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

158 COLE
COLLOCATIO
Subsequent editions were published up to
1794. Bro . Richard Spencer, the wellknown
Masonic bibliographer, says that Cole engraved
his plates from a MS . which he calls
the Constitutions of 1726, or from a similar
MS . by the same scribe . Bro. Hughan published
in 1869 in his Constitutions of the
Freemasons, in a limited edition of seventy
copies, a lithograph facsimile of the 1729
Edition of Cole, and in 1897 a facsimile
of the 1731 Edition, which was limited to
200 copies was published by Mr . Richard
Jackson of Leeds, with an introduction by
Bro. Hughan .
Cole, Samuel. He was at one time the
Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Maryland,
and the author of a work entitled The
Freemason's Library, or General Ahiman Rezon,
the first edition of which appeared in 1817,
and the second in 1826 . It is something more
than a mere monitor or manual of the degrees,
and greatly excels in literary pretensions the
contemporary works of Webb and Cross.
Cole's Manuscript . The MS . from which
Cole is supposed to have made his engraved
Constitutions, now known as the Spencer MS .
It was in the possession of Bro . Richard Spencer,
who published it in 1871, under the title
of A Book of the Ancient Constitutions of the
Free and Accepted Masons . Anno Dom ., 1786.
The subtitle is The Beginning and First
Foundation of the Most Worthy Craft of Masonry,
with the charges thereunto belonging. In
1875 it was bought by Mr . E . T . Carson of
Cincinnati, U . S. A .
Collar. An ornament worn around the
neck by the officers of Lodges, to which is suspended
a jewel indicative of the wearer's rank .
The color of the collar varies in the different
grades of Masonry . That of a symbolic Lodge
is blue ; of a Past Master, purple ; of a Royal
Arch Mason, scarlet ; of a Secret Master,
white bordered with black ; of a Perfect Master,
green, etc . These colors are not arbitrary,
but are each accompanied with a symbolic
signification .
In the United States, the collar worn by
Grand Officers in the Grand Lodge is, properly,
pur le edged with gold . In the Grand Lodge
of England, the Grand Officers wear chains of
gold or metal gilt instead of collars, but on
other occasions, collars of ribbon, garter blue,
four inches broad, embroidered or plain .
The-use of the collar in Masonry, as an
official decoration, is of very old date . It is a
regulation that its form should be triangular ;
that is, that it should terminate on the breast
in a point. The symbolical reference is evident
. The Masonic collar is derived from the
practises of heraldry ; collars are worn not
only by municipal officers and officers of State,
but also by knights of the different orders as a
part of their investiture .
College. The regular Convocation of the
subordinate bodies of the Society of Rosicrucians
is called an Assemblage of the College,
at which their mysteries are celebrated by initiation
and advancement, at the conclusion
of which the Mystic Circle is broken .
Colleges, Irish . These Were established
in Paris between 1730 and 1740, and were
rapidly being promulgated over France, when
they were superseded by the Scottish Chapters.
Colleges, Masonic . There was atone time
a great disposition exhibited by the Fraternity
of the United States to establish colleges, to
be placed under the supervision of Grand
Lodges . The first one ever endowed in this
country was that at Lexington, in Missouri,
established by the Grand Lodge of that State,
in October, 1841, which for some time pursued
a prosperous career. Other GrandLodges, such
as those of Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas,
North Carolina, Florida, and a few others,
subsequently either actually organized or took
the preliminary steps for organizing Masonic
colleges in their respective jurisdictions. But
experience has shown that there is an incongruity
between the official labors of a Grand
Lodge as the Masonic head of the Order and
the superintendence and support of a college .
Hence, these institutions have been very generally
discontinued, and the care of providing
for the education of indigent children of the
Craft has been wisely committed to the subordinate
Lodges.
The late Thomas Brown, the distinguished
Grand Master of Florida, thus expressed the
following correct views on this subject :
"We question if the endowment of colleges
and large seminaries of learning, under the
auspices and patronage of Masonic bodies, be
the wisest plan for the accomplishment of the
great design, or is in accordance with the
character and principles of the Fraternity .
Such institutions savor more of pageantry
than utility ; and as large funds, amassed for
such purposes, must of necessity be placed
under the control and management of comparatively
few, it will have a corrupting influence,
promote discord, and bring re roach
upon the Craft. The principles of Masonry
do not sympathize with speculations in stock
and exchange brokerage . Such, we fear, will
be the evils attendant on such institutions, to
say nothing of the questionable right and
policy of drawing funds from the subordinate
Lodges, which could be appropriated by their
proper officers more judiciously, economically,
and faithfully to the accomplishment of the
same great and desirable object in the true
Masonic spirit of charity, which is the bond of
peace ."
Collegla Artifleum . Colleges of Artif.
icers . (See Roman Colleges of Artificers .)
Collegium. In Roman jurisprudence, a
collegium, or college, expressed the idea of
several persons united together in any office
or for any common purpose . It required not
less than three to constitute a college, according
to the law maxim, "Tree faciunt
collegium" (Three make a college), and
hence, perhaps, the Masonic rule that not
fewer than three Master Masons can form a
Lodge .
Collocatio. The Greek custom of exposing
the corpse on a bier over night,