The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

Chapter 4 - Signs & Symbols 177
4.4.2 Alphabets & Cipher Writing
Symbolism fulfills the dual purpose of concealing divine verities from the
profane and revealing them to the initiates, who possess the key to decipher it.
Thus, throughout history secret languages, sacred and Hermetic alphabets have
been invented and employed by the wise and by priests. During the Middle Ages
and onward, liberal thinkers had to hide their ideas, otherwise they would have
been considered heretics by their contemporaries. In order to preserve their
knowledge for posterity, a score of scientists and philosophers therefore used
cryptograms to veil their research findings. They feared religious intolerance,
and many churchmen were afraid of excommunication. Not only the fields of
philosophy and religion, but also politics used secret languages: "Secret writings
became a fad; every European court had its own diplomatic cipher, and the
intelligentsia vied with one another in devising curious and complicated
cryptograms." 497
There are various forms of ciphers. For example biliteral writing was
employed in Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum (1640). 498 This writing required
two styles of type, one an ordinary face and the other specially cut. Sometimes,
the differences were so small that a magnifying glass was needed. Originally,
only the ornate italicized words or paragraphs contained a cipher message. The
letters varied in size, thickness, or ornamental flourish (cf. below, some letters
have loops, for instance).
Bacon's biliteral alphabet
Bacon's biliteral alphabet consisted of
four alphabets, two for the capitals and two
for the small letters. Each alphabet had the
power of either the letter "a" or "b", and it
required five letters to conceal one. This is
reminiscent of the binary code in computer
language, consisting of "0" and "1". At first,
it must be discovered whether the letter of
the original text stems from the "a" or "b"
alphabet. Then it must be replaced
accordingly by "a" or "b". The next step is
to run all letters together, and then this long
"a-b"-word must be split into 5-letter
combinations. Each of these 5-letter groups
represents a single letter. The actual letter
can now be determined by using the key to
the biliteral cipher:
497 Hall, p. CLXIX.
498 Cf. Hall, p. CLXX. Illustrations: ibid.