The name of the angel that, in accordance with the Cabalistical system, governs the planet Venus.
In 1733, the Earl of Strathmore, Grand Master of England, granted a Deputation "to eleven German gentlemen, good Brothers, for constituting a Lodge at Hamburg" (see Anderson, Constitutions, 1738, page 194). of the proceedings of this Lodge we have no information. In 1740, Brother Luettman brought from England a Warrant for the establishment of a Lodge, and a Patent for himself, as Provincial Grand Master of Hamburg and Lower Saxony. In October, 1741, it assumed the name of Absalom, and in the same year the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg and Saxony was opened, a Body which, Lindel says (on page 239 of his History) was the oldest Mother Lodge in Germany. About the year 1787, the Provincial Grand Lodge adopted the newly invented Rite of Frederick L. Schroder, consisting of only three Degrees. In 1801, it declared itself an independent Grand Lodge, and has so continued. The Grand Lodge of Hamburg practises Schroder's Rite (see Schroder). There is also in Hamburg a sort of Chapter, which was formed by Schroder, under the title of Geschichtliche Engbund, or Historical Select Union. It was intended as a substitute for Fessler's Degrees of Knowledge, the members of which employ their time in studying the various systems of Freemasonry. The Mutter-Bund of the Confederacy of Hamburg Lodges, which make up this system, is independent of the Grand Lodge. The two authorities are entirely distinct, and bear much the same relation to each other as the Grand Lodges and Grand Chapters of the United States.
American economist and statesman, born January 11, 1757, in West Indies, and as the result of a duel with Aaron Burr at Weehawken, New Jersey, died, July 12, 1804. Organized an artillery company in Revolutionary War, became private secretary to Washington. Brilliant as a soldier, he was equally effective in organizing the United States Government under the 1787 Constitution and became Secretary of State. His able reports cover a wide range of investigation and he bestowed order and confidence to national finances. His name is recorded among those visiting American Union Lodge at Morristown, New Jersey, December 27, 1779, and is identified because the only one of that name then holding a commission in the Army under General Washington.
Born 1820; died May, 1880, at Jamaica, of which island he was District Grand Master. This English gentleman was a member of the Queen's Body Guard. He was appointed District Grand Master of Jamaiea, November 5, 1858; District (brand Superintendent of Royal Arch Masons, January 10, 1859; Provincial Grand Master of Mark Masons, 1877; and was a supernumerary member of the Supreme Council, 33°, of England, and Provincial Grand Master of the Royal Order of Scotland.
Born January 12, 1737; died October 8, 1793. President of the Continental Congress from May 1775, to October 1777, and the first to attach his name to the Declaration of Independence. He took the Masonic Degrees in Merchants Lodge No. 277, Quebec, Canada, in 1762, and on October 14, 1762, affiliated with the Lodge of Saint Andrew, Boston, Massachusetts (see New Age, October, 1925; Masonic Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Signers, Wm. L. Bovden; Masonry in the Formation of our Government 1761-99, Philip A. Roth, page 40).
. In Freemasonrv, the hand as a symbol holds a high place, because it is the principal seat of the sense of feeling so necessary to and so highly revered by Freemasons. The same symbol is found in the most ancient religions, and some of their analogies to Masonic symbolism are peculiar. Thus, Horapollo says that among the Egyptians the hand was the symbol of a builder, or one fond of building, because all labor proceeds from the hand. In many of the Ancient Mysteries the hand,
especially the left, was deemed the symbol of equity. In Christian art a hand is the indication of a holy person or thing. In early medieval art, the Supreme Being was always represented by a hand extended from a cloud, and generally in the act of benediction.
The form of this act of benediction, as adopted by the Roman Church, which seems to have been borrowed from the symbols of the Phrygian and Eleusinian priests or hierophants, who used it in their mystical processions, presents a singular analogy, which will be interesting to Mark Master Masons who will recognize in it a symbol of their own ceremonies. In the benediction referred to, as given in the Latin Church, the thumb, index, and middle fingers are extended, and the two others bent against the palm as in the illustration. The church explains this position of the extended thumb and two fingers as representing the Trinity; but the older symbol of the Pagan priests, which was precisely of the same forrn, must have had a different meaning.
A writer in the British Magazine (volume i, page 565) thinks that the hand, which was used in the Mithraic mysteries in this position, was symbolic of the Light emanating not from the sun, but from the Creator, directly as a special manifestation; and he remarks that chiromancs or divination by the hand is an art founded upon the notion that the human hand has some reference to the decrees of the supreme power peculiar to it above all other parts of the microcosmus man. Certainly, to the Freemason, the hand is most important as the symbol of that mystical intelligence by which one Freemason knows another "in the dark as well as in the light."
To the above observations by Doctor Mackey we may add that scores of references in the Bible attest the important significance that from the earliest times has been associated with the hand. As a pledge of fidelity the hand is frequently empioyed in all religious rites, old or new. The sign of a covenant indicated by a movement of the hand is noted by several authors, notably in a chapter on the subject in the Threshold Covenant, H. Clay Trumbull, 1896 (pages 74 to 94).
This authority says "It is a notes worthy fact that the uplifted hand is prominent in the representation of the deities of Babylonia, Assyria, Phenicia, and Egypt, especially of the gods of life or of fertility, who have covenant relations with men. And the same is true of the representations of sovereigns, in the ancient East, who are supposed to be in peculiar relations with the gods. Thus on the seal of Urgur, the earliest ruler of Ur of the Chaldees (see Genesis xi 31 and xv 7), the ruler and his attendants appear with uplifted hands before the moon-god Sin, who in turn is represented with his hand uplifted, as if he were making covenant with him.
This is from Perrot and Chipiez's History of Art in Chaldea and Assyria (i, pages 38 and 84). It is the same with the sun-god Shamash and his worshipers, Sayce's Social Life Arrow the Assyrians aru] Babylonians (page 52)."
Professor Trumbull submits numerous instances of the kind in records from various parts of the world and also makes the fact clear that the uplifted hands in the representations of deities and their worshipers was not the attitude of adoration nor of supplication but a symbol of covenanting, the showing of a pledge, a formal act of visible consecration. Of the importance of such an act with the hand there are frequent allusions in the Scriptures. Trumbull (page 82) says, "There is a clear recognition of this idea in many Bible references to the lifting up of the hands unto God, as if in covenant relations with him.
Thus Abraham says to the King of Sodom, 'I have lift up my hand to the Lord,' Genesis xiv 22, as if he would say I have pledged myself to Him. I have given him my hand. And the Psalmist lxiii 4, says 'I will lift up my hand in Thy name.' God Himself says, by His prophet, Isaiah il 22, 'I will lift up Mine hand to the nations;' that is I will covenant with them. Compare Exodus vi 8, Numbers xiv 30, and Nehemiah ix 15. And 80 in many another case. Indeed the Assyrian word for swearing—nish—is literally lifting up the hand, and the Hebrew word nasa means to lift up the hand or to swear (see Tallquist's Die Sprague Contracte Nabu Naido, page 108, and Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon). Again, there may be a reference to the 'hand of might' in a covenant relation, in those passages where God is spoken of as bringing His people out of Egypt by 'a strong hand' or 'a mighty hand,' and as dealing with them afterwards in the same way (see, for example, Exodus ui 19; xiii 3, 14, 16; xxxii ll; Deuteronomy iii 24; iv 34; v 15, vi 21; vii 8, 19; ix 26; xi 2, etc.; Second Chronicles vi 3''; Ezekiel xx 34; Daniel ix 15). An uplifted hand is a symbol found also on the stepped pyramid temples of Polynesia (see Ellis's Polynesian Pesearches ii, page 207, illustration)."
Attention may be directed to the additional authority given in the signing of a document bv one's own hand. Even where a person cannot write for himself, a mark made by the one attesting to the truth of the rest of the writing is acceptable and customary. To pass a coin from hand of the one party to a contract into the hand of another person involved in the matter has been accepted as a mutual pledge of the good faith of both concerned to carry out the terms of the undertaking. An English expression about "taking a shilling" refers to the binding of the bargain when a soldier enlists in the British Array. All refer to the covenant authorized by a sign made by the hand. We must not forget the common expressions relating to the hand as an agency, a source, an authority, and so on, as in "at first hand," "by hand," "in hand," "in the hands of," etc. Nor may we overlook the use of blood to emphasize the importance of a contract. Professor Trumbull offers a suggestive comment on the relation of this to an oath or obligation. "The very term sign manual, employed for a veritable signature, may point to an origin in this custom. Indeed, may it not be that the large red seal attached to important documents, at the present time, is a survival of the signature and seal of the bloody hand?" (Threshold Covenant, page 94).
Of such gestures as are made by the laying on of hands in Church ceremonies and elsewhere in sealing a covenant there are many pregnant allusions in the Bible and other places. Compare Genesis it 8, 94; Nurnbers xxvii, 8 to 23; Acts vi 6; viiu 18, xui 3; xix 6; First Tirnothy iv 14; vi 2; viii 9; Hebrews vi 2; viii 9 (see Covenant and Oath, also Penalty).
See Left Hand .
See Right Hand.
See Clean Hands.
Clasped hands are a symbol of Jidelity and trust. A Spanish work was published at Vittoria, in 1774, where three hands are shown united in the vignette on the title.
See Points of Fellowship.
See Points of Fellowship.
Freemasonry was introduced into Hanover, in the year 1744, by the organization of the Lodge Frederick; which did not, however, get into active operation, in consequence of the opposition of the priests, until two years after. A Provincial Grand Lodge was established in 1755, which in 1828 became an independent Grand Lodge. In 1866, in consequence of the war between Austria and Prussia, Hanover was annexed to the latter country. There being three Grand Lodges at that time in Prussia, the Kirlg deemed it inexpedient to add a fourth, and, by a cabinet order of February 17, 1867, the Grand Lodge of Hanover was dissolved. Most of the Hanoverian Lodges united with the Grand Lodge Royal York at Berlin, and a few with the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes.
The Hebrew word 17N'XEN, in Latin Voluntas Dei. A covered word used in the Twentythird Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The name of the second king in the Scandinavian Mysteries.
The Seventy-third Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
The title of an officer in the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, and also in the Knights of Saint John the Evangelist.
A Freemason of New York, who published, in 1818, a work entitled The New Freemasons' Monitor and Masonic Guide. It evinces considerable ability, was in Brother Mackey's opinion more valuable than the Monitors of Webb and Cross, and deserved a greater popularity than it seems to have received.
An old record of the Constitutions of Freemasonry, so called because it forms No. 2054 of the collection of manuscripts in the British Museums which were originally collected by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, the celebrated Prime Minister of Queen Anne, and known as the Bibliotheca Harleian, or Harleian Labrary. The Manuscript consists of four leaves, containing six and a half pages of close writing in a cramped hand, said to be that of Randle Holmc, Chester Herald, n ho died in 1699. The Manuscript has first published by Brother William James Hughan, in his Masonic Sketches and Reprints. She Manuscript was carefully transcribed for Brother Hughan by a faithful copyist, and its correctness was verified by Sims, of the Manuscript Department of the British Museum. Brother Hughan places the date of the record in the middle of the seventeenth century, and in this he is probably correct.
The two following folios says the Reverend Brother Woodford in the volume (namely 33 and 34) are of a very important character, inasmuch as the secrets of Freemasonry are referred to in the "obligation" taken by Initiates and the sums are recorded which "William Wade give to be a Freemason," and others who were admitted members of the Lodge. The amounts varied from five shillings to a pound the majority being ten shillings and upwards. The fragment on folio 33 is as follows and was written about the same time as the Manuscript Constitutions;
There is severall words & signes of a free mason to be reveiled to ye weh as y-u w-ch as will before God at the Great & terrible day of Judgent yu keep secret & not to revaile the same in the heares of any person or to any hut to the Mrs- & fellows of the said society of free masons so helpe me God, etc.
A facsimile of the Manuscript has been published by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge.
There is another Manuscript in the same collection marked No. 1492, the date of which is conjectured to be about 1650! or rather later. It was copied by Brother Henry Phillips, and first published in the Freemasons Quarterly Retnew in 1836 (pages 288 to 295). The copy, however, unfortunately, is not an exact one, as E. A. Bond, of the Museum, who compared a part of the transcript with the original, says that "the copyist has overlooked peculiarities in many instances." It is important in containing an Oath of Secrecy, which is in the following words:
I (giving full name) in the presence of Almighty God, and my fellows and Brethren here present, promise and declare that I will not at any time hereafter, by any Aet, or Circumstance whatsoever, directly or indirectly publish, discover, reveale, or make knowne any of the Secrete priviledges, or Counsels of the Fratarnity or fellowship of Freemasony, which at this time, or any time hereafter shall be made known unto me; soe helpe mee God and the holy contents of this book.
.
A facsimile of this manuscript also has been published by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge.
It is a duty especially entrusted to the Senior Warden of a Lodge, who is figuratively supposed to preside over the Craft during the hours of labor, so to act that none shall depart from the Lodge dissatisfied or discontented, that harmony may be thus preserved, because, as the instruction expresses it, harmony is the strength and support of all well-regulated institutions.
See Brethren of Harmony.
See Knight of Harmony.
See Mesmeric Free masonry.
See Montfort, Colonel Joseph.
Lord Harnouester is said to have been elected by the four Lodges of Paris, as the second Grand Master of France, in 1736, succeeding the Earl of Derwentwater. Nothing is known of this nobleman in contemporary history. Burke makes no allusion to him in his Extinct Peerages, and probably the name has undergone one of those indecipherable mutations to which French writers are accustomed to subject all foreign names; indeed, Brother R. F. Gould, in his Concase History of Freemasonry (page 355), considers that the name may even be a corruption of Derwentwater.
We owe the Masonic use of this word to Anderson, who first employed it in the Book of Constitutions, where he tells us that "there were employed about the Temple no less than three thousand and six hundred Princes or Master Masons to conduct the work," and in a note he says that "in First Kings (v, 16) they are called Harodim, Rulers or Provosts" (see Constitutions, 1723, page 10). The passage here alluded to may be translated somewhat more literally than in the authorized version, thus: "Besides from the chiefs or princes appointed by Solomon who were over the work, there were three thousand and three hundred harodim over the people who labored at the work."
Harodim, in Hebrew os , is a grammatically compounded word of the plural form, and is composed of the definite article if, HAR the or those, and a participle of the verb rho, radah, to rule over, and means therefore, those who rule over, or overseers. In the parallel passage of Second Chronicles (ii, 18), the word used is Menatzchim, which has a similar meaning.
But from the use of this word Harodim in First Kings, and the commentary on it by Anderson, it
has come to pass that Harodim is now technically used to signify Princes in Masonry. They were really overseers of the work, and hence the Masonic use of the term is not altogether inappropriate.
Whoever inspects the two parallel passages in First Kings (v, 16) and Second Chronicles (ii, 18), will notice an apparent discrepancy. In the former it is said that there were three thousand and three hundred of these overseers, and in the latter the number is increased to three thousand and six hundred. The commentators have noted but not explained the incongruity. Lee, in his Temple of Solomon, attempts to solve it by supposing that "possibly three hundred at a second review might be added to the number of officers for the greater care of the business." This is not satisfactory; not more so is the explanation offered by myself, continues Brother Mackey, many years ago, in the Lexicon of Freemasonry. It is much more reasonable to suspect a clerical error of some old copvist which has been perpetuated. There is room for such an inadvertence, for there is no very great difference between wIw, the Hebrew for three, and wwt, which is six. The omission of the central letter would create the mistake. Masonic writers have adhered to the three thousand and six hundred, which is the enumeration in Chronicles.
Brother E. L. Hawkins tells us that a Degree bearing this name was commonly conferred by the Lodges in the County of Durham, England, during the latter half of the eighteenth century, but what its exact nature was has now been forgotten.
An institution under the title of the Grand Chapter of the Ancient and Venerable Order of Harodim was established in London, in the year 1787, by the celebrated Masonic lecturer, William Preston. He thus defines, in his Illustrations, its nature and objects (see twelfth edition, page 310):
The mysteries of this Order are peculiar to the Institution itself; while the lectures of the Chapter include every branch of the Masonie system, and represent the art of Masonry in a finished and complete form.
Different classes are established, and particular leetures restricted to each class. The lectures are divided into sections, and the sections into clauses. The sections are annually assigned by the Chief Harod to a certain number of skilful Companions in each class, who are denominated Sectionists; and they are empowered to distribute the clauses of their respective sections, with the approbation of the Chief Harod and General Director, among the private companions of the Chapter, who are denominated Clauseholders. Such Companions as by assiduity become possessed of all the sections in the lecture are called Lecturers; and out of these the General Director is always chosen.
Every Clauseholder, on his appointment, is presented with a ticket, signed by the Chief Harod, specifying the clause allotted to him. This ticket entitles him to enjoy the rank and privileges of a Clauseholder in the Chapter; and no Clauseholder can transfer his ticket to another Companion, unless the consent of the Council has been obtained for that purpose, and the General Director has approved the Companion to whom it is to be transferred as qualified to hold it. In case of the death, sickness, or non-residence in London of any Lecturer, Sectionist, or Clauseholder, another Companion is appointed to fill up the vacaney for the time being, that the lectures may be always complete, and during the session a public lecture is usually delivered at stated times.
The Grand Chapter is governed bv a Grand Patron, two Vice Patrons, a chief Ruler, and two Assistants, with a Council of twelve respectable Companions, who are chosen annually at the Chapter nearest to the festival of Saint John the Evangelist.
The whale system was admirably adapted to the purposes of Masonic instruction, and was intended for propagating the Prestonian system of lectures.
In the old lectures of the Ineffable Degrees, it is said that Tito, the oldest of the Provosts and Judges, was the Prince of Haro(lim, that is, chief of the three hundred architects who Caere the Harodim, or additional three hundred added to the thirty-three thousand Menatzchim mentioned in Chronicles, and who thus make up the number of three thousand six hundred recorded in the First Book of Kings, and who in the old lecture of the Degree of Provost and Judge are supposed to have been the Harodim or Rulers in Masonry. The Statement is a myth; but it thus attempts to explain the discrepancy alluded to in our article on Harodim.
There svere two Grand secretaries acting together from the Union of the Grand Lodges of England in 1813, Brother Edwards Harper officiating from 1813 to 1838. For twelve rears previously to 1813 Brother Harper had been Deputy Grand Secretary and on December 1, 1813, he was given a gold jewel or medal by the Grand Lodge for "eminent services rendered the Ancient Craft" during that period. Brother William Henry White, who became Grand Secretary of the Moderns in 1810, continued from 1813 with Brother Harper until 1838 and then acted alone as Grand Secretary up to 1856 (see Memorials of the Masonic Union, W. J. Hughan-John T. Thorp, 1913, pages 11 and 185.
Deputy Grand Master of the Athol Lodge and an ardent Freemason. Published an edition of the Ahiman Rezon in 1800 and two others in 1807 and 1813. At the Union of the two Grand Lodges he opened the Especial Grand Lodge as Deputy Grand Master and by unanimous accord was fraternally requested to continue in office and fulfil the duties until the appointment and installation of a Grand Master, the Duke of Kent, who subsequently appointed and installed Brother Harper as his Deputy (see Memorials of the Masonic Union, W. J. Hughan,John T. Thorp, 1913, pages 17-20) .