Daily Mason

Abbreviations of technical terms or of official titles are of very extensive use in Freemasonry. They were, however,

but rarely employed in the earlier Masonic publications. For instance, not one is to be found in the first edition of

Anderson’s Constitutions. Within a comparatively recent period they have greatly increased, especially among

French writers, and a familiarity with them is therefore essentially necessary to the Masonic student.

Frequently, among English and always among French authors, a Masonic abbreviation is distinguished by three

points,.:, in a triangular form following the letter, which peculiar mark was first used, according to Ragon, on the

12th of August, 1774, by the Grand Orient of France, in an address to its subordinates. No authoritative

explanation of the meaning of these points has been given, but they may be supposed to refer to the three

lights around the altar, or perhaps more generally to the number three, and to the triangle, both important symbols in the Masonic system.

A representative list of abbreviations is given, and these will serve as a guide to the common practice, but the

tendency to use such conveniences is limited only by personal taste governed by the familiarity of the Brethren

using them with one another. This acquaintance may permit the mutual use of abbreviations little known elsewhere. All that can be done is to offer such examples as will be helpful in explaining the usual custom and to suggest the manner in which the abbreviations are employed. With this knowledge a Freemason can ascertain the meaning of other abbreviations he may find in his Masonic reading.

Before proceeding to give a list of the principal abbreviations, it may be observed that the doubling of a letter is intended to express the plural of that word of which the single letter is the abbreviation.

Thus, in French, F.:, signifies Frére, or Brother, and FF :. Fréres, or Brothers. And in English, L :. is sometimes

used to denote Lodge, and LL :, to denote Lodges. This remark is made once for all, because we have not

deemed it necessary to augment the size of the list of abbreviations by inserting these plurals. If the reader

finds S:.G:.I:. to signify Sovereign Grand Inspector, he will be at no loss to know that SS:.GG:.II:. must denote Sovereign Grand Inspectors.

A:.&A:. Ancient and Accepted.

A:.&A:. R :. Ancient and Accepted Rite as used in England.

A:.&A:. S :. R :. Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

A:.&P:. R :. Ancient and Primitive Rite.

A:.C:. Anno Coadio. Latin, meaning the Year of Destruction; referring to the year 1314 in Knights Templar history.

A:.D:. Anno Domini. Latin, meaning Year of Our Lord.

A:.Dep:. Anno Depositionis. Latin, meaning In the Year of the Deposit. The date is used by Royal and Select Masters.

A:.F:.M:. Ancient Freemasons.

A:.F:.&A:.M :. Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

A:.H:. Anno Hebraico. Latin, meaning Hebrew Year.

A:.Inv:. Anno Inventionis. Latin, meaning In the Year of the Discovery. The date used by Royal Arch Masons.

A:.L:. Anno Lucis. Latin, meaning In the Year of Light. The date used by Ancient Craft Freemasons.

A.:L:.G:.D:.G:.A:.D:.L:.U:. A la Gloire du Grand Architecte de l’Universe. French, meaning To the Glory of the Grand

Architect of the Universe. The usual caption of French Masonic documents.

A:.L:. O:. A L Orient. French, meaning At the East. The Location or seat of the Lodge.A.:M:. Anno Mundi. Latin,

meaning In the Year of the World. The date used in the Ancient and Accepted Rite.

A.:O:. Anno Ordinis. Latin, meaning In the Year of the Order. The date used by Knights Templar.

A.:Q.:C:. Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the Latin name for the printed reports of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, London.

A.:V.:L:. An du Vraie Lumiére. French, meaning Year of the True Light.

A.:V:.T:.O:.S.:A.:G:. Ad Universi Terrarum Orbis Summi Architecti Gloriam. Latin, meaning To the glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe.

A.:Y.:M:. Ancient York Masons or Ancient York Masonry.

B.: Bruder. German, meaning Brother.

B.:A.: Buisson Ardent. French, meaning Burning Bush.

B:.B:. Burning Bush.

Bn:. Brudern. German, meaning Brethren.

Comp.: Companion. Used by Brethren of the Royal Arch.

C:.C:. Celestial Canopy.

C:.H:. Captain of the Host.

D:. Deputy.

D:.A:.F:. Due and Ancient Form.

D:.D:.G:.M:. Sometimes abbreviated Dis :.

D:.G:.M:. District Deputy Grand Master.

D:.G:.B:.A:.W:. Der Grosse Baumeister aller Welten.

German, meaning The. Grand Architect of all Worlds.

D:.G:.G:.H:.P:. Deputy General Grand High Priest.

D:.G:.H:.P:. Deputy Grand High Priest.

D:.G:.M:. Deputy Grand Master.

D:.M:.J:. Deus Meumque Jus. Latin, meaning God and

my right.

D:.Prov:.G:.M:. Deputy Provincial Grand Master.

Deg:. Degree or Degrees. Another way is as in 33

,meaning Thirty-Third Degree.

Dis:. District.

E:.Eminent; Excellent; also East.

E:.A:. Entered Apprentice. Sometimes abbreviated

E:.A:.P:.

E:.C:. Excellent Companion.

Ec:. Ecossaise. French, meaning Scottish; belonging to the Scottish Rite.

E:.G:.C:. Eminent Grand Commander.

E:.G:.M:. Early Grand Master. A central Authority had been made to control the Knights Templar of Ireland

independently of the Grand Lodge and at the very first meeting of the Lodge “at High Noon of St. John.” 1779,

the Worshipful Master appended to his name the letters E. G. M.,that is, Early Grand Master. There was then no governing body in Freemasonry except the Grand Lodge (see “Templar Legends,” by Brother W. J.Chetwode Crawley, Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1913, volume xxvi).

E:.O:.L:. Ex Oriente Lux. Latin, meaning Out of the East comes Light. E:.V:. Era Vulgus. Latin, meaning Common Era, also stands for Ere Vulgaire, French, meaning Vulgar Era; Year of the Lord.

F:. Frére. French, meaning Brother.

F:.A:.M:. Free and Accepted Masons.

F:.E:.R:.T:. According to the statutes of the United Orders of the Temple &nd Saint John of Jerusalem, etc., the

standard of Saint John is described as gules, on a Cross Argent, the Agnus Dei-meaning Red on a Silver Cross

with a representation of the Lamb of God-with the letters

F.E.R.T. These letters are the initials of the words of the motto Fortitudine Ejus Rhodum tenuit, meaning By his courage he held Rhodes. Brother Gordon P. G. Hills, Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1914, volume xxvii page 233, says, “I suppose it refers to the gallant defense by the Grand Master in 1522, when however, the Island was surrendered, although the garrison were permitted to depart with the honors of war.” A writer in the Pall Mall Gazette, June 4, 1901, states that the legend appears on the coinage of Louis of Savoy in 1301 and on that of Thomas in 1233.

F:.C:. Fellow Craft.

F:.M:. Freemason.

G:.Grand- Sometimes read as Great; Geometry. Also has another meaning well known to the Craft.

G:.A:.O.:T:.U:. Grand Architect of the Universe.

G:.A:.S:. Grand Annual Sojourn.

G.:C:. Grand Chapter; Grand Council; Grand Cross; Grand Commander; Grand Chaplain; Grand Conclave; Grand Conductor; Grand Chancellor.

G:.C:.G:. Grand Captain General; Grand Captain of the Guard.

G :.C:.H.: Grand Captain of the Host; Grand Chapter of Herodom.

G:.Com:. Grand Commandery; Grand Commander.

G:.D:. Grand Deacon.

G:.D:.C:. Grand Director of Ceremonies.

G:.E:. Grand Encampment; Grand Bast; Grand Ezra.

G:.J:.W:. Grand Junior Warden.

G:.G:.C:. General Grand Chapter

G:.G:.H:.P:. General Grand High Priest.

G:.G:.K:. General Grand King.

G:.G:.M:.F:.V:. General Grand Master of the First Veil.

G:.G.:S:. General Grand Scribe.

G:.G.:T:. General Grand Treasurer.

G:.H:.P:. Grand High Priest.

G:.K:. Grand King.

G:.L:. Grand Lodge. Grande Loge, in French. Grosse Loge, in German.

G:.M:. Grand Master; Grand Marshal; Grand Monarch.

G:.N:. Grand Nehemiah.

G:.O:. Grand Orient; Grand Organist.

G:.P. Grand Pursuivant; Grand Prior; Grand Prelate; Grand Preceptor; Grand Preceptory; Grand Patron; Grand Priory; Grand Patriarch; Grand Principal.

G:.P:.S:. Grand Principal Sojourner

G:.R:. Grand Registrar; Grand Recorder.

G:.R:.A:.C:. Grand Royal Arch Chapter.

G:.S:. Grand Scribe; Grand Secretory; Grand Steward.

G:.S:.B:. Grand Sword Bearer; Grand Sword Bearer.

G:.S:.E.: Grand Scribe Ezra.

G:.S:.N:. Grand Scribe Nehemiah.

G:.S:.W:. Grand Senior Warden.

G:.T:. Grand Treasurer; Grand Tyler.H:.A:.B:. Hiram Abif.

H:.E:. Holy Empire.

H:.J:. Heilige Johannes. German, meaning Holy Saint John.

H:.K:.T:. Hiram, King of Tyre.

H:.R:.D:.M:. Heredom.

Ill:. Illustrious.

I:.N:.R:.I:. Jesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudoeorum. Latin, meaning Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. The Letters are also the initials of a significant sentence in Latin, namely, Igne Natura Renovatur Integra, meaning by fire nature is perfectly renewed.

I:.P:.M:. Immediate Past Master. English title of an official last promoted from the chair.

I:.T:.N:.O:.T:.G:.A:.O:.T:.U:. In the Name of the Grand Architect of the Universe. Often forming the caption of Masonic documents.

J:.W:. Junior Warden.

K:.King.

K:.E:.P:. Knight of the Eagle and Pelican

K:.H:. Kadash, Knight of Kadosh.

K:.H:.S:. Knight of the Holy Sepulcher

K:.M:. Knight of Malta

K:.S:. King Salomon (Suleiman)

K:.T:. Knights Templar; Knight Templar.

L:. Lodge. Lehrling, the German for Apprentice.

L:.R:. Lonon Rank. A distinction introduced in England in 1908.

L:.V:.X:. Lux Latin, meaning Light.

M:. Mason; Masonry; Marshal; Mark; Minister; Master. Meister, in German. Maitre, in French.

M:.C:. Middle Chamber.

M:.E:. Most Eminent; Most Excellent.

M:.E:.G:.H:.P:. Most Excellent Grand High Priest.

M:.E:.G:.M:. Most Eminent Grand Master (of Knights Templar).

M:.E:.M:. Most Excellent Master.

M:.E:.Z:. Most Excellent Zerubbabel.

M:.K:.G:. Maurer Kunst Geselle. German, meaning Fellow Craft.

M:.L:. Maurer Lehrling. German, meaning Entered Apprentice.

M:.L:. Mére Loge. French, meaning Mother Lodge.

M:.M:. Master Mason. Mois Maçonnique. French, meaning Masonic Month. March 18 the first Masonic month among French Freemasons. Meister Maurer. German, meaning Master Mason.

M:.P:.S:. Most Puissant Sovereign.

M:.W:.Most Worshipful.

M:.W:.G:.M:. Most Worshipful Grand Master; Most Worthy Grand Matron.

M:.W:.G:.P:. Most Worthy Grand Patron.

M:.W:.M:. Most Wise Master

M:.W:.S:. Most Wise Sovereign

N:. Novice.

N:.E:.C:. North-east Corner.

N’o:.P:.V:.D:.M:. N’oubiez pas vos décorations Maçonniques French, meaning Do not forget your Masonic regalia, a phrase used in France on the corner of a summons.

O:. Orient.

O:.A:.C:. Ordo ab Chao. Latin, meaning Order out of Chaos.

OB:. Obligation.

P:. Past; Prelate; Prefect; Prior.

P:.C:.W:. Principal Conductor of the Work.

P:.G:.M:. Past Grand Master; Past Grand Matron.

P:.J:. Prince of Jerusalem.

P:.K:. Past King.

P:.M:. Past Master.

P:.S:. Principal Sojourner.

Pro:.G:.M:. Pro-Grand Master.

Prov:. Provincial.

Prov:.G:.M:. Provincial Grand Master.

R:.A:. Royal Arch; Royal Art.

R:.A:.C:. Royal Arch Captain; Royal Arch Chapter.

R:.A:.M:. Royal Arch Mason; Royal Arch Masonry; Royal Ark Mariner. R:.C:. or R:.t:. Rose Croiz. Appended to the signature of one having that degree

R:.E:. Right Eminent.

R:.E:.A:.et A:.Rite Ecossaise Ancien et Accepte. French,

meaning Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

R:.F:. Respectable Free. French, meaning Worshipful Brother.

R:.L:. or R:.[]:. Respectable Loge. French, meaning Worshipful Lodge.

R:.S:.Y:.C:.S:. Rosy Cross (in the Royal order of Scotland).

R:.W:. Right Worshipful.

R:.W:.M:. Right Worshipful Master.

S:.Scribe,Sentinel, Seneschal, Sponsor.

S:.C:. Supreme Council.

S:.G:.D:. Senior Grand Deacon.

S:.G:.I:.G:. Sovereign Grand Inspector General

S:.G:.W:. Senior Grand Warden.

S:.M:. Secret Master; Substitute Master; Select Master; Secret Monitor; Sovereign Master; Supreme Master; Supreme Magus.

S:.O:. Senior Overseer.

S:.P:.R:.S:. Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.

S:.S:. Sanctum Sanctorum. Latin, meaning Holy of Holies. Formerly also used for Soverein of Sovereigns

S:.S:.M:. Senior Substitute Magus.

S:.S:.S:. The initials of the Latin word Salutem, meaning Greeting, repeated thrice and also found similarly in the

French, Trois Fois Salut, meaning Thrice Greeting. A common caption to French Masonic circulars or letters

S:.W:. Senior Warden.

Sec:. Secretary.

Soc:.Ros:. Societas Rosicruciana

Sum:. Surveillant. French, meaning Warden.

T:.C:.F:. Tres Cher Frére. French, meaning Very Dear Brother.T:.G:.A:.O:.T:.U:. The Grand Architect of the Universe. T:.S:. Tres Sage. Meaning Very Wise, addressed to the presiding officer of French Rite.

U:.D:. Under Dispensation.

V:.or Ven:. Venerable. French, meaning Worshipful.

V:.D:.B:. Very Dear Brother.

V:.D:.S:.A:. Veut Dieu Saint Amour, or Vult Dei Sanctus Animus. A formula used by Knights Templar. The expression Veut Dieu Saint Amour means literally, Wishes God Holy Love, which in correct English might be expressed by Thus wishes God (who is)holy love. Vult Dei Sanctus Animus is the Latin Version of the same phrase. Only in this case God is in the genitive case and therefore the exact translation would be The holy spirit of God wishes or Thus wishes God’s holy spirit.

V:.E:. Viceroy Eusebius; Very Eminent.

V:.F:. Venerable Frére. French, meaning Worshipful Brother.

V:.L:. Vraie Lumiere. French, meaning True Light

V:.S:.L:. Volume of the sacred Law.

V:.W:. Very Worshipful

W:. Worshipful

W:.M:. Worshipful Master. Wurdiger Meister, in German, meaning Worshipful Master.

Tile French is Sacrifant. A Degree in the Archives of the Lodge of Saint Louis des Amis Réunis (Saint Louis of the Reunited Friends) at Calais.

RAISED

When a candidate has received the Third Degree, he is said to have been raised to the sublime Degree of a Master Mason. The expression refers, materially, to a portion of the ceremony of initiation, but symbolically, to the resurrection, which it is the object of the Degree to exemplify.

A curious sidelight upon the use of the expression is that obtained by considering the word as also meaning the acceptance or adoption of the candidate officially by the Fraternity. There is an ancient and striking parallel for this understanding. Among the Roman customs connected with the birth of children that was the most remarkable which left it to the arbitrary will of the father whether his new-born child should be preserved or left to perish. The midwife always placed the child on the ground. If the father wished to preserve its life he raised it from the ground and this was said to be tollere infantem, the raising of the child. This was an intimation of his purpose to acknowledge and educate it as his own If the father did not choose to do this, he left the child on the ground, and thus expressed his wish to expose or abandon it, exponere. This exposing of a newborn child was an unnatural custom borrowed from the Greeks by which children were left in the streets and abandoned to their fate (see Fiske’s Classical Antiquities, page 287). Some highly significant pictorial instances of resurrection are found in old churches. The altar picture from Holyrood at Edinburgh, Scotland (see illustration), is a good example. Here the First Person of the Trinity supports or raises the Son. Usually the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, is also represented symbolically in such cases, the dove being as a rule selected to indicate the complete threefold unity of the Godhead. The altar symbolism from Holyrood is therefore a typical specimen of the Trinity portrayal and of the resurrection occurrence.

Brother J. E. Barton discusses the symbolism of the other illustration, the Trinity Boss in the West Porch of Peterborough Cathedral in England. This porch is from architectural details dated about 1375. Old writers would call the porch a “Galilee,” a ritualistic provision for such occasions as Palm Sunday, and for processions generally on the Sabbath. The promise to the disciples, that the risen Christ should go before them into Galilee, is no doubt the origin of the name; for the chief ecclesiastical dignitary, who brought up the rear of the procession, here went first, and entered the porch through the ranks of his subordinates, as a Master in taking his seat in the Lodge.

Three probabilities are to be taken into account in considering this boss. It is the central ornament of a porch having special reference to the feast of the Resurrection. It was designed by a Gild—itself probably dedicated to the Holy Trinity, as at the Newark Parish Church, which would naturally wish the porch dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Its designers were inspired by a desire to connect, in a manner not unnatural to Freemasons with their own grades and ritual, the two ideas of the Holy Trinity and of the Resurrection.

Presumably the Masonic Gild, perhaps the chief Gild in Peterborough, was about to vault the porch it had given, and looked about for a suitable composition for its main boss. The first and inevitable suggestion was a Trinity subject, so common in sculptures stained glass, and on monumental brasses The usual Trinity is a design of God the Father sups porting the Son upon the Cross, with the Holy Spirit added in the form of a Dove. Next it was suggested that the Trinity should here be modified in form, so as to deplete a Risen, not a Crucified Lord, as being suitable to a Galilee Porch.

Last came the unifying suggestion that by the use Of a Masonic symbol the Resurrection of Christ, in the Trinity subject, should be marked at the point where Our Lord is about to be raised to Heaven by the hands of the Father; one hand gripping, and the other blessing. Hence the Second Person in the Trinity, who has already passed from the earthly Incarnation, is here at a singular position. His pierced hands show Him already crucified and rising from the grave, with the attitude common to medieval paintings of the Resurrection and the loin cloths still about Him. He is about to be raised to the sublime Degree, and God the Father, in order more expressly to note the Masonic idea, is figured like the Sun at its meridian.

What more appropriate than two figures typical of the Elect, redeemed by Christ, and raised and crowned with Him? Hence the two crowned figures, one apparently an ecclesiastic with an amice, whose diadems have the Trinity symbol of the trefoil, like the Father’s crown in the Chester boss. In this Peterborough boss, indeed, each foil of the trefoil is itself trefoiled, as if to insist on the threefold notion.

The ark of the Egyptian gods. A chest or structure with more height than depth, and thereby unlike the Israelites Ark of the Covenant. The winged figures embraced the lower part of the Naos, while the cherubim of the Ark of Yahveh were placed above its lid. Yahveh took up His abode above the propitiatory or covering between the wings of the cherubim, exteriorly, while the gods of Egypt were reputed as hidden in the interior of the Naos of the sacred barks, behind hermetically closed doors (see Cherubim).

In Hebrew M. Maimonides calls it the two-lettered name, and derives it from the Tetragrammaton, of which he says it is an abbreviation. Others have denied this, and assert that Jah is a name independent of Jehovah, but expressing the same idea of the Divine Essence. It is uniformly translated in the authorized version of the Bible by the word Lord, being thus considered as Synonymous with Jehovah, except in Psalm lxviii, 4, where the original word is preserved: “Extol Him that rideth upon the heavens by His name Jah,” upon which the Targum comment is “Extol Him who sitteth on the throne of glory in the ninth heaven; Yah is His name.” It seems, also to have been well known to the Gentile nations as the triliteral resume of God; for, although biliteral among the Hebrews, it assumed among the Greeks the triliteral form, as IAO Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, says that this was the sacred name of the Supreme Deity; and the Clarian Oracle being asked which of the gods was Jao, replied, “The initiated are bound to conceal the mysterious secrets. Learn thou that IAQ is the Great God Supreme who ruleth over all” (see Jehovah).

ICONOLOGY – Is the science which teaches the doctrine of images and symbolic representations. It is a science collateral with Freemasonry, and is of great importance to the Masonic student, because it is engaged in the consideration of the meaning and history of the symbols which constitute so material a part of the Masonic system.

The staff of office borne by the Grand Master of the Templars. In ecclesiology, baculus is the name given to the pastoral staff carried by a bishop or an abbot as the ensign of his dignity and authority. In pure Latinity, baculus means a long stick or staff, which was commonly carried by travelers, by shepherds, or by infirm and aged persons, and afterward, from affectation, by the Greek philosophers. In early times, this staff, made a little longer, was carried by kings and persons in authority, as a mark of distinction, and was thus the origin of the royal scepter.

The Christian church, borrowing many of its usages from antiquity, and alluding also, it is said, to the sacerdotal power which Christ conferred when he sent the apostles to preach, commanding them to take with them staves, adopted the pastoral staff, to be borne by a bishop, as symbolical of his power to inflict pastoral correction; and Durandus says, “By the pastoral staff is likewise understood the authority of doctrine. For by it the infirm are supported, the wavering are confirmed, those going astray are drawn to repentance.” Catalin also says that “the baculus, or episcopal staff, is an ensign not only of honor, but also of dignity, power, and pastoral jurisdiction.”

Honorius, a writer of the twelfth century, in his treatise De Gemma Animoe, gives to this pastoral staff the names both of bacutus and virga. Thus he says, ”Bishops bear the staff (baculum), that by their teaching they may strengthen the weak in their faith ; and they carry the rod (virgam), that by their power they may correct the unruly.” And this is strikingly similar to the language used by St. Bernard in the Rule which he drew up for the government of the Templars.

In Artiele I xviii, he says, “The Master ought to hold the staff and the rod (bacutum et cirgam) in his hand, that is to say, the staff (baculum), that he may support the infirmities of the weak, and the rod (cirgam), that he may with the zeal of rectitude strike down the vices of delinquents.”

The transmission of episcopal ensigns from bishops to the heads of ecclesiastical associations was not difficult in the Middle Ages; and hence it afterwards became one of the insignia of abbots, and the heads of confraternities connected with the Church, as a token of the possession of powers of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

Now, as the Papal bull, Omne datum Optimum, so named from its first three words, invested the Grand Master of the Templars with almost episcopal jurisdiction over the priests of his Order, he bore the baculus, or pastoral staff, as a mark of that jurisdiction, and thus it became a part of the Grand Master’s insignia of office.

The baculus of the bishop, the abbot, and the confraternities was not precisely the same in form. The earliest episcopal staff terminated in a globular knob, or a tau cross, a cross of T shape. This was, however, soon replaced by the simple-curved termination, which resembles and is called a crook, in allusion to that used by shepherds to draw back and recall the sheep of their flock which have gone astray, thus symbolizing the expression of Christ, “I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”

The baculus of the abbot does not differ in form from that of a bishop, but as the bishop carries the curved part of his staff pointing forward, to show the extent of his episcopal jurisdiction, so the abbot carries his pointing backward, to signify that his authority is limited to his monastery. The baculi, or staves of the confraternities, were surmounted by small tabernacles, with images or emblems, on a sort of carved cap, having reference to the particular gild or confraternity by which they were borne.

The baculus of the Knights Templar, which was borne by the Grand Master as the ensign of his office, in allusion to his quasi-episcopal jurisdiction, is described and delineated in Munter, Burnes, Addison, and all the other authorities, as a staff, on the top of which is an octagonal figure, surmounted with a cross patee, this French word being applied to the arms having enlarged ends. The cross, of course, refers to the Christian character of the Order, and the octagon alludes, it is said, to the eight beatitudes of our Savior in His Sermon on the Mount.

The pastoral staff is variously designated, by ecclesiastical writers, as virga, ferula, cambutta, crocia, and pedum.

From crocia, whose root is the Latin crux, and the Italian croce, meaning a cross, we get the English word crozier. Pedum, another name of the baculus, signifies, in pure Latinity, a shepherd’s crook, and thus strictly carries out the symbolic idea of a pastoral charge.

Hence, looking to the pastoral jurisdiction of the Grand Master of the Templars, his staff of office is described under the title of pedum magistrate seu patriarchale, that is, a magisterial or patriarchal staff, in the Statuta Commilitonum Ordinis Tempti, or the Statutes of the Fellow-soldiers of the Order of the Temple, as a part of the investiture of the Grand Master, in the following words:

Pedum magistrale seu patriarchale, aureum, in cacumine cujus crux Ordinis super orbem exaltur; that is, A Magisterial or patriarchal staffl of gold, on the top of which is a cross of the Order, surmounting an orb or globe. This is from Statute xxviii, article 358. But of all these names, baculus is the one more commonly used by writers to designate the Templar pastoral staff.

In the year 1859 this staff of office was first adopted at Chicago by the Templars of the United States, during the Grand Mastership of Sir William B. Hubbard. But, unfortunately, at that time it received the name of abacus, a misnomer which was continued on the authority of a literary blunder of Sir Walter Scott, so that it has fallen to the lot of American Freemasons to perpetuate, in the use of this word, an error of the great novelist, resulting from his too careless writing, at which he would himself have been the first to smile, had his attention been called to it. Abacus, in mathematics, denotes an instrument or table used for calculation, and in architecture an ornamental part of a column; but it nowhere, in English or Latin, or any known language, signifies any kind of a staff.

Sir Walter Scott, who undoubtedly was thinking of baculus, in the hurry of the moment and a not improbable confusion of words and thoughts, wrote abacus, when, in his novel of Ivanhoe, he describes the Grand Master, Lucas Beaumanoir, as bearing in his hand “that singular abacus, or staff of office,” committed a gross, but not uncommon, literary blunder, of a kind that is quite familiar to those who are conversant with the results of rapid composition, where the writer often thinks of one word and writes another.

Anno Lewis (Anno Lucis), in the Year of Light, is the epoch used in Masonic documents of the Symbolic Degrees. This era is calculated from the creation of the world, and is obtained by adding four thousand to the current year, on the supposition that Christ was born four thousand years after the creation of the world. But the chronology of Archbishop Ussher, which has been adopted as the Bible chronology in the authorized version, places the birth of Christ in the year 4004 after the creation.

According to this calculation, the Masonic date for the “year of light” is four years short of the true date, and the year of the Lord 1874, which in Masonic documents is 5874, should correctly be 5878. The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Freemasons in the beginning of the nineteenth century used this Ussherian era, and the Supreme Council at Charleston dated its first circular, issued in 1802, as 5806. Dalcho (Ahiman Rezom, second edition, page 37) says: “If Masons are determined to fix the origin of their Order at the Xirrie of the erection, they should agree among themselves at what time before Christ to place that epoch.” At that agreement they have now arrived. Whatever differences may have once existed, there is now a general consent to adopt the theory that the world was created 4000 B.C.

The error is too unimportant, and the practice too universal, to expect that it will ever be corrected.  H. P. Smith (Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible), we may here point out in a paragraph to support Doctor Mackey, says that our appreciation of the Bible does not depend upon the accuracy of its dates. This authority considers that in general, the picture it provides of the sequence of events from the time of Judges down to the Fall of Jerusalem is correct. More recently there has been welcome light on the dates of certain biblical events from the inscriptions in Assyria and Babylonia.

These Empires had made great advances in astronomy and consequently in the regulation of the calendar. They had a reckoning of time which secured accuracy for their records of history. Lists have come down to us in fragments, but by them scholars have corrected some of the dates in Hebrew history. The reference already made to the work of Archbishop Ussher has been checked by these later studies and most of the figures, it is now accepted, are too high for the early period. Probably some of the early writers were influenced by a theory which they had formed or which had come to them through tradition and those tendencies show certain repetitions in the records which are, in these modern days, not so convincing as formerly.

Noowhouek (Constitutions 1784, page 5), speaking of the necessity of adding the four years to make a correct date, says: “But this being a Degree of accuracy that Masons in general do not attend to, we must, after this intimation, still follow the vulgar mode of computation to be intelligible.” As to the meaning of the expression, it is by no means to be supposed that Freemasons, now, intend by such a date to assume that their Order is as old as the creation. It is simply used as expressive of

reverence for that physical light which was created by the fiat of the Grand Architect, and which is adopted as the type of the intellectual light of Freemasonry. The phrase is altogether symbolic.

In the lectures according to the English system, we find the following definition of the Sacred Lodge, the symbol has not been preserved in the American instructions: Over the Sacred Lodge presided Solomon, the greatest of kings, and the wisest of men; Hiram, the great and learned King of Tyre; and Hiram Abif, the widow’s son, of the tribe of Naphtali. It was held in the bowels of the sacred Mount Moriah, under the part whereon was erected the Holy of Holies. On this mount it was where Abraham confirmed his faith by his readiness to offer up his only son, Isaae. Here it was where David offered that acceptable sacrifice on the threshing-floor of Araunah by which the anger of the Lord was appeased, and the plague stayed from his people. Here it was where the Lord delivered to David, in a dream, the plan of the glorious Temple, afterward erected by our noble Grand Master, King Solomon. And lastly, here it was where he declared he would establish his sacred name and word, which should never pass away- and for these reasons this was justly styled the Sacred Lodge.

It was a custom among the English Freemasons of the middle of the eighteenth century, when conversing together on Freemasonry, to announce the appearance of a profane by the warning expression It rains.

The custom was adopted by the German and French Freemasons, with the equivalent expression, Es regnet and II pluie. Baron Tschoudy, who condemns the usage, says that the latter refined upon it by designating the approach of a female by II neige, the French for It snows.

Doctor Oliver says (Revelations of a Square, page 142) that the phrase It rains, to indicate that a Cowan is present and the proceedings must be suspended, is derived from the ancient punishment of an eavesdropper, which was to place him under the eaves of a house in rainy weather, and to retain him there till the droppings of water ran in at the collar of his coat and out at his shoes.