Legendary lore enters into the history of all religious systems, the history of the City Companies, and the history of the ancient Guilds. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the same element in the story of the most ancient and widespread Guild or Brotherhood the world has yet seen the Craft of Freemasonry. Many writers assert that the Craft dates back to the time of Adam, some stating even that he was the first Grand Master.
The Rev. Dr. Dodd, in his famous Oration on Freemasonry, refers to the origin of the Craft in the following words: "Though it might owe to the wise and glorious King of Israel some of its many mystic forms and hieroglyphic ceremonies, yet certainly the art itself is coeval with Creation, when the Sovereign Architect raised on Masonic principles this beauteous globe, and commanded that master science, Geometry, to lay the rule to the planetary world, and to regulate by its laws the whole stupendous system in just, unerring proportion, rolling round the central sun."
One Masonic tradition states that on the occasion of the transgression of our first parents, a certain sign or token was used, which has been perpetuated in Royal Arch Masonry. This sign was used by Moses when he came down from the Mount. It was again brought into requisition at the building of the second Temple; and when Alexander the Great, with his victorious legions, approached the city of Jerusalem in order to destroy it, he was met by the High Priest in his pontifical robes, accompanied by the priests and Levites in solemn procession, who saluted him with this significant sign. It is an historical fact that Alexander was so much struck with the sight of this procession that he did homage to God's vice- regent; and it is said, on more questionable authority, that his reverence proceeded from the mutual recognition of the Masonic Brotherhood.
Another Masonic tradition asserts that it
was the Sacred Word which expelled our erring first parents from
Paradise, which was uttered again at the universal Deluge, and
on several occasions manifested itself to the patriarchs Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and also to those at the burning bush; after
which it assumed a material and permanent form and dwelt in the
cloudy pillar as the image of the glory of God. This appearance,
it is asserted, was no other than the Tetragrammaton, which is
commemorated in many of the higher degrees of Freemasonry. This
is the Word which conversed with Adam when in Paradise, and is
referred to in Genesis, iii, 8: "And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in
the garden in the cool of the day."
Dalcho suggests that the Word is to be found in no language that ever was used. "It is," he says, " not a word, but merely a jumble of letters, forming sound without meaning."
The time and circumstances attending the loss of the Word are thus referred to in one Masonic work: "The moment when the veil of the Temple was rent; when darkness and consternation covered the earth; When the stars disappeared and the lamp of day was darkened; when the implements of Masonry were lost and the cubical stone sweated blood and water; that was the moment when the great Masonic Word was lost.''
Freemasonry has a legend of a cubical stone said to have been inscribed with a mystical diagram that represented the Sacred Name, the stone being possessed of many virtues. It informs us that this stone was in the possession of Adam in Paradise, that he held it in the highest estimation, because it bore the sacred characters and reminded him of that sublime and holy Being, Who had been his friend, his companion, and his guide in that delightful place. On this stone he made his offerings to God, when the divine promise of a mediator who should bruise the head of the reptile which had caused his defection from innocence, was formally revealed to him, that he might not sink entirely under the oppression and misery in which a sense of deserving God's displeasure had involved him. On the same holy altar he offered a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving on the occasion of the birth of his children.
An ancient Rabbinical tradition states that the Most ancient writing in the world was the work of Juba!, who, having heard Adam say that the universe would be twice destroyed by the elements of water and fire, was anxious to know which would first happen. But as Adam would not, or could not, tell him, he inscribed his system of music upon two pillars, one of stone and the other of brick, which he thought would be secure against either element. These two pillars are a prominent feature of Freemasonry in all its traditions, legends, and history.
There is a tradition connecting the origin
of Freemasonry with the Flood and the Ark of Noah, which has given
rise to the degree of Royal Ark Mariner in English-speaking countries,
and the Order of the Noachites in Prussia. In the Ancient Charges
of the medieval Masons the science is said to have been preserved
during the period of the Deluge by the two pillars which the sons
of Lamech set up before the Flood for the recording of their secret
knowledge: "And these children, knowing right well that God
would take vengeance for sin, either by fire or by water, therefore
they writ their several sciences that they had found on two Pillars
of Stone, that they might be found after Noah's Flood. The one
stone was called 'Marole,' that would not burn with fire; and
the other was called 'Laterns,' that would not drown with water.
After the destruction of the world by Noah's Flood, as historians
affirm, a great clerk, called Pythagoras, found the one, and Hermes,
the philosopher, found the other, and was called the father of
wise men.' These two found the two Pillars on which the sciences
were written, and taught
them to other men."
The introduction of Noah and his family into the symbology of the Craft was an innovation of the seventeenth or eighteenth century. There seems to he no trace of it earlier than the mention by Anderson in his Book of Constitutions, published in 1723, under he imprimatur of the then newly constituted Grand Lodge of England. Therein he says: "At last, when the world's destruction drew nigh, God commanded Noah to build a great Ark, or floating castle, and his three sons assisted, like a Deputy and two Wardens.
That edifice, though of wood only, was fabricated
by Geometry as nicely as any stone building, like any shipbuilding
at this day, a curious and large piece of architecture, and finished
when Noah entered into his six-hundredth year; aboard which he
and his three sons and their wives passed, and, having received
the cargo of animals by God's direction, they were saved in the
Ark, while the rest perished in the Flood for their immorality
and unbelief. And so from these Masons, or four Grand Officers,
the
whole present race of mankind is descended. After the Flood, Noah
and his three sons, having preserved the knowledge of the arts
and sciences, communicated the same to their growing offspring.
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the East towards the West, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there as Noachides, or sons of Noah, which was the first name of Masons, according to some old traditions."
When the Ark of Noah rested on Mount Ararat and its inmates came forth, the Patriarch erected a pillar, which was highly venerated by his descendants, who added thereto many ornamental decorations.
After the migration from Sinai, the wandering
tribes built pillars in imitation of this great
prototype in every country, which they planted to commemorate
the universal Deluge, whence the custom is believed to have originated.
Many years after the deliverance from Egypt, Boaz erected two
pillars on his estate near the town of Bethlehem, one of which
he called by his own name, and the other he called Jachin, after
the son of Simeon, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. These two
pillars supported an arch or gateway, under which he married Ruth,
after she had been formally renounced by a nearer kinsman, who
took off one of his shoes as a pledge of his sincerity and gave
it to Boaz for a testimony, in the presence of competent witnesses,
that he was at liberty to stand in his shoes as the legal claimant
to the hand of Ruth.
Masonic tradition asserts that when Enoch was invested with the character of a prophet, the Masonic stone of foundation was transferred to his custody; and as the world increased in wickedness this pious man, fearing lest the treasure should be wrested from him by force, secured it in the bowels of the earth, within the famous subterranean temple which he constructed on Mount Calvary, in full assurance that it would remain there until discovered by some favorite of heaven. According to Masonic tradition, Enoch was an eminent Mason, and preserved the true Name of God, which it is said the Jews subsequently lost. This name was known only to the initiated. The descendants of Abraham wrote it Jao; in the Mysteries it was Om or Awn, and most frequently expressed in the latter trilateral form. In whatever form it was written it was strictly forbidden to pronounce the name.
An old Masonic tradition says that the chains of the Jewish captives in Babylon were of a triangular form, because the Chaldeans, knowing that the Jewish Masons esteemed the triangle as emblematic of the Sacred Name of God, constructed their fetters in that form for the purpose of increasing the mental sufferings of their captives by a desecration of the Tetragrammaton.
The Babel incident is embodied in the Noachites' (or Prussian Cavaliers') Degree in the following legend:
The descendants of Noah, notwithstanding
that God had appointed the rainbow as a token of the covenant
that He would not again destroy the earth in a universal deluge,
resolved to erect an edifice which, by its height, should place
them beyond the teach of divine vengeance. For this purpose they
assembled together in the extended plain of Shinar. if they laid
the foundation, and carried on the building for ten years, at
which time God, seeing their pride, determined to interfere. He
confounded their language, and by that simple process put an end
to their design. Hence the tower was called Babel, which signifies
confusion. Some time after this Nimrod began to establish degrees
of rank
amongst his subjects which had not existed before. He built the
city of Babylon, and arrogated to himself the honors of divine
worship. It was on the night of the full moon, and in the month
of March, that God confounded their language. And, therefore,
the Noachites held their great meeting on that particular night;
their common monthly meetings were only when the moon was at full,
and they used no oilier light in their Lodges.
After the language was confounded, and the people obliged to separate, each tribe pursued its own course. Peleg, who suggested the plan of this tower, and had been the Great Architect during its construction, being struck with the force of conscience, condemned himself to a most rigorous penance.
He migrated with his followers to the north of Germany, after having suffered great miseries and encountered great dangers in passing the mountains and plains on his way thither. In that part of the country, which is now called Prussia, he took up his residence. Here he built a triangular temple, where he enclosed himself that he might be at leisure to worship God and implore Him to pardon his transgression.
"In the course of excavation in the salt mines of Prussia, A.D. 553, there was discovered, at the depth of fifteen cubits, the foundations of a triangular edifice, in the center of which was a small pillar of marble, on which the above history was inscribed in Hebrew characters. A tomb was also found in which an agate stone was encrusted, containing these words: 'Here were deposited the ashes of the Great Architect of the Tower of Babel. God showed him mercy because he humbled himself.'" These relics are said still to be in the royal archives at Berlin.
There is a Masonic tradition descending from time immemorial involving certain facts unknown to the world, that the sacred Ark, together with the Book of the Law, was removed from the Most Holy Place, under Masonic direction, and so deposited as to escape the overwhelming destruction which swept away the whole land of Judea. From this tradition we learn where, and in what circumstances, the Book of the Law was found.
Masonic tradition claims that the pure science of Masonry was practiced by Daniel and his associates in opposition to a spurious system, which was celebrated in the old tower of Belus, the lower apartments of which were used for the purpose of initiation. Their steady adherence to the practice of primitive Freemasonry drew down upon them the vengeance of the priests and princes of Babylon, and brought down upon the three principal Brethren the punishment of fire, and upon Daniel that of being sentenced to be torn in pieces by wild beasts.
From his knowledge of Geometry, Euclid is supposed to have been enabled to restore to Freemasonry its ancient systematic usages and customs, as well as to regulate the affairs of Egyptian agriculture, and he became a general benefactor, "giving," says an ancient record of the Craft, "to his system the name of Geometry, which is now called Masonry."
According to Masonic legend, Euclid was Senior Grand Warden to Grand Master Ptolemy Soter, who founded at Alexandria a museum or college of learned men, for the improving of philosophy and all other knowledge.
There is a curious legend concerning Abraham and Euclid in an ancient Masonic manuscript in the Harleian Collection of MSS. in the British Museum, which runs as follows : "Abraham, the son of Terah, was a wise man and a great clerk; and he was skilled in all the seven sciences, and he taught the Egyptians the science of Grammar. Euclid was the pupil of Abraham, and in his time the River Nile overflowed so far that many of the dwellings of the people of Egypt were destroyed.
Euclid instructed them in the art of making
mighty walls and ditches to stop the progress of water, and by
Geometry measured out the land and divided it into partitions,
so that each man might ascertain his own property. It was Euclid
who gave Masonry the name of Geometry. In his days it came to
pass that the sovereign and lords of the realm had many sons unlawfully
by other men's wives, in so much that the land was grievously
burdened with them. A council was called, but no reasonable remedy
was proposed. The king then ordered a proclamation to he made
throughout his realms that high rewards should be given to any
man who would devise a proper method for maintaining the children.
Euclid
dispelled the difficulty.
He thus addressed the king 'My noble sovereign, if I may have the order and government of these lords' sons, I will teach them the seven liberal sciences, whereby they may live honestly like gentlemen, provided you will grant me power over them by virtue of your royal commission.' This request was immediately complied with, and Euclid established a Lodge of Masons."
The Society of Dionysian Artificers existed in Asia Minor, and possessed the exclusive privilege of constructing all temples and public buildings. They were unquestionably the most skilful artificers then existing. They were invested with great privileges, and were exempt from taxes and talliages. This Fraternity, in fact, was the depository of all geometrical, scientific, and architectural knowledge, and the principles which regulated the design and ornamentation of all religious as well as public structures were known to them alone.
They were divided into Lodges, each governed by a Master and Wardens in their ceremonial observances; the implements used in their operative work were spiritualized; they had a knowledge of certain secret signs and tokens; and they possessed a universal language or mode of communication which, notwithstanding the difference of tongue, and birth, and race, united in one common brotherhood all the members of the Fraternity, though they were scattered throughout Syria, Persia, and India.
The builders of the Egyptian temples, in order to keep their knowledge amongst themselves, instituted a system of symbols. Afterwards, when the priests succeeded in gaining admission to the Order, they added to its lore their own philosophy and mythology. The initiation ceremony was made very severe, and included many horrors of mind and body; it was so severe that many were unable to undergo it.
In the opinion of the famous Masonic historian,
Dr. George Oliver, Solomon's Temple is undoubtedly an era, and
a very important one, but not the first era of the Noachidae or
Masons. The Order had long been in existence, and though Hiram
Abiff was the master mind, the very soul of that great work, the
builders were expert Masons before the Temple was planned, and
had exercised their ingenuity and talent on many other noble edifices.
This, however, was the crowning work; but its excellence must
be ascribed to the sublime genius of Hiram Abiff, who was inspired
to make this edifice the wonder of the world.
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