ENCICLOPÉDIA DA MAÇONARIA E SUAS CIÊNCIAS
por ALBERT C. MACKEY M. D.

P

The sixteenth letter of the English and Greek alphabets, and the seventeenth of the Hebrew, in which last-mentioned language its numerical value is 80, is formed thus 9, signifying a mouth in the Phenician. The sacred name of God associated with this letter is in Hebrew , Phodeh or Redeemer.

PACHACAMAC

The Peruvian name for the Creator and Ruler of the universe.

PAEZ, JOSE ANTONIO

Founder of the Venezuelan Republic, was born of Indian parentage near Acarigua, June 13, 1790, prominent in the struggle for independence against Spain from 1810 to 1823 and in 1829 effected the secession of Venezuela from the Republic of Colombia and became its first president, 1830 to 1834, serving again in 1839 to 1843, dictator in 1846. Headed a revolution and was imprisoned but released in 1858 and in 1860 was Minister to the United States. General Paez was also first Grand Master of Venezuela and on May 1, 1840, he became the first Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, of his country. He died in New York, May 6, 1873. In 1925 the representative at Washington of the Venezuelan Department of State presented the sword of Brother Paez to General John J. Pershing, also a member of the Craft and Commander of the American Army during the World War.

PAGANIS, HUGO DE

The Latinized form of the name of Hugh de Payens, the first Grand Master of the Templars (see Payens).

PAGANISM

A general appellation for the religious worship of the whole human race, except of that portion which has embraced Christianity, Judaism, or Mohammedanism. Its interest to the Masonic student arises from the fact that its principal development was the ancient mythology, in whose traditions and mysteries are to be found many interesting analogies with the Masonic system (see Dispensations of Religion).

PAINE, THOMAS

A political writer of eminence during the Revolutionary War in America. He greatly injured his reputation by his attacks on the Christian religion. He was not a Freemason, but wrote An Essay on the Origin of Freemasonry, with no other knowledge of the Institution than that derived from the writings of Smith and Dodd, and the very questionable authority of Prichard’s Masonry Dissected. He sought to trace Freemasonry to the Celtic Druids. For one so little acquainted with his subject, he has treated it with considerable ingenuity. Paine was born in England in 1737, and died in New York, in 1809. Paine’s acquaintance with prominent Freemasons on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean has doubtless had much to do with the claim often made for his membership in the Craft.

A meeting with Brother Franklin in London obtained for him introductions to the leaders in the Colonies and he sailed there in 1774 where he became editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette. He published, 1776, Common Sense, an argument for a republic. Then he served on the staff of General Greene and wrote pamphlets entitled the Crisis, his opening words, “These are the times that try men’s souls” sounding powerfully then and later in days of turmoil.

In England after the war he was indicted for treason, escaping to France, and there narrowly escaped the guillotine, spending ten months in prison. Then he attacked Washington bitterly, came to the United States, but while his services to the country were gratefully remembered, his blunt discourtesy to the President and other old friends could not be forgotten. He was buried at New Rochelle, hut in 1819 William Cobbett took his body to England. Moncure D. Conway wrote a biography of him which says that the preface to his essay on Freemasonry was probably written by his devoted friend, Colonel John Fellows.

PALESTlNE

called also the Holy Land on account of the sacred character of the events that have occurred there, is situated on the coast of the Mediterranean, stretching from Lebanon south to the borders of Egypt, and from the thirty-fourth to the thirty-ninth degrees of longitude. It was conquered from the Canaanites by the Hebrews under Joshua 1450 years B.C. They divided it into twelve Confederate States according to the Tribes. Saul united it into one kingdom, and David enlarged its territories. In 975 B.C., it was divided into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judea, the latter consisting of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the former of the rest of the Tribes. About 740 B.C., both kingdoms were subdued by the Persians and Babylonians, and after the captivity only the two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin returned to rebuild the Temple. With Palestine, or the Holy Land, the mythical, if not the authentic, history of Freemasonry has been closely connected.

There stood, at one time, the Temple of Solomon, to which some writers have traced the origin of the Masonic Order; there fought the Crusaders, among whom other writers have sought, with equal boldness, to find the cradle of the Fraternity; there certainly the Order of the Templars was instituted, whose subsequent history has been closely mingled with that of Freemasonry; and there occurred nearly all the events of sacred history that, with the places where they were enacted, have been adopted as important Masonic symbols.

PALESTINE, EXPLORATlONS IN

The desire to obtain an accurate knowledge of the archeology of Palestine, gave rise in 1866 to an association, which was permanently organized in London, as the Palestine Ezploration Fund, with the Queen as the chief patron, and a long list of the nobility and the most distinguished gentlemen in the kingdom, added to which followed the Grand Lodge of England and forty-two subordinate and provincial Grand Lodges and Chapters- Early in the year 1867 the Committee began the work of examination, by mining in and about the various points which had been determined upon by a former survey as essential to a proper understanding of the ancient city, which had been covered up by debris from age to age, so that the present profiles of the ground, in every direction, were totally different from what they were in the days of David and Solomon, or even in the time of Christ- Lieutenant Charles Warren, R. E., as he then was, later Lieut.-General Sir Charles Warren, G.M.C.M, K.C.B, F.R.S., was sent out with authority to act as circumstances might demand, and as the delicacy and the importance of the enterprise required.

He arrived in Jerusalem February 17, 1867, and continued his labors of excavating in many parts of the city, with some interruptions, until 1871, when he returned to England. During his operations, he kept the Society in London constantly informed of the progress of the work in which he and his associates were so zealously engaged, in a majority of eases at the imminent risk of their lives and always that of their health.

The result of these labors has been a vast accumulation of facts in relation to the topography of the holy city which throw much light on its archaeology. A branch of the Society has been established in the United States of America, and continued in successful operation.

PALESTINE, KNIGHT OF

See Knight of Palestine

PALESTINE, KNIGHT OF SAINT JOHN OF

See Knight of Saint John of Palestine

PALESTINE, KNIGHTS OFSee Marconis, also Memphis, Rite of

PALESTINE, ORDER OF

Mentioned by Baron de Tschoudy, and said to have been the fountain whence the Chevalier Ramsay obtained the information for the regulation of his system.

PALLA

An altar-cloth, also a canopy borne over the head of royalty in Oriental lands.

PALLADIA ANDREA

Such reference books as are most often consuited in public libraries say little more about Andrea Palladio than that he was an Italian architect, of Venice, born in 1518, died in 1580, that he was one of the creators of the Italian, or neo-Classical style, that he wrote treatises on his art, and that he seas called “the modern Vitruvius.” That would be a pitiably weak description of Palladio in the eyes of any English Mason who had read The First & Chief; Grounds of Architecture, the first book printed in England on architecture, by John Shute, who had gone to Venice in the 1540’s and there for two or three years had studied “the glories of the new Italian architecture” at first hand; or after Inigo Jones, about 1600, came back to his King after a similar journey of study, and introduced the new style into England; for Palladio became a vast enthusiasm there, almost a cult, and hundreds of small clubs of amateur architects met to study the art of I this great modern Master, who in due time was to be Sir Christopher Wren’s guiding inspiration when after the London fire in 1666 he designed not only St. Paul’s but more than a hundred other buildings, a few of them in America.

That ferment of interest in the Italian, or, as it was popularly called, Classical style, may well have helped to prepare the way for the renaissance of Speculative Freemasonry, and Palladion as the original source of that interest.

Dr. James Anderson “wrote” the 1723 and 1738 editions of the Book of Constitutions for the Mother Grand Lodge of 1717 but it is impossible to discover who was responsible for the materials in either; perhaps many Brethren were; whoever it was he (or they) makes it clear in the 1738 edition that Freemasonry mas in the Craft’s mind, twenty-one years after the formation of Grand Lodge, still identified closely with architectures for he goes out of his way to remark that, “In the last Reign sundry of the 50 new Churches in the Suburbs of London were built in a fine Stile upon the Parliamentary Fund, particularly the b beautiful St. Mary be Strand.” The “fine stile” was the Palladian; and in another connection it is made clear that the Freemasons at the time not only did not guess that the old Operatives had been builders of Gothic, but even dismissed Gothic as a barbarous thing.

This enthusiasm for the art of Palladio extended even into the Lodges, a representative instance being given in the records of that remarkable Lodge, The Old Kings’ Arms Lodge, I’o. 28, which was warranted in 1725; in a Minute for August 1, 1737, it is recorded: “Passed that a part of the Palladio’s Architecture be read instead of the Laws or Constitutions.” In the Inventory of the same Lodge is an entry dated in 1737: ” 1st book of Palladio’s Architecture, in English”; in 1739: “Three remaining books of Palladio’s Architecture. ”

PALLADIC FREEMASONRY

The title given to the Order of the Seven Sages and the Order of the Palladium (see Palladium, Order of the).

PALLADIUM OF LADIES

See Companions of Penelope

PALLADIUM, ORDER OF THE

An androgynous society, both sexes, of Masonic adoption, established, says Ragon, at Paris in 1737. It made great pretensions to high antiquity, claiming that it had its origin in the instructions brought by Pythagoras from Egypt into Greece, and having fallen into decay after the decline of the Roman Empire, it was revived in 1637 by Fenelon, Archbishop of Canbray; all of which is altogether mythical. Fenelon was not born until 1651. It was a very moral society, consisting of two Degrees:

1. Adelph;

2. Companion of Ulysses.

When a female took the Second Degree, she was called a Companion of Penelope.

PALM AND SHELL, ORIENTAL ORDER OF THE

The object of the Masonic Holy Land League, in whose membership the Pilgrim Knights of the Palm and Shell were enrolled, was to encourage researches commenced in 1863 under the leadership of Brother Rob Morris in the Holy Land. These investigations into the traditions and practices of the ancient Craft in the East, were supported in 1867 by contributions amounting to $10,000 and an organization was effected of Master Masons. A ritual was prepared to include various signs, words and ceremonies, obtained by Doctor Morris from Eastern Freemasons.

The instruction was divided into the following parts: Preliminary, Covenanting, Drama, Means of Recognition, and a funeral ceremony for Pilgrim Knights. Rev. Henry R. Coleman, of Kentucky, became Supreme Chancellor of the Order and in 1906 he published at Louisville, for the Society, a guide to the ceremonies and lectures entitled the Pilgrim Knight. Among other items of interest he describes the formation of a Lodge, the Royal Solomon, at Jerusalem, conditionally promoted by Doctor Morris in 1868, but actually by a Warrant from the Grand Lodge of Canada, William Mercer Wilson, Grand Master, and attested by Thomas White, Jr., Deputy Grand Master, on February 17, 1873; the organizing meeting occurring in the quarries under Jerusalem on May 7, 1873.

Brother Coleman says: “Under this authority, a delegate went from the United States to Jerusalem and calling together a competent number of those named in the Warrant, and others, the Lodge was regularly and constitutionally organized and has had many years of prosperous existence up to the issuance of this volume.” The first Degree was conferred at the Mediterranean Hotel, afterwards a Lodge-room was established near the Joppa Gate.

PALMER

From the Latin word palmifer, meaning a palm-bearer. A name given in the time of the Crusades to a pilgrim, who, coming back from the holy war after having accomplished his vow of pilgrimage, exhibited upon his return home a branch of palm bound round his staff in token of it.

PALMER, HENRY L.

Born at Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania October 18, 1819, and died at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 7, 1909. Served as Representative and Senator in Wisconsin Legislature, was President of School Board, City Attorney, also County Judge of Probate for several years and resigned to become President of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee. Raised in Evening Star Lodge, No. 75, at West Troy, New York, in 1841, he affiliated with Tracy Lodge, now Wisconsin Lodge, No. 13, Milwaukee, in 1849, elected Worshipful Master in 1851, serving for four years, and was again chosen as Worshipful Master for 1865 and in 1867.

He officiated as Grand Master in 1852-3, and 1871-2. In 1846 he was exalted in Apollo Chapter, No. 48, at Troy, New York, and was a charter member of Wisconsin Chapter, No. 7, Royal Arch Masons, serving as High Priest for several years, and in 1858-9 was Grand High Priest of Wisconsin. Master of Wisconsin Council of Royal and Select Masters for some years, he was in 1863-4 Grand Master of the Grand Council. In Apollo Commandery, No. 15, at Troy, New York, he was knighted in 1847 and in 1850 assisted in organizing Wisconsin Commandery, No. 1, becoming Eminent Commander in 1853 and served nine successive years; then for seven successive years beginning with 1859 he was Grand Commander of Wisconsin: and at Columbus, Ohio, in September, 1865, he was elected and served for the constitutional term as Grand Master of the Grand Encampment. Receiving the Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in 1863, including the honorary thirty-third grade on August 3, at the introduction of the Rite into Wisconsin, he was on October 20, 1864, elected and crowned an Active Member of the Supreme Council of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction and in 1879 was chosen as the Most Puissant Sovereign Grand Commander, resigning shortly before his death, and was succeeded by Brother Samuel C. Lawrence.

PALSER PLATES

Thomas Palser, Surrey Side, Westminster Bridge, London, England, published a set of seven engravings, 1809-12, featuring Masonic ceremonies. These imitated a set issued in France, 1745.

PANTACLE

The pentalpha of Pythagoras is so called in the symbolism of High Magic and the Hermetic Philosophy (see Pentalpha).

PANTHEISM

A speculative system, which, spiritually considered, identifies the universe with God, and, in the material form, God with the universe. Material Pantheism is subject to the criticism, if not to the accusation of being atheistic. Pantheism is as aged as religion and was the system of worship in India, as it was in Greece. Giordano Brunc was burned for his pantheistic opinions at Rome in 1600.

PANTHEISTIC BROTHERHOOD

Described by John Toland, in his Pantheisticon, as having a strong resemblance to Freemasonry. The Soeratic Lodge in Germany, based on the Brotherhood, was of short duration.

PANTHEISTICON

See Toland, John

PAPWORTH MANUSCRIPT

A manuscript in the possession of Wyatt Papworth, of London, who purchased it from a bookseller of that city in 1860. As some of the watermarks of the paper on which it is written bear the initials G. R., with a crown as a watermark, it is evident that the manuscript cannot be older than 1714, that being the year in which the first of the Georges ascended the throne. It is most probably of a still more recent date, perhaps 1720.

The Rev. A. F. A. Woodford has thus described its appearance: “The scroll was written originally on pages of foolscap size, which were then joined into a continuous roll, and afterwards, probably for greater convenience, the pages were again separated by Cutting them, and it now forms a book, containing twenty-four folios, served together in a light-brown paper cover. The text is of a bold character, but written so irregularly that there are few consecutive pages which have the same number of lines, the average being about seventeen to the page.” The manuscript is not complete, three or four of the concluding charges being omitted, although some one has written, in a hand different from that of the text, the word Finis at the bottom of the last page. The manuscript appears to have been simply a copy, in a little less antiquated language, of some older Constitution. It has been published by Brother Hughan (1872) in his Old Charges of the British Free masons.

PAPYRUS

“The papyrus leaf,” says J. W. Simons, in his Egyptian Symbols, “is that plant Which formed tablets and books, and forms the first letter of the name of the only eternal and all-powerful god of Egypt, Amen, who in the beginning of things created the world,” whose name signified occult or hidden The Hebrew word, owe, which signifies a leaf, and to inscribe on tablets forms, olm, meaning the antique origin of things, obscure time, hidden eternity. The Turin Funeral Papyrus is a book published by Doctor lepsius in original character, but translated by Doctor Birch. This Book of the Dead is invaluable as containing the true philosophic belief of the Egyptians respecting the resurrection and immortality. The manuscript has been gathered from portions which it was obligatory to bury with the dead. The excavations of mummies in Egypt have been fruitful in furnishing the entire work.

PARACELSUS

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus de Hohenheim, as he styled himself, was born in Germany in 1493, and died in 1541. He devoted his youth to the study and practice of astrology, alchemy, and magic, and passed many years of his life in traveling over Europe and acquiring information in medicine, of which he proclaimed himself to be the monarch. Brother Mackey says that he was, perhaps, the most distinguished charlatan who ever made a figure in the world. Certainly his writings, those accredited to him, at least, show us a puzzling personality, superstitious yet methodical, crude in some respects but lucid of statements, a reformer in the rough. The followers of his school were called Paracelststs, and they continued for more than a century after the death of their master to influence the schools of Germany. Much of the Cabalistic and mystical science of Paracelsus was incorporated into Hermetic Freemasonry by the founders of the advanced Degrees.

PARACELSUS, SUBLIME

A Degree to be found in the manuscript collection of Peuvret.

PARAGUAY

A republic of South America. A Lodge authorized by the Grand Orient of Brazil was at work in 1881 at Paraguay. In 1893 the Grand Orient of Paraguay was founded and in 1923 it exercised control over ten Lodges. The Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was founded at Asuncion in 1870 and is quite separate and distinct from the Grand Orient.1 No more information about Masonic development in Paraguay is available. Indeed, Brother Oliver Days Street says in his Report on Correspondence made to the Grand Lodge of Alabama in 1922: “We haves sought in vain to get into communication with these Grand Bodies or with some of their leading members. We are consequently unable to give many particulars.”

PARALLEL LINES

In every well-regulated Lodge there is found a point within a circle, which circle is imboridered by two perpendicular parallel lines. These lines are representative of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, the two great patrons of Freemasonry to whom our Lodges are dedicated, and who are said to have been “perfect parallels in Christianity as well as Freemasonry” In those English Lodges which have adopted the Union System established by the Grand Lodge of England in 1813. and where the dedication is “to God ad his service,” the lines parallel represent Moses and Solomon. As a symbol, the parallel lines are not o be found in the earlier instructions of Freemasonry. Though Oliver defines the symbol on the authority of what he calls the Old Lectures, it is not to be found , any anterior to Preston, and even he only refers to ne parallelism of the two Saints John.

PARIKCHAI, AGROUCHADA

An occult scientific work of the Brahmans. According to a work my Louis Jacolliot, 1884, the Fakirs produced phelomena at will with superior intervention or else with shrewd charlatanism: processes that were Known to the Egyptians and Jewish Cabalists. The loetrines are those known to the Alexandrian school, no the Gauls, and as well to the Christians. In the division of the Cabala, the first treated of the History the Genesis or Creation, and taught the science of culture; the second, or Mereaba, of the History of he Chariot, and contained a treatise on theology. Here were three Degrees of initiation among the Brahmans:

1. According to selection, the candidate became L Grihasta, a Pourohita or Fakir, or in twenty years a Guru.

2. A Sannyassis or Cenobite and Vanaprasthas, find lived in the Temple.

3. A Sannyassis-Nirvany or Naked Cenobite.

Those of the third Degree were visible only once in five years, appearing in a column of light created by themselves, at midnight, and on a stand in the center of a great tank. Strange sounds and terrific shrieks ere heard as they were gazed upon as demigods, surrounded by thousands of Hindus. The government was by a Supreme Council of seventy Brahmans, over seventy years of age, selected from the Nirvany, and chosen to see enforced the Law of the Lotus. The Supreme Chief, or Brahmatna, was required to be saver eighty years of age, and was looked upon as Immortal by the populace. This Pontiff resided in Bn immense palace surrounded by twenty-one walls.

The primitive holy word composed of the three otters A. U. M., says Brother C. T. McClenachan, comprises the Vedic trinity, signifying Creation, Preservation, and Transformation, and symbolizes all the initiatory secrets of the occult sciences. By some it has been taught that the Honover, or primordial germ, as defined in the Avesta, existed before all else (also see Manou, Book xi, Sloca 265).

The following unexplained magical words were always inscribed in two triangles: L’om. L’rhomsh’hrum. Shorim. Ramaya- Nahama. He who possessed the word greater than the A. U. M. was deemed next to Brahma. The word was transmitted in a sealed box.

The Hindu triad, of which in later times Om is the mystic name, represents the union of the three gods, namely, a, Vishnu; u, Siva, m, Brahma. It may also be typical of the three Vedas. Om appears first in the Upanishads as a mystical monosyllable, and is thus set forth as the object of profound meditation. It is usually called pranava, more rarely aksharam. The Buddhists use Om at the beginning of their Vidya Shad-akshari or mystical formulary in six Syllables; namely, Om mani pad me hum (see Pitris Indische Mysterien, also 0m and Aum).

PARIS, CONGRESSES OF

Three important Masonic Congresses have been held in the city of Paris. The first was convened by the Rite of Philalethes in 1785, that by a concourse of intelligent Freemasons of all rites and countries, and by a comparison of oral and written traditions, light might be educed on the most essential subjects of Masonic science, and on the nature, origin, and historic application as well as the actual state of the Institution. Savalette de Lauges was elected President. It closed after a protracted session of three months, without producing any practical result. The second was called in 1787, as a continuation of the former, and closed with precisely the same negative result. The third was assembled in 1855, by Prince Murat, for the purpose of effecting various reforms in the Masonic system. At this Congress, ten propositions, some of them highly important, were introduced, and their adoption recommended to the Grand Lodges of the world. But the influence of this Congress has not been more successful than that of its predecessors.

PARIS CONSTITUTIONS

A copy of these Constitutions, said to have been adopted in the thirteenth century, will be found in G. P. Depping’s Collection de Documents inédits sur l’Histoire de France (Paris, 1837). A part of this work contains the Réglements sur les arts et métiers de Paris, rédiges au 13me siéclge et connus sous le nom de livre des métiers d’Etienne Boileau. This is a book of the trades and their regulations, and treats of the masons, stonecutters, plasterers, and mortar-makers, and, as Steinbrenner (Origin and History of Masonry, page 104) says, “is interesting, not only as exhibiting the peculiar usages and customs of the Craft at that early period, but as showing the connection which existed between the laws and regulations of the French Masons and those of the Steinmetzen of Germany and the Masons of England.”

A translation of the Paris Constitutions was published in the Freemasons Magazine (Boston, 1863, page 201). In the year 1743, the “English Grand Lodge of France” published, in Paris, a series of Statutes, taken principally from Anderson’s work of the editions of 1723 and 1738. It consisted of twenty articles, and bore the title of General Regulations taken from the Minutes of the Lodges, for the use of the French Lodges, together with the alterations adopted at the General Assembly of the Grand Lodge, December 1I, 1745, to serve as a rule of action for the said kingdom. A copy Of this document, says Findel, was translated into German, with annotations, and published in 1856 in the Zeitschrift Jur Freimaurer of Altenberg.

PARLIAMENTARY LAW

Parliamentary Law, or the Lex Parliamentaria, is that code originally framed for the government of the Parliament of Great Britain in the transaction of its business, and subsequently adopted, with necessary modifications, by the Congress of the United States. But what was found requisite for the regulation of public bodies, that order might be secured and the rights of all be respected, has been found equally necessary in private societies. Indeed, no association of men could meet together for the discussion of any subject, with the slightest probability of ever coming to a conclusion, unless its debates were regulated by certain and acknowledged rules.

The rules thus adopted for its government are called its parliamentary law, and they are selected from the parliamentary law of the national assembly, because that code has been instituted by the wisdom of past ages, and modified and perfected by the experience of subsequent ones, so that it is now universally acknowledged that there is no better system of government for deliberative societies than the code which has so long been in operation under the name of parliamentary law.

Not only, then, is a thorough knowledge of parliamentary law necessary for the presiding officer of a Masonic Body, if he would discharge the duties of the chair with credit to himself and comfort to the members, but he must be possessed of the additional information as to what parts of that law are applicable to Freemasonry, and what parts are not; as to where and when he must refer to it for the decision of a question, and where and when he must lay it aside, and rely for his government upon the organic law and the ancient usages of the Institution (see Doctor Mackey’s revised Jurisprudence of Freemasonry).

PARLIAMENTARY LAW

Masonic Parliamentary Law is the body of usages, rules, and regulations according to which a Lodge is governed in its Opening and Closing, in establishing a Quorum, in conducting the Order of Business, in trials, etc. Very few Grand Bodies have codified their Parliamentary Law or published it separately; the usages and rules are embedded here and there in the Landmarks, in Grand Lodge Constitutions, in the Statutes and General Laws, in decisions and edicts, in printed rules, and in Lodge By-Laws; the key to finding any given Parliamentary Law is in the subject about which a question has been raised. Each Grand Jurisdiction has its own custom and its own written rules; these usually differ in detail from those of other Grand Jurisdictions but in its principles and its fundamental rules Masonic Parliamentary Law everywhere is the same, and the foundations of it were laid at the beginning of the Fraternity so that much of it is time immemorial.

The Congress of the United States has its own parliamentary code; with some modifications the same code is used by state Legislatures, and it is the model for parliamentary rules in use by voluntary associations, societies, clubs, churches, and by schools. These rules are printed in Robert’s Rules of Order and in Cushing’s Manual, both of which are by common consent accepted as authoritative not only by associations every where in America, but by the civil courts; an association need not follow either, but if it does its procedure is sure to be approved by the courts.

It so happens, however, that neither of these manuals can be used by a Masonic body. The Masonic Parliamentary Code is what codifiers describe as a tertium organon, a “third method”—that is to say, one apart from the codes used in other societies or in legislatures and parliaments, one which is acceptable to civil courts and vet differs in both fundamental principles and details of practices from the codes edited by either Roberts or Cushing. Freemasonry writes its own code.

This is because a Lodge differs in the fundamentals of organization from other associations and societies, and especially from those loose and informal groups which are called clubs. In the structure of its organization a Lodge (or Chapter, Council, or Commandery, or Consistory) is unique, therefore its parliamentary code is unique. Two of those fundamentals (there are others) exhibit both the nature and the extent of that difference:

1. In the great majority of societies and associations the head or chief officer is caned president or chairman. Little or no sovereignty inheres in his office; his principal duty is to preside. Usually he has no function except to see that the group’s affairs are conducted according to an approved routine and he himself is not answerable for what the group may do. By contrast the principal officer of a Masonic Lodge is not a presiding officer only but within fixed limits is a sovereign; he is given the title of Worshipful Master because he is a master. If an action taken by his Lodge is brought into question by the Grand Master or by the Grand Lodge he, at least in the first instance is answerable and responsible. Manifestly the parliamentary rules which apply to a mere presiding officer could not apply to a Worshipful Master.

2. Again, in the majority of societies and associations the members retain the right to say for themselves what their society is, what it is in existence to do, what its purposes are—it may begin, as did Tammany Hall, as a patriotic fraternity and end up as a political machine; or it may begin as a card club and end up as a country club. These transmogrifications among voluntary groups are the rule rather than the exception. But in a Masonic Lodge no member or group of members can either discuss or vote for an innovation in the Landmarks: they cannot add to or subtract from Masonic purposes; they cannot alter the time immemorial usages; uJ1uzt Freemasonry is not subject to debate, not even in the Grand Communication of a Grand Lodge. A member who might wish Freemasonry to be other than it is, can have no alternatives save to accept it or to leave it. It is obvious that parliamentary practices suitable for a voluntary society cannot apply to Freemasonry.

The most comprehensive treatise on the subject is Parliamentary Law, by Albert G. Mackey. Portions of Masonic practice are given in Worshipful Master’s Assistant, by Robert Macoy. For an epitome of the Masonic code see chapter in Lodge Methods, by L. B. Blakemore. J. T. Lawrence’s work on the subject is excellent, but is written for prentices in England. Grand Lodges often include parliamentary rules in their printed Monitors. Since each Grand Body enacts its own rules for its own uses books, articles, and essays are confined to discussions of general principles; the most practicable handbook for a Lodge officer is his Grand Lodge Code. For Masonic students the richest store of materials is in Grand Lodge Proceedings, especially in the Fraternal (or Foreign) Correspondence Reports; among these latter the most notable are the Reports written for the Grand Lodge of Maine by Judge Josiah a Drummond between 1865 and 1900. For parliamentary subjects in detail consult the Index of this Encyclopedia.

PARLIRER

In the Lodges of Stone-Masons of the Middle Ages, there was a rank or class of workmen called Parlirers, literally, spokesmen. They were an intermediate class of officers between the Masters of the Lodges and the Fellows, and were probably about the same as our modern Wardens. Thus, in the Strasbourg Constitutions of 1459, it is said: “No Craftsman or Mason shall promote one of his apprentices as a parlirer whom he has taken as an apprentice from his rough state, or who is still in the years of apprenticeship,” which may be compared with the old English Charge that “no Brother can be a Warden until he has passed the part of a Fellow Craft” (Constitutions, 1723, page 52). They were called Parlirers, properly, says Heldmann, Parlierers, or Spokesmen, because, in the absence of the Masters, they spoke for the Lodge, to traveling Fellows seeking employment, and made the examination.

There are various forms of the word. Kloss, citing the Strasbourg Constitutions, has Parlirer, Krause has, from the same document, Parlierer, but says it is usually Polier; Heldmann uses Parlierer, which has been generally adopted.

PAROLE

The French for Word and here applied to the Mot de Sexsestre, which see, and in that language this means a six-months password, communicated by the Grand Orient of France, and in addition to an Annual Word in November, which tends to show at once whether a member is in good standing.

PARROT MASONS

One who commits to memory the questions and answers of the catechetical lectures, and the formulas of the ritual, but pays no attention to the history and philosophy of the Institution, is commonly called a Parrot Mason, because he is supposed to repeat what he has learned without any conception of its true meaning. In former times, such superficial Freemasons were held by many in high repute, because of the facility with which they passed through the ceremonies of a reception, and they were generally designated as Bright Masons. But the progress of Freemasonry as a science now requires something more than a mere knowledge of the lectures to constitute a Masonic scholar.

PARSEES

The descendants of the original fire worshipers of Persia, or the disciples of Zoroaster who emigrated to India about the end of the eighth century. There they now constitute a very large and influential body of industrious and moral citizens adhering with great tenacity to the principles and practices of their ancient religion. Many of the higher classes have become worthy members of the Masonic fraternity, and it was for their sake principally that Doctor Burnes attempted some years ago to institute his new Order, entitled the Brotherhood of the Olive Branch, as a substitute for the Christian Degrees of Knighthood, from which, by reason of their religious they were excluded (see Olive-Branch in the East, Brotherhood of the, and Zendauesta).

PARTICULAR LODGES

In the Regulations of 1721, it is said that the Grand Lodge consists of the representatives of all the particular Lodges on record (Constitutions, 1723, page 61). In the modern Constitutions of England, the term used is Private Lodges. In Armeria, they are called Subordinate Lodges.

PARTS

In the old obligations, which may be still used in some portions of the United States, there was provision which forbade the revelation of any of the arts, parts, or points of Freemasonry. Doctor Oliver explains the meaning of the word parts by telling us that it was “an old word for degrees or lectures” (see Points).

PARVIN, NEWTON RAY

Brother Parvin was born at Muscatine, Iowa, July 5, 1851. In 1872 he entered the office of the Grand Secretary, where he remained as a clerk and Deputy until the death of his father, Theodore Sutton Parvin, in 1901. He was then elected Grand Secretary, in which office he served until his death. He was made a Master Mason in Iowa City Lodge No. 4, May 5, 1874. He was exalted in Iowa City Chapter No. 2, June 18, 1877, and received the Orders of the Temple in Palestine Commandery No. 2, Iowa City, June 28, 1878, and served all Bodies as Secretary or Recorded for several terms.

After his removal to Cedar Rapids in 1885, he transferred his Chapter and Commandery membership to Trowel Chapter No. 49, and Apollo Commandery No. 26, serving as Eminent Commander in 1896. His father was Grand Recorder of the Grand Encampment, Knights Templar of the United States, for some twelve years, during which time he assisted him. He received the Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite just before the removal of the Library to Cedar Rapids, by order of Albert Pike, Sovereign Grand Commander, that he might become custodian of important papers relating to this Rite, and was appointed a Knight Commander, Court of Honor, October 20th, 1886. He was nominated by the Grand Commander and elected to receive the Thirty-Third Degree, and he was crowned by his father, for the Supreme Council, May 17, 1895. Brother Parvin was a founder of the National Masonic Research Society, of which he was a Steward and First Vice-President. Brother Parvin died January 16, 1925. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and funeral services were held January 20, in charge of the Grand Lodge.

PARVIN, THEODORE S.

Born January 15, 1817, in Cumberland County, New Jersey. His journey in life gradually tending westward, he located in Ohio, and graduated in 1837 at the Cincinnati Law School- He was appointed private secretary by Robert Lucas, first Governor of Iowa, in which State he became Judge of the Probate Court and afterward Curator and Librarian of the State University at Iowa City. Brother Parvin was initiated in Nova Cesarea Lodge, No- 2, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 14, 1838, and raised the 9th of the May following, and he same year dimitted and removed to Iowa. He participated tn the organization of the first Lodge, Des Moines, No. 1, and also of the second, Iowa Lodge, No. 9, at Muscatine. He was elected Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge at its organization in 1844, and held the office continuously to the time of his death, with the exception of the year 1852-3, when he served as Grand Master. He founded and organized the Grand Lodge Library and held the office of Grand Librarian until his death. His official signature is on every Charter of the Grand Lodge of towa from 1844 – 1900.

Brother Parvin was exalted in Iowa City Chapter, No. 2, January 7, 1845, and held the offices of Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter, 1854, and Grand Secretary of the Grand Chapter, 1855-6, and represented the Grand Chapter in the General Grand Chapter for many years. He was created a Royal elect Master in Dubuque Council, No. 3, September 7, 1847, and presided over the Convention organizing the Grand Council of Iowa, 1857. Knighted January 18, 1855, in Apollo Encampment, No. 1, Chicago, Illinois, he was a member of the Convention organizing the Grand Commandery of Iowa, 186A, being the first Grand Commander. He was Grand Recorder of the Grand encampment of Knights Templar of the United States for fifteen years, 1871-86. In 1859 he received the Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and was crowned in that year an Inspector-General, Thirty third Degree.

In addition to this record, our Brother also organized the Grand Bodies of Dakota, and the Grand Commandery of Nebraska, and his contributions to Masonic literature placed him among the leading writers and thinkers of the Craft. He died at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June 28, 1901.

PARVIS

In the French system, the room immediately adjoining a Masonic Lodge is so called. It is equivalent to the Preparation Room of the American and English systems.

PASCHAL FEAST

Celebrated by the Jews in commemoration of the Passover, by the Christians in commemoration of the resurrection of our Lord. The Paschal Feast, called also the Mystic Banquet, is kept by all Princes of the Rose Croix. Where two are together on Maundy Thursday, it is of obligation that they should partake of a portion of roasted lamb. This banquet is symbolic of the doctrine of the resurrection.

PASCHALIS, MARTINEZ

The founder of a new Rite or modification of Freemasonry, called by hun the Rite of Elected Cohens or Priests. It was divided into two classes, in the first of which was represented the fall of man from virtue and happiness, and in the second, his final restoration. It consisted of nine degrees, namely:

1. Apprentice

2. Fellow Craft

3. Master

4. Grand Elect

5. Apprentice Cohen

6. Fellow Craft Cohen

7. Master Cohen

8. Grand Architect

9. Knight Commander

Paschalis first introduced this Rite into some of the Lodges of Marseilles, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, and afterward, in 1767, he extended it to Paris, where, for a short time, it was rather popular, ranking some of the Parisian literati among its disciples. It has ceased to exist. Paschalis was a German, born about the year 1700, of poor but respectable parentage. At the age of sixteen he acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin. He then traveled through Turkey, Arabia, and Palestine, where he made himself acquainted with the Cabalistic learning of the Jews. He subsequently repaired to Paris, where he established his Rite.

Paschalis was the Master of Saint Martin, who afterward reformed his Rite. After living for some years at Paris, he went to Santo Domingo, where he died in 1779. Thory, in his Histoire de la Fondation du Grand Orient de France has given very full details of this Rite and of its receptions (see Saint Martin).

PASCHAL LAMB

See Larch, Paschal

PAS PERDUS

The French call the room appropriated to visitors the Salle des pas perdus, literally the Hall of the Lost Steps, a Masonic waiting room. It is the same as the Tiler’s Room in the English and American Lodges.

PASSAGE

The Fourth Degree of the Fessler Rite, of which Patria forms the Fifth.

PASSAGES OF THE JORDAN

See Fords of the Jordan

PASSED

A candidate, on receiving the Second Degree, is said to be “passed as a Fellow Craft.” It alludes to his having passed through the porch to the Middle Chamber of the Temple, the place in which Fellow-Crafts received their wages. In America, Crafted is often improperly used in its stead (see also Past, and Past Masters).

PASSING OF CONYNG

That is, surpassing in skill. The expression occurs in the Cooke Manuscript (line 676), “The forsayde Maister Euglet ordeynet thei were passing of conyng should be passing honored”; that, The aforesaid Master, Euclid, ordained that they that were surpassing in skill should be exceedingly honored. It is a fundamental principle of Freemasonry to pay all honor to knowledge.

PASSING THE RIVER

A mystical alphabet said to have been used by the Cabalists. These characters, with certain explanations, become the subject of consideration with Brethren of the Fifteenth Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The accompanying are the characters.

PASSWORD

A word intended, like the military countersign, to prove the friendly nature of him who gives it, and is a test of his right to pass or be admitted into a certain place. Between a Word and a Password there seems fo be this difference: the former is given for instruction, as it always contains a symbolic meaning; the latter, for recognition only. Thus, the author of the life of the celebrated Elias Ashmole says, “Freemasons are known to one another all over the world by certain passwords known to them alone; they have Lodges in different countries, where they are relieved by the brotherhood if they are in distress” (see Sign).

PAST

An epithet applied in Freemasonry to an officer who has held an office for the prescribed period for which he was elected, and has then retired. Thus, a Past Master is one who has been elected and installed to preside for twelve months over a Lodge, and the Past High Priest one who, for the same period, has been installed to preside over a Chapter. The French use the word Passe in the same sense, but they have also the word Anaen, with a similar meaning. Thus, while they would employ Al altre passe to designate the Degree of Past Master, they would call the official Past Master, who had retired from the chair at the expiration of his term of service, an Ancient Venerable, or Ancient Maitre (note also Passed and Past Master).

PAST MASTER

An honorary Degree usually conferred on the Master of a Lodge at his installation into office. In this Degree the necessary instructions are conferred respecting the various ceremonies of the Order, such as installations, processions, the laying of corner-stones, etc. When a Brother, who has never before presided, has been elected the Master of a Lodge, an emergent Lodge of Past Masters, consisting of not less than three, is convened, and all but Past Masters retiring, the Degree is conferred upon the newly elected officer..

Some form of ceremony at the installation of a new Master seems to have been adopted at an early period after the revival. In the “manner of constituting a new Lodge,” as practiced by the Duke of Wharton, who was Grand Master in 1723, the language used by the Grand Master when placing the candidate in the chair is given, and he is said to use “some other expressions that are proper and usual on that occasion, but not proper to be written” (Constitutions, 1738, page 150). Whence we conclude that there was an esoteric ceremony. Often the rituals tell us that this ceremony consisted only in the outgoing Master communicating certain modes of recognition to his successor. And this actually, even at this day, constitutes the essential ingredient of the Past Master’s Degree.

The Degree is in the United States also conferred in Royal Arch Chapters, where it succeeds the Marl; Master’s Degree. The conferring of this Degree, which has no historical connection with the rest of the Degrees, in a Chapter, arises from the following circumstance: Originally, when Chapters of Royal Arch Masonry were under the government of Lodges in which the Degree was then always conferred, it was a part of the regulations that no one could receive the Royal Arch Degree unless he had previously presided in the Lodge as Master.

When the Chapters became independent, the regulation could not be abolished, for that would have been an innovation; the difficulty has, therefore been obviated, by malting ever) candidate for the Degree of Royal Arch a Virtual Past Master before his exaltation. Under the English Constitution this practice was forbidden in 1826, but seems to have lingered on in some parts until 1850. “The dis-use of the Virtual Past Master’s Degree or Chair Degree in the British Isles has in no way interfered with its continued use in the United States, especially in the older Jurisdictions whose Freemasonry attests its Ancient origin (see the footnote on page 145, volume BViii, 1915, Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, by Brother W. J. Chetwode Crawley).

Some extraneous ceremonies, but no means creditable to their inventor, were at an early period introduced into America. In 1856, the General Grand Chapter, by a unanimous vote, ordered these ceremonies to be discontinued, and the simpler mode of investiture to be used; but the order has only been partially obeyed, and many Chapters continue what one can scarcely help calling the indecorous form of initiation into the Degree.

For several years past the question has been agitated in some of the Grand Lodges of the United States, whether this Degree is within the Jurisdiction of Symbolic or of Royal Arch Masonry. The explanation of its introduction into Chapters, just given, manifestly demonstrates that the jurisdiction over it by Chapters is altogether an assumed one. The Past Master of a Chapter is only a quasi or seeming Past Master; the true and legitimate Past Master is the one who has presided over a Symbolic Lodge.

Brother R. F. Gould (Masonic Monthly, July, 1882) says in regard to the Degrees of Past Master and the Royal Arch, “The supposition has much to recommend it, that the connection of the secrets of the Royal Arch, is the earliest form in which any esoteric teaching was specially linked with the incidents of Lodge Mastership, or in other words, that the Degree of Royal Arch was the complement of the Masters Grade. Out of this was ultimately evolved the Degree of Installed Master, a ceremony unknown in the Modern System until the first decade of the nineteenth century, and of which I can trace no sign amongst the Ancient until the growing practice of conferring the Arch upon Brethren not legally qualified to receive it, brought about the constructive passing through the Chair, which by qualifying candidates not otherwise eligible, naturally entailed the introduction of a ceremony, additional to the simple forms known to Payne, Anderson, and Desaguliers ”

Past Masters are admitted to membership in many Grand Lodges, and by some the inherent right has been claimed to sit in those Bodies. But the most eminent Masonic authorities have made a contrary decision, and the general, and, indeed, almost universal opinion now is that Past Masters obtain their seats in Grand Lodges by courtesy, and in consequence of local regulations, and not by inherent right.

A subtle distinction may be noted between the expressions Past and Pass’d Master. “The distinction in sense that had originally lain between Past Master and virtual Pass’d Master could make no headway against the similarity in sound. The Past Master was the Brother who ‘had served his just and lawful time’ as W. M. of a Lodge, and had thereby qualified for the completion of Master Degree. The Passed Master was a Brother who had been passed through a so-called Chair Degree, and had thereby been entrusted with certain equivalent secrets. The epithet Past is an adjective, conveying the idea of time expired: the epithet Pass’d is a participle conveying the idea of motion completed. Such verbal niceties did not trouble the Brethren of the eighteenth, or any other century” (footnote, page 144, volume xxviu, 1915, Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, by Brother W. J. Chetwode Crawley).

The usual jewel of a Past Master in the United States is a pair of compasses extended to sixty degrees on the fourth part of a circle, with a sun in the center. In England it was formerly the square on a quadrant, but is at present the square with the forty-seventh problem of Euclid engraved on a silver plate suspended within it. This latter design is also adopted m Pennsylvania. The French have two titles to express this Degree. They apply Maztre Passe to the Past Master of the English and American system, and they call in their own system one who has formerly presided over a Lodge an Ancien Maitre. The indiscriminate use of these titles sometimes leads to confusion in the translation of their lectures and treatises.

PAST MASTER, JOINING

Any Past Master upon joining another Lodge in England becomes a Past Master in the Lodge he joins. He ranks immediately after the then Immediate Past Master and in later lists of the Past Masters his name is placed before that of the Worshipful Master presiding in the East when he affiliates.

PASTOPHORI

Couch or shrine bearers. The company of Pastophori constituted a sacred college of priests in Egypt, whose duty it was to carry in processions the image of the god. Their chief, according to Apuleius (Metamorphoses xi), was called a Scribe. Besides acting as mendicants in soliciting charitable donations from the populace, they took an important part in the Mysteries.

PASTOS

The Greek word, meaning a couch. The pastos was a chest or close cell, in the Pagan Mysteries, among the Druids, an excavated stone, in which the aspirant was for some time placed, to commemorate the mystical death of the god. This constituted the symbolic death which was common to all the mysteries. In the Arkite Rites, the pastos represented the ark in which Noah was confined. It is represented among Masonic symbols by the coffin (see Coffin)..

PATENTS

Diplomas or Certificates of the advanced Degrees in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite are called Patents. The term is also sometimes applied to Commissions granted for the exercise of high Masonic authority. Literae patented was aperture that is, letters patent or open letters, was a term used in the Middle Ages in contradistinction to literae clausae, or closed letters, to designate those documents which were spread out on the whole length of the parchment, and sealed with the public seal of the sovereign; while the secret or private seal only was attached to the closed patents. The former were sealed with green wax, the latter with white. There was also a difference in their heading; letters patent were directed “universis tum praesentibus quam futuris,” that is, to ad present or to come; while closed letters were directed “universis praesentibus literas inspecturis,” that is, to all present who shad inspect these letters. Masonic Diplomas are therefore properly called Letters Patent, or, more briefly, Patents.

PATIENCE

In the instructions of the Third Degree according to the American Rite, it has been said that “time, patience, and perseverance will enable us to accomplish all things, and perhaps at last to find the true Master’s Word.” The idea is similar to one expressed by the Hermetic philosophers. Thus Pernetty tells us (Dictionary of Hermetic Mythology), that the alchemists said: “The work of the philosopher’s stone is a work of patience, on account of the length of time and of labor that is required to conduct it to perfection; and Geber says that many adepts have abandoned it in weariness, and others, wishing to precipitate it, have never succeeded.” With the alchemists, in their esoteric teaching, the philosopher’s stone had the same symbolism as the Word has in Freemasonry.

PATRIARCHAL FREEMASONRY

The theory of Doctor Oliver on this subject has, we think, been misinterpreted. He does not maintain, as has been falsely supposed, that the Freemasonry of the present day is but a continuation of that which was practiced by the Patriarchs, but simply that, in the simplicity of the patriarchal worship, unencumbered as it was with dogmatic creeds, we may find the true model after which the religious system of Speculative Freemasonry has been constructed. Thus (in his Historical Landmarks I, page 207) he says: “Nor does it, Freemasonry, exclude a survey of the patriarchal mode of devotion, which indeed forms the primitive model of Freemasonry. The events that occurred in these ages of simplicity of manners and purity of faith, when it pleased God to communicate with his favored creature, necessarily, therefore, form subjects of interesting illustration in our Lodges, and constitute legitimate topics on which the Master in the chair may expatiate and exemplify, for the edification of the Brethren and their improvement in morality and the love and fear of God.” There is here no attempt to trace a historical connection, but simply to claim an identity of purpose and character in the two religious systems, the Patriarchal and the Masonic.

PATRIARCH, GRAND

The Twentieth Degree of the Council of Emperors of the East and West. The same as the Twentieth Degree, or Noachite, of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

PATRIARCH OF THE CRUSADES

One of the names formerly given to the degree of Grand Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew, the Twenty-ninth of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The legend of that Degree connects it with the Crusades, and hence the name; which, however, is never used officially, and is retained by regular Supreme Councils only as a synonym.

PATRIARCH OF THE GRAND LUMINARY

A Degree contained An the nomenclature of Le Page

PATRON

In the year 1812, the Prince of Wales, becoming Regent of the Kingdom, was constrained by reasons of state to resign the Grand Mastership of England, but immediately afterward accepted the title of Grand Patron of the Order in England, and this was the first time that the title was officially recognized.

George IV held it during his life, and on his death, William IV, in 1830, officially accepted the title of Patron of the United Grand Lodge. On the accession of Queen Victoria, the title fell into abeyance, because it was understood that it could only be assumed by a sovereign who was a member of the Craft, but King Edward VII became Protector of English Freemasons on his accession to the throne in 1901. The office is generally not known in other countries, though on the Continent similar positions have been occupied (see Protector).

PATRONS OF FREEMASONRY

Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist. At an early period we find that the Christian church adopted the usage of selecting for every trade and occupation its own patron saint, who is supposed to have taken it under his especial charge. The selection was generally made in reference to some circumstance in the life of the saint, which traditionally connected him with the profession of which he was appointed the patron. Thus Saint Crispin, because he was a shoemaker, is the patron saint of the Gentle Craft, and Saint Dunstan, who was a blacksmith, is the patron of blacksmiths. The reason why the two Saints John were selected as the patron saints of Freemasonry will be seen under the head of Dedication of Lodges.

PAUL, CONFRATERNITY OF SAINT

In the time of the Emperor Charles V there was a secret community at Trapani, in Sicily, which called itself La Confraternita di San Paolo. These people, when assembled, passed sentence on their fellow-citizens; and if anyone was condemned, the waylaying and putting him to death was allotted to one of the members, which office he was obliged, without murmuring, to execute (Stolberg’s Travels, volume iii, page 472). In the travels of Brocquire to and from Palestine in 1432, page 328, an instance is given of the power of the association over its members. In the German romance of Hermunn of Unna, of which there are an English and French translation, this tribunal plays an important part.

PAUL I

This Emperor of Russia was induced by the machinations of the Jesuits, whom he had recalled from banishment, to prohibit in his domains all secret societies, and especially the Freemasons. This prohibition lasted from 1797-1803, when it was repealed by his successor. Paul had always expressed himself an enthusiastic admirer of the Knights of Malta; in 1797 he had assumed the title of Protector of the Order, and in 1798 accepted the Grand Mastership. This is another evidence, if one was needed, that there was no sympathy between the Order of Malta and the Freemasons.

Dr. Ernest Friedrichs’ Die Freimaurerei in Russland und Polen, Freemasonry in Russia and Poland 1907, has an interesting account of Masonic conditions under Paul I of Russia, who reigned from 1796 to 1801. He tells us that Catherine’s son, Paul I, was himself a Freemason. It is said that he was introduced to Freemasonry during a journey which he made through Europe, when he was still the Czare witch, in company of his wife, and of Prince Kurakin who was a most devoted son of Freemasonry. Was it not natural then that the Association which had been outlawed and banished by his mother should look forward to being reinstalled and rehabilitated?

And this expectation seemed as though it were perfectly justified, for immediately after his coronation Paul summoned to Moscow the Freemasons of that city, with Professor Matthai, the Master in the Chair of the former Lodge To the Three Swords at their head, and took counsel with them “in a brotherly spirit and without ceremony” as to what should be done. At the conclusion of the negotiations “he embraced each single one as a Freemason and gave him the Masonic shake of the hands.

” This promised very well, and that “a Committee was now appointed to examine the documents, to collect the ruins of Freemasonry and to organize the whole,” was but logical. After so much recognition and so much encouragement on the part of the sovereign, followed in 1797—the prohibition of Freemasonry, which “was carried out with great strictness.” This sudden change in his manner of looking at things and in his attitude to Freemasonry would cause surprise in a man of ordinary capacity, but Paul was mentally deranged, and it was just his acting by fits and starts that was characteristic of his disease. But does such an explanation clear up everything? No, for Paul was not so ill as to be unable to grasp what would be the consequences of his action. On the contrary, as soon as it was a question of an advantage for his own person, or something that added to his lustre, he was suddenly quite normal in the choice of his means. This change of attitude was, therefore, perhaps, preceded by well-weighed considerations; nay, we may add that they were considerations with a real genuine background.

It was about this time that the Knights of Malta who were hard-pressed by Napoleon Bonaparte turned to the Czar Paul for protection. According to the information conveyed to Paul by Count Litter, a Knight of Malta, Freemasonry was a hindrance and even a danger to the aims of this Order. He was, therefore, obliged to decide in favor of the one or the other. The Maltese Order was something definite; it was a power, whereas Freemasonry was really nothing, or at any rate something altogether indefinite which might perhaps have a future, but perhaps it might not. Could Paul find the choic