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Anti-Maçonnerie
Begin:
De Presbyteriaan-synode van Pittsburg (Pennsylvanie) 1821
Besluiten:
Uitvoering:
Antisemitisme
Antiogie
Antiquity
ANTHROPOMORPHlSM
ANTICHRIST AND FREEMASONRY
The Church and the World.
Mark Masonry.
The Church Mystic.
ANTI-MASONIC CONGRESS AT TRENT
Immutable Dogmas.
Trent Findings.
varieties of Masonic Belief.
Roman Catholicism.
A Question of Consistency.
The Case Stated.
Arena of Debate.
Conclusion Drawn
Anti-Maçonnerie
Mackey
Suplement
ANTI-VRIJMETSELARIJ 1998
ANTI-MASONIC BOOKS.
ANTI-MASONIC PARTY.
Cooper - secret Societies
Begin:
De Presbyteriaan-synode van Pittsburg (Pennsylvanie) 1821
Besluiten:
Uitvoering:
Anti-Maçonnerie, Een vereniging, omstreeks 1829 in Amerika opgericht, door ex. Bb.°.Morgan (en Miller) die ooit geweigerd werd voor het lidmaatschap van het Kapp.°.. Deze vereeniging had het doel de Vrijmij.°. op alle mogelijke wijzen tegen te werken, en die elk middel daartoe heilig achtte, o.m. door schijn Loges op te richten en een blad (Batavia en Rochester) uit te geven; die vereniging is echter te gronde gegaan. Vòòr de onafhankelijkverklaring van de Engelse koloniën, hadden de in Amerika bestaande Loges weinig de opmerkzaamheid tot zich getrokken. Maar hoewel de strijd van de koloniën tegen het moederland en de groote Franse revolutie loten waren van dezelfde stam, zo wekte de laatste toch de bezorgdheid van de Amerikanen; daarbij kwam de vrees voor vrijzinnigheid op godsdienstig gebied en voor elke instelling, die ook maar in de verte op een monarchale inrichting leek.
Begin:Toen de officieren van het Amerikaanse leger, bijna allen VV.°. MM.°., na de vrede van 1783 de Orde van Cincinnati stichtten, om nader hen te verbinden, die met elkaar al de gevaren van de oorlog getrotseerd hadden, kwam er een geweldige oppositie tegen dit genootschap en tegen elke Orde in het algemeen en weldra werden de toen in Frankrijk tegen de orde uitgegeven geschriften ook in Amerika verspreid. Zelfs de president Joh. Adams (1797-1801) werd bezorgd voor de mannenvan de"verlichting", zodat de Gr.°. L.°. van Massachusetts zich verplicht zag de 17 Juni 1778 een schrijven tot hem te richten, waarin de grondbeginselen van de Vrijmij.°. verdedigd werden. De geestelijkheid begon weldra de geloovigen voor de Orde te waarschuwen en eenigen hunner die V.°. M.°. waren, werden door hun gemeenten min of meer beleedigd en althans veroordeeld.
De Presbyteriaan-synode van Pittsburg (Pennsylvanie) 1821verscherpte de aanvallen. Verschillende geestelijken hadden het voorstel bij haar ingediend, de VV.°. MM.°. van de rechten en weldaden van de kerk uittesluiten, behalve wanneer ze hun dwalingen wilden erkennen en de maç.°. beginselen wilden afzweren. De synode benoemde toen een commissie om de zaak nader te onderzoeken, die voorstelde te beslissen:
Besluiten:
a. dat de Loges een verderfelijke invloed uitoefenden op godsdienst en zedelijkheid en het bezoeken er van zonde was voor de belijders "van de heilige godsdienst van onze Here Jezus Christus";
b. dat het de plicht was van alle evangeliedienaren en van alle christenen de onder hun toezicht staanden van de 0.°. verre te houden;
c. dat de synode, diep doordrongen van het eeuwig welzijn van kerk en maatschappij en uit achting voor die uitnemende mannen die heden nog met de Vrijmetselarij verbonden zijn, deze met ernst aanmane de veiligen weg te bewandelen en bij de strijd tussen het godsrijk en het rijk van de duisternis de zijde des Here te kiezen.
Uitvoering: Dit was slechts ‘t voorspel van de strijd die later door de kerk in ‘t leven zou worden geroepen. De drie LL.°. te Pitsburg verzetten zich met kracht en waardigheid tegen dit voorstel en de synode verwierp het dan ook. - Maar onverwacht had er een gebeurtenis plaats, die van overwegenden invloed zou worden, namelijk de "ontvoering" en het verdwijnen van William
Morgan (Sept. 1826) die annonie, Amerika had verlaten. Een vereeniging onstond, die fel tegen de Orde woedde en tal van Loges te gronde richtte, totdat ze in 1834 met de partij der Whigs samensmolt (z. Morgan).- Nog hebben in Amerika wel allerlei aanvallen tegen de Vrijmij.°. plaats, maar die staan meer op zich zelf en zullen de 0.°. geen merkbare schade kunnen berokkenen.
Antisemitisme .
ANTI-SEMITISM AND MASONRY.
Haat tegen joden. In de islamitische wereld waren er al vanaf het bewind van Haroen al Rasjid (ca. 800) sterke beperkingen van de vrijheid van joden en later ook felle vervolgingen, met name in Spanje en Jemen. Paus Innocentius III (regeerde van II98 tot 1216) steunde de beschuldiging van *rituele moord, en vanaf die tijd werden joden in het christelijke Europa regelmatig vervolgd, verdreven, vernederd en in hun vrijheid beknot. Joden werden oorspronkelijk vervolgd om hun geloof maar vanaf de 19de eeuw gingen *racisme en *nationalisme, dus vooroordelen op grond van cultuur, uiterlijk en pure afstamming, ook een rol spelen. Dat is de tijd waarin de mythe van de *joodse samenzwering sterk verbreid wordt. De nederlaag van Frankrijk in 1870 wakkerde het antisemitisme aan; de term 'antisemitisme' werd pas na 1870 voor het eerst gebruikt, in Frankrijk. Ze heeft nooit een algemene afeer betekend van sprekers van Semitische talen. De * Völkische beweging wilde terug naar een oer Duitse cultuur en verzette zich tegen de moderne urbane kosmopolitische cultuur en de smeltkroes van het multinationale Habsburgse Oostenrijk-Hongarije. Bijna automatisch was de Völkische beweging antisemitisch. Na de Duitse nederlaag van 1918 vloeide ze over in het uiterst antisemitische nationaal-socialisme van *Hitler. Een bijzondere vorm van antisemitisme vinden we in het eveneens 19de-eeuwse idee dat de Britten eigenlijk de afstammelingen zijn van de *Tien Verloren Stammen, dus eigenlijk een superieur soort joden, heel anders dan de gewone 'gedegenereerde' joden die je overal tegenkwam. Dit idee leeft nog voort in de rechts-extremistische *Christian Identity beweging in de vs. Personen en bewegingen in de vs die de overheid of de dominante cultuur wantrouwen, zoals Bill *Cooper, die een *uFo-samenzwering onderkent, of de beweging van het *afro-racisme zijn vaak ook antisemitisch. Moderne antisemieten kunnen zich ook pseudo-wetenschappelijke airs geven door zich revisionisten (*holocaust-ontkenners) te noemen.
Antiogie
, Pseudo naam voor de stad Bamberg door de Illuminaten-orde
Antiquity
ANTIQUITY LODGE NR. 2,
CIRLOT
ANTIQUITY, LODGE OF.
ANTIQUITY OF FREEMASONRY.
ANTIQUITY MANUSCRIPT.
ANTIQUITY OF MASONRY
(Lodge of), de L.°. was een van de vier te Londen nog bestaande oude Bouwh.°., die de Gr.°. L.°. van 1717 in ‘t leven riepen. Op de ranglijst van de Engelse LL.°. neemt ze nog de eerste plaats in.
ANTHROPOMORPHISM. The Grand Architect of the Universe is the lineal descendant or successor of the Jehovah revealed by the Pentateuch, when that sheaf of documents is taken in the most literal sense of its wording, and is if anything materialised a trifle further. The Pentateuch in Holy Scripture is relieved by the great light of the prophets cast on Divine things. There is no such light reflected by Grade upon Grade within the limits of the CRAFT and ARCH. It is possible to read in GENESIS that God walked with Adam in the cool of the evening and to remember that the myth of Paradise opened many vistas of inward meaning to the theosophists of later Israel; but it is not possible to read and to hear the crude, unqualified anthropomorphism of Masonic prayers or disquisitions and to find refuge in any second sense reposing in the minds of their writers. They are transcripts of notions derived from archaic theology into the pitiful forms and modes of conventional terminology belonging to the eighteenth century. One wonders how they would have struck Hegel, had Hegel happened to be an English Mason of that period. One wonders how their German adaptations did actually strike Franz von Baader-who was, I believe, one of the Brotherhood. I am speaking, however, to some extent on the academic side and there remains a very practical question, which is one also of sincerity: I mean, what is the position of a cultured and religious mind in the presence of these grave offences against the fitness of theological faith ?
Against Divine Immanence and Transcendence ?
Against the God mystical ?
Who dwells in the heart and the Higher Doctrine of the Absolute ?
In the last resource, I suppose that we must bear and forbear with them as we do with their prototypes in the canonical literature of ancient Israel, remembering that the Christian Dispensation came to shed light upon their crudities and to dissolve them, partially at least, by the messages of Divine Love. It must be said further that the great majority of formal prayers in all the accepted liturgies area better than those which prevail in Masonry because they are better dignified in the heaven of mind, because the so called Book of Common Prayer is in pure and noble English, because those of the Latin Rite are veiled by all the glory of devotional Latin. These advantages apart, it is only on rare occasions that they strike the authentic note of inspiration. Even Masonry has its moments -very few, very far between. The prayer at the beginning of Advancement in the MARK DEGREE carries a certain conviction by its air of high simplicity, while there are some in the other Orders which could be tolerated in their spirit, were they amended sufficiently in the wording. The justification of public and of any formal prayer is in so far as it contains real openings into things of the spirit, so that in the collective net of worship it is possible for the individual to get behind the prayer. This is essential above most things in procedure like Masonry, which claims to be a veil of symbolism and the inward grace behind the outward sign should not be hidden out of reach.
ANTICHRIST AND FREEMASONRY
The Church and the World.
Mark Masonry.
The Church Mystic.
ANTICHRIST AND FREEMASONRY, When the late Monsignor Benson, now ten years since or more, decided that the Coming of the Destroyer was a fit and proper subject for treatment in romance, he looked about him for certain materials which might answer as antecedents of the evil time and the all-malefic persona. He would find many naturally, and amidst the abundance he chose a few. That, however, which proved most to his purpose and most after his own heart-as a militant ecclesiastic of the Roman type -was the Masonic Order; and he may have even laid down on paper- to be re-embodied subsequently-a kind of ground-plan or schedule of future Masonic developmcnt, which hypothetical schedule it remains easy to extract from his tale of wonder. I will present it in so far as it seems necessary to set out the object of these critical remarks. It may be termed a prophetic scheme of Masonic Constitution, some presumable century hence, and it includes:
(I) a great hypothetical access of Jews to the Fraternity;
(2) the abolition of the idea of God therein;
(3) special disclosures with regard to MARK MASONRY-doubtless because it suggests readily the Mark of the Beast;
(4) responsibility of Masonry in its Higher Grades for a movement against religion over the whole world;
(5) admission of women as a master-stroke;(CO-MASONNERY ?)
(6) affiliation of Antichrist with Masonry, and this as the only known antecedent concerning him;
(7) surrender of all schemes for future progress and the brotherhood of nations into the hands of the Order, to counterbalance false notions of unity and spiritual fraternity as conceived by the Church;
(8) establishment of a non-theistic form of religious observance-a religion infƒme-based on Masonic Ritual;
(9) the Church as before and now to go on denouncing.
Now this may strike a reader who is versed in romances rather than matters historical as a curious piece of invention, signifying and producing little beyond some element of doubt on the part of young ladies and inexperienced wives as to what in the world's name takes either father or husband to the Lodges of the Masonic Society. The Mason on his own part, coming across the romance, would say that Mgr. Benson was a priest of that Church which has always vilified Freemasonry; that he was, moreover, a convert in his day; and that such people lean to extreme sides. Were the position exhausted in this manner, nothing would be offered to criticism, but there is more than appears on the surface, and for this reason I have thought it worth while to extract a schedule containing fantastic accusations-which matter nothing at the root-against certain Hidden Mysteries-which on one side of them do.
The Church and the World. Behind the forecast there lies an old, familiar dream-that when the present world-order draws to its close, the last struggle, symbolised by the word Armageddon, will be that of the Roman Church-as the surviving witness of Christ- with all the powers of Apollyon, as the sum of the spirit of this world. Seeing that there will never be any such struggle-for the Spirit of God by the slow process of centuries will change the substance of the spirit-both in the Church and the world-. it is sufficient to make note of the dream as typical of Roman claims to be regarded as the only Church of Christ. Out of the whole presentation, however, there anses one fact as a particularly clear issue, and this is that the Latin Church-for reasons of which some are obscure and some moderately transparent-has agreed to regard Freemasonry and the Secret Societies which are connected by imputation therewith as the culminating type, representative and summary of those forces which are at work in the world against the work of the Church in that world. Now supposing that this view had in its support that historical evidence which we- who are Masons have been looking for our enemies to supply -but which they can supply only in one limited direction-we should be left simply in the position of the Latin Church itself when confronted by competitive exponents of the truth of God. It remains unaffected from its own standpoint by the pretensions of rival orthodoxies, pure apostolic Christianities and sects generally. So also the Mason, who knot well enough what is the true purpose, what are the expliats and implicits of that Mystery which Initiation has reposed in his heart, will know that Masonry would remain and will believe that it would emerge ultimately-unaffected if Grand Lodges, Grand Orients and Supreme Councils passed into corporate apostasy. If in certain countries and at certain distracted periods we find that the apparatus of the Lodges has been made to serve the purpose of plot and faction, or of false philosophy and religion, Freemasonry as an Institution is not more responsible for such abuses than is the Latin Church as a whole for the poisoned Eucharists of a Borgia pontiff.
Mark Masonry. So far on the general subject, and as regards the titles of Mgr. Benson to speak at all about Masonry, there is one element of joy in the whole collection. By an intervention of the special Providence which sees to it that indiscriminate hostility shall make itself ridiculous in the end, he selected for the central point of his scheme that ORDER 0F MARK MASONRY which among all Grades external to the Craft itself-is the least known on the Continent, which of all and above all has the least connection with any event in history, which in fine is the most simply symbolised of any and all. Masonry could ask nothing better of its enemies than to choose MARX MASONRY as their object of attack on the score of any disaffection political or religious.
The Church Mystic. I hope to make it plain that certain High Degrees-like those of the Craft itself-carry a second sense in their symbolism; but it is not of so-called Natural Religion, Idealistic Pantheism, Monism and much less of Materialism or Positivism. It is of that great experiment which is at the heart of all true religion, being the way of the soul's reintegration in God. I believe that the sacramentalism of the Christian scheme holds up the most perfect glass of reflection to the mystery of salvation, and in this sense that the Church contains a catholic scheme of the Mysteries; but I know after another manner though essentially it is the same manner-that there are Instituted Mysteries which are not of this fold, and that it is given unto man to find the hidden jewel of redemption in more than one Holy Place. As a mystic, and carrying as such in my heart an eirenicon for all the faiths, I can recite with the same sincerity as Mgr. Benson every line and phrase of the Pange, lingua, down even to those last words which he heard in his dream rising clear and high over the dissolution of the cosmic order-
Procedenti ab utroque
Compar sit laudatio.
I know also that a time comes when this world passes and the glory of it-though it is not in the sense pictured convention ally-and that the sacraments of the Church Mystic suffering, militant or triumphant-are of those things which emerge into the new order when the Mystery of God is declared to each soul of us, as that order comes down out of heaven. I say therefore, with the Welsh bards, that I despise no precious concealed Mysteries, wherever they subsist; but I have no part in those Wardens of the Gates who deny in their particular enthusiasm that things which are equal to the same are equal to one another, since those Wardens are blind. The Catholic scheme of Masonry in its root-understanding and in its upward growth from that root, as this will unfold in the Brotherhood with the help of those forces which are now at work in the world, is one at the root with the Church behind the Church, and will yet-as I hold-enter into one consciousness therewith.
ANTI-MASONIC CONGRESS AT TRENT
Immutable Dogmas.
Trent Findings.
varieties of Masonic Belief.
Roman Catholicism.
A Question of Consistency.
The Case Stated.
Arena of Debate.
Conclusion Drawn
ANTI-MASONIC CONGRESS AT TRENT, A great Council of the Latin Church was summoned to meet at Trent in 1545 for the condemnation of Lutheran and cognate heresies and for the further definition of Catholic and Roman faith at a time when the Christian world was rent by the conflict of doctrine. It issued at the end of its labours an ever-memorable Catechismus Concilii Tridentini, at the command of Pope Pius V. But the heresies continued to spread. In the year I896 there was held-also at Trent- an Anti-Masonic Congress under the aegis of the same Church, and in due course it issued a voluminous Report, based-by its hypothesis- entirely on books and "official acts" of the Masonic body itself. It found that the religious doctrines by which Freemasonry has been inspired are those of Nature-worship and that the various beliefs professed in public by Freemasons, though under many different names, might be summed up as Monism, Idealistic Pantheism, Materialism and Positivism. The connecting link between all was identification of the universe with God. The Report otherwise did little more than italicise the salient points of the Humanum Genus Encyclical. In answer to that Encyclical the GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND protested that Freemasonry in this country had no opinions political or religous.
Immutable Dogmas.. This statement notwithstanding, there remain its immutable dogmas, God and the immortality of the soul, and there is the fact that it is unlawful for anyone who denies these to be made a Mason. There is very little question possible that the personality of the Divine Nature is an inentable corollary from all MASONIC RITUALS, CONSTITUTIONS AND LANDMARKS. It is separated in English-speaking countries for this reason in the most distinct manner from the philosophical notions of Monism, as also from Materialism, Positivism and above all from Pantheism. At the same time I do not question that Masons here and there-without prejudice to their best intentions-will be liable to talk Pantheism through simple intellectual confusion, when discussing the relations between God and the universe; but so will as large a proportion of persons outside Masonry; and so also throughout the ages of the Church have its great mystical doctors appeared to do and have been charged therewith by enemies.
Trent Findings.. The lesson of the Trent findings is that the Catholic Church, with all its opportunities, misconceived the real issues in the year 1896 as it misconceives them now-in respect of Freemasory, and was then, as it still is, entirely in the dark as to the great body of mystical fraternities. The fact is stamped upon every line of papal encyclicals. Freemasonry at its manifold centres all the wide world over represents in its membership the constant flux of modern opinion upon all speculative subjects. At the period in question there is no doubt that it included in its ranks the shades of philosophical thought which corresponded to the findings of the Trent Congress. Most of them are dead now, like the persons who held them; but they have been replaced by others, for the most part also fashions of a day. As then, Masonry numbers now all classes of Spiritualists, disciples of Swedenborg, representatives of modern schools of occult thought and even convinced mystics, not to speak of every shade of opinion in churches and sects. If it is said that there are Mormons among Masons I know that it cannot be denied. In the days when there was a Protestant England it was in England a Protestant Institution, in the sense that the preponderating sentiments of its members was under the obedience of the Thirty-nine Articles or some other Reformation standard.
Varieties of Masonic Belief., At this day there is no preponderating religious sentiment, but a tacit agreement to abide informally by certain conventions on condition that they exact nothing outside the terms of those conventions; and thus the Church in England gives Grand Chaplains to Masonry in the same way that the Imperial Power or its delegates gives Prelates to the Church. Herein, as in other matters, it is among the signal ingenuities of modern social arrangement that the old offices and the old orders prevail on the condition that there is no authoritative construction of their importance. One is less or more on the side of the Churches as one is on that of order and culture; one is not especially on the side of the Bethels for the same reason that one shrinks from the egregious conventions and ineffable woodenness of Tracing Board Lectures, charged with the spirit of Dibdin and redolent of his literary method. But one must not " take sides " too seriously on such subjects, in case we magnify their importance. As to the ultimatc opinions of any person thereon-in or out of Masonry-they are under the obedience of predilection afloat on a sea of speculation, and the result is chaos magnum infirmatum. It follows that the findings of thc Trent Congress were meagre and insufficient. The varieties of religious belief are indefinitely more complex and manifold among Masons than its rulings show. For Rome it is of course out of question that the institution as such is heretical, being composed of heretics, but it seens scarcely worth while to call congresses to pronounce upon a matter which is beyond challenge and about which the opinion of the Latin Church is indifferent to those who are concerned. Were it not for the folly of that Church there would be many thousands of Roman Catholics in Englishspeaking countries under the banner of Masonry without detriment to their position in religion and with great possible benefit to Rome itself, for it would render yet more efficient the counterpoise of English Freemasonry to that of several continental countries, the Latin especially.
Roman Catholicism. It calls to be recognised, however, that behind the folly which I have mentioned there lies all that which belongs to the fundamental claim of Rome: it may be summed up in the arrogation to itself of the term Catholic, to the exclusion of all other Christian systems. The una sancta, catholica et apostolica ecclesia of the Nicene Creed, from the standpoint of Vatican Christianity, is the particular body of believers which is ruled from the Vatican centre. The Greek orthodoxy is in schism and is cut off from the Catholic communion; the Anglican Church is in heresy and is in the death of complete separation; the sects are-I suppose-if possible, in a deeper rut of rejection: it is Rome only which-established on the rock of Peter-publishes urbi et orbi its indefectible titles, as the faith once delivered to the saints, the one fold and the one shepherd. I know of course that on such height of exaltation she who "stands triumphant" by no means allows that she is composed of her body of believers: her spirit of grace and life comprises them, a form in which they are contained and to which they contribute nothing which itself is formative. This issue of high subtlety does but bring forth the claim more fully and construct it on a loftier platform.
A Question of Consistency.. An institution making claims like this within the body-general of Christendom can tolerate nothing in the common course of logic which seeks to co-exist therewith, and while independent thereof lays claim-intentionally or otherwise-on any shadow of its own prerogatives. An Order, for example, which calls itself a " system of _r orality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols " is judged by such a definition out of its own mouth. The Latin Church cx hypoXhesi is the sole custodian and the sole canon of criticism in respect of ethics and morality. Masonry would be condemned if it taught in public, but it teaches under a veil and exacts pledges of secrecy. It is no wonder therefore that it was suspect ab origine and that it had scarcely manifested on the Continent when Bulls went forth against it. The two institutions are incompatible one with another, and there seems no common ground on which it is possible for them to meet. Rome is a spiritual Kaiseriml which would be false to its own nature on the day that it renounced its mission to bnng all under its yoke, which yoke is labelled " the freedom of the Sons of God." All intellectual, all moral life, science and philosophy have been meant by God to wear it, and emancipation therefrom is a fact which can connote nothing but willing entrance into the bondage of Satan.
The Case Stated.. -Such is the position and I am seeking to define it only: its values are another question. It is idle therefore for Speculative Masonry and the cohort of the High Grades to protest and wonder at judgments pronounced. The sooner it is recognised that Rome and Masonry are placed in an inevitable competition the better, I think, for both: it is not beyond possibility that they might be then honourable enemies.
Arena of Debate. -Meanwhile-and takin~ things as they are- the follies on both sides are not short of preposterous. There is no ragfair of literature to compare with the books and periodicals put forward in the Roman interest on the subject of Masonry during the twentyfive years which preceded the Great War. The text-books of Robison and Barruel are full of light and leading in comparison, while Abbe Lefranc speaks with the authority of learning. I must recur to this subject in the consideration of Palladian Freemasonry, an imposition made possible only by the combined ignorance and imbecility of the Latin centres. But this is not to say that in the headquarters of Masonry there is any educated opinion of consequence on the relations between the Church and the Fraternity. The unholy rubbish which is met with from time to time in Masonic periodicals-those of America especially-is only a degree less stultifying than the Anti-Masonic gutter-press of the Continent until it was swamped by the War. I do not wish to be invidious, but the illiterate vapourings and ravings of writers like J. D. Buck-who has the plaudits of the Southern Jurisdiction per saecuZas e! aionas-is one case in point.
Conclusion Drawn. -to make an end for the time being, or until time and circumstances offer another opportunity, the Latin Church is justified from its own standpoint in denouncing all secret systems and schemes of moral or religious instruction under banners other than its own, on the understanding that its titles are valid only for those who belong to its obedience. Masonry, on the other hand, has a right to its own freedom, and the findings of Rome are to be judged largely by the literature which they have brought into existence.