Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry

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Jacobite Freemasonry ⬩ Jacob’s Ladder ⬩ Jerusalem ⬩ Jesuits and Masonry ⬩ Jewish Wisdom and Masonry ⬩ Johannite Masonry and the Temple


Jacobite Freemasonry

The Ashmole and cognate explanations as to the origin of Emblematic Freemasonry call to be relieved from many burdens of folly, among which must be included a proposition that the Third Degree was manufactured or remodelled by Ashmole—but him failing by the group that surrounded him—with a political motive, which motive was to memorise and presumably to avenge the judicial murder of King Charles I. There is a little precarious evidence that sporadic attempts were made to utilise Masonry in a Jacobite interest; but they belong to a later period, being subsequent to that epoch-making Oration of Chevalier Ramsay which gave an impetus to the development of High Grades and the Templar hypothesis of Masonic chivalry. Ashmole, like Thomas Vaughan and others of the Hermetic School in England, less or more their contemporaries, is known to have been a Royalist—by overt acts and by his sympathies. In so far as he was attached to the Hermetic Tradition he could not well have been otherwise at his period; but his studious and contemplative life would have consorted strangely with the political complexion of the time, in which he had otherwise no vital concern. The Third Degree—which had no Masonic existence in that day—has also no such concern, no kingly cause to champion, no party to advance, for it has been called to higher service—that of the catholic nature of man in the one experience which belongs ultimately to his nature. The thesis with which I am dealing is quite naturally of French origin and is a gratuitous reverie which invests the Third Degree with the same kind of historical-romantic halo as the claims and legends of High Grade Masonry have wrought about Mother Kilwinning. We shall see in the course of this notice that the alleged Stuart interventions in Masonry are all shapes of dream announced and bedizened by fraud.

Samber’s Testimony.—It happens that the Jacobite rumours begin quite early in the history of Emblematic Freemasonry, as established in 1717, and the first negligible episode may be summarised briefly thus. At the Annual Meeting and Festival of Grand Lodge, held on June 25, 1722, when the Duke of Wharton was installed Grand Master, there was—according to Robert Samber’s Ebriatatis Encomium—an attempt to play the famous Legitimist Song: Let the King Enjoy His Own Again; but it led to an immediate “reprimand,” after which the health of the reigning monarch and his particular royal family was drunk, amidst great enthusiasm. We have no evidence otherwise to substantiate this incident, but such an occurrence was likely enough at the period. It indicates also exactly the procedure that we should expect at a moment when Masonry was very much on its trial as a public institution, and when every prudent member would realise the absolute necessity of avoiding a political aspect in the procedure of the ruling London Lodge. Moreover, there is not the least reason to suppose that Freemasonry in the City or Westminster included any Jacobite element which is worth mentioning. As Marquis of Wharton, the Grand Master had toyed with the Stuart Cause, but on the surface at least had repented, and had been raised to the dukedom as an encouragement to good behaviour. During his brief and irregular life on the Continent later on, he toyed again, but he was incapable of espousing any movement except with detriment thereto. He was also, as we shall find elsewhere, a bad Mason and a worthless member of society. See Sir Alfred Robbins: Earliest Years of Organised Freemasonry, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. XXII, pp. 67 et seq.

Position of Grand Lodge.—As the sphere of the Order extended it drew within it all kinds of interests, political, religious and intellectual; but within the limits of the United Kingdom the Grand Lodges never changed in consequence, otherwise than by the expulsion of those early Christian elements which had become obviously anachronistic when the wording of the Book of Constitutions made Turk and Jew eligible. It is to be insisted on most especially that their only political complexion was one of loyalty to King and Constitution for the time being of the United Kingdom at large. They ruled also in such a manner that none of their Daughter Lodges could do otherwise than follow this lead, while there is no evidence anywhere that they sought or wished to do otherwise. It is of course beyond question that in Scotland there was considerable loyalty to the Stuart House and that there were many Masons devoted to the old legitimacy; but there were no Stuart Lodges. I have sought to verify everywhere the alleged facts of Jacobite dedications and the Jacobite hand in Masonry, but the result is an absolute agreement with two of my precursors—with Mr. G. W. Speth, when he cautions his readers to "put no trust whatever in accounts connecting the Stuarts with Freemasonry"; and with Mr. W. J. Hughan when he registers that all statements respecting Prince Charles Edward and his relations with the Order are “apocryphal" and some of them "most absurd." These judgments notwithstanding, the old mendacities continue to be reproduced and ridiculous inferences to be drawn and multiplied therefrom. They are in all the Masonic encyclopaedias, including the mammoth compilation which still passes in America under the name of Mackey, while in England it was one of the most recurring among the many obsessions which has made the name of John Yarker a term of reproach and scorn.

Jacobite Inventions.—We hear of a Jacobite Chapter of Arras which is supposed to have conferred the Grade of Rose-Croix some time before it appears to have been invented—within the sphere of history. This is one luminous legend. After what manner it could have served the purpose of any legitimacy in exile does not appear in the pages of the brief; but it has been said that the Cubic Stone of the Roseate Cross represents the House of Stuart; that the overthrown altars indicate this House in exile, while their restoration means the Royal House reinstated in its proper patrimony. It is a cheap and tawdry explanation of a great and holy symbolism. I do not know whether any one has seen the Charter, which is not only fraudulent, but almost certainly antedated. Part of it is cited by Ragon in Orthodoxie Maçonnique, according to whom it is dated February 15, 1747, and purports to constitute, over the signature of Charles Edward Stuard (sic), a Sovereign Primordial Chapter of Rose-Croix, under the distinctive title of Écosse Jacobite, in the city of Arras and for Artois. The preamble opens as follows: “We, Charles Edward, King of England, France, Scotland and Ireland”, and the signature is witnessed by Berkeley. Mr. W. J. Hughan appears to have seen another transcript or account, according to which the Charter was signed by Lord Berkeley de par le Roi, while the prince’s title is given as pretendant (sic) Roi d’Angleterre, which of course condemns itself—as others have seen, both before and after Mr. Hughan. But while it is ridiculous to suggest that the rightful heir to a throne should call himself Pretender, so it is impossible that Charles Edward should assume the title of King of England in 1747, when his father—the Chevalier St. George—was still alive, as Mr. Hughan has pointed out acutely. Finally, he would not have termed himself “King of France” in a document which makes special reference to the garrison of Arras and the Masons of Artois. If I remember rightly, the hollow pretence to that sovereignty had been dropped since the period of the Prince of Orange. In the Secret Tradition in Freemasonry I have referred the so-called Jacobite Chapter of Arras to 1774 or 1779, and since the Charter is manifestly fraudulent as to the source from which it emanated, it is otherwise natural to conclude that it is mendacious in respect of date.

Stuart Masonic Legends.—According to the Stuart tradition in Masonry, Prince Charles Edward was not only “Substitute Grand Master of the Chapter of Heredom,” otherwise “Chapter of Knights of the Eagle and Pelican,” known “since our sorrows and misfortunes” by the designation of Rose-Croix, but he was also Grand Master of the Temple, according to the Statutes of the Temple for Scotland. In a note appended thereto by Professor Aytoun, it is affirmed that he was so elected by a solemn Chapter held in the Palace of Holyrood, some time prior to September, 1745. The authority is a letter which purports to have been written in that month to Lord Ogilvy by the Duke of Perth. It is of course apocryphal and Mr. Hughan mentions that there is no trace of it prior to 1843. So also is the alleged succession of Templar Grand Masters during the Jacobite period, as indeed before it: (1) Viscount Dundee, (2) John, Earl of Mar, (3) the Duke of Atholl and (4) Prince Charles Edward. When Bonnie Dundee died at Killicrankie, Lord Mar was aged about fourteen years and could not have succeeded him; moreover, the Marquis of Tullibardine did not assume the title of Duke of Atholl till 1745, and he had been abroad for thirty years.

Fraudulent Certificates.—There are also two French documents most carefully printed and described by Mr. W. H. Rylands in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. XV, pp. 94 et seq. (1) A Certificate issued on October 27, 1758, by Charles Francois de Beauchêne, in virtue of the power to him delegated by “the unfortunate Prince Charles Stuart Edward (sic), lawful King of England, Ireland and Scotland, Grand Master and Protector of Legitimate Scottish Lodges.” It confers upon Nicolas Hector Andraule de Langeron the “glorious title” of Perfect English Master. (2) A Certificate issued by the Metropolitan Lodge of Scotland at the Orient of Edinburgh on February 13, 1775, by the authority of Charles Stuart Edward (sic) as Grand Master of the Rose-Croix. It confers upon le Frère Candry—not otherwise more fully described by name—the right to establish, govern and hold any Lodge, Council, Chapter or other Masonic assembly whatsoever, and to initiate wise, virtuous and prudent men who acknowledge Christ as God, giving them the successive Grades unto him known, including (a) that of Rose-Croix and (b) that of the Black, White and Red Eagle R.C., established by Raymond Lully, surnamed the Illuminated Doctor. At the end this instrument certifies to its execution at Edinburgh on the date mentioned and “by Mandement of Souvereign Chapter of Rosse Croix” (sic). There are twenty-five signatures appended, for the most part English names, but disfigured by innumerable orthographical blunders. Both documents are described by Mr. Rylands as “the work of an illiterate person”: they are also beneath criticism in respect of their claims. The scribe of a Metropolitan Lodge of Scotland in the one case and a delegate in the other should at least have been acquainted with the names of their Grand Master.

The Chief Witness.—Towards the end of his life Prince Charles Edward denied that he had been ever made a Mason, and according to Mr. D. Murray Lyon there is no evidence from any Scottish source that he was. The Jacobite cabinet of forgery was in France, and nowhere else: in France also we meet with the latest supporters of the tradition. Within recent years it has been advanced that the “Ancients” Grand Lodge was the Masonry of the Catholics and the Stuarts, while that of the “Moderns” was Protestant and Hanoverian. There is not a particle of real evidence, though something was produced in the debate to pass as such; but it was good enough to convince Yarker. See A. Q. C., Vol. XVIII, pp. 15 et seq. There is also a disposition to accept the unsupported views of Professor Robison and the German Aulic Counsellor Bode, that when Freemasonry passed over into France it was in the wake of the dethroned James II and was propagated in that country as an aid to his restoration.

Lodge at Rome.—We have not even yet finished with the Charles Edward variations of the Jacobite legend, for a book containing the Minutes of a Lodge—not otherwise designated—held at Rome in 1735, under the auspices of Lord Winton, was presented to the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1800. The fact of the gift is recorded in W. A. Lawrie’s History of Freemasonry and the Grand Lodge of Scotland, 1859, p. 163, and a footnote adds that “this is the Lodge over which Prince Charles Edward presided as Right Worshipful Master,” against which statement the Minutes, so far as they are extant, constitute a silent protest. It will be remembered that the Earl of Winton was in the Rebellion of 1715, that he was made prisoner at Preston, was brought to London, tried and sentenced to death on March 19, 1716. He escaped, however, from the Tower and took refuge abroad. The Lodge at Rome appears to have been a Scots Lodge, composed evidently of Royalists and persons attached to the Chevalier St. George. The Minutes begin on August 16, 1735, when George Seton Wintoun is said to have been “received,” i.e. made a Mason. On March 19, 1736, he was “received a Master Mason,” while on August 6 of the same year he officiated as Master of the Lodge, the Minutes of that date stating that he was elected as such on the previous 23rd of April, of which there is no record otherwise. There are twelve entries of Meetings, confined to the barest and briefest statements of work done, with the list of members present. Lord Winton died at Rome on December 19, 1749, more than seventy years old. The Minutes of the Lodge were edited with exceeding care by Mr. W. J. Hughan in 1910. It follows that Lord Winton became a Mason at a late period of life.

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Jacob’s Ladder

Of the stone on which Jacob slept, of the mystical region which is called Padan-aram, of the Ladder seen in his vision, of the angels ascending and descending, of the Divine Presence at the summit and the great glory thereon, there are intimations in vestige and flickering lights of symbolism—a little in the Craft Grades, a little in the old Lectures. In the High Grades there is more, for they followed many paths. In one above all the Candidate ascends a ladder leading from earth to heaven: it is that of the patriarch Jacob, a scala coeli, such as Cardinal Bona wrote of in limpid Latin of the schools and some craftsman put into English of the seventeenth century, a few generations before symbolical Masonry came into evidence under the aegis of the London Grand Lodge. There are deep intimations concerning the Mystical Ladder in Jewish books like the Zohar, and there are cognate excerpts from other sources in the great collection of Rosenroth, that frustrated apostle to Israel who wrought and fought for their conversion by means of their own theosophy. I have ventured to suppose that Desaguliers and—by possibility—George Payne knew something of this memorial and of other collections like it, a little later on in the centuries. They might have done better, supposing that they could have gone further: as it is, the symbolism remains within the measures of moral and intellectual progress, the ne plus ultra of liberal culture at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

Zoharic Testimony.—According to the profound symbolism of the Zohar, which brings everything back to our humanity, as to a centre of manifest things, the just man, or Son of Doctrine and Election, is himself the Ladder leading from earth to heaven. This is almost in the words used by Joubert in his description of the mystic Saint-Martin—that is to say: His feet are on earth, but his head is in heaven. The Zoharic formula is literally that the just man reaches from Malkuth, which is earth, to Tiphereth, understood as heaven. It calls to be said in this connection that an amount of confusion has been brought into Masonic handbooks and dictionaries on the subject of the Tree of Life in Kabalism, of which the compilers knew only at second or third hand, while some of them have simply transcribed one from another. Neither in the Sepher Yetzirah, which is the oldest text of Kabalism, nor in the Zohar are the ten Sephiroth—which constitute the Tree of Life—compared to the Ladder of Jacob, one reason being that symbolists have the logic of their own images and hence if their selected type is a tree they are not liable alternatively to call it a ladder. On the hypothesis that the Sephirotic scheme—with which I have dealt briefly elsewhere—is a tree and not a ladder it is certainly in the proper understanding an ascent from earth to heaven, consisting apparently of ten degrees or stages, but in reality of seven, as the three at the summit are Divine Hypostases, the Sacred Trinity of Kabalism: the ascent is therefore to Chesed and not higher. Masonic commentators have not understood this and have gone astray over an idle distinction between Sephiroth of the old Kabalistic school and those of the new: no such distinction exists; the Sephiroth have represented always the scale of the denary and were as they are ten—neither more nor less. We do not know how they were laid out in the minds of early Kabalists, but it was certainly not as a ladder. The conventional diagram called the Tree of Life is a device of post-Zoharic Kabalism. Another represents the numerations as a series of concentric circles, but this is later still.

Many Confusions.—Outside Jewish theosophy Masonic writers have offered us still more false analogies between the Ladder of Jacob, the Norse Yggdrasil and symbols drawn from Persian and Brahmimcal sources. They belong to the shallowest institutes of comparison: if such methods continue, Jack and his Beanstalk will be brought into the medley later, and the ascent of the rainbow in folklore.


Jerusalem

We shall hear that the Knights Templar proposed to rebuild Jerusalem—the Holy City and above all its Holy Temple—but with another intent than that of ancient Israel. Among the Christian Grades of Masonry—Templar and not Templar—there are some which visualise from afar the same scheme, but as one of them says in its pathos: “For want of patrimony we build it only in the heart.” In the heart also it is raised into a world of vision, shining like “the Spiritual City and all its spires.” The intimations of such an emblematic architecture are scattered over the Jewish literature of the Greater Exile, and Jerusalem is magnified in the mystical dream till it overshadows all the palaces of the manifest universe and all that a thousand debates—held by Masters of the Law and Sons of its Doctrine—evolved concerning a world within the world, a world which is above this, its Houses of celestial sojourn, its sacred places of the Presence, its palaces of grace in prayer. Jerusalem was the centre of the earth, a City of the Great King, and about him was that peace which passes human understanding. But illuminated Israel, hearing the Daughter of the Voice and dwelling under the wings of Shekinah, had found this peace hidden in its own heart. It was one aspect of that Paradise which is below and was built within them in the likeness of another Paradise which is above, dwelling in the light of the Supernals. Far in their hearts away from the desolate city which is on earth, as they passed and contemplated its ruins, and yet near in the eye of mind when they looked towards that which was to come, the City and the dream concerning it took on the likeness of the Holy of Holies, while ever on the mountain heights Shekinah proclaimed for them that day which should restore all things, when there should be mercy above and below, when the sun should stand on the one side and the moon on the other, without turning or changing, and the glory of this House should never pass away. Does it not sound like a plenary and catholic aspect of that which is said to the Entered Apprentice about a structure perfect in its parts and honourable to the builder? For it is certain that there is a Masonry of the heart, and that under the ministry of the Spirit within us, there is a Divine Presence which if and when it is given us to prepare the ground, will not only build the House and build its Holy Sanctuary, but will also dwell therein.


Jesuits and Masonry

From the moment that Emblematic Freemasonry, transplanted from England to the Continent, began to take root therein and to exhibit signs of life and development, the thunders of the Vatican—as they are termed—began to fulminate against it in the form of Papal Bulls. The storms were intermittent during the course of the eighteenth century and during long spells of fair weather Freemasonry continued to recruit its ranks from those of Latin Catholicism, all through the Latin countries, for the simple reason that it was the prevailing official religion. Under Masonic banners there were priests in plenty and titular abbés without number. Though the fact has been denied by Barruel, in his capacity as an apologist for the Church, it is impossible to believe that there were not Jesuits in Freemasonry, or that they did not follow therein the proverbial policy of their Society: they could have no other purpose in view. It is a favourite parable that they manufactured Degrees and Rites with the object of directing Masonry into channels suited to their ends: those of Rose-Croix and Kadosh are quoted as typical examples. It is said also that by other Ritual inventions they sought to retrieve the fortunes of the Catholic House of Stuart in partibus exilii. The evidence is not only wanting, but the very spirit and life of the Grades belie the thesis in the great majority of cases. It has become, however, and remains one of those stories which are repeated from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation, in the main on the part of Masons who have conceived a particular hostility to High Grades.

Ragon.—Having registered my personal negatur, it is desirable to produce an example of the affirmative side and its sense of evidential values. There can be no better case cited than that of Ragon, who was dedicated in a peculiar manner to the production of private Bulls against the Society of Jesus in all its ways and under all its veils—real or supposed. He had the privilege of discovering Jesuits everywhere in Masonry, as the following summary shews. It will be seen that they had a Masonry of their own, with the life and spirit of which they sought to permeate the Masonic Order proper.

Thesis. (1) In their secret symbolism the Sun at its zenith represented the Society of Jesus flourishing—as it was, e.g., in the days of Louis XIV. (2) The Moon was Masonry, eclipsed by that Sun. (3) The Jesuits proscribed and in banishment were figured by a Setting Sun, while the Moon of Masonry was depicted at the full. (4) The Jesuits adopted also the Lion as a symbol typifying their own Society and recalling that Lion of the Tribe of Judah, which is one of the appropriated titles of Jesus in Scriptural symbolism. (5) The letter G in the centre of the Blazing Star signifies the General of the Jesuits, and Generalis Jesuitarum est locum Dei tenens. (6) Every Lodge of St. John is a Lodge of St. Ignatius. (7) The Battery of Three Knocks in a certain Grade of Masonry is an allusion to the three vows of the Jesuits. (8) Hiram slain is the Society destroyed by three companions stationed respectively towards the East, South and North, or England, Scotland and France—-from which the Jesuits were banished in the sixteenth century. (9) The five points of the Mastery are the five duties of a Jesuit: zeal, vigilance, hardihood, courage and constancy. (10) The letters I.H.S. in certain Christian Grades signify Jesum Habemus Socium. (11) In 1718 there was a serious debate among the Jesuits on the establishment of Masonry throughout Europe. (12) Many Lodges were founded in London between 1721 and 1722. (13) In 1723 there was published the Book of Constitutions. (14) Meanwhile Jesuit Masonry was in full vigour at the College of Clermont in Paris. (15) Jesuitic Masonry, which began in a tavern after the English manner, was accommodated to French frivolity by means of banquets. (16) The Unknown Superiors found it necessary to invent a new symbolical language for the concealment of their designs. (17) To reconquer Palestine was to change religion in England. (18) The last Crusades signified the ill-starred efforts of the Pretender. (19) The Isles of Scotland typified Paris, situated in the Isle of France. (20) Mount Heredom meant the College of Clermont. (21) The building of the First Temple alluded to the Jesuit College erected by James II. (22) The building of the second Temple by Zerubbabel was an allusion to the compact between the Jesuits and the Pretender. (23) The Pretender was intended to play the part of a modern Cyrus and lead them to Palestine for the building of a new Temple of Jerusalem. (24) The Chevalier Ramsay’s Travels of Cyrus was written from this point of view. (25) St. Alban, in Masonic legend, veils King Charles I. (26) The Company of Jesus was represented in England by the Grand Lodge of York. (27) The Great Unknown Work is the work of Jesuitry. (28) The architect Inigo Jones, an English Vitruvius, was used to serve emblematically for Inigo de Guiposcoa, i.e. Ignatius de Loyola.

Conclusion.—I have made a selection only from a much larger sheaf, but those which remain over are if anything more ridiculous. It is not of the least consequence what Ragon thought or held on any subject whatever; but I do not believe for a moment that he really regarded Emblematic Freemasonry of 1717 as a Jesuitic invention. It suited him at the moment to put forward this thesis, and so introduce his case against High Grades, for it is with these that he is more especially concerned in his chief clauses. It is sufficient to say of them all that they are a long string of bare affirmations, unsupported by any scrap of evidence, and they stand therefore at their value as such, which value is nil. The intervention of the Society of Jesus in the concerns of Masonry is like that of the Jacobite hand—a King Charles’ head of historical criticism and a short way to find the same thing everywhere. In respect of the Jesuits the facility of a fatal assumption is imported therein. I am speaking more especially of the past, which is yesterday and the times going back therefrom. Jesuitism was identified then with the whole hierarchy of the Latin Church, not by a particular congregation of priesthood within that great circle. Its emissaries—being everything within Roman ecclesiasticism—were everywhere at all times, according to the frantic hypothesis.


Jewish Wisdom and Masonry

One of the old speculations connects Masonry, as to its origin and development, with an alleged Jewish wisdom of the past. It was not the consequence of any first-hand acquaintance with the Kabalistic tradition which is noticed elsewhere in these pages, and the actual quality of wisdom is nowhere defined clearly. It was supposed sometimes to have originated with the Gentiles, but the more favoured reverie reversed this position and advanced that the Secret Science of which Masonry is the historical depository—through Moses and Solomon—was handed down from primeval times—as e.g. from Enoch; that it survived the period of the Flood; that it was imparted by Abraham to Egypt, from which country it was communicated to Greece; that it was the Science in which Moses was skilled, and that from him it descended to Solomon. It was focussed—so to speak—in this King and in the First Temple of the Jews. The reference here intended is not at all to the old idea that Solomon was an adept of occult knowledge, understood in the sense of Magic, though he is affirmed by the baser kind of late Jewish tradition to have made more progress in such matters than any other teacher among the sons of men. It was rather the First Temple which was his wisdom externalised, though it was by Jehovah Himself that its plan was revealed to David. The hypothesis had no doubt a star of good fortune at the period which brought it into being, for it passed as part and parcel of the whole allegorical edifice. By the least extension of the Masonic symbolical subject, the reconstruction of the Spiritualised Temple is the ostensible end of the Order within the measures of the Craft Degrees.


Johannite Masonry and the Temple

There are traces of a tradition in Masonry concerning St. John the Evangelist, and they regard the memorable incident of the Beloved Disciple resting his head on the heart of his Divine Master as symbolising an intimate communion which passed between them on the subject of the Secret Doctrine of Christ. It is summarised in one of the High Grades of Chivalry, when it is said that St. John received those instructions which he communicated so faithfully to the other disciples. Hereof is the Vision on Patmos. In the spurious Order of the Temple which depends from the Charter of Larmenius there is—so to speak—a tradition of St. John à rebours, which centres in the equally spurious gospel connected herewith. It is discussed in another place and is to be distinguished carefully from those suggestive elements to which reference has been made here.

Johannite Commemorations.—They seem on the surface to intimate concerning a secret doctrine of Christ filtering through Masonic channels from Thebaid deserts, from legendary Knights of the Morning and afterwards from Templar Sanctuaries. It happens also that the Grade to which I refer is itself a Templar Grade. There is nothing, however, which lies behind the eloquent suggestion, for Masonry does not convey a hidden doctrine of theology, though its Rituals are a shadow of great mystical experience, out of which there arises doctrine, yet it is not of theology in the conventional understanding of this term. In the far past of Christianity there were Johannite sects, but their residue at this day communicates little or nothing to seekers after spiritual life. We have only to note therefore in the present connection the persistence with which Blue Masonry is dedicated to the Baptist and Evangelist in Scotland: it remains under their aegis to this day, as a sacred commemoration of that time when Operative Masonry lived and moved and had its being in the light of Christ. Of dedications to Moses and Solomon Masonic Scotland knows as little as of the drift and scattermeal of liberal theology, or of a theistic Duke of Sussex. In addition to