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

CONSTITUTIONS
CONVENTIONS 177
The definite and well-authorized conclusions
to which Bro. Pike has arrived on the
subject of these Constitutions have been expressed
by that eminent Mason in the followmg
language :
"We think we may safely say, that the
charge that the GrandConstitutums were forged
at Charleston is completely disproved, and
that it will be contemptible hereafter to
repeat it. No set of speculating Jews constituted
the Supreme Council established there ; Speculative Masonry.)
and those who care for the reputations of Colonel
Mitchell, and Doctors Dalcho, Auld, and
Continental Lodges .
Moultrie, may well afford to despise the scurrilous
libels of the Ragons, Clavels, and Folgers.
"And, secondly, that it is not by any
means proven or certain that the Constitutions
were not really made at Berlin as the
purport to have been, and approved by Fr
Brick. We think that the preponderance of sense.
the evidence, internal and external, is on the Contumacy.
side of their authenticity, apart from the positive
evidence of the certificate of 1832 .
"And, thirdlq, that the Supreme Council
at Charleston had a perfect right to adopt
them as the law of the new Order ; no matter
where, when or by whom they were made,
as Andersonls Constitutions were adopted in
Symbolic Masonry ; that they are and always
have been the law of the Rite, because they
were so adopted; and because no man has ever
lawfully received the degrees of the Rite Convention .
without swearing to maintain them as its
supreme law ; for as to the articles themselves,
there is no substantial difference between the
French and Latin copies .
"And, fourthly, that there is not one particle
of proof of any sort, circumstantial or historical,
or by argument from improbability,
that they are not genuine and authentic . In
law, documents of great age, found in the possession
of those interested under them, to whom
they rightfully belong, and with whom they
might naturally be expected to be found, are
admitted in evidence without proof, to establish
title or facts . They prove themselves,
and to be avoided must be disproved by evidence
. There is no evidence against the genuineness
of these Grand Constitutions ."
Constitutions, Old . See Records, Old .
Consummatum est . Latin . It is finished
. A phrase used in some of the higher
degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite . It is borrowed from the expression used
by our Lord when he said, on the cross, "It is
finished," meaning that the work which had
been given him to do had been executed . It is,
therefore, appropriately used in the closing
ceremonies to indicate that the sublime work
of the degrees is finished, so that all may retire
in peace .
Contemplative . To contemplate is, literally,
to watch and inspect the Temple . The
augur among the Romans, having taken his
stand on the Capitoline Hill, marked out with
his wand the space in the heavens he intended
to consult . This space he called the templum.
Having divided his templum into two parts
from top to bottom, he watched to see what
would occur . The watching of the templum
was called contemplating ; and hence those
who devoted themselves to meditation upon
sacred subjects assumed this title . Thus,
among the Jews, the Essenes and the Therapeutists,
and, among the Greeks, the school
of Pythagoras, were contemplative sects .
Among the Freemasons, the word speculative
is used as equivalent to contemplative . (See
This expression is
used throughout this work, as it constantly is
by English writers to designate the Lodges on
the Continent of hurope which retain many
usages which have either been abandoned by,
or never were observed in, the Lodges of England,
Ireland, and Scotland, as well as the
United States of America . The words Continental
Masonry are employed in the same
In civil law it is the refusal
or neglect of a party accused' to ap ax and
answer to a charge preferred against in a
court of justice . In Masonic jurisprudence, it
is disobedience of or rebellion against superior
authority, as when a Mason refuses to obey
the edict of his Lodge, or a Lodge refuses to
obe that of the Grand Master or the Grand
ge. The punishment, in the former case, is
generally suspension or expulsion ; in the latter,
arrest of charter or forfeiture of warrant .
In a State or Territory
where there is no Grand Lodge, but three or
more Lodges holding their Warrants of Constitution
from Grand Lodges outside of the
Territory, these Lodges may meet together by
their representatives-who should properly be
the first three officers of each Lodge-and take
the necessary steps for the organization of a
Grand Lodge in that State or Territory.
This preparatory meeting is called a Convention.
A President and Secretary are chosen,
and a Grand Lodge is formed by the election
of a Grand Master and other proper officers,
when the old warrants are returned to the
Grand Lodges, and new ones taken out from
the newly formed Grand Lodge . Not less
than three Lodges are required to constitute a
Convention . The first Convention of this kind
ever held was that of the four old Lodges of
London, which met at the Apple-Tree Tavern,
in 1716, and in the following year formed the
Grand Lodge of England.
Convention Night . A title sometimes
given in the minutes of English Lodges to a
Lodge of emergency . Thus, in the minutes of
Constitution Lodge, No . 390 (London), we
read : "This being a Convention Night to
consider the state of the Lodge," etc . (Sadler's
History and Records of the Lodge of Emulation,
p . 64 .)
Conventions or Congresses of Masons in
chronological order :
926 . York, under Prince Edwin of England
.
1275. Strasburg, under Edwin Von Steinbach
.
1459. Ratisbon, under Jost Dolzinger.