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

CAPITULAR
CAPTIVITY 133
eminently symbolic. The legends of the second
Temple, and the lost word, the peculiar
legends of that degree, are among the most
prominent symbols of the Masonic system .
Capitular Masonry . The Masonry conferred
in a Royal Arch Chapter of the York
and American Rites. There are Chapters in
the Ancient and Accepted, Scottish, and in the
French and other Rites ; but the Masonry
therein conferred is not called capitular .
Capitular Statistics . See Statistics of
Capitular Masonry .
Capripede Ratter et Lucifuge . A burlesque
dining degree, mentioned in the collection
of Fustier . (Thory, Acta Latomorum,
i ., 298.)
Captain-General . The third officer in a
Commandery of Knights Templar . He presides
over the Commandery in the absence of
his superiors, and is one of its representatives
in the Grand Commandery . His duties are
to see that the council chamber and asylum
are duly prepared for the business of the meetings,
and to communicate all orders issued by
the Grand Council. His station is on the left
of the Grand Commander, and his jewel is a
level surmounted by a cock . (See Cock .)
Captain of the Guard . The sixth officer
in a Council of Royal and Select Masters . In
the latter degree he is said to represent Azariah,
the son of Nathan, who had command of
the officers of the king's household . (1 Kings
iv . 5 .) His duties correspond in some measure
with those of a Senior Deacon in the primary
degrees . His post is, therefore, on the right of
the throne, and his jewel is a trowel and battleax
within a triangle .
Captain of the Host. The fourth officer
in, a Royal Arch Chapter . He represents the
general or leader of the Jewish troops who returned
from Babylon, and who was called
"Sar el hatzaba," and was equivalent to a
modern general. The word Host in the title
means army. He sits on the right of the
Council in front, and wears a white robe and
cap or helmet, with a red sash, and is armed
with a sword . His jewel is a triangular plate,
on which an armed soldier is engraved .
Captivity. The Jews reckoned their national
captivities as four :-the Babylonian,
Medean, Grecian, and Roman . The present
article will refer only to the first, when there
was a forcible deportation of the inhabitants
of Jerusalem by Nebuzaradan, the general of
King Nebuchadnezzar, and their detention at
Babylon until the reign of Cyrus, which alone
is connected with the history of Masonry, and
is commemorated in the Royal Arch Degree .
Between that portion of the ritual of the
Royal Arch which refers to the destruction of
the first Temple, and that subsequent part
which symbolizes the building of the second,
there is an interregnum (if we may be allowed
the term) in the ceremonial of the degree,
which must be considered as a long interval
in history, the filling up of which, like the
interval between the acts of a play, must be
left to the imagination of the spectator .
This interval represents the time passed in
the captivity of the Jews at Babylon . That
captivity lasted for seventy years-from the
reign of Nebuchadnezzar until that of Cyrus
-although but fifty-two of these years are
commemorated in the Royal Arch Degree .
This event took place in the year 588 n .e . It
was not, however, the beginning of the "seventy
years' captivity," which had been foretold
by the prophet Jeremiah, which commenced
eighteen years before . The captives
were conducted to Babylon . What was the
exact number removed we have no means of
ascertaining. We are led to believe, from certain
passages of Scripture, that the deportation
was not complete. Calmet says that
Nebuchadnezzar carried away only the principal
inhabitants, the warriors and artisans of
every kind, and that he left the husbandmen,
the laborers, and, in general, the poorer classes,
that constituted the great body of the people .
Among the prisoners of distinction, Josephus
mentions the high priest, Seraiah, and Zephaniah,
the priest that was next to him, with
the three rulers that guarded the Temple, the
eunuch who was over the armed men, seven
friends of Zedekiah, his scribe, and sixty other
rulers . Zedekiah, the king, had attempted to
escape previous to the termination of the siege,
but being pursued, was captured and carried
to Riblah, the headquarters of Nebuchadnezzar,
where, having first been compelled to
behold the slaughter of his children, his eyes
were then put out, and he was conducted in
chains to Babylon .
A Masonic tradition informs us that the
captive Jews were bound by their conquerors
with triangular chains, and that this was done
by the Chaldeans as an additional insult, because
the Jewish Masons were known to esteem
the triangle as an emblem of the sacred
name of God, and must have considered its
appropriation to the form of their fetters as a
desecration of the Tetragrammaton .
Notwithstanding the ignominious mode of
their conveyance from Jerusalem and the vindictiveness
displayed by their conqueror 'in
the destruction of their city and Temple, they
do not appear, on their arrival at Babylon, to
have been subjected to any of the extreme
rigors of slavery . They were distributed into
various parts of the empire, some remaining in
the city, while others were sent into the provinces.
The latter probably devoted themselves
to agricultural pursuits, while the former were
engaged in commerce or in the labors of architecture
. Smith says that the captives were
treated not as slaves but as colonists . They
were permitted to retain their personal property,
and even to purchase lands and erect
houses . Their civil and religious government
was not utterly destroyed, for they kept up a
regular succession of kings and high priests,
one of each of whom returned with them, as
will be seen hereafter, on their restoration .
Some of the principal captives were advanced
to offices of dignity and power in the royal
palace, and were permitted to share in the
councils of state . Their prophets, Daniel and
Ezekiel, with their associates, preserved