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

Chapter 6 - Peculiarities of Masonic Language 345
Firing glasses photographed at
Deutsches Freimaurer-Museum in Bayreuth, 2000
This custom is still kept up in a part of Masonry in a reduced form: "Diese
wesensfremde Vermengung der alten Handwerksbräuche mit soldatischen
Elementen ist in einem Teil der Freimaurerei bis auf den heutigen Tag erhalten
geblieben, wenn auch das eigentliche Exerzierreglement dieser Trinkkanonaden
bis auf Reste abgeschliffen ist." 1075 From France, these drinking habits were
imported to Germany. The "firing" is connected with the mystical number three,
and this is no invention of Freemasonry but an ancient tradition. The following
saying by Ausonius from the 4 th century has been handed down to us: "Ter bibe,
vel toties ternos. Sic mystica lex est / Vel tria potandi vel per tria
multiplicandi." 1076 It can be assumed that in early Masonry, the "firing" of
"cannons" was even performed with real small cannons, not only with glasses.
Some evidence for this is found, for example with regard to the feast on Saints
John Day of the German lodge "Drei Weltkugeln" in the year 1744, "wobei das
Böllerschießen im Logengarten vor sich ging." 1077
In the following table, the previously listed English military expressions will
be compared with the corresponding French and German terms. The expressions
that could not be verified and backed up with the sources employed are marked
in blue and are mere translations; however, since this terminology originally
came from France it can be assumed that the words are mostly synonymous in all
three languages.
1075 IFL, p. 1594.
1076 Ibid.
1077 Ibid.