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

276
Chapter 5 - Technical Terminology
rejects the candidate or suggestion concerned. Hence the term "blackballed" 791
for a rejected candidate. The election is anonymous and secret; none can see how
the other brethren have voted, and the individual Masons are not allowed to
reveal how they have voted afterwards.
Balloting may be had in a lodge on the election of officers, on the
admission of a petitioner for degrees, or any other matter [...].
In balloting on petitioners for degrees, the general practice in this
country is to employ a ballot-box consisting of a fore and aft
arrangement of compartments, with a hole in the partition between
them, so that the voter reaches into the near closed compartment, selects
a white or black ball and passes it through the hole into the second
compartment [...]. 792
The German expression for ballot is "Kugelung," the French one
"ballotage." 793 This kind of election is by no means a Masonic invention. It was
already used in antiquity to define whether somebody was guilty or not, as we
can see from a quotation from Ovid:
Wie schon aus Ovids Metamorhposen XV., 41, ersichtlich, ist dieser
Brauch uralten Datums.
Mos erat, antiquus niveis atrisque lapillis
His damnare reos, illis absolvere culpae.
(Alter Brauch wars, mit schwarzen und weißen Steinchen
Schuldig zu sprechen die einen, die andern von Schuld zu befrein.) 794
5. Battery
A "battery" is the rhythmic clapping of the hands or rapping with a gavel -
either uniformly or in some special sequence - as a sign of approval or honor
before the assembled lodge members, and on order of the Worshipful Master.
Depending on the Masonic degree, the rhythm can vary: "[...] en général trois
fois, parfois suivant un rythme variable avec le grade. On distingue la batterie
simple de la batterie triple." 795 There exist different forms of battery
corresponding to the occasion, a familiar one being the Public Grand Honors, or
three times three, consisting of three hand claps to the left, right hand above, then
three to the right, left hand above, and finally three to the left, right hand
791 Cf. ibid, p. 105.
792 CME, p. 86.
793 Cf. IFL, p. 884.
794 CME, p. 884.
795 DFM, p. 79.