominating for the
presidential post Major Hewitt, who maintained that all
immigrants ought to live in the States twenty-one years
before they could vote. They were, however, defeated,
General Harrison being elected.
7I2. Ku-Klux-Klan.-A secret organisation under this
name spread with amazing rapidity over the Southern States
of the American Union soon after the close of the war.
The white people of the South were alarmed, not so much
by the threatened confiscation of their property by the
Federal Government, as by the nearer and more present
dangers to life and property, virtue and honour, arising
from the social anarchy around them. The negroes, after
the Confederate surrender, were disorderly. Many of them
would not settle down to labour on any terms, but roamed
about with arms in their hands and hunger in their bellies,
whilst the governing power was only thinking of every
device of suffrage and reconstruction by which the freedmen might be strengthened, and made, under Northern
dictation, the ruling power in the country. Agitators came
down among the towns and plantations; and organising a
Union league, held midnight meetings with the negroes in
the woods, and went about uttering sentiments which were
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the law was all but powerless, and the new governments in
the South, supposing them to have been most willing, were
certainly unable to repress disorder. A real terror reigned
for a time among the white people; and under these circumstances the Ku-Klux started into existence, and executed
the Lynch-law, which alone seems effective in disordered
states of society. The members wore a dress made of black
calico, and called a "shroud." The stuff was sent round to
private houses, with a request that it should be made into
a garment; and fair fingers sewed it up, and had it ready
for the secret messenger when he returned and gave his
preconcerted tap at the door. The women and young girls
had faith in: the honour of the "Klan," and on its will and.
ability to protect them. The Ku-Klux, when out on their
missions, also wore a high tapering hat, with a black veil
over the face. The secret of the membership was kept with
remarkable fidelity; and in no instance, it is said; has a
member of the Ku-Klux been successfully arraigned and
punished, though the Federal Government passed a special
Act against the society, and two proclamations were issued
under this Act by President Grant as late as October 1871,
and the habeas corpus Act suspended in nine counties of
South Carolina. When the members had a long ride at
night, they made requisitions at farmhouses for horses,
which were generally returned on a night following without
injury. If a company of Federal soldiers, stationed in a
small town, talked loudly as to what they would do with the
Ku-Klux, the men in shrouds paraded in the evening before
the guard-house in numbers so overwhelming as at once
reduced the little garrison to silence. 'fhe overt acts of the
Ku-Klux consisted for the most part in disarming dangerous
negroes, inflicting Lynch-law on notorious offenders, and
above all, in creating one feeling of terror as a counterpoise
to another. The thefts by the negroes were a subject of
prevailing complaint in many parts of the South. A band
of men in the Ku-Klux costume one night came to the door
of Allan Oreich, a grocer of Williamson's Creek, seized and
dragged him some distance, when they despatched and
threw him into the Creek, where his body was found. The
assassins then proceeded to the house of Allan's brother, but
not finding him at home, they elicited from his little child
where he was staying. Hereupon they immediately proceeded to the house named ; and having encountered the
man they sought, they dealt with him as they had dealt with
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blamed for buying goods and produce stolen by tl}.e negroes,

and had often been warned to desist, but without avail.
The institution, like all of a similar nature, though the
necessity for its existence has ceased to a great extent, yet
survives in a more degenerate form, having passed into the
hands of utter scoundrels, with no good motive, and with
foul passions of revenge or plunder, or lust of dread and
mysterious power alone in their hearts. Thus in November
1883 seven members of the society, the ringleaders being
men of considerable property, were found guilty at the
United States Court, Atalanta, Georgia, of .having cruelly
beaten and fired on some negroes for having voted in favour
of an opposition candidate of the Yarborough party in the
Congressional election. They were sentenced to various
terms of imprisonment.
713. Kurnai Initiation.-The Kurnai, an Australian tribe,
performed rites of initiation into manhood, somewhat similar
to those of the 0-Kee-Pa (725), as did also all the Tasmani;m
tribes. But details are not known; the nature of the rites
is only inferred from the fact that all young men examined
by Europeans were found to be deeply scarified on the
shoulders, thighs, and muscles of the breast. The Kurnai
mysteries are chiefly referred to here because of the curious
parallel they offer in the use of an instrument resembling
the pop,f3or;, which was one of the sacred objects in the
Eleusinian mysteries (7 2 ). The Kurnai call the instrument
the turndun; it is a flat piece of wood, fastened by one end
to a thong, for whirling it round, and producing a roaring
noise, to warn off the women. For a woman to see it, or
a man to show it her, was, by .native law, death to both.
It is not unknown in England ; we call it a whizzer or bullroarer. A similar instrument is used by the Kafirs of South
Africa, where it is used for just its two principal Australian
purposes, namely, for rain-making, and in connection with
the rites of initiation to warn the women off. The bullroarer was also in use in New Zealand. In Australia it is
known by the names of witarna and muyumkar.
714 Liberty, Knights oj.-A sect formed in I 820 in France
against the government of the Bourbons. Its independent
existence was brief, as it was soon merged in that of the
Carbonari.
715 Lion, Knights of the.-This was one of the transformations assumed in Germany in the last century by
Masonic Templars.
716. Lion, The Sleeping.-This was a society formed m
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Paris in ISI6, with the object of restoring Napoleon to the

throne of France. The existing government suppressed it.
7I7. Ludlam's Oave.-A comic society, formed at Vienna
in ISIS, and so named after a somewhat unsuccessful play
o'f Oehlenschlager. The members were called bodies; candidates, shadows. The latter underwent a farcical examination,
ap.d if found very ignorant, were accepted. Many literary men
belouged to it; but though their professed object was only
amusement, the society was in IS26 suppressed by the police
of Vienna.
7IS. Mad Oouncillors.-This comical orde~ was founded
in IS09 by a Doctor Ehrmann of Frankfort-on-the-Main.
Diplomas, conceived in a ludicrous style, written in Latin,
and bearing a large seal, were granted to the members. Jean
Paul, Arndt, Goethe, Iffland, had such diplomas ; ladies also
received them. On the granting of the hundredth, in IS2o,
the joke was dropped
7I9. Magi, Order of the.-Is supposed to have existed
in Italy in the last century, as a modification of the Rosicrucians. Its members are said to have worn the costume
of Inquisitors.
720. MaMrafa.~.-This is an Indian sect of priests. It
appears abundantly from the works of recognised authority
written by Maharajas, and from existing popular belief in
the Vallabhacharya sect, that Vallabhacharya is believed to
have been an incarnation of the god Krishna, and that the
Maharajas, as descendants of V allabhacharya, have claimed
and received from their followers the like character of incarnations of that god by hereditary succession. The ceremonies of the worship paid to Krishna through these priests
are all of the most licentious character. The love and subserviency due to a Supreme Being are here materialised and
transferred to those who claim to be the living incarnations
of the god. Hence the priests exercise an unlimited influence
over their female votaries, who consider it a great honour to
acquire the temporary regard of the voluptuous Maharajas,
the belief in whose pretensions is allowed to interfere, almost
vitally, with the domestic relations of husband and wife.
The Maharaja libel case, tried in IS62 in the Supreme Court
of Bombay, proved that the wealthiest and largest of the
Hindoo mercantile communities of Central and Western
India worshipped as a god a depraved priest, compared with
whom an ancient satyr was an angel. Indeed, on becoming
followers of that god, they make to his priest the offering of
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307.

does their folly extend, that they will greedily drink the
water in which he has bathed. There are about seventy or.
eighty of the Maharajas in different parts of India. They
have a mark on the forehead, consisting of two red perpendicular lines, meeting in a semicircle at the root of the
]:lose, and having a round spot of red between them. Though
not a secret society, strictly speaking, still, as their doings
were to some extent kept secret, and their worst features,
though proved by legal evidence, denied by the persons implicated, I have thought it right to give it a place here.
721. Mano Negra.-This association, the Black Hand, in
the south of Spain, is agrarian and Socialistic, and its origin
dates back to the year 1835 It was formed in consequence
of the agricultural labourers having been deprived of their
communal rights, the lands on which they had formerly had
the privilege to cut timber and pasture their cattle having
been sold, in most instances, far below their value, to the
sharp village lawyers, nicknamed caciques, who resemble in
their practices the gombeen men of Cork, though these
latter do not possess the political influence of the former.
The caciques, though they bought the land, in many instances had not capital enough to cultivate it, hence the
agricu~tural labourer was left to starve, a. condition which
led to many agrarian disturbances. The members of the
society were bound by oath to punish their oppressors by
steel, fire, or poison ; incendiarism was rife. The association
was strictly secret; to reveal its doings by treachery or imprudence meant death to the offender. The society had a
complete organisation, with its chiefs, its centres, its funds,
its secret tribunals, inflicting death and other penalties on
their own members, and on landlords and usurers, such as
the caciques. The members, to escape detection, often
changed their names; they corresponded by cipher, and had
a code of precautions, in which every contingency was provided against. From 1880 to 1883 the society was particularly active, especially in Andalusia, which induced the
Spanish Government to take the most severe repressive
measures against it. Many trials of members took place in
1883~ The rising was a purely Spanish one; it was absolute
.hunger which drove the Spanish peasant into the hands of
native agitators. Foreign anarchists endeavoured to utilise
the movement, but had little influence on it.
722. Melanesian Societics.-The groups of islands stretching in a semicircle from off the eastern coast of Australia
to New Caledonia, including New Guinea, the Solomon

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Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and also the

Fiji Islands, all abound with secret societies, which, however,
have nothing formidable in them, since all their secrets are
known; the people join, but laugh at them; their lodges
are their clubs, chiefly devoted to feasting; strangers are
admitted to them as to inns ; they exclude women, though
on the Fiji Islands there are societies which admit them.
Young men are expected to be initiated; those who are not,
do not take a position of full social equality with those who
are members. When the ceremonies and doctrines were as
yet mysteries, outsiders thought that the initiated entered
into association with the ghosts of the dead, a delusion
strengthened by the strange and unearthly noises heard at
times in and around the lodges, and the hideously-disguised
figures, supposed to be ghosts, which appeared to the "dogs
outside." Now it is known that the ghosts are merely
members, wearing strangely-decorated hats made of bark
and painted, which. hats cover the whole head and rest on
the shoulders, while the mummers are dressed in long cloaks,
made of leaves, and shaped in fantastic designs. It is also
known that the noises which used to frighten the natives
are produced by a flat smooth stone, on which the butt-end
of a fan of palm is rubbed, the vibration of which produces
the extraordinary sound. At the ceremony of initiation the
usual pretence of imparting secret knowledge is gone through
on a par with that imparted in some societies nearer home,
and, as with the latter, it is all a question of fees, though in
some societies there is also some rougher ceremony to be
submitted to; thus in that called welu, the neophyte has to
lie down on his face in a hole in the ground, cut exactly to
his shape, and lighted cocoanut fronds are cast upon his back.
He cannot move, and dare not cry ; the scars remain on his
back as marks of membership. 'l'he neophyte, when initiated,
remains goto, that is, secluded for a number of days-in some
societies for one hundred days-during which time he has
to attend to the oven and do the dirty work of the lodge.
Learning the dances, which the initiated on certain festivals perform in public, as particularly pleasing to their
gods, seems to be the principal item of the instruction received in the sanctuary. The number of societies, as already
stated, is very large, and they are known by various names.
The New Britain Society is called Duk-Duk (693); that of
Florida, Matambala; that of the Banks Islands, Tamate ;
that of the Northern New Hebrides, Qatu; that of Fiji,
Nanga. The ghosts supposed to be present are called duka;

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

309

in Florida the consultation of the ghosts is known as paluduka. The lodge is called Salagoro; it is usually situate in
some retreat near the village, in the midst of lofty trees, and
must not be approached by women;. masked figures guard
the path to it, which is marked by bright orange-coloured
fruits stuck on reeds, and the customary soloi taboo marks,
forbidding entrance. The members of different societies
are distinguished by particular badges, consisting of leaves
or flowers, and to wear such a badge without membership is
a punishable offence.
723. Mumbo-Jumbo.-We have seen (687) that there is a
Californian society, whose object it is to keep their women
in due subjection. Among the Mundingoes, a tribe above the
sources of the river Gambia, a somewhat similar association
exists. Whenever the men have any dispute with the women,
an image, eight or nine feet high, made of the bark of trees,
dressed in a long coat, crowned with a wisp of straw, and
called a Mumbo-Jumbo, or Mamma Jambah, is sent for. A
member of the society conceals himself under the coat aud
acts as judge. Of course his decisions are almost always in
favour of the men. When the women hear him coming they
run away and hide themselves, but he sends for them, makes
them sit down, and afterwards either sing or dance, as he
pleases. Those who refuse to come are brought by force,
and he whips them. Whoso is admitted into the society has
to swear in the most solemn manner never to divulge the
secret to any woman, nor to any one not initiated. To preserve the secret inviolable, no boys under sixteen years of age
are admitted. About 1727 the King of Jagra, having a very
inquisitive wife, disclosed to her the secret of his membership, and the secrets connected therewith. She, being a
gossip, talked about it; the result was, that she and the king
were killed by the members of the association.
Obeah, see Egbo Society.
724. Odd Fellows.-This Order was founded in England'
about the middle of the last century. The initiatory rites
then were of the usual terrifying character we have seen
practised in the ancient mysteries, accompanied by all the
theatrical display intended to overawe the candidate, who
had to take the oath of secrecy. The Order has its signs,
grips, words, and passwords ; one word was Fides, which was
uttered letter by letter; one sign was made by placing the
right hand on the .left breast, and at the same time pronouncing the words, "Upon my honour." Another sign
was made by taking hold of the lower part of the left ear

310

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with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. What the
signs, grips, and passwords now are, it is impossible to tell,
since these, as the only secrets of the Order, are kept strictly
secret. Every half-year a new password is communicated
to the lodges. In 1819 the Order was introduced into the
United States. There~ are three degrees: the White, Blue,
and Scarlet; there is also a female degree, called Rebecca,
and High Degrees are conferred in "Camps." The Odd
Fellows in the lodges wear white aprons, edged with the
colours of their degree; in the camps they wear black aprons
similarly trimmed. Since the American prosecutions of the
Freemasons, which also affected the Odd Fellows, the oath
of secrecy is no longer demanded (see 741).
725. 0-Kee-Pa.-A religious rite, commemorative of the
Flood, which was practised by the Mandans, a now extinct
tribe of Red Indians. The celebration was annual, and its
object threefold, viz.: (1) to keep in remembrance the subsiding of the waters; (2) to dance the bull-dance, to insure
a plentiful supply of buffaloes (though the reader will see in
it an allusion to the bull of the zodiac, the vernal equinox);
and (3) to test the courage and power of endurance of the
young men who, during the past year, had arrived at the age
of manhood, by great bodily privations and tortures. Part
of the latter were inflicted in the secrecy of the " Medicinehut," outside of which stood the Big Canoe-, or Mandan Ark,
which only the "Mystery-Men" were allowed to touch or
look into. The tortures, as witnessed by Catlin, consisted in
forcing sticks of wood under the dorsal or pectoral muscles
of the victim, and then suspending him by these sticks from
the top of the hut, and turning him round until he fainted,
when he was taken down and allowed to recover consciousness; whereupon he was driven forth among the multitude
assembled without, who chased him round the village,. treading on. the cords attached to the bits of wood sticking in his
flesh, until these latter fell out by tearing the flesh to pieces.
Like the ancient mysteries, the 0-Kee-Pa ended with drunken
and vicious orgies. The Sioux at Rosebud Agency, in Dakota,
still practise the same barbarous rites, but in a milder form.
726. Pantheists.-An association, existing in the last century in this country and in Germany; Bolingbroke, Hume,
and other celebrities belonged to it. Its object was the discussion of the maxims contained in Toland~s "Pantheisticon."
John Toland was born in Ireland about 1670, and was a
Deistical writer, who anticipated, two centuries ago, the
"higher criticism" of the present day in his " Christianity

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

31 I

not Mysterious." His writings attracted much attention

here and in Germany, which country he repeatedly)visited.
As his teaching was considered atheistical, its followers had
_to study it secretly. The members of the association met at
the periods of the solstices and of the equinoxes, and the profane, and even the servants, were rigorously excluded from
the meetings.
727. Patriotic Order Sons of .America.-This Order was
organised in Philadelphia in 1847. It suspended operations
during the Civil War, but at"its c~mclusion it was reorganised,
and now counts over 200,000 members. The aims and
. objects of the Order are the teaching of American principles ; born Americans only are admitted. Its lodges are
called camps. It is a benefit society, and, like all similar
associations, has no secrets, but simply endeavours, by certain symbols and signs of recognition, to impress on their
members their principles and brotherhood.
Pednosophers, see Tobaccological Society.
n8. Phi-Beta-Kappa.-The Bavarian llluminati, according to some accounts, spread to America. Students of universities only are admitted to the Order. The password is
c:fltA.ouocpta Btov JCV{3EfJV'1JT'1j'>, philosophy is the guide or rule
of life. The three letters forming the initials of the Greek
sentence were chosen as the name of the society, whose
object is to make philosophy, and not religion, the guiding
principle of man's actions. The Order was introduced into
the United St~tes about the year 1776. It had its secret
signs and grips, which, however, were all made public, when
about the year 1830 the society ceased from being a secret
one: the sign was given by placing the two forefingers of
the right hand so as to cover the left corner of the mouth,
and then drawing it across the chin. The grip was like the
common shaking of hands, only not interlocking the thumbs,
and at the same time gently pressing the wrists. The jewel
or medal, always of silver or gold, and provided at the candidate's expense; is suspended by a pink or blue ribbon. On
it are the letters Ph, B, and K, six stars, and a hand. The
stars denote the nmn ber of colleges where the institution
exists. On the reverse is S. P. for Societas Philosophire,
and the date December 5, 1776, which indicates the time of
the introduction of the Order into the States.
729. Pilgrirns.-A society whose existence was discovered
at Lyons in 1825, through the arrest of one of the brethren,
a Prussian shoemaker, on whom was found the printed catechism of the society. Though the Pilgrims aimed above all

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at religious reform, yet their catechism was modelled on that

of the Freemasons.
730. Police, Secret.- Whilst revolutionaries and disaffected
subjects formed secret associations for the overthrow of their
rulers, the latter had recourse to counter-associations, or the
Secret Police. In France it was very active in the early part
of the last century, but chiefly as the pander to the debaucheries of the Court. For political purposes women of loose
morals were employed by preference. Thus a famous procuress, whose boudoirs were haunted by diplomatists, a
Madam Filion, discovered and frustrated the conspiracy of
Cellamare, the Spanish ambassador in 1718 at the court of
the Regent (Philippe d'Orleans, who governed Fra11ce during
the minority of Louis XV.), which was directed against the
reigning family, in favour of the Duke of Maine. The ambassador was obliged to leave France. From the chronique
scandaleuse of those times it is evident that the police were
always closely connected with the ladies of easy virtue, whom
they employed as their agents. Towards the end of the
eighteenth century the police were secretly employed in preventing the propagation of philosophical works, called bad
books. The Revolution abolished this secret police as immoral and illegal; but it was, as a political engine, re-established under the Directory, to which the expelled royal
family opposed a counter-police, which, however, was discovered in the month of May 18oo. Napoleon, to protect
himself against the various conspiracies hatched against him,
relied greatly on the secret police he had established; but
there is no doubt that the mad proceedings of Savary, Duke
of Rovigo, Napoleon's last chief of police, hastened the downfall
of the Empire. Under Louis Philippe again the secret police
had plenty of work to do, in consequence of the many secret
societies, whose machinations we have already described (597).
In Prussia also the secret police was very active from
1848 to the Franco-Prussian war, during which its chief
duty was to protect the King of Prussia, his allied princes,
and Bismarck against the attempts at assassination which
were then so rife. How the secret police had plenty of
occupation in Russia, where it was known as the "Third
Division," we have seen in the account of the Nihilists.
In this country a secret police has never been tolerated ;
it is opposed to the sentiment of the people, who always
connect it with agents provocateurs.
We have seen (693) that a kind of secret police exists
in New Pomerania and Western Africa.

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

3I 3

73 I. Pmtug~tese Societies.-During the early part of this

century various secret societies with political objects were
formed in Portugal, but as they never attained to any
importance or permanence, it will be sufficient to mention
the names of three of them: the Septembrists, Chartists,
and Miguellists, the latter founded in favour of Don Miguel,
who for a time occupied the throne of Portugal.
732. Pztrrak, Tke.-Between the river of Sierra Leone
and Cape Monte, there exist five nations of Foulahs-Sousous,
who form among themselves a kind of federative republic.
Each colony has its particular magistrates and local government; but they are subject to an institution which they call
Purrak. It is an association of warriors, which from its
effects is very similar to the secret tribunal formerly existing in Germany, and known by the name of the Holy Vehm
(zo6); and on account of its rites and mysteries closely
resembles the ancient initiations. Each of the five colonies
has its own peculiar Purrah, consisting , of twenty-five
members ; and from each of these particular tribunals are
taken five persons, who form the Grand Purrah or
supreme tribunal.
To be admitted to a district Purrah the candidate must
be at least thirty years of age ; to be a member of the
Grand Purrah, he must be fifty years old. All his relations belonging to the Purrah become security for the
candidate's conduct, and bind themselves by oath to sacrifice him, if he. flinch during the ceremony, or if, after
having been admitted, he betray the mysteries and tenets
of the association.
In each district comprised in the institution of the Purrah
there is a sacred wood whither the candidate is conducted,
and where he is confined for several months in a solitary
and contracted habitation, and neither speaks nor quits
the dwelling assigned to him. If he attempt to penetrate
into the forest which surrounds him, he is instantly slain.
After several months' preparation the candidate is admitted
to the trial, the last proofs of which are said to be terrible.
All the elements are employed to ascertain his resolution
and courage ; lions and leopards, in some degree chained,
are made use of; during the time of the proof the sacred
woods resound with dreadful how lings; conflagrations appear
in the night, seeming to indicate general destruction; while
at other times fire is seen to pervade these mysterious woods
in all directions~ Every one whose curiosity excites him
to profane these sacred parts is sacrificed without mercy.

SECRET SOCIETIES
When the candidate has undergone all the degrees o probation, he is permitted to be initiated, an oath being previously exacted from him that he will keep all the secrets,
and execute without demur all the decrees of the Purrah
of his tribe, or of the Grand and Sovereign Purrah.
Any member turning traitor or rebel is devoted to death,
and sometimes assassinated in the midst of his family. At
a moment when a guilty person least expects it, a warrior
appears before him, masked and armed, who says: "The
Sovereign Purrah decrees thy death." On these woras
every person present shrinks back, no one makes the least
resistance, and the victim is killed. The common Purrah
of a tribe takes cognisance of the crimes committed within
its jurisdiction, tries the criminals, and executes their sentences ; and also appeases the quarrels that arise among
powerful families.
It is only on extraordinary occasions that the Grand
Purrah assembles for the trial of those who betray the
mysteries and secrets of the Order, or rebel against its
dictates; and it is this assembly which generally puts an
end to the wars that sometimes break out between two or
more tribes. From the moment when the Grand Purrah
has assembled for the purpose of terminating a war, till it
has decided on the subject, every warrior of the belligerent
parties is forbidden to shed a drop of blood under pain of
death. The deliberations of the Purrah generally last a
month, after which the guilty tribe is condemned to be
, pillaged during four days. The warriors who execute the
sentence are taken from the neutral cantons; and they
disguise themselves with frightful masks, are armed with
poniards, and carry lighted torches. They arrive at the
doomed villages before break of day, kill all the inhabitants
that cannot make their escape, and carry off whatever property of value they can find. The plunder is divided into
two parts; one part being allotted to the tribe against which
the aggression has been committed, whilst the other part
goes to the Grand Purrah, which distributes it among the
warriors who executed the sentence.
When the family of the tribes under the command of the
Purrah becomes too powerful and excites alarm, the Grand
Purrah assembles to deliberate on the subject, and almost
always condemns it to sudden and unexpected pillage; which
is executed by night, and always by warriors masked and
. disguised.
The terror and alarm which this confederation excites

';

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

3 is

atnongst the inhabitants of the countries where it is established, and even in the neighbouring territories, are very
great. The negroes of the bay of Sierra Leone never speak
of it without reserve and apprehension; for they believe that
all the members of the confederation are sorcerers, and
that they have communication with the devil. The Purrah
has an interest in propagating these prejudices, by means
of which it exercises an authority that no person dares to
dispute. The number of members is supposed to be about
6ooo, ana they recognise each other by certain words and
signs.
.
733 Pythias, Knights of.-This Order was instituted shortly
after the .American Civil War in I 864 at Washington, whence
it soon spread through the United States. Its professed
object was the inculcation of lessons of friendship, based on
the ancient story of Damon and Pythias. It calls itself a
secret organisation, but in reality is only an ordinary benefit
society, though it may have a secret object, since it has
within itself a " uniform rank," which in its character is
essentially military. The drill has been so revised as to
bring it into perfect harmony with the tactics of the United
States army ; the judges at the competitive drills of the
order are officefs of the United States army. This "uniform
rank" counts upwards of 30,000 members.
734 Rebeccaites.-.A society formed in Wales about r843,
for the abolition of toll-bars. Like the Irish White-Boys the
members dressed in white, and went about at night pulling
down the toll-gates. Government suppressed them. The
supposed chief of the socii'Jty was called Rebecca, a name
derived from the rather clever application of the passage in
Genesis xxiv. 60, ".And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto
her . . . Let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate
thee."
735 Redemption, Order of. -A secret and chivalrous
society, which in its organisation copied the order of the
Knights of Malta. Its scope is scarcely known, and it
never went beyond the walls of Marseilles, where it was
founded by a Sicilian exile.
736. Red Men.-In r8r2, during the war between Eng. land and the United States, some patriotic Americans
founded a society with the above title. They took its symbolism from Indian life : the lodges were called tribes; the
meeting-places, wigwams ; the meetings, council fires, and so
on. On festive occasions the members appeared in Indian
costume. A great many Germans, settled in America, joined

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SECRET SOCIETIES

the society, but being looked down upon by the thoroughbred Yankees, the Germans seceded and founded an order
of their own; and called it the " Independent Order of Red
Men." In both societies there are three degrees-the English has its Hunters, Soldiers, and Captains ; the German
is divided into the Blacks, Blues, and Greens. There are
higher pegrees conferred in " camps." The two societies
count about forty'thousand members. After the cessation
of the war with England (I8I4) the societies lost their political character, and became mere benefit societies, which
they now are.
737 Regeneration, Society of Universal.-It was composed
of the patriots of various countries who had taken refuge
in Switzerland between I8I 5 and' I820. But though their
aims were very comprehensive, they ended in talk, of which
professed patriots always have a liberal supply on hand.
738. Saltpetrers.-The county of Hauenstein, in the Duchy
of Baden, forms a triangle, the base of which is the Rhine
from Sackingen to Waldshut. In the last century the abbot
of the rich monastery of St. Blasius, which may be said to
form the apex of the triangle, exacted bond-service against
the Hauensteiners. This they resented; a secret league was
the result. From its leader, Fridolin Albiez, a dealer in saltpetre, it took the name of Saltpetrers. The abbot, supported
by Austria in I755, finally compelled them to submit, though
the sect was revived at the beginning of this century to
oppose reformatory tendencies in church and school. Mutual
concessions in 1840 put an end to the_ strife and to the
society. In Tirol the Manharters, so called after their
leader, Manhart, had the same object in view-resistance to
Reformation principles-and were successful in attaining
them, they being warmly supported by the Pope.
739 Sikh Fanatics.-The Sikhs-Sikh means a disciple,
or devoted follower-first came into notice in I 5 ro as a
religious sect. Their prophet was Nanuk. Two centuries
afterwards Guru Govindu developed a more military spirit ;
he added the sword to their holy book, the" Granth." From
I 798 to I 8 39 the Sikhs were at the zenith of their power.
Their distinguishing marks were a blue dress, because Bala
Ram, the brother of Krishna, is always represented as wearing a blue dress, with long hair and beard ; every man had
to carry steel on his person in some form. The ordinary
Sikh now dresses in pure white. All the sect were bound
in a holy brotherhood called the Khalsa (meaning the saved
or liberated), wherein all social distinctions were abolished.

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

317

The fierce fanatical Akalis were soldier-priests, a sombre

brotherhood of military devotees, chiefly employed about
their great temple at Amritsar (meaning the fountain of
immortality). They initiate converts, which is done by
ordering the neophyte to wear blue clothes, by being presented with five weapons-a sword, a firelock, a bow and
arrow, and a pike. He is further enjoined to abstain from
intercourse with certain schismatic sects, and to practise
certain virtues. As, according to tradition, Govindu, when
at the point of death, exclaimed, " Wherever five Sikhs are
assembled, there 1 shall be present," five Sikhs are necessary to perform the rite of initiation. The Sikhs may eat
flesh, except that of the cow, which is a sacred animal to
them as well as to the Hindus.
The phase of Sikh fanaticism which revealed its existence
in 1872 by the Kooka murders may be traced to the following
sources:-The movement was started a good many years since
by one Ram Singh, a Sikh, whose headquarters were fixed at
the village of Bainee, in the Loodhiana district. His teaching is said to have aimed at reforming the ritual rather than
the creed of his countrymen. His followers, moreover, s.eem
to have borrowed a hint or two from the dancing. dervishes
of Islam. At their meetings they worked themselves into
a sort of religious frenzy, which relieved it.self by unearthly
how lings; and hence they were generally known as the
"Shouters." Men and women of the new sect joined together in a sort of wild war-dance, yelling out certain forms
of words, and stripping off all their clothing, as they whirled
more and more rapidly round. Ram Singh himself had
served in the old Sikh army, and one of his first moves was
to get a number of his emissaries enlisted into the army of
the Maharajah of Cashmere. That ruler, it is said, would
have taken a whole regiment of Kookas into his pay; but
for some reason or another this scheme fell to the ground.
Possibly he took fright at the political influence which his
new recruits might come in time to wield against him or
his English allies. Ram Singh's followers, however, multiplied apace; and out of their number he chose his lieutenants,
whose preaching in time swelled the total of converts to
something like 100,000. Of these soubahs, or lieutenants,
some twenty were distributed about the Punjab. The
great bulk of their converts consisted of artisans and people
of yet lower caste, who, having nothing to lose, indulged in
wild dreams of future gain. Their leader's power over them
appears to have been very great. They obeyed his orders as

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318

SECRET SOCIETIES

cheerfully as the Assassins of yore obeyed the Old Man of

the Mountain. If he had a message to send to one of his
lieutenants, however far away, a letter was entrusted to one
of his disciples, who ran full speed to the next station, and
handed it to another, who forthwith left his own work, and
hastened in like manner to deliver the letter to a third. In
order to clinch his power over his followers, Ram Singh
contrived to interpolate his own name in a passage of the
"Granth "-the Sikh Bible-which foretells the advent of
another Guru, prophet or teacher. But, whatever the
teachings of this new religious leader, there is reason to
think that his ultimate aim was to restore the Sik)J.s to
their old supremacy in the Punjab by means of a religious
revival ; and he stirred up the religious fervour of his f0llowers by impressing on them that their war was a war
against the slayer of the sacred cow, which to their European conquerors of course is not sacred, and has ceased to
be so to many natives of India. But the insurrection was
quickly suppressed. The whole band, which never numbered
three hundred, was literally hunted down, and the ringleaders blown from guns. This may appear severe punishment; but it is to be borne in mind that though the number
of insurgents who were taken with arms in their hands was
only small, they had behind them a body of nearly 100,000
followers, bound together by one common fanaticism, who
had to be taught by very prompt and severe action that our
power in India is not to be assailed with impunity.
The Sikhs are divided into numerous sects, the most important being the Govind Sinhi community, comprehending
the political association of the Sikh nation generally. The
Sikh sect, as a religious and secret one, is rapidly diminishing.
7 40. Silver Circle, Knights of the.-A secret organisation
formed in the Rocky Mountains in 1893 against the suspension of silver coinage. The Knights threatened, in case the
Sherman Law should be repealed, to compel Colorado to
leave the American Union and unite with the republic of
Mexico, which is a silver coinage country. The western
states were at that time honeycombed with secret societies
deliberating the question of secession. Many of these
societies were armed organisations, and were, it is said, in
the habit of holding moonlight meetings for purposes of
drill. The members had secret signs and passwords to
recognise one another in public. But the repeal of the
Sherman Act in August 1893 crushed their hopes, and
caused the collapse o the society.

-!

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319

741. Sonderbare Gesellen.-German societies, formed on tl).e

model of the English Odd Fellows, whose name they took,
and of which the above is a literal translation. They now
call themselves Freie Gesellen (Free Brethren), or Helfende
Briider (Helping Brethren). But, unlike their English prototypes, who have no other secrets than their signs, grips,
and passwords, the German Gesellen are closely connected
with Freemasonry, which, as we have seen, is not so colourless abroad as it is here, and they proclaim themselves an
institution for the deliverance of nations from priests, superstition, and fanaticism. The Order was introduced into
Germany in I870, and gradually into Switzerland, France,
Holland, Mexico, Peru, Chili, Sweden, Spain, and even some
Polynesian islands, so that now it counts upwards of fifty
grand lodges and nearly eight thousand lodges, exclusive of
English ones (724).
742. Sophisiens.-"The Sacred Order of the Sophisiens,"
or Followers of Wisdom, was founded by some French
generals engaged in the expedition to Egypt (I798-99), and
was to a certain extent secret. But somt;~ of its pursuits
oozed out, and were to be found in a book, partly in MS.
and partly printed, the title of which is "Melanges relatifs
a l'ordre sacre des Sophisiens, etabli dans les Pyramides
de la Republique frauqaise," in 4to. (See No. 494 in the
catalogue of Lerouge.) Where is the book now ?
743. Star of Bethlehem.-This Order claims a very ancient
origin, having, it is alleged, been founded during the first
century of the Christian era. In the thirteenth century it
was an order of monks called Bethlehemites, closely identified
with the Church of the Nativity built by the Empress
Helena in the year 330, in the centre of which is the grotto
of the Nativity, where a star is inlaid in the marble floor in
commemoration of the star which shone over Bethlehem.
The Order was introduced into England in 1257, and soon
became a benevolent order, and members were called Knights
of the Star of Bethlehem. Women were admitted to membership in 1408. In I68 I it was introduced into America by
Giles Cory, of ye City of London, but fanaticism soon drove
it out of that continent, for in September I694 the grand
commander was cruelly put to death "for holding meetings
in ye dead hours of ye night." It was reintroduced into
New York in 1869 by A. Gross of Newcastle-on-Tyne. In
I 884 the members dropped the title of Knights, and the
original name of Order of the Star of Bethlehem was reassumed.

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744 Thirteen, The.-To Balzac's fertile imagination we

are indebted for the book entitled Les Treize, the fictitious
story of a society of thirteen persons who during .the First
Empire bound themselves by fearful oaths, and for objects
the author dare no more reveal than the names of the
members, mutually to support one another. The work consists of three tales, the first being the most interesting for
us, since it pretends to record the stormy career of Ferragus,
one of the associates, and chief of the Devorants spoken
of in the French Workmen's Unions (369). A society of
thirteen (not secret) has recently been founded in London,
in imitation, I assume, of a society formed in 1857 at
Bordeaux for the same purpose as the London one, namely,
by force of example to extirpate the superstition regarding
the number thirteen, of which very few persons know the
origin. In the ancient Indian pack of cards, consisting of
seventy-eight cards, of which the first twenty-two have
special names, the designation of card xiii. is " Death," and
hence all the evil influences ascribed to that number !
745 Tobaccological Society.-When in 531 Theodora from
a ballet girl had become the wife of the Emperor J ustiJ!.ian I.,
she wished to be surrounded by philosophers, especially the
expounders of Pythagoras. But for once the philosophers
stood on their dignity, and declined imperial patronage.
This led to their persecution, and the closing of their schools
and academies ; they were not allowed to hold meetings.
But Pythagoreans must meet, hence they met in secret, first
in a ruined temple of Ceres on the banks of the Ilissus, and
afterwards in an octagonal temple, built by one of them, at
the foot of Mount Hymettns. They called themselves Pednosophers, which in a philologically incorrect manner they
interpreted as meaning " Children of Wisdom.'~ For their
symbol they adopted the anemone, which flower was said to
have sprung from the blood of Adonis, wounded by a wild
boar-so philosophy arose afresh from philosophy persecuted
by superstition. At first women and children were admitted, but they were told part only of the secret, whate~r
it was. The sign was crossing the arms on the breasj;, so
that the index finger touched the lips. The sacred word
was theus-theos, "Hope in God." The chief of the Order
was known to but a few members by his real name; to the
rest he passed under a pseudonym. There were different
degrees in the Order, which perpetuated itself until 1672 in
various countries, England included. In this year Charles
II. prohibited all secret societies, and the Pednosophers

,,.,'.'""""'

ilio-,v,~~.,,_~,\

\'"''

~
~

"
MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

321

changed . their name to Tobaccologers, and adopted the

tobacco plant as their emblem, its red flower suggesting to
them philosophy persecuted by Justinian and others. At
their meetings they discussed chiefly academical subjects; in
fact, modern academies owe to them. their origin. Many men
of note belonged to the Order, which was divided into four
degrees-the glamour of secrecy must be kept up to the last!
The members in the lodge wore a triangular apron. Towards the end of the last century the Order declined in this
country, and its papers, its records, and mysteries eventually
fell into the hands of the French Marquis d'Etanduere, who
left them to his son, at whose death they were examined by a
M. Doussin, to whom he had left them ; and this M. Doussin
thereupon reconstituted the society at Poitiers in I 8o6,
where it continued till about the year I 848. The tobacco
plant, its culture and manufacture, were the subjects of
symbolical instructions, and for the real names of the towns
where lodges existed, the names of localities famous for fine
sorts of tobacco were substituted. Persons known to belong
to the society popularly went by the designation of snufftakers.
746. Tu1f, Society of the.-When the failure of the Carbonaro conspiracy, and especially its non-success in its
attempt on Macerata (562), led to the temporary suppression of the Oarbanaro society, the youths of Italy, who had
hoped to distinguish themselves by fighting and driving the
Austrian out of Italy, felt sorely disappointed. The more
rational ones submitted to the inevitable, and returned to
peaceful occupations. But the more hot-headed and restless
members of the society sought outlets for their exuberant
spirits in forming associations of various kinds, and sometimes of the most objectionable character. Such a one was
the Oompagnia della Teppa, or Turf Society, which arose at
Milan in 1818. 1
Two derivations of the name of the society are given.
The members of the society wore plush hats, and it was
a r~gulation that t_his plush was to be cut as short and as
1 Th~ account which follows is taken chiefly from the Oento Anni of
Rovani, who relied, in his turn, on the statement of one Milesi, a member
.of the Turf Society. There is also a report of the police, which finally
suppressed the society, but this report is inaccessible to the public. In the
Ambrosinian Library at Milan there is a MS. in several volumes, written
by Prebendary Mantovani, giving the history of the Teppa, but this
information reached the author too late to be utilised here. As, however,
Milesi refers to that MS., he probably incorporated in his own account its
most important details, so that we may safely conclude that in Rovani's
work we have all that is known about the Teppa.
VOL. U.
X

322

SECRET SOCIETIES

smooth as turf. The other, and more probable, origin of the

name is the fact that the members held their meetings at
first on the lawns of beautiful turf in the Piazza Oastello at
Milan. Their pursuits may be described as a revival of
Mohocking; they bound themselves to beat every man they
met in the streets after dark, which practice, however, was
chiefly resorted to against men having handsome wives, whom
members of the society wished forcibly, or with consent, to
disgust with their husbands or abduct from their homes;
and a certain amount of ridicule attaching to the infliction
of such a beating, the victims in most cases made no public
complaint. Of course, in many cases it was the Turfists
who got the worst of the encounter. The Austrian police
shut its -eyes to all these proceedings, of which, through its
spies, it was fully cognisant, on the principle that it was
better these young men should vent their overflow of spirits,
their physical and mental energiys, on such follies, and even
on criminal exploits, than employ them in political schemes
and pursuits, which would be certain to be directed against
Austrian rule and rulers. The society might have subsisted
longer than it did had it not grown foolhardy by long impunity. What at last compelled the police to interfere was as
follows:There lived in the Via Pennacchiari a d war known by the
nickname of Gasgiott, who earned his living by artificialflower making.
He was of a violent and quarrelsome
temper, but thought himself a great favourite with the
women; none of them, he fancied, could withstand him.
One night, as some members of the Teppa happened to be
in the Via Pennacchiari, a girl complained to one of them,.
Milesi (the author of the MS. consulted by Rovani ?), a
man of athletic proportions, that Gasgiott had grossly
insulted her. Milesi bestowed on the dwarf a sound thrashing, and carrying him to an inn, where Baron Bontempo,
the chief of the Teppa, was waiting for him, suggested
shutting up the dwarf, with scanty food, for some time
in the country to "cool his blood," which was done. But
one idea suggests another: the capture of one dwarf led
to a regular hunt after the species, and in a short time
about a dozen of them were shut up in a mansion belonging to Baron Bontempo, called Simonetta, and situate outside
the walls of Milan. Then another thought suggested itself
to the members of the Teppa.
Among the fine pretences with which they s~ught to
justify their questionable proceedings was the allegation

:~

---------

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

323

that it was their duty to redress wrongs of which the law

took no cognisance. Now, they argued, there are every
year hundreds of men, young men, just entering life, and
married men with families, ruined through the wiles and
the ext;ravagance of designing women, whom the law cannot
touch for the injuries they have inflicted on their victims.
Many women, notorious for such conduct, some of them
ladies of position, and connected with aristocratic families,
were then living at Milan. It struck the Turfists they
would be suitable companions for the imprisoned dwarfs.
The idea was carried out. About ten ladies were by treachery
or force brought to Simonetta, and there shut up with the
dwarfs. The orgy that ensued, says Rovani, could only be
described by the pen of an Aretino. But it is easy to
understand that a number of ladies, so entrapped, would
not quietly submit to such abduction or the advances of
the dw.arfs. The authors of the mischief were only too
glad to release them on the very next day, and the dwal'fs
also. A.s all the prisoners had been brought to the mansion
by roundabout ways, and in close carriages, and were taken
away in the same manner, they had no clue to the position
of their prison ; but a scheme like this could not be carried
out without a good many persons being let into the secret ;
the ladies whb had been carried off cried aloud for vengeance,
and many young men, belonging to respectable families, who
had joined the society from curiosity, or, as they fancied, to
increase their own importance, seeing the dangerous practices
in which they had involved themselves, were ready to give
information. The police could no longer shut its eyes and
pretend ignorance, and so one morning, in the year 1821,
more than sixty members of the society were arrested, and,
for want of more suitable accommodation, at first imprisoned
in the convent of St. Mark, whence some were sent to
Szegedin and Komorn, or drafted into the army. Many
others were arrested afterwards ; some of the mem hers
made their escape, having been warned beforehand. Thus
the society collapsed, between three and four years after
its foundation.
.
The members recognised one another by the one saluting
the other with both hands joined, whereupon the other put
his right hand to his side, as if going to place it on the
hilt of his sword. There were only two degrees, that of
captain and that of simple brother; the former was bound
to initiate four new members. General meetings were always
held in the same place, special ones in different localities,

324

SECRET SOCIETIES

which were constantly changed. The society was, moreover,

divided into two grand centres, the centre of Nobles and that
of Commoners.
747 Utopia.-A society founded at Prague in the fifties,
and which had such success that in I 885 it reckoned eightyfive lodges in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, and
other countries. A council of the league was held at Leipzig
in I 876, and another at Prague in I 883. The president of
every lodge is called Uhu (screech-owl); at manifestations of
joy they cry " Aha ! " and at transgressions against the laws of
Utopia, "Oho !" The members are divided into three degrees:
Squires, Younkers, and Knights ; guests are called Pilgrims.
The German name of the society is Allschlaraffia; Schlaraffenland in German means the "land of milk and honey,"
the land of Cocagne, where roast-pigeons fly into your
mouth when you open it, and roasted pigs run about the
streets with knife and fork in their backs. From the name,
the character of the society may be inferred.
748. Wahabees.-This sect, the members of which attracted
considerable attention in I87I, on account of their suspected
connection with the murders of Chief-Justice Norman at
Calcutta, and of Lord Mayo in I872, has the following
origin: About I740 a Mohammedan reformer appeared at
Nejd, named Abdu'l Wahab, and conquered great part of
Arabia from the Turks. He died in I787, having founded a
sect known as the W ahabees. The word Wahab signifies a
Bestower of Blessings, and is one of the epithets of God,
and Abdul Wahab means the servant of the All Bountiful.
The Wahabees took Mecca and Medina, and almost expelled
the Turk from the land of the Prophet. But in I8I8 the
power of these fierce reformers-their doctrine being a kind of
Islam Socinianism, allowing no title to adoration to Mohammed-waned in Arabia, to reappear in India under a new
leader, one Saiyid Ahmad, who had been a godless trooper
in the plundering bands of Amir Khan, the first Nawab
of Tonk. But in I8I6 he went to Delhi to study law, and
his fervid imagination drank in greedily the new subject.
He became absorbed in meditation, which degenerated into
epileptic trances, in which he saw visions. In three years
he left Delhi as a new prophet, and journeying to Patna
and Calcutta, was surrounded by admiring crowds, who
hung upon his accents, and received with ecstasy the
divine lesson to slay the infidel, and drive the armies of
the foreigner from India. In I823 he passed through
Bombay to Rohilkhand, and having there raised an army

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES

325

of the faithful, he crossed the land of the Five Rivers, and

settled like a thundercloud on the mountains to the northeast of Peshawur. . Since then the rebel camp thus founded
has been fed from the head centre at Patna with bands of
fanatics, and money raised by taxing the faithful. To account
for such success, the reader will have .to bear in mind that
in Mohammedan countries a doctor of civil law, such as
Saiyid Ahmad was, may hold the issues of peace or war in
his hands, for with Mohammedans the law and the gospel
go together, and the Koran represents both. Akbar, the
greatest Mohammedan monarch, was nearly hurled from the
height of his power by a decision of the Jaunpur lawyers,
declaring that rebellion against him was lawful. And
the W ahabee doctrine is, that war must be made on all
who are not of their faith, and especially against the
British Government, as the great oppressor of the Mohammedan world. Twenty sanguinary campaigns against this
rebel host, aided by the surrounding Afghan tribes, have
failed to dislodge them ; and they remain to encourage any
invader of India, any enemy of the English, to whom they
would undoubtedly afford immense assistance. Though the
general impression in England and India seems to be that
the murder of Mr. Norman is not to be attributed to a
Wahabee plot, yet so little is known of the constitution,
numerical strength, and aims of the secret societies of India,
that an overweening confidence in the loyalty of the alien
masses-as the Times curiously enough terms them-on the
part of the English residents in India, is greatly to be condemned, for there still exists an active propaganda of fanatic
Wahabees at great Mussulman centres; and though the vast
Mussulman community throughout India look on the fanatics
with dislike or indifference, yet they need careful lookingafter by Government (" Cyclopredia of India," by SurgeonGeneral Edward Balfour. Three vols. London, 1885).
A few lines higher up we referred to secret societies of
India; from among these we may specially mention the
Mina robber settlement at Shahjahanpur, which town formed
part of the possessions. of the Rohilla Patans, whose dominion was overthrown by the British in I774 The Minas
are the descendants of Rohilla chiefs, and the district they
occupy being the centre of a small tract of land, entirely
surrounded by independent native states, affords them refuge
and ready means of escape when pressed by the British
police. And they are doubtless fostered and protected by
the minor chiefs and head-men of native states, who share

SECRET SOCIETIES
the spoil. They are supposed to form a corporation somewhat similar to the Garduna (306-3 1 I). It has been
suggested that the Minas, possessing a splendid physique
and animal courage, the very qualities needed for such a
purpose, should be utilised in frontier and border forces,
as the Mazbis, a similar marauding tribe, were utilised and
reclaimed.

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA
VOL. I.
Page 35, line 12 from top, delete 'may.'
Page 36, line 5.-To 'the religion of Buddha still survives,' add 'in
its integrity.' It may be remembered that in February 1895 an ancient

and highly-artistic image of Buddha was brought from Ceylon to be

set up in the temple of Budli-Gaya, in Bengal, which the Buddhists
regard as the most sacred spot on earth. The ceremony of setting up
the image led to serious riots between the Buddhists and a crowd of
Hindoo devotees who objected to it. The legal proceedings which
ensued proved abortive, in consequence of the complicated questions
of law involved therein.
A work published at the beginning. of this year (1897) by the
Clarendon Press, and entitled 'A Record of the Buddhist Religion
as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671-695). By
I-tsing. Translated by J. Takakusu, B.A., M.D. With a letter from
Professor F. Max Miiller,' is of great value for the history of Buddhism,
on the rise, growth, and development of which this work gives ample
and reliable informat.ion.
Page 36.-In ~ 38 it is stated that there is no proof of the real
existence of Buddha. The recent discovery by Dr. Fuhrer of the
spot where Buddha is reputed to have been born, the Lumbini garden,
~ also of the stone pillar therein, with the inscription, ' Here the
worshipful was born,' is no evidence, as at first sight it might appear,
of the actual existencein the flesh of Buddha. Tradition says that he
was born in the locality named, and that centuries after his supposed
birth a certain king caused a stone pillar to be set up to record the
fact. The discovery amounts to an identification of the spot pointed
out in the tradition. But this qualification is not intended to detract
from the merit of Dr. Fuhrer's discovery, the effect of deep research
and ingenious reasoning, the results of which he has given to the
world in a very lucid demonstration. The discovery is a very pregnant one.
Paye 45 Addendum to 51.-'The temple of Hathor, at Dendera,
inferior in size to the temples at Karnak only, surpasses them in
beauty. It was in this temple that the zodiac, famous in the annals
of Egyptology, was discovered. It is engraved in Denon's "Egypt.':
From the more modern researches instituted, it would appear tnat
the temple was erected, not, as has been asserted, in the time of the
Ptolemies, but rather in the most ancient dynasties. The goddess
Hathor cosmically represents the darkness, out of which is born the
light, hence the sun daily springs from her. She was the prototype
of the Black Virgins of Roman Catholicism.'
327

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA
53, line I3 from bottom, delete 'a' before 'hierogrammatical.'
64, line I 5 from bottom, for 'offered' read 'offer.'
99, line I2 from top, delete')' after 'it.'
II 3, line 14 from top, for 'said' read 'affirmed.'
I42, I78. Waldo.-According to a genealogy compiled by
Morris Charles Jones (publication undated), the Waldo family is
descended from 'Thomas Waldo of Lions,' one of the first who publicly
renounced the doctrines of the Church of Rome. The representative
of the English branch of the family came to this country in the reign
of Queen Elizabeth.
Page I 52, line 3 from top, for 'Hostes' read 'N ostes.'
Page I68, 2I3. Vehm.-Add: 'The last-named work 011 the Vehm
in our list of authorities u11der the heading of "Free Judges" is that
of Theodor Lindner. It treats the subject fully, one may say exhaustively, comprising more than 670 large, closely-pri11ted pages. His
summing up on the character and working of the i11stitution, which
we may accept as final, is that the V ehm, though to some extent a
palliative of the lawlessness of the times, was yet liable to great abuses,
since great and powerful persons always could have sentences passed
on them by one Court annulled by another. Besides, what was the
good of passing sentences which could not be executed 1 From the
accounts given by Lindner-accou11ts based on official documelltsit is clear that public order and security were never in a worse plight
than during the most flourishing days of the Vehm. Nay, the tribtmal
offered many a villain the opportunity of plunging honest people into
trouble and expense. The Vehm neither purified nor improved legal
procedure, but threw it into greater confusion.'
Page I69, 21 5 Beati Paoli.-Add: 'Gioachimo, or Giovacchino,
as his name is sometimes written, was a Calabresian Cistercian monk,
and abbot of Curacio, whose fame as a prophet was so great that King
Richard I. when passing through Southern Italy wished to converse
with him, but came to the conclusion that the prophet was an "idle
babbler"; moreover, all the predictions he uttered anent what was
to happen in the Holy Land proved wrong. Still, he appears to have
been a man of parts ; he was deeply versed in theology, and the author
of many works. Dante speaks of his prophetic powers in the Paradiso,
c. xii.
'John of Parma lived in the twelfth century, and his book Evangelium
~?Eternum was publicly burnt by order of Pope Alexander IV. in I258.'
Page I73, line I I from bottom, for 'Toulouse' read 'Tours.'
Page I 7 5, line 2 I from top, for ' amd' read 'and.'
Page I98, 239 Add: 'From the Humanitarian for March 1897
I learn that there is actually at the present day an Astrological Society
in London, at the annual meeting of which Mr. Alan Leo gave "a very
interesting address," in which he said that astrology" was built upon
a beautiful symbology, the symbols of which were the same to-day
as at the beginning; the circle, which represents the sun; the halfcircle, which means the moon ; and the cross, representing the earth.
A cross over the circle is Mars or War, a cross under the circle, Venus
or Love. The Sun, Mars, and Venus represent the Spirit. In the
half-circle are all the planets relating to the mind. A cross over the
half-circle is Saturn or the Devil; the half-circle over the cross is
Jupiter or Jehovah, the Higher Mind. Every person is born under
Page
Page
Page
Page
Page

--I'I

.ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA
some influence, and the study of astrology enables people correctly to
see the qualities they have in them. The speaker challenged any man
to show that astrology is not true ; sooner or later it will become the
religion of the world." Surely after this dogmatic and lucid exposition,
our public schools and universities will at once add the study of
astrology to their curriculum l Sir Richard Phillips called astrology
the mother of the sciences, though herself the daughter of superstition.'
Page 224, line 17 from bottom, for' Epologue' read 'Apologue,' and
for '.Apilogue' read 'Epilogue.'
Page 230, 280. The Rosicrucians.-.At the end of 280 add: 'In
the anonymous publication "JJas Ganze aller geheimen Ordensverbindungen" (Full Account of all Secret Orders), Leipzig, rSos, evidently
written by one fully initiated, I find the following note on this
Master Pianco : "He had long been a Mason, before he became a
Rosicrucian. His chief was a -hybrid between man and beast. No
honest Christian could cope with him without fear of being flayed
alive. If doubts were suggested to him, he uttered blasphemies, of
which the most violent miscreant would have been ashamed. Pianco
shook off the dust of his chamber, and fled the companionship of such
heathens." This sheds a rather curious light on the composition and
character of the Rosicrucian fraternity, "whose bear was supposed to
dance to none but the most genteelest of tunes."'
Page 231, 28r. Asiatic Brethren,-Add: '.As soon as we are indiscreet enough to pry behind the scenes of secret societies the illusion
their outward seeming grandeur produces vanishes, and the hoUowness
of their pretences and shallowness of their charlatanism become apparent. The Order of the "Asiatic Brethren," who, as our text states,
took so high-sounding a title, in their private transactions proved but
a poor and pitiful lot. Marcus Ben Bind-we have seen that they
affected Jewish names-was a member who was most active in developing the Order. He introduced the "cabalistic nonsense" and fanciful
inventions which formed its basis, and most of its papers were his
property. These the chiefs cajoled out of him, giving him no other
compensation than making him Ocker-Harim, or Chief Custodian of
the Archives. When he complained, he suffered for it (probably he was
imprisoned). But the chiefs, nevertheless, admitted and admired his
merits and profound wisdom, as he kept adding cabalistic and Hebrew
terms to their ritual. They made use of him, promising him great
things ; but when he asked for money, the wire-pullers behind the
curtain refused it ; they needed a great deal for themselves ; he was to
be satisfied with the crumbs which fell from the rich men's tables.
Then he rebelled, and finally resigned, and his revelations were a treat
for the outside "cowans.'''
Page 258, 306. The Garduna.-Add: 'The Spanish word garduna
means a marten, and it is with regard to the well-known qualities of
that animal that in Spain a clever and expert thief is familiarly known
as a garduno.'
Page 270, ~ 321. The Oamorra.-Add: 'According to the law of the
28th September r82-2 of the Bourbon police, "secret or quasi-secret
associations are condemned to the third degree in chains ; the chiefs to
the gallows, and a fine of from one thousand to four thousand ducats."
And again, according to the law of !he 24th June r8z8, "the meeting
of two persons is sufficient to constitute a secret society.'' And yet the
Camorra was not touched.'

330

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA

Page 274, 321j. The Camo~ra.-Add: 'The recently-published

"Stories of Naples and the Camorra," by the late Charles Grant, afford
but a fairit reflex of the terrible character of the Camorra. Whoso
wishes to thoroughly study the subject should read " I V ermi : Studi
Storici su le Classe Pericolose in Napoli di Francesco Mastriani"
(Napoli, 1877. 5 vols.). And the present writer has been among the
Camorristi at Naples, and found in them none of the redeeming features
Mr. Grant allows them : they are all unmitigated scoundrels.'
Page 299, line 14 from bottom, for 'dates' read 'date.'
Page 316, 364. The German Union.-Add: 'The iimer history of
the German Union presents some curious features. Bahrdt, its reputed
founder, was in 1777 in London, and there initiated into Freemasonry.
He had but a poor opinion of German Freemasonry, and, therefore, on
his return to Germany visited none of the lodges. But a high official
of the Imperial Chamber at Wetzlar, Von Ditfurth, suggested to him
the formation of a society which should carry out the true objects of
Freemasonry, viz., the restoration of human rights, and the free use of
reason. In 1785, Bahrdt received an anonymous letter, containing
the plan of the German Union. The letter was signed," From some
Masons, your great admirers." In the same year he was visited by an
Englishman, who urged him to establish a lodge, promising to connect
it with English Masonry. Bahrdt showed him the scheme of the Union,
which the Englishman highly approved of. Bahrdt founded a lodge,
consisting of five or six of his friends and sixteen young men. But
the lodge was denounced as a financial speculation. Bahrdt grew
uneasy, especially when, in 1787, he received another anonymous communication from the same source as the first, announcing the formation
of a German Union, which he was invited to join. The letter contained
printed details and forms of oaths, which were afterwards published in
the book "More Notes than Text." Bahrdt eagerly embraced the
offer, and exerted himself to extendthe German Union. He became
acquainted with a Dr. Pott, who had the reputation of being a wag,
making a fool of everybody, and perhaps in consequence of this new
acquaintance he, in 1788, lost a thousand dollars through the Union to
which he devoted all his time. In the summer of the same year he
received from Berlin-as Bahrdt alleges-the MS. of the satire on the
" Edict of Religion," which he got printed at Vienna. This, as well
as the publication of "More Notes than Text," and the treachery of
Roper, led, as mentioned in the account of the German Union, to his
final ruin.'

VOL. II.
Page 6o, R 439 African Architects.-Add: 'A few additional details on the "African Architects " may not prove uninteresting. The
Order was divided into two sections, the first of which comprised five
degrees: (1) The Apprentice of Egyptian secrets, called Menes Musw ;,
(2) the Initiate into .Bgean secrets ; (3) the Cosmopolitan; (4) the Christian Philosopher; (5) the Aletophile, or Lover of Truth. The second or
inner section of the Order comprised: (I) Armiger, who was told what
Fos Braeder Law and the word Galde signified; (2) Miles, who was informed that the letters G and L did not mean geometry and logic, but
were the initials of the founder of the Order ; (3) Eques, or knights, who

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA

331.

were invested with a ring they wore on the finger of the right hand,
or on the watch. The ring was formed of gold love-knots, and the
letters R.S. Usually the members called themselves .!Ediles or .Architects, because architec.ture was the science they most pursued. Their
mathematics consisted in producing clever variations of the triangle,
square, and number X. .At their meetings they spoke Latin; all their
books were bound in red morocco, with gilt edges. Their chief archives
were at a place in Switzerland, which was never to be revealed, and
which, among its treasures, comprised the papers of the Grand Master,
George Evelyn of Wotton, in Surrey, the seat of which John Evelyn
has left us an account. .The hall of initiation was either occupied by
a choice library, or its walls beautifully painted. "I found," wrote
one of the members, "such a hall at N., built over a barn, and which
you would never have taken for a lodge. The hall had many windows,
and was adorned with statues. There was a dark chamber, a banqueting-hall, a bedroom for travellers, and a well-appointed kitchen.
Over the door of the hall stood a horse, which, when you pre~sed a
spring, with a kick of its foot caused a fountain in the adjoining
garden to play." I was told that this lodge was built by order of'
Frederick II. The introducer of candidates wore a dress of blue satin ;
the Master sat at a table, on which were placed globes and mathemati-cal instruments. Candidates were to be men of science or artists, who
had to submit proofs of their skill. Their rules of procedure in general
were formulated on those of the .Academie Fran9aise.'
Page 134, 514.-1'ae-ping-wang. Add: 'Tae-ping-wang called
himself the King of Peace, and proclaimed himself the younger brother
.of Jesus Christ, appointed to establish a universal kingdom and communion of the faithful, We cannot assume this Chinese leader to have
had any knowledge of the dreams of European Rosicrucians, and yet
these latter in the Thesaurinella Oh,7!mica-aurea ( 244) predicted the advent
.of a mysterious personage they called Elias .Artista, who was to establish the rule of Christ in a new world. Tae-ping-wang thus appears,
.curiously enough, as a Chinese .Artista.'
Page 139, 519. Europe after the Congress of Vienna.-Add: ' The
.opinions as to the consequences of the downfall of Napoleon, expressed
in this paragraph, will probably excite hostile criticism, as they did
when on a former occasion I expressed myself to the same effect. This
is not the place to discuss the question ; but if the record, in these
pages, of the secret societies which arose 'after the Congress of Vienna
be not sufficient to satisfy the critic and the reader of the correctness
-of my views, and I be challenged to the discussion, I will not de-cline it.'
Page 160, 545 The Oarbonari.-Add: 'The Code of Carbonarism
is found most fully in " The Memoirs of the :Secret Societies of the
South of Italy, particularly the Carbonari" (London, 1821). This
work, translated from the original French MS., was the production of
Baron Bertholdy, a converted Jew, who, however, retained the habits
.and manners of his race. He was about the above date, and probably
till about 1825, the Russian .Ambassador to the Papal Court. Of a
restless and inquisitive disposition, he delighted in political intrigue,
and was mixed up with all tumults and popular agitations. He was
,said to know everything, and be ubiquitous ; his sinister physiognomy
and inquisitorial prying gained him ltmong the Neapolitans the
,sobriquet of the "Wandering Jew."'

.l

332

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA

Page 207, 6or. Polish Patriotism,.-Add: 'The opinions here expressed may, like those of 519 (see note thereon), challenge contradiction, but as they are based on facts, they can be substantiated. Here I
content myself with referring to M. C. Courriere, an admirer of the
Poles, who in his "J:Iistory of Contemporaneous Literature among the
Sclavonians" (Paris, 1879), confesses that in the wars which led to the
dismemberment of the kingdom, the Poles were more often fighting for
the preservation of their aristocratic privileges than for national liberty.
The Polish poet Julius Slowacki (b. r8o9, d. 185 r), styled by Nickiewicz
the "Satan of Poetry," speaking in the name of the people, thus addressed the poet Sigismund Krasinski :
"To believe thee, son of the nobleman,
It were virtue in us to endure slavery."

.And Slowacki himself was of gentle birth. Certes, sounder notions as

to Polish patriotism prevail in this generation than were current in
former times, but we still hear too much about the "crime" of the
partition of Poland. The same reasons which led to that partition are
the only justification for our present interference in Turkey.'
Page 259, 650. Baron Stein.-Add: 'The generally-accepted statement is that Stein founded, or was one of the founders of, the Tugendbund; but the first idea of it was suggested by Henry Bardeleben, whom
Stein declared to be patriotic. but short-sighted. Historians say that
Stein was a friend and protector of the Union, but in his correspondence
we find passages like the following:-" If there are well-meaning
persons who are pleased to belong to secret societies, why should we
quarrel with such weakness 'I . The Union of Virtue, founded in
1812, is respectable because of its good intentions, but hitherto it has
done no work ; it is very angry with the French, but its anger appears
to me like the anger of dreaming sheep." And of Jahn, whom it was
proposed to introduce to him, he said : "Don't let the grotesque (fratzenhaften) fellow come near me." And yet Jahn, as is well known, and as
our text partially shows, rendered great service to the German people.
Curiously enough another Baron Stein, who cannot be identified,
though he is described in the journals of the day (r78r to 1788) as
Privy Councillor to the Count Palatine of Cologne, travelled about
Suabia and the Lower Rhine, inviting people of rank to join a secret
society, presenting them with leaden medals of Pope Pius VI., and promising to get them installed Knights of the Papal Order of the Golden
Spur. Stein called his Order that of Jesus Christ. Under the pretence
of writing a topographical work on Suabia, he endeavoured to make
useful acquaintances and obtain influence, but failed ; the journals of
the day pronounced his Order to be somewhat of a swindle, and it
collapsed in consequence.'
Page 26o, 65 r. Tugendbuud.-' It was partly owing to these dissensions that what is called the rising of Germany to expel the French
resulted in the end merely in the formation of a Free Corps, which
with all 'his efforts Ltitzow could only bring up to a strength of three
thousand combatants. There was really no spontaneous rising, though
there were isolated instances of national enthusiasm and individual
bravery. The King of Prussia, to whom Scharnhorst had proposed
the appeal to the loyalty and patriotism of his people, had so little faith .
in either, that for a long time he refused the appeal to be made, but

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA

333

when, during his stay at Breslau, eighty waggons full of volunteers

made their appearance, his faith in his subjects was restored, and he
wept tears of joy ! The king was grateful for small mercies.'
Page 278, 666. Feninns: Origin of Name.-Add: ' It is a curious
coincidence-if mere coincidence it be, and not the result of a connection etymologically traceable with the tribe of Benjamin (19)-that fn
French Romane the word Fenian should mean "idle," "lazy," an
epithet which is justly applicable to the bulk of the members of that
Irish association. I here merely throw out a hint; the question deserves following up.'
Since writing my summary of Fenianism, I have perused Mr. John
O'Leary's recently-published 'Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism.' The work is disappointing. It contains no revelations such as
one mi~ht expect from a man deeply initiated into all the secrets of
Feniamsm. .All we gather from it is that the association, at least the
English branch of it, was always in want of funds, and that it never
had any great chance of wresting Ireland from the grasp of England.
Yet the author ends with these words, published only a few months
ago, and which therefore deserve attention : 'But that spirit [longing
for freedom] is not dead but merely sleepeth ; and if there be men
still in Ireland, and, still more, boys growing into men, willing to strive
and struggle and sacrifice, if needs be, liberty or life for Ireland, to
Fenianism more than to aught else is that spirit and feeling due.'
In my list of '.Authorities Consulted,' John Rutherford's 'Secret
History of the Fenian Conspiracy' is included. Mr. O'Leary's opinion
of this book is as follows : 'This is one horrible libel from beginning
to end, and seems to be compiled altogether out of the reports of the
various State trials, of the American Conventions, and a narrative of
John O'Mahony's. .All these were easily accessible sources, and there
was nothing in the least "secret" about them. This "History" is , ..
as vile a book as I have ever read. John Rutherford is, of course,
a false name, and I cannot make out that any one can give even a
})robable guess at the ruffian who used it.' .And of course, also, Mr.
O'Leary writes as a partisan-of the other side.
Page 299, 702. Human Leopards.-Add: 'The leopards are said
to worship a~ idol called Boofima, which is occasionally lent to friendly
tribes for divination or incantation, and the members of the society
derive their name from their custom of plunging three-pronged forks,
or sharp-pointed cutting-knives, shaped like claws, and fixed in thick
gloves they wear, into the bodies of the persons they attack. How
curiously Boofima reminds one of Baphomet ! ' (204)
'We may add that the West coast of Africa abounds with so-called
secret societies, into which boys and girls are initiated when ten or
twelve years of age; but as their aims are trivial, their rites absurd or
hideous, they intrinsically possess but little interest, though relatively
they deserve attention, as showing the universally-diffused longing of
man after mystery, and the readiness of medicine-men, shamans, bonzes,
marabouts, priests, and mystery-mongers of all sorts, to minister to that
longing.'
Page 301, ~ 705. Indian (North American) Societies.-Add: 'Manabozko, according to the Indian legend, was a person of miraculous birth,
who came to teach the Red men how to clear the forest, to sow their
fields with grain, to read and write. He was knmyn among the different

...

'.,

'I

334

{
!
l
i

I
i

t
I

'

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA

tribes by the several names of Michabou, Chiabo, Tarenyawagon,

and among the Ojibways on the southern shore of Lake Superior as
Hiawatha, under which name he is familiar to Europeans through Longfellow's "Indian Edda" bearing that title. The Iroquois worshipped
him under his original name of Manabozko. Chibiabos, his friend,
was a musician, the ruler of the Land of Spirits, or of Light, the Indian
Apollo. In Indian folk-lore Hiawatha is a very different person from
the hero of the poem. In the prose tales of the Red men he is a
notorious liar, a cruel and treacherous destroyer of all he can get into
his power.;
Page 105. P.S.-French and English journals of the 2oth and zrst
Apr:il r 897 have published to the world the fact that the tale of Diana
Vaughan and her diabolic marriage, and the book of the mythical Dr.
Bataille, were pure mystification by M. Leo "I;axil, the reported convert
to Roman Catholic orthodoxy, having no foundation whatever in reality.
The public, the priests, the cardinals, yea, the pope himself, were taken
in by them-and they got no more than they deserved. It was, no
doubt, one of the finest and grandest hoaxes of this century, and says
but little in favour of our intellectual progress that it should be possible
in our day. If its revelation will teach superstitious people a lesson,
they may in future be saved from the charge of rendering themselves
supremely ridiculous.

'~~--

INDEX TO VOL. II
[The figures refer to pages]

A
A B C Friends, 29I
Abbreviations, Masonic, I 5
Abel, family of, 3
Abelites, 29I
Aberdeen, Masonic deputation
sent to, 59
Abiff, Hiram, 3, 4, 5, 6
Abruzzi, societies in, I8o
Acacia in Masonry, 24, 25, 27
Accepted Masons, 10
Accoltellatori, 200
Acting Company, French, 204
.Adam, 3, 6
- - the first Mason, 8
Administrative process against
Nihilists, 252, 256
Adonai, 3, 6
.Adoniram, 97
.Adoptive Masonic Lodges, 82
.AJ:neis qnoted, 2 5
Africa, Masonry in, 98
African Architects, 6o, 330
- - Hemp-sl)lokers, 298
Agliardi, Cardinal, 104
Ahmad of Ahsa, 268
Akbar, 325
Alcock, Sir Rutherford, I38
Alexander I. of Russia, I44, r'46,
I47, I54, 2I5, 2I6
--II. of Russia, 209
.Ali, Mehemet, I85
Ali Pasha, 147
Almusseri, .African society, 29I
.Alphabet, Masonic, IS
".Alpina," Swiss Gra-ad l,.odge, 97
.Alvarez, Captain, IOI
America, Freemasonry in, 98
American societies, 297, 298, 299,
311, 3I 5
Amru, a carpenter, 5

Anarchists at Prague, I 27
Ancient and Accepted Scotch rite,
I3, 55. 92
Ancient Reformed Rite of Masonry,
I3
Ancients, Academy of the, 291
Anderson, James, II, IIO
.Androgynous Masonry, 84-90
Anne, Empress of Russia, 96
Annichiarico. Ciro, I8o
Anonymous society, 292
Anti-Masonic party, 292
- - Publications, 103, 104
Anti-Masons, 292
Anti-Napoleonic Masonry, 66, 67
Anti-Semitic policy of Russia, 242
Antiquity of Masonry, fabulous, 8
Antonini, General, I 89
Anubis, 28, 29
Apocalypse, Knights of the, 292
Apophasimenes society, I 88
Apprentice, Masonic initiation, 2I
Arabic figures, origin of, IS
Architect, Grand Master, 34-36
Architects, African, 6o
Arena, conspiracy of, I97
Areoiti, 293
Argonauts, 94
Armenian demonstrations in I895
and 1896, 213
- - society, .Anti-Russian, 212,
. 2I3, 242
Arndt, the poet, 259
Artista, Elias, 33 I
Ashmole, antiquary, 9
Asia, Initiated Brethren of, 73
--. Masonry in, 98
Asiatic Brethren, 329
Asimakis, a Hetairist traitor, I47
Assassins of Christ in Masonry, 91
Associated Patriots, 202
Astrological society in London, 328

335

<C

>

<i

INDEX
Athelstan and Masonry in England,
5I

"Athenooum" quoted, 2I7

Augustus, Stanislaus, 97
Ansonia, ancient name of Italy,
I65, I67

Avengers, 294

B
BABEUF, I 13

Babi Koran, 266

Babis, 263-269
--attribute special qualities to
number I9, 266
Babism, doctrines of, 265
- - progress of, 264
Bakunin, 2 I 8
Balkis, Queen of Sheba, 4, 7
Barabas Brethren, I79
Bardina Sophia, a Nihilist, 22I
Basilidean system of agriculture,
33

Basle, International Congress at,

12I

Bataille, Dr., his book on Devilworship, I05, 334

Behais, a Babi sect, 266
Bel, component part of J abulon, 3 I
Belfort, revolutionary attempt at,
202

Bell. See Ivory

" Belly Banders," 29 5
- - Paaro, 294
Benjamin, tribe of, 333
Benoni, friend of Hiram, 5
Bentinck, Lord. William,

Blanqui, chief of the "Seasons"

society, 205
- .- accused of having betrayed
the society, 205
Blazing Star of Masonry, I7, 28
--Star, Order of the, 55
Blucher, General, 2 59
Blue Lotus Hal~ I32
- - Masonry, I 8
Blunders of Ipsilanti, 148, I49
Boaz, 17
Bonaparte, Joseph, I86
- - Lucien, I78
Bonanni forges list of Grand
Masters, 47
Bonneville, Chevalier de, 55
"Book of Constitutions [Masonic]
for Ireland," 8
Bourbons and Carbonari, I7I
Brazen Sea of Solomon's temple, 5
Break-of-Day Boys, 27I
Bridge of Swords, Chinese, I34
Brigands formed into secret society, I7I
Brode, Madam, 26 I
Bruce, Robert, 5I, 52
Brunswick Convention, 59
--Duke of, 6I, 62
Buddha, birthplace, life, and image
of, 327
Builders' dispute in London, I I 4
Bull-roarer, 305
Bull's Head, society of the, 47
Burke, Thomas, 281
Burschenschaft, 26I, 262
Byron, Lord, I 86

170,

I84

,.\ .
l

t
i

Berlin Congress, 21 I
Berne, Council of, persecutes
Masons, 102
Bertholdy, Baron, 33I
Beyan, or Bab "Expositor," 265
Biran, Marquis of, 47
Biren, favourite of Empress Anne
of Russia, 96
Bismarck and Canossa, 258
Biyyan. See Beyan
__.. Black Flag, Chinese society, I33
- - Knights, 26o, 261
- - Needle society, I98
- - Order, 257
- - Virgins, 327
Blftnc, Louis, I I 3

CAGLIOSTRO, 44, 6I, 78, 79, 8o

Cain, 3, 6
Cairo, lodge of, 48
Calabria, Duke of, I73
- - societies in, I 8o
Calderari, I7I, I72, 184
Californian society, 294
Calvary, Mount, 40, 42
Cambaceres, 64, 65, 67
Cambridge secret society, 294
Caroorra, character of the, 329, 330
Canada, Fenian raids into, 279,
280

Cannibalism in Africa, 299

Canosa, Prince of, I7I, I84

INDEX
Cantu, Cesare, r69
Cape Coast Castle, Masonic lodge
at, 98
Capitula Canonicorum, 57
Capo d'Istrias, Count, 143, 146, 147
Caravats, Irish society, 274
Carbonari, IS7-I77. 33I
--and Guelphs, I78
- - demand constitution from
King of Naples, I73
- - i n Lombardy and Venetia,
I75
Carbori.arism in Spain, I42
- - marks transition period in
history of secret societies, I 74
Carbonaro charter proposed to
England, I69
--degree, most secret, I67
- - manifesto, r 66
--symbols, signification of, I65
Carey, James, shot by O'Donnell,
281
Caroline, Queen, 73
Carrascosa, General, 172
Castle Tavern, London, 93
Catherine II., 97
Cats and Dogs, I95
Cavendish, Lord F., 28I
Cellamare, conspiracy of, 3 I 2
Centenaries of Masonic lodges, 98
Oento Anni by Rovani, 321
Centres, Italian, I79
Ceremonies, ridiculous, at initiations still practised, 27 4
Certificates of the Decisi, I82, I 83
Chain, society of the, 8 5
Uhalturin, 229, 230
Charcoal-burners, 157, I58
Charles I. initiated into Masonry, 9
- - II. initiated into Masonry, 9
--III. of Naples, 73
Charles Albert, 190
Charles, Archduke, 260
Charlottenburg, Order of, 295
Charter of Uologne, 9
Chartres, Duke of, 1 2, 55
Chartists, Portuguese, 3 I 3
Chen-kin-Lung, I37
Cherkesoff, Prince, 2I8
Chester Castle attacked by Fenians,
.
279, 28I
Chevaliers Bienfaisants, 62
Chibiabos, 30I, 334
Chicago, chief seat of Anarchism,
I27
VOL. II.

337

Chicago, Fenian Convention at,

276, 285
Children of the Widow, 27
- - of Wisdom, 320
Chinese lodges, I34
Church, the, and Carbonari, I75
- - General, I So
- - Masons, 29 5
Christ's martyrdom represented in
Carbonarism, I62
Cincinnati, Fenian Convention at,
276
Citations before Masonic tribunals,
92, 108
Civil war in France, I I9
Clan-na-Gael, 282, 283, 285
Clement V., Pope, 296
--XII., II, IOO
Clerkenwell House of Detention,
Fenian attack on, 280
Clermont, Chapter of, 55, 57
"Clio," lodge at Moscow, 97
Clover leaves, 66
Cluseret, General, I2I, 28o
Cock-lane ghost, I04
Collegium Muriorum, 10
Colletta, advocate, I72
Cologne, 10
Commune, I I 3
Communistic societies\ 206
Communists defendea. by International, I23
Companions of Penelope, 85
Company of Death, 200
Comuneros, I39-I42, I76
Conceptionistas, I 40
Oonciliatore ei Oarbonari quoted, I 69
Concluding ceremony of Knights
Templars' initiation, 50
Concordists, 260
Congo secret societies, 29 5
Congregazione Catholica Apostolica Romana, I 94
Congress of Wilhelmsbad, I I, 61
Consalvi, Carcl.inal, 195
Consistorials, I 93
Constantini, Santa, 192
Constitution alleged to have been
granted by Tsar, 232
Contributions levied by International, 124
Convention at Brunswick, 59
Coping Stone, the, 6o, 61
Corcoran, General, 275
Corders, Irish society, 274
y

INDEX

I
l

I
li

Correspondence,
revolutionary,
how carried on, I89
Cory,.Giles, 3I9
Cosmopolitans, I87
Cosse-Brissac, Duke of, 47
Costume of Masons in lodge, I 6
~-of Princes Rose-Croix, 4I
Cougourde, the, 295
Council of the Emperors of the
East and West, 92
--of the Knights of the East, 55
Oousinage, bon, I 58
Coustos, John, IOI
Cromwell, Thomas, leaves the
Masons . ro,ooo per annum, 74
Cross, the, 33
Cruelties practised on Babis, 264,
269
- - practised on
Nihilist
prisoners, 25I
- - practised on Siberian exiles,
243, 245, 252
Crusaders, Masons alleged to be
descended from, I I
Customs, Masonic, I 4

I
I

II
I
f

DANGERS threatening London, I I8

Death, society of, I76
Decisi, I8o, I8I, I82-Il)4
Defenders, Irish society, 27I
--of the Faith, I40, 142
Defoliators, Androgynous society,
86
Degaieff, Nihilist, 238
Delahodde, a French spy, 204, 205
Delphic priesthood, I 84
"Democritos" by Weber, 258
Derwentwater, Lord, 54
Desagrtliers, Dr., I I
Deschamps' "SocietesSecretes," I04
Deutsch, Simon, member of
"YoungTurkey"party, 210, 2I2
"Devil in the Nineteenth Century,
the," 105
Devil-worship, 105, 295
Devorants, 320
De Witt, Dorring,66, I67, I68, 194
Diffusion of Freemasonry, 96
Dionysiacs, 9, IO
Discovery of statutes of Triad
society, 132
Dog-Star, 28
Doheny, Michael, Fenian, 275

Donegal, Marquis of, 27 I

Dorring. See Tie Witt
Doussin, M., 32 I
Dramatic portion of mysteries, 27
Drenteln, General, 22 5
Dressler, Anarchist, I27
Druids, modern, 295
Dudley, Mrs., attempts Rossa's
life, 282
Duk-Duk, 295
Dumouriez, General, 63
Dunkirk Masonic lodge, 54
Dvornik, 226, 249, 2 so
' Dynamite outrages, 281

E
EAGLE and Pelican, Knights of
the, 40
Eckert, Dr. E. E., quoted, 62, 104
Eclectic rite, I4
Egbo society, 295
Egyptian Masonry, 78, 79
--society, secret, ISS
Eleutheria, password,. I94
Elohim, 3
Elpidin, Russian bookseller at
Geneva, 253
Emigrants, Nihilist, 253
Emiliani, Signor, I88
Emmanuel, Victor, I87
Empire, French, and International,
119

Encampments, 49
England, International in, 118
English opposition to Masonry, I03
Enoch, 3
Epirotes, I47
Eugene, Prince, 65
European Patriots, or White Pilgrims, Calabrian society, I8o
Eve, 3
Evelyn, George, of Wotton, 331
Exhibition of I862, I 16
Ezelis, Babi sect, 266

F
FABRE-PALAPRAT, 48
Families, the, French society, 205
Fanor, a Mason, 5
Farmakis, a Hetairist, I 53, I 55
Farmassoni, a Russian sect, 92, 93
Felicity, Order of, 86
Fellow-craft degree, 23, 24

INDEX
Female Nihilists, 223, 227,238,244
Fendeurs, r 58, I 59
Fenian attacks, various, 28o, 282,
283
--bonds, 27&
- - dynamite outrages, 28 I
--Investigating Committee, 276
- - Litany, 278, 279

- - raids into Canada, 279

- - sisterhood, 276
Fenianism, comic aspects of, 284
--special Commission on, 285
- - spreads into England, 277
Fenians, 275-287, 333
Ferdinand IV., King of Naples, 73
--VII., King of Spain, 96, I4o,
I72
- - I., King of the Two SiciHes,
I7I, I74, I8I
Fessler's rite, I 3
Fides, password of Odd Fellows,
309
Fieschi attempts life of Louis
Philippe, 204
Finances, Nihilistic, 246
Findel, Masonic writer, 109
Fire, sanctuary of, 6
--Sons of, 4
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 27 ~
Fleury, the actor, 63
Fontanelli, General, I 79
Fourier, Socialist, I I4
France, Carbonarism in, I 76
---Masonry in, 54
--regenerated, 68
Francis, Duke of Tuscany, afterwards Emperor of Germany, 72,
98, I02
Francis I., King of France, I 57, I66
Franco-Prussian war and International, I22
Fraternal Democrats, I I4
Fraternitad Iberica, 86
Fraternity of Royal :Ark Mariners,
93
Fraticelli, an ascetic sect, 296
Frederick the Great, 207
Frederick II., King of Prussia, 6o
--I., King of Sweden, Ib2
- - Augustus III., King of
Poland, I03
- - William III., 62
"Freiheit," I26, I27
French rite of Masonry, I3
- - secret societies, causes of, 206
0

339

French secret societies, v

202-206'
"Freemason" quoted, 109

Freemasonry, alleged early origin

of, 8
- - decay of, 108
-- division of its history, 9
- - in Spain, 140
- - Masonic opinions of, I09
- - of present, in Italy, 76
- - po8sesses no exclusive knowledge, I07
- - summoning sovereigns, 108
- - vain pretences of, 106
--vanity of its ritual, I07
Freemasons,discoveredat Naples,7 3
- - marriages of, 109
--operative and speculative, 9
--persecuted, 100-105. See also
Masons and Masonry
:French workmen visting London,
116
Friends of Greece, I93
--of Truth, 202
Friendship, Order of, 257
Fiihrer, Dr., his discovery of
Buddha's birthplace, 237

G
GABRINO, Augustino, 292
Galatia, a Hetairist, I45, 146
Galatz, I49, I5I
Garden Street mine, 23I
Garduna, meaning of word, 329
Garibaldi, Giuseppe, I87, 190
- - Menotti, 21 I
Gasgiott, a dwarf, 322
Gatshina, attempt on Tsar's life
at, 237
Genesis and development of a new
.
creed, 267
Geneva, workmen's congress at, 1 I 7
Georgakis,Hetairistchief, I47, 149,
152, I53. I55
German Empire, proposed reestablishment of, 260
"German Helvetic Directory," 97
--Union, z6o, 330
--workmen in London, II4
Germany and Carbonarism, I76
--Freemasonry in, II, 98
---full of secret societies, 257
- - retrogression of, 2 58

340

INDEX

Ghee Hin association, r 33

Giardiniere, I77
Gibraltar, Masonic lodge at, 96
' Gideon, password of Orangemen,
273
G in Blazing Star, 35
Gioachimo, Cistercian monk, 328
Gnosis of Grand Master Architect,
35
Gnostic sect in Russia, 92
Goats, 296
Goldenberg, a Nihilist, 225, 226
Golden Lily Hui, 137
--Orchid District, I32
Gone, Frederick von, 303
Good Cousins. See Carbonari
Gordon, General, I34
- - George, Master of Grand
Lodge, 101
Gorenovitch, Nicholas, Nihilist,
223, 228
Gormogones, 93
Gormones, 93
Gramont, Duke of, 47
Grand Arch of the Hetairia, I45,
I46
--ArmyofRepublic(A-merican),
297
- - Copt, 79, So
--Elect of Carbonari, 163
- - Lodge of England first meets
at York, 51
- - Lodge of Three Globes at
Berlin, 13
--Master Architect, 35
- - Master Grand Elect of Carbonari, 164
--Master of Orangemen, 273
--Orient, 12, 56, 64, 65, 66, 69,
73, 82, 92, 94, 140
"Granth," the Sikh Bible, 318
Greece, liberation of, 144
Green Island, 297
Gregory XVI., Pope, I89, I9I
Grinevizki, Ignatius, throws bomb
which kills the Tsar, 231
Grips in Freemasonry, 23, 26, 45
- - Hetairia, 145
Gross, A., re-introduces Star of
Bethlehem into New York, 3I9
Grossing, F. R. von, adventurer,
88, 8g
Gugumos, an adventurer, 59
Guinea, secret society in, 294
Giinzburg, Sophia, Nihilist, 244

H
HAD-HAD, bird messenger of the
genii of fire, 6
Haji Seyyid Kazim, 268
Half-yearly word of command of
Grand Orient, 66
Hamilton, George, 97
''Hamlet" quoted, 28
Hardenberg, Count, 259
Harmony, Order of, 89
Harugari, 297
Hathor, temple of, at Dendera,,
327
Hawk, symbol of Etesian wind, 28.
Hearts of Steel, 271
Helena, Empress, 319
Helfmann, Jessy, 231
Hemp-smokers, African, 298
Heredom, a corruption of Latin.
hreredium, 52
Heriz-Smith, Rev. E. J., 294
Heroden, SI, 5~
Heroine of Jericho, 273, 298
Heron, symbol of south wind, 28.
Her zen, Socialist, 2 I 8
Hetairia, 143-156
- - fate of the, I 54
- - final success of the, I 56
- - first members of, I45
- - laid under the ban, r 50
- - Philomuse, I43
Hiawatha, 334
Hibernians, Ancient Order of, 275.
Higgins, Francis, 272
High degrees in Masonry, II, I4
Hiram Abiff, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 25, 30
- - - - legend of, explained, 26
- - - - slain at west door, 6, 27
Hiram, King of Tyre, 3, 30
Hofer, Andreas, 197
Hogarth ridicules Masons, 109
Hohenloh-Schillingfiirst, Prince,,
I95
Holland, Masonry in, 98
--persecutes Masons, Ioo
Holy of Holies in Grand MasterArchitect Lodge, 34
Holy Union, I94
House of Oblivion, 268
"Hudibras" quoted, 95
Huud, Baron, I r, 57
Hung, meaning of term, I31
Hung League, 131
- - - - seal of, I35

i
I

---1.

--

---------

"----~~--.----~

..
INDEX
Hunger-strikes among Nihilists,
243
Hunters, American, at Ravenna,
r86
- - a Canadian society, 299
Huseanawer, Virginian society, 300
Hydromancy of Cagliostro, So

341

Irish societies, 270-287

Iroquois mysteries, 301
Italian confederates, I99
--lodges under Napoleon I., 75
--societies, various, 199
Italy, proposed partition of, 193,
195
Ivory, E. J., tried for conspiracy,
286

I
.J
IGNATIEFF, Russian Minister of
the Interior, 233
JABAL, son of Lamech, 4
" Illegal " men in Russia, 249
Jabulon, Master Mason's word, 31
Illuminati, league between Masons
Jachin, column of porch of
and German, 62
Temple, 17
- - Italian society t0 restore
Jah, one of the components of
Napoleon, 199
Jabulon, 31
- - Masonic, in Italy, 72, 7 3
J ahn, founder of the Turner, 2 59
Independents aim at indepenJames II. initiated into Masonry, 9
dence of Italy, r84
Jehovah creates Adam, 3
India, Masonic lodges in, 98
Jehu, French society of, 302
Indian (North American) societies,
Jemal-ed-din attempts dethrone300, 301, 302, 334
ment of Shah, 269
Initiated Brethren of Asia, 73
Jericho, Heroine of, 298
Initiation, Apprentice, 21
Jerusalem, clerical, typifying
- - Carbonarism, r6o
Rome, 57
- - Chinese societies, I32, 135
Jesuitical influences in Masonry,
- - Comuneros, I4I
57, 62, 70, 83
- - Fellow-craft, 23
Ji-Koh, officer in Chinese society,
--Grand Architect, 35
132
- - Irish societies, 270-27 5
John, St., Brethren of, IO
- - Kafir, 305
John VI., Em perm' of Brazil, issues
- - Knight of Kadosh, 37
edict against all secret societies,
--- Masonry, at Venice, 75
102
- - Master, 24
Jubal, inventor of the harp, 4
- - Misraim, 45
Ju-ju houses, 296
- - .Modern Knights Templars, 49
- - Mopses, 8 5
- - Purrah, 3I3
K
- - Hoyal Arch, 30
--Hose-Croix, 4I, 42, 43
KADOSH, a term of honour, 37
I. N. R. I., attestation of signature
Kafir initiation, 305
of Italian litterateurs, I8o
Kaljushnia, Mary, a second Zas- - its meaning in Rose-Croix, 43
sulic, 238
International, 1 13-I26
f Karairas, Hetairist, I 5I
--doctrines of, I I7
Karpokratians, sect of, 302
- - excommunicates Masons, 7 I
Katansky, Russian official, 238
Invisibles, obscure Italian society,
Kelly, Fenian, 279, z8o
Kharkhoff, residence assigned to
302
Ipsilanti, 145, 147-_149, I 52, I 53,
Zassulic, 223
Kilwinning, chief seat of Masonic
155
Irad, son of Enoch, 3
Order, SI
Irish Master, 54
Klobergoll, Micronesian society,
- - people, 279
302

INDEX

342

Knigge, Baron de, 14

Knight of Kadosh, 55
Knights and Ladies of Joy, 84
- - Guelphic, 178
----of Apocalypse, 292
- .- of Beneficence, 62
- - of Christ, 47
- - of Eagle and Pelican, 40
--of Liberty, 305
--of Lion, 305
- - of Maria Theresa, 302
- - of Pythias, 315
- - of Queen of Prussia, 259
- - of Silver Circle, 31 ~
- - of ::)un, 28th degree of Scotch
rite, 14
- - - - French degree, 55
- - - - i n favour of Napoleon,
198
- - Templars, Masons pretend to
be descended from, 9, 1I, 5 I
- - --- modern, 47-50, zo8
- - the Order of, 302, 303
Knowledge not diffused by
Masonry, 'I07
Know-Nothings, American, 303
Koh, Chinese term for elder, I32
Ko-lao-Hui society, I36, 137
Konarski, Simon, a chief of Young
Poland, 208
'
Kopper, von, founds Order of
African Architects, 6o
Kotzebue stabbed by the student
Sand, 262
Krapotkine, Prince Alexis, 22 5
--Prince Peter, 219
Ku-Klux Klan, Southern States
society, 303-305
Kunz de Kauffungen, I57
Kurnai, Australian society, 305
Kurratu'l 'Ayn, a Bab martyr,
263, 265

L
LACORNE, dancing-master, and
Pirlet, a tailor, invent degree
of "Council of the Emperors of
the East and \Vest," 92
Ladder, mysterious, in Masonry, 37
Ladies kidnapped by Turf society,
323
Ladies of St. James of the Sword
of Calatrava, 84, 85
- - of St. John of Jerusalem, 84

La Fayette, General, 176, I87, 202

Lainez, James, General of Jesuits,
57
Lamech, 3, 6
Land and Liberty, Russian society, 221, 223, 225
Larmenius, successor of Molay, 47
Latini, a Carbonaro society, I79
Lausanne, workmen's congress at,
120
Lavater, Master of "German Helvetic Directory " lodge, 97
Lavilla~a, Marquis of, IOI
Lavroff, Nihilist, 218, 239, 253
Laybach, Congress at, I73
Ledru, a physician, obtains possession of the charter of Larmenius, 47
Leopards, Human, 299, 333
Lessing's (G. E.) opinion of
Masonry, 36
Lessing, Louis, a student, assassi- ,
nated, 258
Letters of Young Italy intercepted
by, and recovered from, Austrian
police, I 89'
Leviticon society, 48
--work by a Greek monk, 48
Lewis, English Masonic term, answering to French Lou vetea u, I 4
Liberty, Knights of, 305
Li Hung Chang, 133
Limburg, Goats at, 296, 297
Lion, Knights of the, 305
Lion's grip in Masonry, 26, 27
List of Grand Masters of Temple,
fictitious, 47
Litany, Fenian, 278, 279
Literature, Masonic, I09, I Io
--Nihilistic, 254
Litterateurs, Italian, 179
Liverpool, Lord, opposes Masonry,
103
Lizogoob, Dmitri, Nihilist martyr,
228
Lodge, arrangement of Masonic,
I6, I7
- - in Adoptive Masonry, 83
- - i n rite of Misraim, 45
- - of Rose-Croix, 40, 41
--opening of, IS
Lodges founded by Cagliostro, So
- - number of, 99
- - of Carbonari, rss, IS
Logos, the, 3 r

INDEX
London, dangers threatening, I I 8
--Nihilist club in, 246
- - se.cret Italian society in, I86
- - Trades' Union Congress in,
I26
.
Loris-Melikoff, Count, 230
Louis XII. protects W aldenses, I 58
- - XIV. suppresses Modern
Knights Templars, 47
- - of Bourbon, Prince of Clermont, gives name to Chapter of
Clermont, 57
--Philippe, 69, 204, 205
Louveteau, French Masonic term
answering to English Lewis, I4,

IS

Lovers of Pleasure, 87
Ludicrous Masonic degree, 94, 95
Ludlam's Cave, satirical society,
306
.
Lumbini garden, Buddha's birthplace, 327
Lux ex tenebris, password in Misraim degree, 45
Lyons, Communistic riots at, I23

M
MACBENACH, 7, 25
Macerata, Carbonaro attempt at,
I7I
Mackey, Masonic writer, I09
Macrobius quoted, I4
Mad Councillors, comic society, 306
Magi, Order of the, 306
Magnan, Marshal, 70
Magus, the, of Trowel society, 72
1\fahabone, Masonic word, 26
Maharajas, Indian sect, 306
Mahdi, the, 263
Mahomedans rise against Chinese
Government, I 33
Mahomed Reza assassinates Shah
of Persia, 26g
Mainwaring, Colonel, 9
Maison, probable etymon of
Masonry, IO
Manabozko, Indian deity, 30I, 334
Manchester, Fenian attack on
police van in, 279
Mandan .Ark, 310
Manhes, General, I 70
Manichrean sect, 27
Mano Negra, 307

343

Mantchoos, present rulers of China

I34
Maria Louisa, I 7 5
Maria Theresa, I 02
Mark Masonry, 92
Marriages, Masonic. 109
Marshall and Ramsay, 57
Martin, St., French writer and
mystic, 62
Marx, Dr. Karl, Il4, I26
Mason, C. W., assists Chinese insurgents, 1 37
Masonic alphabet, I 5
--charities, 52
- - dating, 14
--grips, 23, 26, 45
- - lodge established in Persia,
268
.
--lodges in various countries, 96
- - societies, whimsical, 72
- - word, lost and found, 19
Masonry, adoptive, 82
- - aim of continental, 94
- - androgynous, 84
- - condemned by Congress of
Trent in I 896, 104
- - derivation of name, IO
--genuine, I9
- - modern, is ineffective, 52
- - opposed by priests, 68
- - origin of, 10
- - politically insignificant, 69
--spurious, I9
"Masonry, the Way to Hell," I03
Masons. See Freemasons
Mason's Daughter, 89
Massa, possible etymon of Masonry
IO

Master's word in Masonry, 25

Mavromichulis, Petros, q6
Mayo, Lord, assassinated, 324
Mazzini, I 88, I 89
Mediterranean password, 50
Mehujael, grandson of Enoch, 3
Melanesian societies, 307-309
" Memo ires pour servir a1' His toire
du Jacobinisme," 103
Memphis, rite of, 44, 46
Menichini, .Abbe, I72
Menotti, Carbonari leader, I 87
Mesentsoff, General, 224, 225, 2;4
Methusael invents sacred characters, 3
- - a Hebrew miner, 5
Mexico, Grand Lodge of, 98

INDEX

344

Michailoff, Alexander, 250

Miguellists in Portugal, 3 I 3
Milesi, member of Turf society,
32I, 322

Mina robbers in India, 325

--Spanish patriot, I40
Ming dynasty, I32
Mirski's attempt on life of
Drenteln, 22 5
Mirza Yahya, 266
Misericordia, Societa della, I 77
Misley, Henry, I87
Misraim, rite of, 14, 44, 68
Mitchel, John, Fenian, 275, 277
Modena, Duke of, I75, I95
- - prisons of, I 7 5
Modern Knights Templars, 47-50
Moffat mansion, headquarters of
American Fenians, 277
Mohammed Ali, the Bah, 263
Molay, James, 56, 9I
Molly Maguires, 274, 275
Monks of the Screw, 72
"Monthly Magazine" quoted, I09
Mopses, 85, I02
. Moreau, General, I96
Morelli, Italian officer, I72, I74
Moreno, Garcia, 99
Morgan, William, 292, 299
Mosaic floor in Masons' lodge, I6
Mosel Club, 257

Motto of Modern Knights Templars, 50

Mumbo Jumbo, 309
Murat, King, and Carbonari, I70
- - Lucien, 69
- - Queen Caroline, I 70
"Murray's Magazine" quoted, 283
Mustard-Seed, Order of the, 91
"Mysteres les plus Secrets de la
Mac;onnerie," 103

N
NAAMAH, sister of Tubal-Cain, 6
Names of Armenian committees,
212,

2I3

--of Carbonaro officers, I62

Naples, Freemasonry in, 73
Napoleon I., attempt to seize him
while travelling, I97
--favours Masonry, 64, 65
- - favours Modern Knights
Templars, 48

Napoleon I., German feeling

against, 2 58
- - his secret police, 3 I 2
--societies against, I96-I98
--societies in favour of, I98
Napoleon, Joseph, 12, 64
Napoleon III., 69, 70, I87
N asreddin, Crown Prince of Persia, 263
National Freemasonry, 208
--Knights, Italian, I99
--League, Irish, 283
N echayeff, Sergei, a pioneer of
Nihilism, 2 I 8
New Pomeranian society, 295
New York, Fenian convention at,
285

Nicholas I. becomes emperor, 2I6

Nihilism, founders of, 2I8
Nihilist club in London, 246
--emigrants, 253
- - finances, 246
--literature, 254
--manifesto of r885, 240
- - meaning of term, 2 I 7
- - measures of safety, 249
--preparations for assassinating
Tsar, 24I
- - printing press, secret, 247
- - prisoners, 2 so
--proclamation of r88r, 232
- - proclamations in walkingsticks, 246
- - stores discovered, 234, 236,
240, 241, 242, 245 246

--trials, 220, 221, 222, 225, 226,

228, 234, 235. 236, 240, 24I, 244,
255. 256
Nihilists, 2I7-256
- - in England, 239
Nile, inundation of, 29
Nilometer, 32

Nimrod, first hunter, 4

N, letter standing for nostri with
Jesuits, 62
N oachites, or Royal Ark Mariners,
93

- - or Russian Knights, 94
Noah, his descendants, 4
-- Grand, title of president of

N oachites, 93
Nola, defection of royal soldiers
at, 172
Norman, murder of Chief-Justice,
324

INDEX
North, The, Russian society, 215
N ostiz, Baron, founds society of
"''Knights of the Queen of
Prussia," 259
Notre-Dame of Paris set on fire by
students, 203
Number 19 venerated by Babis,
266
0
'OAK-BOYS, 270
.
Oath of Apprentice in Masonry, 22
--of Calderari, 172
--of Carbonaro, 16r, 163
--of Fellow-craftinMasonry,24
--of Master in Masonry, 26
--of Mosel Club, 257
- - of Reds of the Mountain, 206
- - of Republican Brother Protector, 171
--of Ribbonman, 272
- - of St. Patrick Boys, 272
- - of U nita Italiana, 200
Ob or Obi, 295
Obeah. See Egbo
Obeeyahism. See Egbo
"Obelisk and Freemasonry," by
Dr. Weisse, ~
Observance, Relaxed, 59
--Strict, 57
Obuchoff, a Cossack, 219
Oceania, Freemasonry in, 98
Odd Fellows, 309
Ode, password, 194
Odessa, Nihilist assassinations at,
237
O'Donnell shoots James Carey, 28 1
Officers of Argonauts, 94
--of Masonic lodge, r6, 17
- - of Rose-Croix degree, 40
- - of Roxal Arch degree, 30
0-Kee-Pa, Red Indian society, 310
O'Leary, John, his "Recollections
of Fenians and Fenianism," 333
Oliver, Masonic writer, ro9
O'Mahoney, Colonel John, 27 5,
276, 277
Omladina, 210, 2 11
On, component part of word Jabulon, 31
Operative masonry ceases, 52
Operative masons, 9, 51
Orangemen, 272
Order and Progress, student's
association in France, 203

345

Order of Friendship, 257

--of theTemple, 14
Origin of the alphabet, 15
- - of term Fenian, 278, 333
Orleans, Duke of, 69
Oro-Tetifa, a Tahitian god, 293
Osiris, 27, 28
.
Oudet, Colonel James Joseph, 196,
197

'l
j

l
j
i

p
PACIFIC Union, 194
Padillo,John, 140
Palmerston, Lord, 187, r89
Panizzi, 189
Panslavism, 210, 21 r
Pantheists, 310
Papal Bulls against Masonry, roo,
104
Paris, arrest of Nihilists in, 244
--its destruction planned, 121
Parma, Duchess of, r 75
- - John of, 328
Partition of Poland, 207
" Party of the People " in Russia,
239
Passports, how obtained by Nihil~
ists, 249
Passwqrds in Masonry, 23, 26, 31,
32, 45, so
--in Hetairia, 145
- - in Roman Catholic Apostolic
congregation, r 94
- - of Odd Fellows, 300
Patriotic Order Sons of America,
31I
--reformers, 193
- - society, 208
Payne, George, 1 I
Pednosophers. See Tobaccological
society
Pedro, Don, I 42
Pe-lin-Kiao, Chinese society, 131
Pellico, Silvio, 176
Pentagon, Cagliostro's, 79, So
" People, going among the," in
Russia, 219
PepE\ General, 172, I74
Perak, Chinese secret societies in,
133
Perfection, Masonic rite of, I4
Perovskaia, Sophia, 227, 23I, 238
Persecution of Freemasonry, II,
IOO-I03

l
~

.~

,. '

.-

INDEX
Persigny, M. de, 53
Pestel, Colonel, 2I6
Pfenniger, Prefect of Zurich, 2I9
Phi-Beta-Kappa society, 3I I
Philadelphia lodge at Verviers, 53
Philadelphian rites introduced
into French army, Ig6
Philadelphians in Calabria, I8o
--of Besan<;on, I96
Philip the Fair, 56
Philip V. of Spain, 10I
Philo, writer on Masonry, Io6
Philosophic Scotchriteof Masonry,
I3
Phcenix Park murders, I27, 28I
Pianco, Master, 329
Pichegru conspires against Napo
leon, I97
Pierre, Delahodde's alias, 205
Pilgrims, a French society, 3 I I
Pirlet. See Lacarne
Pius IX., Pope, I9I
Platonica, afterwards Italian Confederates, I 99
Poe, E. A., quoted, I29
Poland, Masonry in, 97
- - independence of, I I 5
- - partition of, 207
- - revolutionary party of, and
Nihilists, 239
Police, secret, 3 I 2
Polignac, Prince .Julius de, I9S
Polish patriots, 207, 33I .
- - secret national government,
2o8, 209
Pope's flight from Home, I92
Portugal, Masonry in, 96
Portuguese societies, 3 I 3
Prim, Marshal, Io8
Primitive Scotch rite, I3
Principi Summo Patriarcho, I67
Printing press, secret Nihilistic,
247, 249
Prison, Nihilists in, 250
" Proofs of a Conspiracy," by
Robison, I03
Protestant Irish societies, 271, 272
Proverb, Italian, Io8
Prussian secret police, 3 I 2
Publications of Quatuor Coronati
lodge, I 10
"Punch," quoted, I I7
Purrah, The, African society, 3I33I5
Pythias, K11ights of, 3I5

Q
QuATUOR Coronati lodge, I 10
Queen of England threatened by
Anarchists, 1 24
Questions asked of Masonic Apprentice, 23
Quezeda, Captain, I40

R
RADETZKY enters Milan, I<J?
Radnor, Lord, denounces Freemasons, I03
Ragon, Masonic writer, 109
Raising of aspirant in Masonry, 26
- - Osiris, painting of, 28
Ramsay, Chevalier Andreas, I I,
54, 55 93
Ram Singh, a Sikh, 3 I 7
Rancliffe, Lord, president of N oachites, 93
Raven, Baron, chief of Relaxed
Observance, 59
Ravenna, Accoltellatori at, 200 .
Rays, The, Anti-Napoleonic society, I97
Re beccai tes, 3 I 5
Reclus, Elysee, Anarchist, I09
" Rectangular" referred to, 92
Red Cross of Constantine and
Rome, Order of, 92
Red Men society, 3I5
Redemption, Order of the, 315
Reform needed in Masonry, 77
Reformed Masonic rite, I4
Regeneration, Society of Universal, 3I6
Registrar of the Dead, I 84
Relaxed Observance, 59, 94
Report on Fenian Brotherhood, 276
Republic proClaimed in France,
I22

Republican Brother Protector's

oath; I7I
Results of downfall of Napoleon,
I39
'
Reviving the International, attempt at, I 26
Revolutionary Club, 199
Revolutions attempted in Italy,
I89
Rhetz, Conrad von, founder of
Argonauts, 94

...

INDEX
Rhigas, Constantinos, Greek poet,
143
Rhodocanakis, Prince, 92
Rhombos, 30I, 305
Ribbonmen, 27I, 272
Riego, the Hampden of Spain, IOI
Right-Boys, 270
Rights of Man society, 204
"Rite of Egyptian Masonry," 78
Rites of Adoptive lodges, 82, 83
Rochelle, revolutionary attempt
at, 202
Rohilla Patans, 325
Rose-Croix lodge, 40
-- Prince of, 40
Rose, German Order of the, 88, 89
--Knights and Nymphs of the,
87
Rosenwald, Lady of, 88
Rosicrucianism, I I, 329
Rosicrucians not Rose-Croix, 40
Rossa, O'Donovan, 280, 282, 286
Rossi, life and death of, I90-I92
Royal Ark Mariners, 93
- - Carboneria, 159
Russia, Freemasonry in, 96
Russian Union of Safety, 214
Russians of rank going among the
people, 2I9, 220
Rutherford, John, his "Secret
History of the Fenian Conspiracy," 333

s
SACRED Battalion of Hetairia, 149,
ISO, 153
Safety, measures of, adopted by
Nihilists, 249
Saheb-ez-Zeman, the Lord of Agel!,
266

Saint-Agnan, Viscount, 179

Saint-Simon, I I3
Saint John, Brethren of, IO
- - Martin's Hall, workmen's
meeting at, I I7
--Patrick Boys, 272
.
Saiyid Ahmad, Wahab leader, 324
Saltpetrers, 3 I 6

Sam-Sings, I33
Sam Tian society, I33
"Sanctuary, The," explains rite of
. Memphis, 46
Sand, Louis, 262

347

Sanfedisti, I 94
Sankofsky's attempt on Tcherevin's life, 234
Sarawak, secret society in, I33
Satirical society, 302, 303
Savary, Minister of Police, 67
Sayid Yahya Darabi, 264
Schismatic rites, gi, 92
Schlaraffenland, 324
Schmalz, Councillor, 26I
Schools, Society of, 203
Schroder's rite, I4
Schropfer, 59, So
Scotch degrees, I I
- - Ladies of France, 86
--rite, 65
--rites of Masonry, I3
- - sign, grand, 35
Scotland, Masonry in, 5I
Scythers, 208
Seasons, the, a French secret
society, 205
Secret printing presses of Nihilists,
228
- - societies, aims of, 9
Sekko, monastery of, I 55
Seliverskoff, General, 244
Selvaggi, secret society, I99
Senegambia, secret society in, 291
Septembrists in: Portugal, 3I3
Seth, alleged founder of Order of
Harmony, 89
--family, 8
Seven steps of mysterious ladder
in Masonry, 37-39
Severo, Duke of San, 73
Shah, late, opposed by Babis, 264
Shanavests, Irish society, 274
Sheba, Queen of, 4, 5
Sherwood reveals plot to dethrone
Alexander I. of Russia, 2 r 5
Shiites, 267
ShirtleAs, the, French society, 202
Siberian exiles, 243
Sibley, Ebenezer, 93
Sicilian societies, I93
Sign of Orangemen, 273
::iigns in Mas6nry, 23
--in rite of Misraim, 45
- - of Hetairia, I 45
--of Modern Knights Templars,
49
Sikh Fanatics, 3I6-3I8
Silvati, 172, I7 4
Silver Circle, Knights of the, 3I8

.'

INDEX

t
I

t
~

r
t

I
'

Simonetta, country house belonging to Turf society, 323

Sioux rites, 310
Sirius, 28, 29
Slav.onianConfederation,proposed,
2I5
Sleeping Lion, French society to
restore Napoleon, 305
Socialistic systems, 114
Society of the Chain, 85
- - of Schools, 203
Solomon 3-5, 7, 30
Solovieff, 223, 226
Sonderbare Gesellen, 319
Sonnet quoted, 186
Sons of Fire, 4
- - of Mars, 186
--of St. George, 275
- - of Thought, 4
Sophisiens, 319
Sovereign Uhapter of the Scotch
Ladies of France, 86
- - Prince Masons of St. John of
Jerusalem, 92
Sovereigns summoned
before
Masonic tribunals, 108
Spain, Carbonarism in, 176
- - Freemasonry in, 96
--secret societies in, I39
Spanish secret societies divided
into four parties, 142
Special Commission on Fenianism,
285
Spectres meeting in a tomb, 202
Speculative Masons, 9
Spratt, Edward, 8
Spurious Masonic degrees, 19
Stabbers, Committee of, 200
Star of Bethlehem, 3I9
Stark, Dr., 59, 6I
Stein, Baron, 258, 332
- - - - Privy Councillor, 332
Stephanovitch establishes secret
printing press at Kieff, 247
Stephens, the Fenian, 277, 279
Stepniak, 2I4, 228, 254
Straits
Settlements,
Chinese
societies in, I 33
Strasbourg, Masonic Grand Lodge
at, Io
Strict Observance, II, 57, 6I, 97
Strozzio, Count Filippo, 72
Stuart, Charles, 52, 54, 57, 58
Student riots in Russia, 243, 244
--Russian, found dead, 245

Sublime Knight elected, 55

Subterranean Prague, 21 I
Sudeikin, Colonel, 237, 238
Sufites, 48
Suliotes, 148
Sun Wen, I33
--Yet Sun, I33
--and zodia<i symbolised, 45
Sunnites, 267
Supreme Grand Council, 65, 69,
92
Surrey tavern, Surrey Street,
Strand, 93
Sweden, Freemasonry in, 97
Swedenborg, rite of, 14
Swedish Masonic rite, 14
- - ritual, ancient, 97
Switzerland, Freemasonry in, 97

'L'

TAAROA, Polynesian deity, 293

Tae-ping-wang, Chinese leader,
132, 331
Tahitian society, 293
Tai-Koh, chief of Chinese secret
society, 132
Tallard, Count, helps to found
secret society in court of Louis

XIV.,47

Tangaroa. See Taaroa

Tartar dynasty in China, I3I
Tau, books of, 3
- - triple, 32
Tcherevin's (General) life attempted, 234
Temple, the, J ohannite church in
Paris, 49
Teppa, Compagnia della, 32 I
Terror, Russian party of, 222
Terrorists in France, 302
Test, severe, of a member's fidelity,
I98
Theobald, patron saint of Carbonari, 158
Theodora, wife of Emperor Justinian I., 320
Th'ien- Hauw- Hoi'h,
Chinese
society, 13 I
Third Division of Russian police,
223
Thirteen, number, why considered
ominous, 320
- - the, societies, 320

INDEX
Thirty-one, Tuscan society, 199
Thot, Egy:ptian deity, 29
Three Globes, Masonic lodge, 6o
Threshers, Irish society, 271
Tirol, secret league against France
in, 197
Titles, extraordinary, introduced
into Masonry, 4'i
Tobaccological sodety, 320, 321
Todtenbund, 176
Toland, John, 3 10
Tolstoi, Count, 234, 239
Tongola. See Taaroa
Torres, lodges of Comuneros,
141
Torrubia, Peter, betrays Masons,
IOI

"Traveller's Narrative, A," quoted,

267

Treachery of Fenian leaders, 277

Trent, Anti-Masonic Congress at,
104

Trepoff, General, fired at by

Zassulic, 224
Triad society, I 32
Triangle, double, 31
--golden, 7
--mystic, 7
Triangles in Royal Arch, 3 I
Triangular altar, 7
Trinitarii, I84
Trinosophists, 69
Troubelskoi, Prince, 26
Trowel, the, whimsical Masonic
society, 72
True Poles, 207
Tsakaloff, Athanasius, Hetairist,
I44

Tsar Alexander II., assassinated,

230

Tsar, precaution taken on travelling of, 233

Tsar's appeal to Russian society,
225

--coronation, 235
- - life attempted, 226-228, 230,
240, 245, 246

- - reply to Nihilist proclamation, 233

- - responsibility, 243
Tschudy, Baron, 55
Tsing-lien-Kiao, I31
Tsings, the, 131, 134
T, symbolic, 3, 5; 7
Tubal-Cain, 4, 6

349

Tugendbund, 258-262, 332

Turf, Society of the, 321-324
"Turk, the, and the French Soldier," book written by Oudet,
I97

Turkey, Freemasonry in, 98

Turks and Hetairia, 144-156
Turner, or gymnasts in Germany,
259

Tuscany, Duke of, 98

Tynan, P. J., Fenian, 281, 286

u
U KRIVAHELr, or Concealers of
Nihilists, 2 so
Ulrich, Duke of Wiirtemberg, r 57
Unconditionals, inner section of
German Union, 261
Union for the Public Weal, Russian, 215
- - of Eoyards, 2 1 5
--of Safety, Russian, 214
- - of Virtue. See Tugendbund
Unionists, German, 257
Unions, Workmen's, I 14
Unita Italiana, 2oo
United Irishmen, 271, 272
- - Slavonians, 215
Utah, secret societies in, 27 5
Utopia, a comic society, 324

v
VAUGHAN, Miss Diana, 104
Vault under Solomon's Temple,
Master's word hidden therein, 7
- - under Solomon's Temple,
Master's word discovered, 3 I
Vehm, the, Lindner's work on,
328

Veils, passing the, Masonic ceremony, 32

Vendicatori, Sicilian society, 294
Vendite of Carbonari, 158, 159
Venice, Masonry in, 74
Vienna, Anarchists at, 127
--Congress of, its results, 331
--early Masonic lodge at, 10
Visible, the, among Guelphic
Knights, 178
Vogt, founder of Mosel Club,
257

I
INDEX

350

I
l

I
1

;
l

WAHAB, meaning of term, 324

Wahabees, Indian sect, 324-326
Waldo, family of, 328
Wales, Prince of, Grand Master of
English Freemasons, 103
Wang-lung, leader of Chinese
society, 131
W arringtou, Masonic lodge of, 9
Weber, C. J., German author,
quoted, 258
Weisse, Dr. J. A., author of
"Obelisk and Freemasonry,"
quoted, 8
Wellington, Duke of, reported
offer of crown of Italy to, 185
White-Boys, Irish society, 270
- - Lily, Chinese society, 131,
133 Pilgrrms,
.
calabr1an
.
.
-soCiety,
!So
Whites and Reds in Poland, 209
Whizzer, 301, 305
Wilhelmsbad, Congress of, 1 r, 59,
61

Wilson, General Robert, 187

- - Thomas, founder of Order of
Orangemen, 273
Will of the People, Russian society, 223, 228, 238, 250
William II., Norman king, 294
Winter Palace, explosion in, 228
Witt. See De Witt
Wittgenstein, Prince, member of
Tungendbund, 259
Wolf in Masonry, 14
Women, Greek and Arab, in
Masonic lodges, 1 86
- - not admitted to European
Freemasonry, 82

Wonderful Association, Chinese

society, 1 3 1
Wood store of the Globe and
Glory, Masonic society, 86
Word, the Lost, 31, 4~

X
XANTHos, E., of Patmos, a Freemason and Hetairist, 144

y
YARKER, John, Masonic writer
quoted, 109
Yellow Cap, Chinese society, 131
Y:ork Masons, antiquity of, 51
--rite of Masonry, 13
Young Germany, 258
--Italy, 175, r88, 191
- - Poland, 208
--Turkey, 210, 212

z
ZAMBECCARI, Livio, a Mazzinist,
r88

Zappatori, Italian labourers, 103

Zassulic, Vera, 223
Zerubbabel, Royal Arch officer, 30
Zinzendorf, Count, 6o, 91
- - - - rite of, 14
Zundelevic, Aaron, establishes
secret Nihilist press at St.
Petersburg, 248
Ziirich, Masonic Grand Lodge at,
10
- - International Congress at,
123

THE END

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Edinburgh & London

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'

OCCULT LITERATURE
9\(gtes on Standard and 'J?scent Works

published by (jeorge 'J?sdway

DRING the past ten or twelve years the literature of the Occult . Sciences and Philosophy
has assumed a fresh importance, and, as a consequence,
has remarkably increased in the chief countries of the
world.
This literature has always existed in England, and
it is here that its new developments have, for the
most part, originated. But, previously to the year
1886, the publication of works on this subject was
in the hands of amateurs, and their circulation was
limited to the resources of book-depots belonging to
one or two private societies.- At that period, how. ever, Mr. GEORGE REDWAY began to undertake the
production of books by eminent occultists, both living
and dead, and, with the interruption of the few years
following the sale of his original business, he has
continued to issue in a popular form, and at a moderate price, most of the best works that have. appeared
of their kind in the language. The following succinct
account of the entire series, which has been published
from time to time under his auspices, including recent
additions, will be useful to students of the subject as
a guide in the choice of books, and will give at the
same time a compreqe1;1sive idea of the extent and
importance of Mr. ~~q~y's enterprise in this department of literature,J '" ) <:v .
1

The plan followed is one of merely informal enumeration, so that the various works must not be
regarded as classified in the order of their importance, which would be difficult or impossible; while
a grouping under subject-headings, having regard to
the scope of the bibliography, has been deemed unnecessary. For convenience in reference only, the
works of Mr. A. E. Waite have been placed in a
separate section under the name of the author.

ANNA KINGSFOR.D. Her Life, Letters, Diary, and. Work. By

her Collaborator, EDWARD MAITLAND. Illustrated with Portraits, Views, Facsimiles, &c. Two vols. Demy 8vo, JIS. 6d. net.
The genesis of the New Gospel of Interpretation, which found its first
expression in "The Perfect Way," is here fully set forth by the "surviving
recipi~nt" of the gospel, and these two volumes are of great 'and even im
perishable interest. By its profound mystical importance, to set aside the
beauty of its literary form, "The Perfect Way" marked a new period in
the religious thought of the age, finding its appropriate complement in
" Clothed with the Sun,'' the book of Mrs. Kingsford's illuminations.
Now this life of the seeress explains and completes both, and it is not
sllrprising that it has been the most successful work of its kind published
during the past twelve months.

PSYCHIC PHILOSOPHY AS THE FOUNDATION OF A

R.ELIGION OF NATUR.AL LAW. By v. c. DESERTIS.
With Introduction by ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, D.C.L.,
LL.D., F.R.S. Crown 8vo, ss. net.
Though appearing under a name previously unknown in psychological
literature, this work has been welcomed as perhaps the best existing
exposition of the philosophy of Spiritualism. As Dr. Wallace explains in
his preface, it founds a philosophy of the universe and of human nature on
the facts of psychical research, the basis of which philosophy is necessarily
the familiar proposition that faith must be justified by knowledge. The
consideration is divided into two parts, the first dealing with the experi
mental facts, and the second w;th "theory and inferences," set forth in a
manner which has been rightly characterised as really powerful and original; some of the author's most important material is derived from inodern
scientific conceptions as to the constitution of matter and .ether.

~-

"\

\.

THE IMITATION OF .S'ANKARA.

several Texts bearing on the Advaita.
Crowri Svo, 5s. net.

Being a Collection of
By MANILAL N. Dvrvrm.

This is a production of the Bombay Press. The Oriental texts in question number 6,58, and have been derived from the Upanishads, the Institutes
of Manu, the Maha.bho1rata, and other sacred writings, the Sanskrit originals
being also given. Seeing that for the most part they were in existence
before the birth of S'ankara, they must be regarded as the spirit which
guided that teacher, and are thus not his imitation, but that which he
himself followed.

THE OREAT .SECRET, AND ITS UNFOLDMENT IN

OCCULTISM. , A Record of Forty Years' Experience in the
Modem Mystery. By a CHURCH OF ENGLAND CLERGYMAN.
Crown Svo, ss. net.
The "modern mystery" is, of course, Spiritualism, and perhaps this
.crisp and eminently readable narrative has a little suffered by some inexactitude in its title. The author is well known not only in the sphere
.of liberal theology, but in that of leiters, and as his identity is in no way
concealed by the narrative for those who have any acquaintance with the,
movement, it is to be regretted that his name has been suppressed.

NEOPLATONISM.

Porphyry, the Philosopher, to his Wife,

Marcella. Now first translated into English by ALICE ZIMMERN.
With Preface by RICHARt! GARNETT, C.B., LLD. Crown Svo,,
3s. 6d. net.

Marcella was a widow whom the philosopher espoused late in his life
from an intellectual interest in the welfare and education of the children
whom she had borne to her first husband. Porphyry was the pupil of
Plotinus as Plotinus was of Ammonius Saccas. The Jetter, preserved
in the Ambrosian Library of Milan, is, unfortunately, imperfect at the
end. With the preface of Dr. Garnett. and Miss Z1mmern's admirable
introduction on N eo-Platonism, it is presented under the best auspiCes
to Enll'lish readers,

MIRACLES AND

MODERN .SPIRITUALISM. Three

Essays by ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.
New and Revised Edition, with Chapters on Phantasms and
Apparitions. Crown 8vo0 ss. net.
The work of Dr. Wallace and the "Researches" of Professor Crookes
have been always, from .the evidential standpoint, the Jakin and &haz
.of the edifice of modern Spiritualism In England; Both are much too
-well known to require description or advertisement. The extensions of
the present edition deal with objective apparitions and the raison d'ltre
.of phantasms, each having special reference to the theories of Psychical
.Research.

4 )
ANIMAL MAGNETISM; or, Mesmerism and its Pheno
mena, By the late WILLIAM GREGORY, M.D., F.R.S.E.
Fourth Edition. With Introduction by the late "M.A. (Oxon)."
Demy 8vo, 6s. net.
Since the days of Dr. Gregory and the classic mesmerists whom we
connect broadly with his period, animal magnetism has assumed a new
and possibly more scientific terminology; but it is a matter of surprise, on
re-reading this standard treatise, to note how trivial have been the advances
made since the subject has been taken into account by the professional
" modern scientist." The experiments of this careful observer have lost
none of their importance, and the introduction of Mr. Stainton Moses,
written for a previous edition, now very rare, will enhance the value of the
work in the eyes of all English Spiritualists.

THE TAR.OT OF THE BOHEMIANS. The most ancient

book in the world. For the exclusive use of Initiates. By
PAPUS. Translated by A. P. MORTON. With numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo, ss. net.
Ostensibly, the ''Tarot" is a method of divination comprised in seventyeight symbols, from which our modern cards have descended. The fact of
its existence seenis to have been first discovered by a French archreologist
at the close of the eighteenth century, and he connected its figures with
primitive Egyptian symbolism. The subject was further developed by
Eliphas Levi, who regarded it as the first book of humanity, and thought
that all froblems of science, philosophy, and religion could be solved by
means o its combinations. The work of Papus, who has attained similar
conclusions, is the first formal and elaborate treatise upon the whole of this.
interesting question, and he claims to give, also for the first time, the Key
to the construction and application of the "Tarot."

THE MAGICAL R.ITUAL OF THE SANCTUM R.EONUM.

Interpreted by the Tarot Trumps. Translated from a MS. of
ELIPHAS L:Evr, and Edited by Dr. WYNN WESTCOTT. With
Eight Coloured Plates. Crown Svo, 7s. 6d. net.
A special interest attaches to this publication, which has not been printed
in the language of the original. The MS., with its carefully drawn ligures,
was written in an interleaved copy of a small Latin treatise by Trithemius,
and sent to Baron Spedalieri, circa 1861 ; it is the subject of reference in
one of Levi's letters to that disciple, by whom it was ultimately presented
to Mr. Edward Maitland. Mr. Maitland seems to have regarded it as a
commentary on the work of Trithemius, which goes to show that he did
not read it: it was not until it passed into the possession of Dr. Westcott
that it was discovered to be an original and highly interesting ritual of
magic

.,

--~:-~r--.

-.,.
..

THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM.

A 'J;'reatise on the
Qccult Laws of Nature governing Mesmeric Phenomena, By A.
P. SINNETT, Second Edition, 2s. 6d. net.

In addition to the sources of occult knowledge with which Mr. Sinnett

claims to be connected, he has had considerable ex]).erience as a practical
mesmerist, and is therefore entitled to speak upon his subj'ect with personal
as well as derived authority.

LJO.HT ON THE PATH: KARMA: OREEN LEAVES.

A Treatise written for the personal use of those who are ignorant
of the Eastern Wisdom.
IS. 6d. net.

By MABEL COLLINS.

Imperial 32mo,

A series of aphorisms or maxims partly referable to Oriental Scriptures,

this little work has been a Golden Rule among Theosophists, and not the
less popular because of the unhappy controversy of which it subsequently
became the centre.

THE STORY OF THE YEAR. A Record of Feasts and Cere

monies.

By MABEL CoLLINS.

Imperial 32mo, Is. 6d. net.

A sequel to ''Light on the Path" and a kind of Theosophical companion

to the Calendar ; suggestive, and with an interior meaning.

A HANDBOOK OF PALMISTRY AFTER THE ANCIENT

METHODS. Sixth and Revised Edition. By RosA BAUGHAN.
With Five Plates. Demy 8vo, IS. net.
The most popuJar introduction to the study of the Hand ever published
in England. It has been in circuJation for ten years, and is still always in
demand. The present revised edition supersedes aU others, and those who
have earlier impressions will do well to consult this.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS: Ancient and

Mediaeval. By C. W. KING. Second Edition. With Woodcuts and Plates. Royal 8vo, 10s. 6d. net.
Mr. King is our only authority on the attractive but perplexing subject
of the Gnostic sects, and this second edition of his standarrl work is so
much an enlargement upon the first that it is almost entitled to rank as
an independent treatise. It is here offered to the public at half its original
cost, and, when the present remainder is exhausted, the copiesnow~vail
able at a smalJ price will become much enhanced in value. Without being
apparently a mystic, and writing rather from the standpoint of history and
numismatics, the author approaches his subject sympatheticalJy, and is
in most respects an authoritative guide.

( 6
THE VIROIN OF THE WORLD OF HERMES MER
CURIUS TRISMEOISTUS. Rendered into English by
ANNA KINGSFORD and EDWARD MAITLAND, Authors of" The
Perfect Way." With Illustrations. 4to. Imitation Parchment.
lOs. 6d. net.
Despite its attribution, "The Virgin of the World" represents a school
of initiation which is usually regarded as distinct from that which produced
the other writings referred to Hermes Trismegistus. It differs, on the
one hand, from the "Divine Pymander," which, perhaps, connects more
closely with Nee-Platonism of the Christian era; and, on the other, from
the " Golden Treatise," which cannot be dated much earlier than the
fifteenth century. "Asclepias on Initiation," the "Definitions of Ascle{)ios," and some "Fragments of Hermes," are included in the volume,
which is an indispensable companion to Chambers' valuable edition of the
other works ascribed to Hermes.

THB KABBALAH UNVEILED. Containing Three Books of

the Zohar. Translated from the Chaldee and Hebrew !ext by
S. L. MACGREGOR MATHERS. Post 8vo. With Diagrams.

[Out ofprint.
No attempt has as yet been made in English to furnish a complete and
catholic account of the developments of Kabbalistic literature, though the
keys of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are both said to be contained
therein. The literature is indeed so large, and presents so many difficulties
of interpretation, that the few scholars competent for the task have evidently
shrunk from undertaking it. In the absence of any other source of information, the work of Mr. Mathers has been in considerable demand.
It translates in extenso certain il;nportant books of the Zohar, giving an
interlinear commentary on the first, and copious notes to the others.
There is also a long introduction, which is informing and valuable.

MAOIC, WHITE AND BLACK; or, The Science of

Finite and Infinite Life. By FRANZ HARTMANN, M.D.
Third Edition, revised and enlarged. Crown 8vo. Frontispiece
and Woodc:;uts. 6s. net.
A presentation of magical doctrine from a Theosophical standpoint.
'the ethical value bas been regarded as high by authorities in the same
line Of thought, and Dr. Hartmann's treatise, enlarged and revised for

each successive edition, has been singularly snccessful.

7
THE KEY OF SOLOMON THE KINO. Now first translated
from Ancient MSS. in the British Museum, by S. L. MACGREGOR.
MATHERS. With numerous Plates. Crown 4to, 25s. net. '
A scholarly edition of what is regarded as '' the original work on practical
magic," based upon the best texts, and crowded with talismanic and other
figures. It gives the actual mode of operation, which should enable any
jlerson so disposed to call up and discharge spirits, as well as full instructions for Other departments. of ceremonial magic. It must, however, be
observed that the '' Keys of Solomon " are referred to the domain of
White Magic, and do not, ther;)fore, deal with evil spirits evqked for evil
purposes. The " Keys of Solomon the King" are, further, to be distinguished from those of Solomon the Rabbi, which have not yet been
edited.

ASTR.OLOOY THEOLOOIZED: The Spiritual Herme

neutlcs of Astrology and Holy Writ. Edited by ANNA
With numerous Symbolical Illustrations.
lOS. 6d. net.

BoNus KINGSFORD.

4to.

Parchment.

An old astrological maxim tells us that Sapiens dominabitu,r astris, and

this work is actually a formal treatise upon the method of ruling the planets
by the l>\W of grace. In oth~r words, our destinies are writtert in the stars,
but it is possible to erase or rectify the record. This very curious book,
practically the sole treatise upon the spiritual side of astrology, was first
published in 1649, and its authorship remains unknown. It connects on
the one side with the Paracelsian doctrine of interior stars and elfternal
signatures, and on the other with the modern interpretations of Eliphas
Uvi ; indeed, the maxim of the French Magus, '' When we think that
we are reading in the stars, it is in ourselves we read," would be an admirable motto for the title-page. The late Dr. Kingsford's preface to the
reprint deals with the "true method of interpreting Holy Scripture," and
attracted considerable attention at the time of its first appearance.

THE ASTR.OLOOER.'S OUIDE. Being the One Hundred and

Forty-six Considerations of Guido Bonatus, and the Choicest
Edited by W.

Aphorisms . of the Seven Segments of Cardan.

ELDoN SIRJBANT. Demy Svo, 7s. 6d. net.

Bonatua waa a Florentine astrologer of the thirteenth century, who was

famou11 for his successful predictions, but he ultimately became a Franciscan.
Jerome C&rdan, who is a greater name in the starry science, was a skilful
physician, and to him mathematics are indebted for developments of
importance. The present reprint is the translation of Henry Coley as
regards l;loaatus, and that of William Lilly .u regards Cardan, who
.fiaurllbed in the sixteenth century. Mr. Serjeant's edition places two rare
works within the reach of all w~o are inte~ested.

8
POSTHUMOUS HUMANITY: A .Study of Phantoms.
By ADOLPHE D'ASSIER. . Translated and Annotated by HENRY
S. OLCOTT, President of the Theosophical Society. Crown 8vo,
7s. 6d. net.
A presentation of facts establishing the existence of a posthumous per
sonality, not only as regards man, but other animals, and even vegetables.
Shortly put, it is an attempt to demonstrate the occult doctrine of the
fluidic form. From one point of view, this study of psychic phenomena
offers an unattractive contrast to the mystic doctrine of union with the
Divine, but this is because it deals only with the elementary spheres of
transcendental experience, and it must not be regarded as less remarkable
or less suggestive because its inferences are somewhat dismal.

THEOSOPHY,

RELIGION, AND OCCULT .SCIENCE.

By HENRY S. OLCOTT.

Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. net.

A series of lectures presenting the alternative between Theosophy and

Materialism, and dealing comprehensively with old Western Magic, modern
Spiritualism, Eastern Sociology and Eastern, especially Indian, Religions.
It is perhaps the most successful work ever published by Co!. Olcottscholarly, well expressed, at once popular and attractive in form. It has
had a wide sale, and deserved it.

INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF MADAME BLAVATSKY.

Compiled from information supplied by her Relatives and Friends,
and Edited by A. P. SINNETT. With Portrait. Demy 8vo,
10s. 6d. net.
Madame Blavatsky was herself a mirror or epitome of the occult sciences.
She personified all their wisdom, all their extravagance, while she also
incorporated into her history most of the accusations which have been
made against them. Her story is here told with Mr. Sinnett's well-known
ease of style and considerable literary skill. It is not now a complete life,
for not only has the subject passed away since it was written, but mucb
additional knowledge has been made public concerning her. It deserves
and would repay rewriting, and yet, as it stands, it is always fresh and
interesting. There is not, however, the same Jiving and moving portraiture
of Madame Blavatsky which is to be found in the brilliant, though unhappily hostile, biography of M. Solovyoff,

..-:-.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MYSTICISM. By CARL DU PREL.

Translated from the German by C. C. MASSEY.
ros. 6d. net.

8vo.

Two vols.

These noble volumes are the outcome of a happy combination-on the

one hand, an author who is among the first of living German Mystics; on
the other, a translator who is himself a Mystic, and of established repute
among many like-thinking in England. It is impossible in a brief space
to present ::t satisfactory analysis of a work which is so important and at
the same time so voluminous. The author explains that he has attempted
" to erect a philosophical fabric of doctrine on the empirical basis of the
sleep-life,'' and to disprove the " false presumption" that "our Ego is
wholly embraced in self-consciousness." It is maintained that an analysis
of the dream-life exhibits the Ego as exceeding that limit. A very similar
doctrine was propounded in Fichte's "Way to the Blessed Life,'' namely,
that only a small portion of ,our being is illuminated by the sun of consciousness.

THE INDIAN RELIOIONS; or, Results of the Mysterious Buddhism. By HARGRAVE JENNINGS. 8vo, 6s. net.

I
l

Sufficien1 attention has not been given to the very curious speculations
in this volume, some of which are highly suggestive, though marred by
inaccuracies, extravagances, and a determined effort to write in a bizarre
fashion. By the way, at the time of its publication it was accepted as a
new work, but it was,really edited for the publishers from materials in
earlier volumes by Mr. Jennings, now long since out of print and exceedingly rare, as, for example," Curious Things of the Outside World." The
work thus posseses a certain bibliographical value apart from the occult
lucubrations, which have always attracted a certain class of minds to the
author of the " Rosicrucians."

THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS. By RosA BAUGHAN.

8vo,

ss. net.

Miss Baughan has for many years possessed an almost unrivalled reputa~
tion as a professional palmist, and would seem to be rio less skilled in discerning the future by means of the lines on the hand than was Mdlle.
Lenormand by the help of the combinations of cartomancy. At the same
time, Miss Baughan, in her published works, is prudently disinclined to
check the old doctrine of chiromancy bj the result of her personal observation. The three occult sciences dealt with in this book are elucidated in a
practical manner, and their connection very clearly exhibited.

PALMISTRY AND ITS PRACTICAL USES.

COTTON.

With Twelve Plates.

By Lours&
Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. net.

A less elaborate treatise than, that noticed above, the late Mrs, Cotton's
book is elementary only, and the clear text, which is assisted by excellent
illustrations, has proved useful to many beginners,

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THE TAR.OT: Its Occult Signification, Use in FortuneTelling, and Method of Play. By S. L. MAcGREGOR
MATHERS.

With Pack of 78 Tarot Cards, ss. net.

This little work, as will be seen, is designed to accornpany a set of Tarot

cards, and it makes no pretension to deal in an elaborate manner with the
complex symbolism of the "book of antique initiation;" but it may serve
as a syllabus or introduction to the more ambitious exposition by Papus,
and has been found useful in cartomancy by those disinclined towards the
study of a larger and more technical work.

THE LIFE OF PAR.ACELSUS AND THE SUBSTANCE

OF HIS TEACHINGS. By FRANZ HARTMANN, M.D. Post
8vo, 10s. 6d. net.
The occult philosophy of Paracelsus concerning Magic, Pneumatology,
Sorcery, Alchemy, Astrology, and Medicine, is here set forth and explained
according to the tenets of Theosophy. It has, therefore, considerable
interest for the followers of this school, while the attempt to interpret
an old teacher of occult philosophy from the standpoint of later views is
not without importance for the more general student of the subject.
Dr. Hartmann's concise digest has thus been always in requisition.

THE HIDDEN WAY ACR.OSS THE THR.ESHOLD; or,

The Mystery which hath been Hidden for Ages and
from Generations. With Plates. Large 8vo, 15s. net.
This voluminous treatise, thus suggestively entitled, is scarcely capable
pi-brief description, so large is the field of occult interest which it covers.
Perhaps the best which can be said of it in this place is that the author
claims to have been initiated by several secret ~ocieties possessing an occult
tradition, and that his work has been regarded by capable judges as indicating an access to sources of information which could not well be attained
by the ordinary methods of study.

THE LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME, THE OODTAUOHT

PHILOSOPHER.. An Introduction to the Study of his Works.
By FRANZ HARTMANN, M.D.

Demy 8vo, lOs. 6d. net.

Here Dr. Hartmann has followed the same plan as in the case of the
We have first an account of the
mystic, and then a compendious digest of his doctrine arranged in sections,
wtth a Theosophical commentary. The reader who is not a Theosophist
can dispense wtth the commentary, and will wll have .a handbook to the
writings of Boehme which will be more valuable, because more sympathetic, than that of Bishop Martensen.

'i Life and Writings of Paracelsus."

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II

THE CLOUD ON THE SANCTUARY.

Translated by
MADAME ISABEL DE STEIGER. With a Preface by J. W.
BRODIEINNES. 'Crown 8vo, JS. 6d. net.

The work of the great German Mystic, Eckartshausen, embodying perhaps the most profound instruction ever offered concerning the esoteric
mysteries ,of Christianity, this treatise, prized by a select few in its original
tongue, and familiar also to others in 'its French translation, is here given
for the first time in an En~lish version,with some annotations by the translator, a lady well known m occult circles,_and a transcendentalist ~ well
as an artist. Mr. Brodie-Innes contributes a short preface which will be of
value to those who are acquainted with his remarkable work on the "True
Church of Christ "-a work, it may be added, which, in a more recent
aspect, represents much of the mystic teaching to be found in "The Cloud
on the Sanctuary."

THE TAANSCENDENTAL UNIVERSE.

Six Lectures on
Occult Science, Theosophy, and the Catholic Faith. Second
Edition. By C. G. HARRISON. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. net.

Mr. Harrison regards Transcendentalism, and especially its Theosophic

development, from the st3.11dpoint of esoteric Christianity, and in a slight
degree he connects with the school of Eckartshausen. His impeachment of
Madame Blavatsky, if not entirely new, embodies many ori~inal elements,
and has attra~ted some attention. The little work is exceedmgly clear and
rea~~

'A PROFESSOR OF ALCHEMY.

By PER.CY Ross.

Crown

8vo, 3s. 6d. net.

Presented under the guise of a novel, and possessing an artistic excellence
which is rare in works of fiction. ''A Pro{essor of Alchemy" is really the
life of the celebrated French adept, Denys Zachaire, very slightly coloured
by romance. The alchemist has himself written the history of his ql)est
after the Magnum Opus. and the story by " Percy Ross" is a kind of.
idealised supplement thereto, ,which hei1Uens the interest surrounding
one of the most remarkable personages m the whole range of Hermetic
biography.
-

DEMON-POSSESSION AND ALLIED THEMES.

By the

Rev. JoHN NEVIUs, D.D. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. net.

The work of an American who spent forty years of his life as a missionary
in China, and there had the subject of Diabolical Possession forced upon
him. _Cov.tains the result of h1s experiences and researches, and valu
able bibliographical additions. Interesting from any point of view, but
especially from that of the Chrialian oci:llltist.

.
:,

,,
!

A BLANK PAOE.

12

A Story for the Bereaved.

By PILGRIM.

Crown 8vo, 5s. net.

A graceful and touching story dealing suggestively with the experiences of
Modem Spiritualism. It is certainly the best, perhaps the one spiritualistic
novel which has appeared in England.

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f,

THE SECR.ET SOCIETIES OF ALL AOES AND

COUNTR.IES. By C. W. HECKETHORN. ;New Edition,
thoroughly revised and greatly enlarged.
us. 6d. net.

Two vols.

Demy 8vo,

x,

A new work rather than a new edition, the result of twenty-five years'
study and research, and truly encyclopaedic in its range, extending from
Egyptian Mysteries to the latest doings of the Nihilists, and including x6o
Secret Organisations in all. It is the only book of its kind, and is not
likely to be superseded.

HUMAN MAGNETISM; or, How to Hypnotise.

JAMES CoATES.

By

Crown 8vo, 5s. net.

A practical work by a writer whose long experience qualifies him to

speak with authority. The instructions are full, explicit, and illustrated
with admirable photographs; but it is more than a book of instruction, it
is also a critical account of the subject up to date, from the standpoint of
Animal Magnetism, enriched and qualified by a full acquaintance with all
Continental theories.

ZENIA THE VESTAL; or, The Problem of Vibrations.

By MARGARET B. PEEKE,

Second Edition.

Small4to, 5s. net.

An occult novel, which claims, however, to be inspired by direct occul

teaching, derived from existing centres of initiation. It is in any case a
fascinating story, having a genuine romantic motive. some admirable

pictures of European travel, and some living characters.

For any of the Books in this List apply to

the Publisher

GEORGE REDWAY, 9

HART STREET, BLOOMSBURY

LONDON

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13

Works by Mr. drthur Sdward Waite

DEVIL-WORSHIP IN FRANCE; or, The Question of
Lucifer. A Record of Things Seen and Heard in the Secret
Societies, according to the Evidence of Initiates. By A. E. WAITE.
Crown 8vo, 5s. net.
An eXhaustive examination of all the evidence fabricated in France concerning the actual existence of a religion of Lucifer. In apdition to its
occult interest, it constitutes a most remarkable contribution to the literature of Freemasonry, as that fraternity is the subject of special accusation
in connection with devil-worship by a host of French writers, some of whom
are high-grade Masons. This, Mr. Waite's latest work, has receiyed marked
recognition from the general press.

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TRANSCENDENTAL MAOIC; Its Doctrine and Ritual.

By ELIPHAS LEVI. Now for the first time translated into English
by A. E. WAITE. With all the Original Illustrations, a Biographical Preface, copious Index, and Portrait of the French
Magus. Demy 8vo, Iss. net.
An unabridged and faithful rendering of Eliphas Levi's most importa:;;:t
work, which in the original is so well known by students as scarcely to
need description. 1The present translation will, no doubt, become a textbook for English readers. Eliphas Levi may be, to some extent, regarded
as the founder of modern occultism, and he is certainly the most brilliant
and accomplished of all the expositors of transcendental science and philosophy. The "Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie" marks an epoch in
. esoteric literature, and it is here made accessible to all.

THE TURBA PHILOSOPHORUM. Translated into English,

with the variations of the Shorter Recension, explanations of
obscure terms, and parallels from the Byzantine Alchemists. By
A. E. WAITE. Crown 8vo, 6s. net.
The " Turba Philosophorum " is the most ancient Latin treatise on
Alchemy and the Great Work; it is the subject of continual reference.by
all later adepts, ranking second only to the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, and recognised as a final authority in the " practice of the philosophers." While it has been the subject of innumerable commentaries,
and of the most pious veneration on the part of Hermetic students, this
c;urious fountain-head of alchemical literature in the West has never been
previously translated.

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14

THE M.YST~R.IES OF M.AOIC: A Digest of the Writ

ings of Eliphas Levi. With Biographical and Critical Essay

by A. E. WAITE.

Revised Edition.

Crown 8vo, xos. 6d. net.

This work fulfils a purpose quite distinct from that of " Transcendental
Magic," inasmuch as it is not simply translation, but presents in an
abridged and digested form the entire writings of EliphasJ~vi which had
appeared up to the time of its publication. Mr. Waite's extended summary has been generally appreciated, and the large impression issued in
1886 being exhausted, this revised and enlarged edition, following a new
and improved plan, has been recently issued.

THE R.EAL HISTOR.V OF THE R.OSICR.UCIANS.

Founded on their own Manifestoes, and on Facts and Documents
collected from the Writings of Initiated Brethren. By A. E.
WAITE. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. net.
Written from the historical standpoint, giving the chief documents in
extenso, together with an elaborate summary and analysis of the various
views which have prevailed fro!ll time to time about "The Virgin Fraternity
of the Rose." Mr. Waite's accoun( has been accepted as the standard, as
it is indeed the only serious source of information, upon the subject in
England.

THE OCCULT SCIENCES: A Compendium ofTrans

cendental Doctrine and Practice. By A. E. WAITE.
Crown 8vo, 6s. net.
To furnish a preliminary and elementary account of the various divisions
of the transcendental sciences has been attempted by more than one writer,
but not usually from a sympathetic standpoint, and not certainly as the
result of anjr considerable knowledge or research. The present work deals
with almost all the occult sciences, from Alchemy to the minor methods
of Divination ; it has also an historical section, giving some acci>unt of
Mystics, Rosicrucians, and the esoteric side of Freemasonry. Lastly, the
modern phenomena connected with Mesmerism and Spiritism, together
with the claims of Theosophy, are dealt with in a comprehensive survey.
This work of Mr. Waite has been particularly successful, and is always in
demand.

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IS
LIVES OF ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS.

Based
on materials collected in 1815 and supplemented by Recent
Rese~rches. By A. E. WAITE. De,my Svo, ros. 6d. net.

Alchemical, like Kabbalistic, literature is far too technical and too

established in exegetical difficulties for ordinary readers to find much satisfaction_in its perusal. But the lives of the seekers after the Magnum Opus,
the Quintessence, and the Universal Medicine are in many cases romantic
records which will interest those who care little comparatively for the
pursuit which engrossed them. The biography of Cagliostro related in
this volume has much the same adventurous element as Gil Bias or
Guzman d'Alfarache. There is also a large bibliography, and an introductiOl!l dealing w.ith the modern interpretations of alchemical symbolism.
Persons who wish to know the evidence for transmutation in the past
as a fact of physical science will be astonished at its extent and convincing
character.

\I

THE MAGICAL WRITINGS OF THOMAS VAUGHAN.

Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by A. E. WAITE.
ros. 6d. net.

4to,

The first four treatises published by the renowned Eugenius Philalethes,

in the order of their publication, with the Latin passages translated into
English, an introduction .and notes. The edition, in itself unpretending,
has, at the same time, proved of considerable interest to lovers of the
Royalist Mystic on account of the unique biographical materials contained
in the preface. The works here reprinted are, moreover, rare in their
original editions, and command high prices, so that this edition, in the old
orthography, offers a cheap substitute to students.

THE BOOK

~F

BLACK MAGIC AND OF PACTS.

Including the> Rites and Mysteries of Goetic Theurgy, Sorcery,

and Infernal Necromancy. By A. E. WAITE. Crown 4to.
[In tke press.

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