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

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COMACINE 161
orado, the Grand East of which was placed at
Denver. J. M . Chivington was elected first
Grand Master . Chapters of Royal Arch
Masons and a Commandery of Knights Templar
were subsequently introduced .
Colored Fraternities . The secret societies
of negroes claiming to be Masonic are
quite extensive, embracing Grand Lodges in
practically every State . (See Negro Masonry.)
Colors, Symbolism of. Wemyss, in his
Clavis Symbolica, says : "Color, which is outwardly
seen on the habit of the body, is symbolically
used to denote the true state of the
person or subject to which it is applied, according
to its nature ." This definition may
appropriately be borrowed on the present occasion,
and applied to the system of Masonic
colors . The color of a vestment or of a decoration
is never arbitrarily adopted in Freemasonry
. Every color is selected with a view to
its power in the symbolic alphabet, and it
teaches the initiate some instructive moral
lesson, or refers to some important historical
fact in the .system .
Frederic Portal, a French archeologist, has
written a valuable treatise on the symbolism
of colors, under the title of Des Couleurs Symboliques
dans l'antiquite, le moyen dge et les
temps modernes, which is well worth the attention
of Masonic students . The Masonic
colors are seven in number, namely : 1, blue ;
2, purple ; 3 red ; 4, white; 5, black ; 6,
green ; 7, yellow ; 8, violet. (See those respective
titles .)
Columbia, District of. The Grand
Lodge of the District of Columbia was organized
December 11, 1810, by Lodges having
warrants from Maryland and Virginia, and
Valentine Reintzel was elected Grand Master .
It has 27 Lodges under it. The Grand
Chapter formed, originally, a component
part of the Grand Chapter of Maryland and
the District of Columbia ; but the connection
was dissevered in 1867, and an independent
Grand Chapter formed, which has now
five Chapters under its jurisdiction . There is
neither a Grand Commandery nor Grand
Council in the Territory, but several Commanderies
subordinate to the Grand Encampment
of the United States and a Council of
Royal and Select Masters chartered by the
Grand Council of Massachusetts . The Scottish
Rite has also been successfully cultivated,
and there are in operation a Lodge of
Perfection and a Chapter of Rose Croix .
Column. Around ~pillar made to supporas
well as to adorn a building, whose construction
varies in the different orders of architect
ture. In Masonry, columns have a symbolic
signification as the supports of a Lodge, and
are known as the Columns of Wisdom,
Strength, and Beauty. The broken column is
also a symbol in Masonry . (See the titles
Supports of the Lodge and Broken Column .)
Comacine Masters . It has long been a
theory of some writers, secular and Masonic,
that there was a direct succession of the operative
gilds from the Roman Colleges to those
who merged into Speculative Masonry in
1717, and as investigation proceeded, the
proofs became stronger and stronger until
now it can no longer reasonably be doubted .
At first it was not attempted to prove the
succession it was only inferred, but recently
more careful investigators have come to view,
whose results go far in establishing the direct
succession from Roman Colleges to Speculative
Masonry .
The principal purpose of this article is to
put a link in the chain of operative gilds and
establish a continuous connection from the
oldest gild formation (Roman Colleges which
see) through the Lombard period and lztenaissance
to the formation of Speculative Masonry
by the English gilds .
Before beginning the description of the
Comacine Masters, which, from the controversial
character of the subject, must of necessity
be kindred to a discussion resting heavily
on citations and quoted authorities who
have worked in this special field, it will be
necessary to draw a fair picture of the Roman
possessions and civilization at this period .
When Rome had passed the zenith of her
power and had begun to decline from internal
and external causes, it is but natural to suppose
that her neighboring enemies noticed
this, and as they had long looked upon Italy
with avaricious eyes, felt the time had arrived
for them to attain what they had most desired
. The year 476 A.D., when the last of
the nominal Cmsars ceased to rule in the
West, is usually taken by historians as marking
the fall of the Roman Empire. However
true that may be, the falling began when Constantine
established the seat of his empire
at Constantinople, in 327 and drew much
strength from Rome, thereby making it easier
for the Vandals and Goths to renew their attacks.
For five centuries horde after horde
of barbarians flung themselves against the
Roman frontiers, each striking deeper than
the last, and being repelled with greater and
greater difficulty, the Empire sinking beneath
internal decay more than from her external
enemies .
When the Western Empire ceased in the
fifth century and Europe was plunged into
what has been called "The Dark Ages" and
all progress in letters and the arts of peace is
supposed to have ceased, it is refreshing to
quote what John Fiske said in Old and New
Ways of Treating History, when speaking of
that period : "In truth the dull ages which no
Homer has sung or Tacitus described, have
sometimes been critical ages for human
progress . . This restriction of the views to
literary ages has had much to do with the popular
misconception of the 1,000 years that
elapsed between the reign of Theodoric the
Great and the Discovery of America . For
many reasons that period might be called the
Middle Ages ; but the popular mind is apt to
lump these ten centuries together, as if they
were all alike, and apply to them the misleading
epithet `Dark Ages .' A portion of the
darkness is in the minds of those who use
the epithet."