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

156 CLERMONT
CLOUDED
Eagle . 5 . Illustrious Knight or Templar. 6 .
Sublime Illustrious Knight . But soon after
the number of these degrees was greatly extended
. The Baron de Hund received the high
degrees in this Chapter, and derived from them
the idea of the Rite of Strict Observance,
which he subsequently established in Germany.
Clermont, College of. A college of
Jesuits in Paris, where James II ., after his
flight from England, in 1688, resided until his
removal to St . Germains. During his residence
there, he is said to have sought the establishment
of a system of Freemasonry, the
object of which should be the restoration of
the House of Stuart to the throne of England .
Relics of this attempted system are still to be
found in many of the high degrees, and the
Chapter of Clermont, subsequently organized
in Paris, appears to have had some reference
to it .
Clermont, Count of. Louis of Bourbon,
prince of the blood and Count of Clermont,
was elected by sixteen of the Paris Lodges perpetual
Grand Master, for the purpose of correcting
the numerous abuses which had crept
into French Masonry. He did not, however,
fulfil the expectations of the French Masons ;
for the next year he abandoned the supervision
of the Lodges, and new disorders arose .
He still, however, retained the Grand Mastership,
and died in 1771, being succeeded by his
nephew, the Duke of Chartres.
Clinton, De Witt . A distinguished statesman,
who was born at Little Britain, New
York, March 2, 1769 and died on the 11th of
February, 1828 . Ve entered the Masonic
Order in 1793, and the next year was elected
Master of his Lodge . In 1806, he was elevated
to the position of Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge of New York, and in 1814, to that of
Grand Master of the Grand Encampment .
In 1816, he was elected General Grand High
Priest of the General Grand Chapter of the
United States . In 1813, he became unwittingly
complicated with the Spurious Consistory,
established by Joseph Cerneau in the
city of New York, but he took no active part
in its proceedings, and soon withdrew from all
connection with it. When the anti-Masonic
excitement arose in this country in 1826, in
consequence of the affair of William Morgan,
whom the Masons were accused of having put
to death, Mr. Clinton was Governor of the
State of New York, and took all the necessary
measures for the arrest of the supposed criminals
. But, although he offered a liberal reward
for their detection he was charged by
the anti-Masons with official neglect and indifference,
charges which were undoubtedly
false and malicious . Spenser, the special
attorney of the State, employed for the prosecution
of the offenders, went so far as to
resign his office, and to assign, as a reason for
his resignation, the want of sympathy and
support on the part of the Executive . But all
of the accusations and insinuations are properly
to be attributed to political excitement,
anti-Masonry having been adopted soon after
its origin by the politicians as an engine for
their advancement to office. Clinton was an
honorable man and a true patriot . He was
also an ardent and devoted Mason .
Closing . The duty of closing the Lodge
is as imperative, and the ceremony as solemn,
as that of opening ; nor should it ever be
omitted through negligence, nor hurried over
with haste but everything should be performed
with order and precision so that no
brother shall go away dissatisfied. From the
very nature of our Constitution, a Lodge cannot
properly be adjourned. It must be closed
either in due form, or the brethren called off
to refreshment . But an adjournment on motion,
as in other societies, is unknown to the
Order . The Master can alone dismiss the
brethren, and that dismission must take place
after a settled usage . In Grand Lodges which
meet for several days successively, the session
is generally continued from day to day, by
calling to refreshment at the termination of
each day's sitting .
Clothed . A Mason is said to be properly
clothed when he wears white leather gloves, a
white apron, and the jewel of his Masonic
rank . The gloves are now often, but improperly,
dispensed with, except on public occasions
. "No Mason is permitted to enter a
Lodge or join in its labors unless he is properly
clothed ." Lenning, speaking of Continental
Masonry, under the article Kleidung
in his Lexicon, says that the clothing of a
Freemason consists of apron, gloves, sword,
and hat . In the York and American Rites, the
sword and hat are used only in the degrees of
chivalry . In the catechisms of the early eighteenth
century the Master of a Lodge was described
as clothed in a yellow jacket and a blue
pair of breeches, in allusion to the brass top
and steel legs of a pair of compasses . After the
middle of the century, he was said to be
"clothed in the old colors, viz ., purple, crimson,
and blue" ; and the reason assigned for it
was "because they are royal, and such as the
ancient kings and princes used to wear ." The
actual dress of a Master Mason was, however,
a full suit of black, with white neck-cloth,
apron, gloves, and stockings ; the buckles
being of silver, and the jewels being suspended
from a white ribbon by way of collar . (For the
clothing and decorations of the different degrees,
see Regalia .)
Clothing the Lodge. In the "Generat
Regulations," approved by the Grand Lodge
of England in 1721, it is provided in article
seven that "Every new Brother at his making
is decently to cloath the Lodge, that is, all the
Brethren present ; and to deposit something
for the relief of indigent and decayed Brethren
." By "clothing the Lodge" was meant
furnishing the Brethren with gloves and
aprons. The regulation no longer exists . It is
strange that Oliver should have quoted as the
authority for this usage a subsequent regulation
of 1767. In Scotland this was practised
in several Lodges to a comparatively recent
date .
Clouded Canopy.
See Canopy, Clouded.