Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated - The Masonic Trowel

PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS
THIRTIETH DEGREE: GRAND-ELECT KNIGHT KADOsI!
on, KNIGHT OF THE WHITE AND BLACK EAGLE.
The “N. plus ultra” of Maaonle Falsehood —The RItual TInkered. Adde.’
to. sod Amended—”Nolhlng but vengeance Is Spoken of.~—Chrlsttsnt
I,eroclously Condemned as Bigots—Sham Pretence et a UnIversal
RelIgIon.
Kadosh is a Chaldee and Hebrew word, meaning
“Holy,” used in Isaiah, 6, 3, applied to God. This is,
therefore, the degree of the Holy Knight. It is common
to receive men into this degree, who have not
taken all the preceding degrees. Thus, in the degree
before this, the Grand Master, by mere authority, receives
candidates into eleven degrees, which they have
not taken, to enable them to receive the 30th, and become
Knights Kadosh. This explains, how men of
ordinary memories, and busin~ss occupations, can take
33 such degrees, i. e.~they don’t take them.
This degree is called, in its ritual, the “Ne plus
ultra” (no more beyond) of Masonic knowledge; (page
£76.) “though but the Thirtieth degree.” A careful
reading of the ritual though, will convince thoughtful
persons, that this statement is true; and that this degree
is also the ‘~Ne plus tjltra” of Masonic falsehood,
fraud, hypocrisy, treason, and general scoundrelism.
The proofs of this extraordinary indictment are Ihese:
1. “It is said to have been invented at Lyons in
1743,” that is, 144 years ago. This makes it “ancient.”~
(Note 345.)
THE RITUAL TINKEREb, ADDED TO, AND AMENDED. 307
Now, the ritual is the degree, and this ritual, (page
291.) contains the telephone, which is of yesterday;
which proves, that this ancient degree has been tinkered,
added to, and amended, from Ramsay to Albert Pike!
This falsehood is a century and a half long.
2. The candidate is made to trample on the Pope’s
tiara, which bauble is worn in some fashion by every
Grand Officer of lodges. This is hypocrisy.
8. Christ is complimented, and His prohibition:
“Call no man master,” is quoted. Yet Masons all have
“Masters.” This is hypocrisy.
4. This degree, and almost every other, professes to
war on despotism. Yet Masonry is the completest
despotism on earth; the edicts of a Grand Lodge must
be “obeyed without examination.” (Mackey Lex.)
Taxation at discretion, without reason given, has been
decided lawful by lodge-law. (See Chase’s Digest, art,
Taxation.) Why this very ritual gives the Master
power to stop and adjourn any debate, by three raps
with the pommel of his sword! No slaves on a Southern
plantation were ever bound by the laws of property
to a more abject, cringing obedience to their master,
than these Masons are to theirs.
5. The candidate allows the Master, to put his (the
candidate’s) hand, on a human skull, as a “terrible
symbol of human equality;” and they all drink with
told: “This is the apex of the Masonic edifice.” (Page
him “the cup of devils” out of that skull; and they are