Low Twelve

LOW TWELVE

by EDWARD S. ELLIS, A.M. P.·. M.·. TRENTON (N.J.) LODGE. No.5 F. & A. M. Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co.
45 John St., New York
Copyright 1907
by F. R. Niglutsch

INTRODUCTION

It is to be feared that some enthusiastic writers on Free Masonry give the order an antiquity that is more or less imaginative. One especially ardent author makes the patriarchs and other noted Biblical characters Free Masons, and insists that several of the Savior's disciples were members of the order. Free Masonry, none the less, is the oldest existing organization of a charitable nature in the history of mankind.

During the Middle Ages the Mason brotherhoods were organized corporations, resembling in a general way the other guilds, with rules of their own, and recruited from a body of apprentices who had served a period of probation. The time referred to was a church-building age, and men skilled in the hewing and setting of stones were in demand and held in high esteem. When a great church or cathedral was to be built, skilful masons gathered from distant quarters to assist those of the neighborhood in the work. A master was chosen, who superintended the whole, and every tenth man was a warden with authority over the rest.

It followed, therefore, that a mason, after serving his apprenticeship, could not settle down, like other craftsmen, among his neighbors, but was obliged to travel in order to find employment. It was advisable that all members of the fraternity should possess the means of making themselves known to one another and thus avoid the necessity of proving their skill as craftsmen. In order to do so, and to enable a mason to claim the hospitality of his brother masons, a system of symbols was devised, in which every mason was initiated and which he was pledged to keep secret.

The term "Free," as applied to the craft, arose from the fact that its members were exempted by several papal bulls from the laws which governed ordinary laborers, as well as from the various burdens imposed upon the working classes in England and on the Continent. These laws bound the Free Masons to certain religious duties, and it was natural that a craft whose principal business was church building should receive the special attention and care of the clergy. So marked became the influence of the Free Masons that the jealousy of the Church was aroused long before the Reformation. Henry of Beaufort, Cardinal of Winchester, instigated the passage of an act, during the minority of Henry VI., which forbade the Masons to hold their accustomed chapters and assemblies. But the act was never enforced, and when Henry VI. became of age he joined the order, while Henry VII. was the Grand Master in England.

The origin of operative masonry is traced back by many to the old Roman Empire, the Pharaohs, the Temple of Solomon, even to the Tower of Babel and to the Ark of Noah. Speculative Free Masonry originated in England and dates from the seventeenth century. Its foundation lies in the "practice of moral and social virtue," its characteristic feature being charity in the broadest sense, brotherly love, relief and truth. It is because of this foundation, so closely approaching that which is divine, that the growth, prosperity and permanence of the noble institution is due. It has withstood every shock and will continue its beneficent sway to the end of time.

Charles II. and William III. were Masons, and a seeming connection with operative masonry was kept up by the appointment of Sir Christopher Wren to the office of Grand Master. The Scottish lodges claim origin among the foreign masons who came td Scotland in 1150 to build Kilwinning Abbey; those of England go back to an assemblage of masons held by St. Alban at York in 926. The mother lodges of York and Kilwinning were, with a few slight exceptions, the parents of all the lodges that were formed in different parts of Great Britain. The admirable character of the order was attested in 1799, when in the act passed in England for the suppression of secret societies, Free Masonry was the only one excepted from the operation of the law. A Grand Lodge was formed in London in 1717, with power to grant charters to other lodges, and the constitutions of the fraternity were first published under its sanction. From this fountain Free Masonry has spread to every quarter of the globe.

Now and then we Masons are amused by statements concerning female members of our order. Some years ago it was claimed by a number of newspapers that a certain famous woman sculptor of Washington was a Free Mason. The writer of this asked for the name of the lodge in which she was initiated and a few other particulars. The reply was given that she was a member of one of the lodges instituted by the then Empress Eugenic of France. My next audacious question was as to where the Empress got her authority for chartering Masonic lodges. The intimation was further made that she was no more a Free Mason than the gilt figurehead of a man-of-war. Every real Mason knows that there never was, is not, and never will or can be a female Free Mason. Let our sisters remain content with the reply of a gallant brother:

"You were born Masons; any initiation or ceremony would be superfluous; therefore, we do not insult you by any such proposition."

None the less, there is respectable authority for believing that three women have taken the first step in Masonry. It secrets of the Entered Apprentice degree by hiding herself in the wainscoting of a lodge room. She lived well beyond four-score, and, incredible as it may sound, kept her secret inviolate. Madame de Xaintrailles, it is claimed, was initiated in the first degree by the Freres-Artistes lodge, in Paris, more than a hundred years ago, and the Hon. Mrs. Aldworth was similarly honored. The most that can be said, therefore, is that these women knew simply the first step of Free Masonry. *

(*A venerable Free Mason once told me that many years ago, he met a very old brother who said he was present on one of the memorable occasions when it is claimed that a woman was made an Entered Apprentice Mason. The oath which she was compelled to take, far from being the legitimate one of that degree, was simply a solemn pledge, under the most fearful penalties, never to reveal any of the secrets which she had discovered. I cannot help suspecting that in all the instances of these alleged initiations, a similar course was followed, and that no woman was ever made so much as a real Entered Apprentice. Doubtless the awfulness of the oath and penalty had much to do in keeping her lips sealed regarding the little she had learned. No Free Mason needs to be reminded that it is simply impossible for any woman to become a member of our order.)

It was inevitable that the order should suffer persecution at the hands of degenerates and those who were ignorant of its real spirit. The most noted example of late years was Gabriel Jogand-Pages, a Frenchman born in 1854. His publications against Free Masonry were grotesquely monstrous, but for a time gained many believers. The fact that they were denied by such distinguished Free Mas9ns as Emperor William I., Bismarck and the Prince of Wales added to the excitement caused by the book, of which hundreds of thousands of copies were sold. In 1897 Jogand-Pages publicly confessed that everything written by him against the order was a deliberate falsehood.

The greatest blow ever received by Free Masonry in this country was in 1826, and it did not recover there from for twenty years. The particulars of this affair are given in the succeeding pages. From that time, the opposition to the order rapidly declined, finally to disappear altogether. Today, with nearly a million of members in the United States, it is stronger than ever and steadily growing. Bishop Henry C. Potter said in 1901:

"Free Masonry, however, is in my view of it a great deal more than a mutual benefit association. In one sense, wild and extravagant as the words may sound, it is the most remarkable and altogether unique institution on earth. Will you tell me of any other that girdles the world with its fellowship and gathers all races and the most ancient religions, as well as our own, into its brotherhood? Will you tell me of any other that is as old or older; more brilliant in its history; more honored in its constituency more picturesque in its traditions? Today it lies in the hand of the modern man largely an unused tool, capable of great achievements for God, for country, for mankind, but doing very little. For one, I believe that circumstances may easily arise when the highest and most sacred of all freedoms being threatened in this land, Free Masonry may be its most powerful defender, unifying all minds and commanding our best citizenship."

Let it be understood that we are not trying to apologize or make any plea for Free Masonry. No member is permitted to ask any outsider to join the order and no man can be admitted if in a secret ballot a single vote appears against him. In order to show the beneficent character of the order, the following landmarks or unchangeable laws are quoted from the list given by Dr. Mackey:

"Every candidate for initiation must be a man, free born and of lawful age; he must believe in the existence of God as the Great Architect of the universe; he must believe in a resurrection to a future life; a book of the law of God must constitute an indispensable part of the furniture of every lodge; all men in the sight of God are equal, and meet in the lodge on one common level."

The universality of the order was set forth by Charles Whitlock Moore, of Massachusetts, in 1856, at the centennial anniversary of St Andrew's Lodge, Boston:

"At the reorganization of the craft and the establishment of the present Grand Lodge of England, in 1717, we laid aside our operative character, and with it all pretensions to extraordinary skill in architectural science. We then became a purely moral and benevolent association, whose great aim is the development and cultivation of the moral sentiment, the social principle, and the benevolent affections, a higher reverence for God, and a warmer love for man. New laws and regulations, adapted to the changed condition of the institution, were then made, an entire revolution in its governmental policy took place, order and system obtained where neither had previously existed, and England became the great central point of Masonry for the whole world."

"From this source have lodges, grand and subordinate, at various times been established, and still exist and flourish in France and Switzerland; in all the German states save Austria (and there at different times and for short seasons); all up and down the classic shores of the Rhine; in Prussia; Holland, Belgium, Saxony, Hanover, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and even in fallen Poland; in Italy and Spain (under cover of secrecy) ; in various parts of Asia; in Turkey; in Syria (as at Aleppo, where an English lodge was established more than a century ago); in all the East India settlements, in Bengal, Bombay, Madras (in all of which lodges are numerous); in China, where there is a Provincial Grand Master and several lodges; in various parts of Africa, as at the Cape of Good Hope and at Sierra Leone; on the Gambia and on the Nile; in all the larger islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans, as at Ceylon, Sumatra, St. Helena, Mauritius, Madagascar; the Sandwich group; in all the principal settlements of Australia, as at Adelaide, Melbourne, Parramatta, Sidney, New Zealand; in Greece, where there is a grand lodge; in. Algeria, in Tunis, in the empire of Morocco, and wherever else in the Old World the genius of civilization has obtained a standpoint, or Christianity has erected the banner of the Cross.

"In all the West India Islands and in various parts of South America, as in Peru, Venezuela, New Granada, Guiana, Brazil, Chile, etc., Masonry is prospering as never before. . . . In Mexico, even, respectable lodges are maintained, despite the opposition of a bigoted priesthood; and in all British America, from Newfoundland, through Nova Scotia and the Canadas to the icy regions of the North, Masonic lodges and Masonic brethren may be found, 'to feed the hungry, clothe ?he naked and bind up the wounds of the afflicted.

Ancient Free Masonry consists of the three degrees - Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason. Upon these are based the York rite and the Scottish rite. The former takes its name from the city of York, in the north of England, where the annual and general assemblies of the craft were re-established in A.D. 926. In addition to the symbolic degrees, it includes Capitular, Cryptic and Chivalric grades, conferred in bodies known respectively as the Chapter, Council and Commandery. The Chapter has four degrees - Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master and the Royal Arch, together with an honorary order of high. priesthood. The Council has two degree - Royal Master and Select Master. The Commandery has three orders -Knight of the Red Cross, Knight Templar and Knight of Malta.

Free Masonry has been tardy in admitting the African race to recognition. The first negroes made Free Masons were Prince Hall and fourteen colored citizens of Boston. The traveling lodge of a British regiment in 1775 conferred the symbolic degrees upon them. England granted them a charter in 1787, and the first Masonic lodge, with Prince Hall as Master, was instituted. In 1797 a second negro lodge was established in Philadelphia and a third soon after in Providence. These three lodges united in forming a grand lodge in i8o8, which in 1827 declared itself independent of England. Our colored grand lodges now number over thirty. The legality of these Masons is indisputable, but as much can hardly be said of the negro Royal Arch Masons, Commandery and Scottish rite. Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, has had a legitimate grand lodge for sixty years. In some parts of Germany Jews are not admitted as candidates, nor are they recognized as such individually. These isolated instances of race prejudice must disappear with the progress of enlightenment and real brotherhood.

It has seemed to me and many of the brethren that a collection of incidents illustrative of the true nature of Free Masonry will be interesting and instructive. I find these incidents so numerous that a selection is difficult. I have been careful to give only those that in my judgment are authentic. Truth compels me to admit, however, that the principal sketch which follows, although founded upon fact (I was present in the lodge when Jared 3. Jennings made his entrance as described, and he told me he was made a Mason among the Chippewa Indians), contains some imaginative touches, which I am sure will not be found inconsistent with the real spirit of Free Masonry.

I am prompted to add for the benefit of my brethren that as a Masonic authority, Robert Freke Gould's "Unabridged History of Freemasonry Throughout the World" stands without a peer or rival. It has received the highest encomiums from the foremost Free Masons, living and dead, and is a mine of invaluable information to the members of the Order everywhere.

E. S. E.
UPPER MONCLAIR, N.J., 1908.