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

174 COMPOSITE
CONNECTICUT
conduct. As the Bible gives us light on our
duties to God, and the square illustrates our
duties to our neighborhood and brother, so
the compasses give that additional light which is
to instruct us in the duty we owe to ourselves
-the great, imperative duty of circumscribing
our passions, and keeping our desires
within due bounds. "It is ordained," says
the philosophic Burke, "in the eternal constitution
of things, that men of intemperate
passions cannot be free ; their passions forge
their fetters." Those brethren who delight to
trace our emblems to an astronomical origin,
find in the compasses a symbol of the sun, the
circular pivot representing the body of the
luminary, and the diverging legs his rays .
In the earliest rituals of the last century,
the compasses are described as a part of the
furniture of the Lodge, and are said to belong
to the Master . Some change will be found in
this respect in the ritual of the present day .
(See Square and Compasses .)
Composite. One of the five orders of
architecture introduced by the Romans, and
compounded of the other four, whence it derives
its name. Although it combines strength
with beauty, yet, as it is a comparatively
modern invention, it is held in little esteem
among Freemasons .
Concealment of the Body . See Aphanism.
Conclave . Commanderies of Knights Templars
in England and Canada were called Conclaves,
and the Grand Encampment, the
Grand Conclave, but the terms now in use
are "Preceptory" and "Great Priory" respectively.
The word is also applied to the
meetings in some other of the high degrees .
The word is derived from the Latin con,
"with," and clavis, "a key," to denote the idea
of being locked up in seclusion, and in this
sense was first applied to the apartment in
which the cardinals are literally locked up
when met to elect a Pope .
Concordists. A secret order established
in Prussia, by M . Lang, on the wreck of the
Tugendverein, which latter body was instituted
in 1790 as a successor of the Illuminati,
and suppressed in 1812 by the Prussian
Government, on account of its supposed political
tendencies .
Confederacies . A title given to the
yearly meetings of the Masons in the time of
Henry VI ., of England, and used in the celebrated
statute passed in the third year of his
reign, which begins thus : "Whereas, by the
yearly congregations and confederacies made
by the Masons in their General Chapiters assembled,
etc ." (See Laborers, Statutes of .)
Conference Lodges. Assemblies of the
members of a Lodge sometimes held in Germany
. Their object is the discussion of the
financial and other private matters of the
Lodge . Lodges of this kind held in France are
said to be "en famille ." There is no such arrangement
in English or American Masonry .
Conferring Degrees . When a candidate is
initiated into any degree of Masonry in due
form, the degree is said to have been conferred,
in contradistinction to the looser mode of imparting
its secrets by communication .
Confusion of Tongues . The Tower of
Babel is referred to in the ritual of the Third
Degree as the place where language was confounded
and Masonry lost . Hence, in Masonic
symbolism, as Masonry professes to possess
a universal language, the confusion of
tongues at Babel is a symbol of that intellectual
darkness from which the aspirant is seeking
to emerge on his passage to that intellectual
light which is imparted by the Order .
(See Threshing Floor .)
Congregations . In the Old Records and
Constitutions of Masonry the yearly meetings
of the Craft are so called . Thus in the Halliwell
or Regius MS. it is said, "very Master
that is a Mason must be at the General Congregation
." (Line 107 .) What are now called
"Communications of a Grand Lodge" were
then called "Congregations of the Craft ."
(See Assembly .)
Congresses, Masonic . At various times
in the history of Freemasonry conferences
have been held, in which, as in the General
Councils of the Church, the interests of the
Institution have been made the subject of
consideration . These conferences have received
the name of Masonic Congresses .
Whenever a respectable number of Masons
invested with deliberative powers, assemble as
the representatives of different countries and
jurisdictions, to take into consideration matters
relating to the Order, such a meeting will
be properly called a Congress . Of these Congresses
some have been productive of little or
no effect, while others have undoubtedly left
their mark ; nor can it be doubted, that if a
General or Ecumenical Congress, consisting
of representatives of all the Masonic powers
of the world, were to meet, with an eye single
to the great object of Masonic reform, and
were to be guided by a liberal and conciliatory
spirit of compromise, such a Congress might at
the present day be of incalculable advantage .
The most important Congresses that have
met since the year 926 are those of York,
Strasburg, Ratisbon, Spire, Cologne, Basle,
Jena, Altenberg, Brunswick, Lyons, Wolfenbuttel,
Wilhehnsbad, Paris, Washington, Baltimore,
Lexington, and Chicago . (See them
under their respective titles .)
Connecticut. The first Lodge organized
in Connecticut was Hiram Lodge, at New
Haven, which was warranted by the Grand
Lodge of the "Moderns" on November 12,
1750 ; it remained on the English register until
the formation of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut
in 1789, when it became No . 1 on the roll
of that Grand Lodge. Other Lodges were instituted,
some by authority from Massachusetts,
others from that derived from New
York . A convention of delegates from twelve
Lodges assembled at New Haven, July 8,
1789, and organized the Grand Lodge of Connecticut,
Pierpont Edwards being elected
Grand Master .
In 1796, there were three Royal Arch Chapters
in Connecticut . In 1797, these Chapters