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

CLOUD
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Cloud, Pillar of. See Pillars of Cloud and
Fire .
Cloudy. A word sometimes improperly
used by the Wardens of a Lodge when reporting
an unfavorable result of the ballot . The
proper word is foul.
Clubs . The eighteenth century was distinguished
in England by the existence of
numerous local and ephemeral associations
under the name of clubs, where men of different
classes of society met for amusement and
recreation . Each profession and trade had its
club, and "whatever might be a man's character
or disposition," says Oliver, "he would find
in London a club that would square with his
ideas." Addison, in his paper on the origin of
clubs (Spectator, No . 9), remarks : "Man is
said to be a social animal, and as an instance of
it we may observe that we take all occasions
and pretences of forming ourselves into those
little nocturnal assemblies which are comm
known by the name of clubs . When a
set omen find themselves agree in any particular,
though never so trivial, they establish
themselves into a kind of fraternity and meet
once or twice a week, upon the account of such
a fantastic resemblance ." Hard drinking was
characteristic of those times, and excesses too
often marked the meetings of these societies .
It was at this time that the Institution of
Freemasonry underwent its revival commonly
known as the revival of 1717, and it is
not strange that its social character was somewhat
affected by the customs of the day . The
Lodges therefore assumed at that time too
much of a convivial character, derived from
the customs of the existing clubs and coteries ;
but the moral and religious principles upon
which the Institution was founded prevented
any undue indulgence ; and although the
members were permitted the enjoyment of
decent refreshment, there was a standing law
which provided against all excess .
Coat of the Tiler . In olden times it was
deemed proper that the Tiler of a Lodge, like
the beadle of a parish-whose functions were
in some respects similar-should be distinguished
by a tawdry dress . In a schedule of
the regalia, records, etc ., of the Grand Lodge
of all England, taken at York in 1779, to be
found in Hughan's Masonic Sketches and Repnnts
(p 33), we find the following item : "a
blue cloth coat with a red collar for the Tyler ."
Cochleus. A very corrupt word in the
Fourth Degree of the Scottish Rite ; there said
to signify in the form of a screw, and to be the
name of the winding staircase which led to the
middle chamber. The true Latin word is
cochlea. But the matter is so historically
absurd that the word ought to be and is rejected
in the modern rituals .
Cock. The ancients made the cock a
symbol of courage, and consecrated him to
Mars, Pallas, and Bellona, deities of war .
Some have supposed that it is in reference to
this quality that the cock is used in the jewel
of the Captain-General of an Encampment of
Knights Templar.
Reghellini, however, gives a different ex-
planation of this symbol. He says that the
cock was the emblem of the sun and of life,
and that as the ancient Christians allegorically
deplored the death of the solar orb in
Christ, the cock recalled its life and resurrection
. The cock, we know, was a symbol
among the early Christians, and is repeatedly
to be found on the tombs in the catacombs of
Rome . Hence it seems probable that we
should give a Christian interpretation to the
jewel of a Knights Templar as symbolic of the
resurrection. .
Cockade . Some few of the German
Lodges have a custom of permitting their
members to wear a blue cockade in the hat as
a symbol of equality and freedom-a symbolism
which, as Lenning says, it is difficult to
understand, and the decoration is inappropriate
as a part of the clothing of a Mason . Yet
it is probable that it was a conception of this
kind that induced Cagliostro to prescribe the
cockade as a part of the investiture of a female
candidate in the initiation of his Lodges
Clavel says the Venerable or Master of a
French Lodge wears a black cockade .
Cockle-Shell . The cockle-shell was worn
by ilgrims in their hats as a token of their
profession ; now used in the ceremonies of
Templarism .
Caetus . Latin. An assembly. It is incorrectly
used in some old Latin Masonic
diplomas for a Lodge . It is used by Laurence
Dermott in a diploma dated September 10
1764, where he signs himself "Sec . M . Ceetus,'1
or Secretary of the Grand Lodge .
Coffin. In the Ancient Mysteries the
aspirant could not claim a participation in
the highest secrets until he had been placed in
the Pastos, bed or coffin . The placing him in
the coffin was called the symbolical death of
the mysteries, and his deliverance was termed
a raising from the dead . "The mind," says an
ancient writer, quoted by Stobaeus, "is affected
in death just as it is in the initiation into
the mysteries . And word answers to word, as
well as thing to thing ; for TEXEVra' is to die,
and rEA&neat, to be initiated ." The coffin in
Masonry is found on tracing boards of the
early part of the last century, and has always
constituted a part of the symbolism of the
Third Degree, where the reference is precisely
the same as that of the Pastos in the Ancient
Mysteries.
Cohen . 1'c . A Hebrew word signifying
a priest. The French Masonic writers, indulging
in a Gallic custom of misspelling all names
derived from other languages, universally spell
it coen.
Cohens, Elected . See Paschalis, Martinez.
Cole, Benjamin . He published at London,
in 1728, and again in 1731, the Old Constitutions,
engraved on thirty copper plates,
under the title of A Book of the Ancient Constitutions
of the Free and Accepted Masons . In
1751, Cole printed a third edition with the
title of The Ancient Constitutions and Charges
of Freemasons, with a true representation of
their noble Art in several Lectures or Speeches .