IV
Christian by Degrees
With a Foreward by
St. Thomas Aquinas, Pange lingua gloriosi.
Archbishop William Temple, Personal Religion and the Life of Fellowship
Allegorizers and symbolists can find anything in everything if
they try hard enough, and Freemasonry provides a happy
hunting ground for their efforts. On the assumption that
three of anything symbolizes the Holy Trinity, Masonic mystics have
produced an impressive series of triads in their workings to
prove how Christian they are, on the analogy that a tricycle is a
more Trinitarian means of transport than a car or bicycle and
therefore more acceptable to God. There is the trinity of the
Master of the Lodge and his two Wardens. There are three
Greater LIghts and three lesser, three degrees, three rosettes on
the apron, three "regular steps", even three assassins in the third
degree. An enterprising Mason by the name of C.E. Ferry
once compiled a list of seventy such triads from the ritual to
demonstrate the Trinitarian orthodoxy of the Fraternity. [1]
But of course the Hindu could ponder this list with an equal
satisfaction.
Crosses, too, are in plentiful supply. The poinard which is
applied to the naked left breast of the Candiate on his entry to
1. This manuscript, call The Triad, is in the library of Lodge
Quatuor Coronati.
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Another fruitful source of allegory is the comparison between
the stages of Masonic advancement and the sacraments of the
Church. Thus initiation represents Baptism; passing to the
second degree, confirmation ; raising to the third degree,
Communion with the Crucified Lord ; installation to the Master's
chair, Holy Orders, and so on, always suggesting that Masonry
has extra spiritual gifts not to be found in the Church.
"An attempt has been made," writes W.H. Topley in
concluding his book The Craft and the Royal Arch,[1] which sets
out these parallels in a diagram, "to outline the salient features
of the Masonic Sacramental System as the writer sees it, a
path of man's pilgramage from his entrance to this world to his
departure therefrom, and even dares to peer into that unknown
futurity, beyond the realm of time and space when this mortal
shall have put on immortality. If beneath its social structure
and outer coverings, Freemasonry is not something like this,
then it is hardly worthy of the serious consideration of thought-
ful men."
All these lesser allegories and symbols, however, revolve
round, and are dependent upon the core of the allegory in Craft
workings, that Hiram Abiff is a type of our Lord, from which it
follows that the legend of the third degree is therefore an allegori-
cal re-enactment of the drama of our redemption.
1. p. 92
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"He (Hiram Abiff) was slain just before the completion of
King Solomon's Temple, of which he was the principal architect.
The manner of his death was as follows. Fifteen Fellow Crafts
of that superior class appointed to preside over the rest, finding
that the work was nearly completed and that they were not in
posseession of the secrets of the third degree, conspired to obtain
them by any means, even to recourse to violence. At the
moment, however, of carrying their conspiracy into execution,
twelve of the fifteen recanted, but three, of a more determined
and atrocious character than the rest, persisted in their impious
design, in the prosecution of which they planted themselves
respectively at the east, north, and south entrances of the
Temple, whither Hiram had retired to pay his adoration to the
Most High, as was his wonted custom at the hour of high twelve.
Having finished his devotions, he attempted to return by the
south entrance, where he was opposed by the first of those
ruffians, who for want of other weapon, had armed himself
with a heavy plumb rule, and in a threatening manner demanded
the secrets of a Master Mason, warning him that death would be
the consequence of a refusal. Hiram, true to his obligation,
answered that those secrets were known to but three in the
world (Solomon, Hiram King of Tyre, and himself, the three
Grand Masters) and that without the consent and co-operation
of the other two he neither could nor would divulge them,
but intimidated that he had no doubt patience and industry would,
in due time, entitle the worthy Mason to a participation of them,
but that, for his own part, he would rather suffer death than
betray the sacret trust reposed in him.
"This answer not proving satifactory, the ruffian aimed a
violent blow at the Master's head, but being startled by the
firmness of his demeanour, it missed his forehead and only
glanced on his right temple, but with such force as to cause him
to reel and sink on his left knee. Recovering from the shock he
made for the north entrance, where he was accosted by the
second of these ruffians, to whom he gave a similar answer with a
level, struck him a violent blow on the left temple which brought
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The Hiramic Legend as a Christian Allegory
Rev. Walton Hannah
London, Augustine Press MCMLIV
Dr. E.L. Mascall of Christ Church, Oxford
Types and shadows have their ending,
For the newer rite is here.
Idolotry consists in worshipping God under any other conception of Him
than that which is set before us in the Gospels...Idolotry is indeed a deadly
thing.
"All right, then," a certain type of Mason will argue,
"So the Masonic ritual isn't Christian at all, on the surface.
But beneath the surface you will find allegorical
meaning which is Christian even though Masons of other
religions can also see in it an allegory of their faiths."
the Lodge is a cross of sorts; Masonic symbolists have therefore
made this piece of ritual an emblem of our Lord's passion.
A tau cross is made with the feet when the "regular steps"
are taken, and the Candidate for the third degree crosses his
feet before he is "slain." The Tyler who guards the Lodge from
without is emblematic of St. Peter with the keys of Heaven.
The blue with which the apron is trimmed is the traditional
colour of the Blessed Virgin. In more mystic vein it has been
pointed out by Masons (and by the non-Masonic Venerable Bede
centuries before) that the two pillars Boaz and Jachin at the
first and second degrees respectively) represent the
founder of the House of Jesse and the Father of the Blessed
Virgin, the first and the last of the male ancestors of our
Lord, and are therefore prophetic of the Saviour.
For the benefit of the non-Mason, here is the Hiramic legend,
quoted except for the portions in brackets from the words of the
Masonic ritual itself.
[transc. to be cont'd.]
