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

CLEAVE
CLERMONT 1,55
to the initiation ; and, of course, it was used
symbolically to indicate the necessity of purity
from crime as a qualification of those who
sought admission into the sacred rites ; and
hence, on a temple in the Island of Crete, this
inscription was placed : "Cleanse your feet,
wash your hands, and then enter." Indeed,
the washing of hands, as symbolic of purity,
was among the ancients a peculiarly religious
rite. No one dared to pray to the gods until he
had cleansed his hands . Thus, Homer makes
Hector say :
" xepai 8' avi,rrow v Alt Aetsety ateoaa oivov
"Atoµat." (Iliad, vi., 266 .)
"I dread with unwashed hands to bring
My incensed wine to Jove an offering ."
In a similar spirit of reli ion, 1Eneas, when
leaving burning Troy, reuses to enter the
Temple of Ceres until his hands, polluted by
recent strife, had been washed in the living
stream .
Me hello e tanto digressum et `cede recenti,
Attrectare nefas, donee me flumine vivo
Abluero." (,'n., ii., 718.)
"In me, now fresh from war and recent strife,
'T is impious the sacred things to touch,
Till in the living stream myself I bathe ."
The same practise prevailed among the
Jews, and a striking instance of the symbolism
is exhibited in that well-known action of
Pilate who, when the Jews clamored for Jesus
that they might crucify him, appeared before
the people, and, having taken water, washed
his hands, saying at the same time, `I am innocent
of the blood of this just man, see ye to
it."
The white gloves worn by Masons as a part
of their clothing, alluded to this symbolizing
of clean hands ; and what in some of the high
degrees has been called "Masonic Baptism"
is nothing else but the symbolizing, by a ceremony,
this doctrine of clean hands as the sign
of a pure heart .
Cleave. The word to cleave is twice used
in Masonry, and each time in an opposite
sense . First, in the sense of adhering, where
the sentence in which it is employed is in the
Past Master's Degree, and is taken from the
137th Psalm : "Let my tongue cleave to the
roof of my mouth" ; second, in the Master's
Degree, where, in the expression "The flesh
cleaves from the bone," it has the intransitive
meaning of to separate, and is equivalent to
"the flesh parts, or separates, itself from the
bone ." In this latter use the word is obsolete,
and used only technically as a Masonic term .
Cleche . A cross charged with another of
the same figure, but whose color is that of the
field .
Clefts of the Rocks . The whole of Palestine
is very mountainous, and these mountains
abound in deep clefts or eaves, which
were anciently places of refuge to the nhabitants
in time of war, and were often used as
lurking places for robbers . It is, therefore,
strictly m accordance with geographical truth
that the statement, in relation to the concealment
of certain persons in the clefts of the
rocks, is made in the Third Degree . (See the
latter part of the article Caverns .)
Clement XU . A Pope who assumed the
pontificate on the 12th of August, 1730, and
died on the 6th of February, 1740 . On the
24th of April, 1738, he published his celebrated
bull of excommunication, entitled In
Eminenti Apostolatus Specula, in which we
find these words : "For which reason the temporal
and spiritual communities are enjoined,
in the name of holy obedience, neither to enter
the society of Freemasons, to disseminate its
principles, to defend it, nor to admit nor conceal
it within their houses or palaces, or elsewhere,
under pain of excommunication ipso
facto, for all acting in contradiction to this,
and from which the pope only can absolve the
dying." Clement was a bitter persecutor of
the Masonic Order, and hence he caused his
Secretary of State, the Cardinal Firrao, to
issue on the 14th of January, 1739, a still
more stringent edict for the Papal States, in
which death and confiscation of property,
without hope of mercy, was the penalty, or, as
the original has it, "sotto Pena della morte, e
confiscazione de beni da incorressi, i remissibilmente
senz a speranza di grazia ."
Clerks of Strict - Observance . Known
also as the Spiritual Branch of the Templars,
or Clerici Ordinis Templarii . This was a
schism from the Order or Rite of Strict Observance,
and was founded by Starck in 1767 .
The members of this Rite established it as a
rival of the latter system . They claimed a
preeminence not only over the Rite of Strict
Observance, but also over all the Lodges of
ordinary Masonry, and asserted that they alone
possessed the true secrets of the Order, and
knew the place where the treasures of the
Templars were deposited . (For a further history
of this Rite, see Starck.) The Rite consisted
of seven degrees, viz . : 1, 2 and 3 . Symbolic
Masonry. 4 . Junior Scottish Mason, or
Jungschotte . 5 . Scottish Master, or Knight
of St . Andrew . 6 . Provincial Capitular of the
Red Cross . 7 . Magus, or Knight of Purity
and Light . Clavel (Histoire Pittoresque, p .
186) gives different names to some of the
degrees. This last was subdivided into five
sections, as follows : I . Knight Novice of the
third year. II . Knight Novice of the fifth
year. III . Knight Novice of the seventh year .
IV. Levite, and V . Priest . Ragon errs in calling
this the Rite of Lax Observance .
Clermont, Chapter of. On the 24th of
November 1754, the Chevalier de Bonneville
established in Paris a Chapter of the high
degrees under this name, which was derived
from the Jesuitical Chapter of Clermont .
This society was composed of many distinguished
persons of the court and city, who,
disgusted with the dissensions of the Parisian
Lodges, determined to separate from them .
They adopted the Templar system, which had
been created at Lyons, m 1743, and their Rite
consisted at first of but six degrees, viz . : 1 2
3 . St. John's Masonry . 4. Knight of !&'