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

BRANT
BREADTH 115
of comparatively modern Brahmanism . The
"Laws of Menu " are really the text-book of
Brahmanism ; yet in the Vedic hymns we find
the expression of that religious thought that
has been adopted by the Brahmans and the
rest of the modern Hindus . The learned Brahmans
have an esoteric faith, in which they
recognize and adore one God without form or
quality, eternal, unchangeable and occupying
all space ; but confining this hidden doctrine
to their interior schools, they teach, for the
multitude, an open or esoteric worship, in
which the incomprehensible attributes of the
supreme and purely spiritual God are invested
with sensible and even human forms . In the
Vedic hymns all the powers of nature are personified,
and become the objects of worship,
thus leading to an apparent polytheism . But,
as Mr . J. F . Clarke (Ten Great Religions, p. 90)
remarks, "behind this incipient polytheism
lurks the original monotheism ; for each of
these gods, in turn, becomes the Supreme
Bein .' And Max Miiller says (Chips, i., 2)
that `it would be easy to find in the numerous
hymns of the Veda passages in which almost
every important deity is represented as supreme
and absolute." This most ancient
re li ionbelieved in by one-seventh of the
word's population that fountain from which
has flowed so much of the stream of modern
religious thought, abounding in mystical ceremonies
and ritual prescriptions, worshiping,
as the Lord of all, "the source of golden light, '
having its ineffable name, its solemn methods
of initiation, and its symbolic rites-is well
worth the serious study of the Masonic scholar,
because in it he will find much that will be suggestive
to him in the investigations of the dogmas
of his Order .
Brant, Joseph . A,Mohawk Indian, who
was initiated in London in 1776. During the
War of American Independence he was in command
of some Indian troops on the British side
by whom Captain McKinsty, of t e mte~
States Army, had been captured. The In d ians
had tied their prisoner to a tree and were preparing
to torture him, when he made the
mystic appeal of a Mason in the hour of danger.
Brant interposed and rescued his American
brother from his impending fate, took
him to Quebec, and placed him in the hands
of some English_ Masons, who returned him,
uninjured, to the American outposts . (Haw-
: kin's Concise Cyclopmdia of F. M.)
Clavel has illustrated the occurrence on
p. 283 of his Histoire Pittoresque de la F . M.
[E. L . H .1
Brazen Laver . See Laver.
Brazen Pillars. See Pillars of the Porch .
Brazen Serpent . See Serpent and Cross.
Brazen Serpent, Knight of the . See
Knight of the Brazen Serpent .
Brazil. The first organized Masonic authority
at Brazil, the Grande Oriente do
Brazil, was established in Rio de Janeiro, in
the year 1821, by the division into three of a
Lodge at Rio de Janeiro, which is said to have
been established under a French warrant in
1816.
The Emperor, Dom Pedro I ., was soon
after initiated in one of these Lodges, and
immediately proclaimed Grand Master ; but
finding that the Lodges of that period were
nothing but political clubs, he ordered them
to be closed in the following year, 1822 .
After his abdication in 1831, Masonic meetings
again took place, and a new authority,
under the title of "Grande Oriente Brazileiro,"
was established .
Some of the old members of the "Grande
Oriente do Brazil " met in November of the
same year and reorganized that body ; so that
two supreme authorities of the French Rite
existed in Brazil .
In 1832, the Visconde de Jequitinhonha,
having received the necessary powers from the
Supreme Council of Belgium, established a
Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted
Rite- making thus a third contending body,
to w~ich were soon added a fourth and fifth,
by the illegal organizations of the Supreme
Councils of their own, by the contending
Grand Orientes. In 1835, disturbances broke
out in the legitimate Supreme Council, some of
its Lodges having proclaimed the Grand Master
of the Grand Orient of Brazil their Grand
Commander, and thus formed another Supreme
Council. In 1842, new seeds of dissension
were planted by the combination of
this revolutionary faction with the Grande
Oriente Brazileiro, which body then abandoned
the French Rite, and the two formed a
new Council, which proclaimed itself the only
legitimate authority of the Scottish Rite in
Brazil . But it would be useless as well as
painful to continue the record of these dissension,
which, like a black cloud, darkened
for years the Masonic sky of Brazil .
Things are now in a better condition, and
Freemasonry in Brazil is united under the one
head of the Grand Orient .
Bread, Consecrated . Consecrated bread
and wine that is to say, bread and wine used
not simpiy for food, but made sacred by the
purpose of symbolizing a bond of brotherhood,
and the eating and drinking of which are
sometimes called the "Communion of the
Brethren," is found in some of the higher degrees,
such as the Order of High Priesthood in
the American Rite, and the Rose Croix of the
French and Scottish Rites .
It was in ancient times a custom religiously
observed, that those who sacrificed to the gods
should unite in partaking of a part of the food
that had been offered . And in the Jewish
church it was strictly commanded that the
sacrificers should "eat before the Lord," and
unite in a feast of joy on the occasion of their
offerings By this common partaking of that
which had been consecrated to a sacred purpose,
those who partook of the feast seemed to
give an evidence and attestation of the sincerity
with which they made the offering ;
while the feast itself was, as it were, the renewal
of the covenant of friendship between
the parties .
Breadth of the Lodge.
Lodge .
See Form of the