Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated - The Masonic Trowel

168 PRINCE OF MERCY.
terms of probation
555 and underg~one the necessary tests
and trials?
Senior Deacon—He has.
Guard of Palladium—Let him wait a time with
patience, untilt his request is made known to the Most
Excellent Chapter of Princes of Mercy. (Guard of tile
Palladium closes the door, goes to the East, where the
same questions are asked and like answers received as
at the door.)
Most Excellent—Is he duly and truly prepared to
receive this degree?
Guard of Palladium—lie is,
Most Excellent—You will retire and let hi~n be admitted
after he shall have washed”’ his hands in pure
water. (Guard retires to preparation room.)
Guard of Palladium—It is the order of the Most
Excellent that he be admitted, after he shall have washed
lint. SOO.~?rObattOU. “The interval hetween the reception of one
degree and the succeeding i,ne is called the probation of ihe caudbiate.
because It is durIng this period that be is to prove his qusiificatiofl for
advancement in England and in this country the time of probstiOO be.
tween the reception of degrees is four weeks, to which is generally addid
the further safeguard of so Open examination in the preceding degree.
in France and Germany the probation Ia extended to one year. The lime
is gresiiy extended in the Ancient and Accepted Scotiivh Rite. The
statutes of the Southern Supreme Councli require an interval of two
years to he passed between ihe reception of the fourteenth and the
thirty-second degrees An extraordinary rule prevailed in the cooshitoticus
of 1762. by which the Rile of perfection was governed According
to this rule, a candidaie was requlr’d to pass a probation from the time of
his application as an Entered Apprentice until his reception of the twentYlifib
or ultimate degree of the Rite, of ito less than eli years and nine
months. But as all the separate times of probation depended on symbolic
numbers, it is not to he presumed that this regulation was ever practically
enforcad....Msokry’a EneyCIOPfldi& of Freetnasoiiiy, Article Praba.
tion.
Mote SOI.~”Luatratiefl. A religious rite practiced hy the ancients
and which was performed before any act of devotion it consisted in
usahing the hands, and sometimes the whoic body, in lustral or conserested
water. it was intended as a symbol of the interosi purification of
the heart. it was a ceremony preparatory to initiation in all the Ancient
Mysteries. The ceremony is practised with the same symbolic import in
some of the high degrees of Masonry. So strong was the idea of a connection
between lustrition and initiatiOn, that in the law Latin of the
Middle Ages lustrars meant to initIate. Thus Do cange (Glnasartem)
cites the expression ‘lustrare reilgione ChristlsnOrum~ as signifying ‘to
initiate into the Christian religlon. ‘.~~MLskey’a Kuoyeiopfldi& of Feesmahoney.
Artiela Lustration.
INITIATION. 169
his hands in pure water. (Senior Deacon causes him
to wash his hands in pure water, leads him in and conducts
him nine times around the Chapter while the
Most Excellent reads:)
First Round—Thus saith the holy book, there is but
~ne Supreme God, the single, imperishable, infinite,
omnipotent, excellent, perfect, invisible God; omunipresent
the universal substance and soul of the world.
Second Round—Jesus of Nazareth, born of a Virgin
without sin, was chaste and liohy. He descended into
Hclh, he arose again and ascended to Heaven, he
charged his disciples to teach his pure doctrines and
gave them the gift of miracles. lie will appear again
at the end of the world and a new creation and a new
age of innocence shall commence.
Third Round—The stars shall salute him at his nativity,
the running waters shall become clear as erystah,
the winds breathe softly and the sky be pure and serene,
the tortures of the wicked shall be suspended, ahl venomous
reptiles and beasts of prey disappear, the sick
and infirm shall become well and strong, and All mankind
unite in orisons of glory.
Fourth Round—The miuntains shall melt and torrents
of metal flow from their bosoms, through which
all souls shall pass, that thus parting with the defilement
of their sins, they may be fitted for the bliss that awaits
them. A new earth, more beautiful, more fertile, more
delicious than the first, shall become the home ‘f
restored mankind.
Fifth. Round—He is love. King of the living and
dead; the supremely pure, holy and wise, he is three and
one, for his essence illuminates, warms and makes fruit-