Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

BIBLE-BEARER
BLACKBOARD 105
the manuscripts before the revival as the book
upon which the covenant was taken, but it
was never referred to as a great light . In the
old ritual, of which a copy from the Royal
Library of Berlin is given by Krause (Drei
alt. Kunsturk, i . 32) there is no mention of the
Bible as one of the lights. Preston made it a
part of the furniture of the Lodge ; but in
rituals of about 1760 it is described as one of
the three great lights. In the American system,
the Bible is both a piece of furniture and
a great light.
Bible-Bearer . In Masonic processions the
oldest Master Mason present is generally
selected to carry the open Bible, Square, and
Compasses on a cushion before the Chaplain .
This brother is called the Bible-Bearer . The
" Grand Bible-Bearer " is an officer of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland .
Bibliography . In French, we have a
Bibliographie des Ouvrages, Opuscules Encycliques
ou ccrits les plus remarquables, publics
sur 1'histoire de la Franc-Maconnerie depuis,
1723,,jusques en 1814 . It is by Thory, and is
contained in the first volume of his Acta
Latomorum. Though not full, it is useful,
especially in respect to French works, and it
is to be regretted that it stops at a period
anterior to the Augustan age of Masonic
literature . In German, we have the work of
Dr . Georg Kloss entitled Bibliographie der
Freimaurerei, published at Frankfort in 1844.
At the time of its publication it was an almost
exhaustive work, and contains the titles
of about six thousand volumes . See also
Bibliography in this work (vol . ii .) .
Bielfeld, Jacob Frederick . Baron Bielfeld
was born March 31, 1717, and died April
5, 1770. He was envoy from the court of
Prussia to The Hague, and a familiar associate
of Frederick the Great in the youthful days of
that Prince before he ascended the throne .
He was one of the founders of the Lodge of
the Three Globes in Berlin, which afterward
became a Grand Lodge . Through his influence
Frederick was induced to become a
Mason . In Bielfeld's Freundschaftlicher Briefe,
or "Familiar Letters," are to be found an account
of the initiation of the Prince, and other
curious details concerning Freemasonry .
Birkhead, Matthew . A Mason who owes
his reputation to the fact that he was the
author of the universally known Entered
Apprentice's song, beginning :
"Come let us prepare,
We Brothers that are
Assembled on merry occasions ;
Let's drink, laugh, and sing ;
Our wine has a spring .
Here's a health to an Accepted Mason ."
This song first appeared in Read's Weekly
Journal for December 1, 1722, and then was
published in the Book of Constitutions in 1723,
after the death of its author, which occurred on
December 30, 1722 .
Birkhead was a singer and actor at Drury
Lane Theater in London, and was Master of
Lodge V when Dr. Anderson was preparing
his Constitutions . His funeral is thus described
in Read's Weekly Journal for January
12, 1723 : "Mr . Birkhead was last Saturday
night carried from his Lodgings in Whichstreet
to be interr'd at St . Clements Danes ;
the Pall was supported by six Free-Masons
belonging toDrury-Lane Play-house ; the other
Members of that particular Lodge of which
he was a Warden, with a vast number of other
Accepted-Masons, followed two and two ; both
the Pall-bearers and others were in their whiteaprons."
(See Tune;Freemasons.) (E .L.H .)
Black . Black, in the Masonic ritual, is
constantly the symbol of grief . This is perfectly
consistent with its use in the world,
where black has from remote antiquity been
adopted as the garment of mourning.
In Masonry this color is confined to but a
few degrees, but everywhere has the single
meaning of sorrow. Thus in the French Rite,
during the ceremony of raising a candidate to
the Master's Degree, the Lodge is clothed in
black strewed with tears, as a token of grief for
the loss of a distinguished member of the Fraternity,
whose tragic history is commemorated
in that degree . This usage is not however,
observed in the York Rite . The black of the'
Elected Knights of Nine, the Illustrious Elect
of Fifteen, and the Sublime Knights Elected,
in the Scottish Rite, has a similar import .
In the degree of Noachite, black appears to
have been adopted as a symbol of grief, tempered
with humility, which is the virtue
principally dilated on in the degree .
The garments of the Knights Templar were
originally white, but after the death of their
martyred Grand Master, James de Molay,
the modern Knights assumed a black dress as
a token of grief for his loss . The same reason
led to the adoption of black as the appropriate
color in the Scottish Rite of the Knights of
Kadosh and the Sublime Princes of the Royal
Secret. The modern American modification
of the Templar costume destroys all reference
to this historical fact .
One exception to this symbolism of black is
to be found in the degree of Select Master
where the vestments are of black bordered
with red, the combination of the two colors
showing that the degree is properly placed
between the Royal Arch and Templar degrees,
while the black is a symbol of silence and
secrecy, the distinguishing virtues of a Select
Master .
Blackball . The ball used in a Masonic
ballot by those who do not wish the candidate
to be admitted . Hence, when an applicant
is rejected he is said to be "blackballed ."
The use oi black balls may be traced as far
back as the ancient Romans . Thus, Ovid
says (Met ., xv. 41), that in trials it was the
custom of the ancients to condemn the
prisoner by black pebbles or to acquit him by
white ones .
" Mos erat antiquus, niveis atrisque lapillis,
His damnare reos, illis absolvere culpes ."
Blackboard . In German Lodges the
Schwarze Tafel, or Blackboard, is that on