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

CRUX CUNNING 19 1
all countries where they settled we find the
same style of architecture from that period,
but differing in some points of
treatment, as suited the climate .
Crux Ansata. This signifies,
in Latin, the cross with a handle .
It is formed by a Tau cross surmounted
by a circle or, more properly,
an oval. It was one of the
most significant of the symbols of
the ancient Egyptians, and is depicted
repeatedly on their monuments
borne in the hands of their
deities, and especially Phtha. Among them
it was the symbol of life, and with that meaning
it has been introduced into some .of the
higher degrees of Masonry . The Crux Ansata,
surrounded by a serpent in a circle, is the
symbol of immortality, because the cross was
the symbol of life, and the serpent of eternity .
Crypt . From the Greek, rcp6mrw (to hide) .
A concealed place, or subterranean vault .
The caves, or cells underground, in which the
primitive Christians celebrated their secret
worship, were called cryptw ; and the vaults
beneath our modern churches receive the
name of crypts . The existence of crypts or
vaults under the Temple of Solomon is testified
to by the earliest as well as by the most
recent topographers of Jerusalem . Their connection
with the legendary history of Masonry
is more fully noticed under the head of Vault
Secret .
Cryptic Degrees. The degrees of Royal
and Select Master. Some modern ritualists
have added to the list the degree of Superexcellent
Master ; but this, although now
often conferred in a Cryptic Council, is not
really a Cryptic degree, since its legend has
no connection with the crypt or secret vault .
Cryptic Masonry. That division of the
Masonic system which is directed to the investigation
and cultivation of the Cryptic
degrees . It is, literally, the Masonry of the
secret vault .
Cteis. Greek, rrrels . The female personification
of the productive principle . It generally
accompanied the phallus, as the Indian
yoni did the lingam ; and as a symbol of the
prolific powers of nature, was extensively venerated
by the nations of antiquity . (See
Phallic Worship .)
Cubical Stone . This symbol is called by
the French Masons, pierce cubique, and by the
German, cubik stein . It is the Perfect Ashlar
of the English and American systems . (See
Ashlar .)
Cubit. A measure of length originally
denoting the distance from the elbow to the
extremity of the middle finger, or the fourth
part of a well-proportioned man's stature .
The Hebrew cubit, according to Bishop Cumberland,
was twenty-one inches ; but only
eighteen according to other authorities . There
were two kinds of cubits, the sacred and profane-the
former equal to thirty-six, and the
latter to eighteen inches . It is by the common
cubit that the dimensions of the various parts
of the Temple are to be computed .
Culdees. When St . Augustine came over,
in the beginning of the sixth century, to Britain,
for the purpose of converting the natives
to Christianity, he found the country already
occupied by a body of priests and their disciples,
who were distinguished for the pure and
simple apostolic religion which they professed .
These were the Culdees, a name said by some
to be derived from Cultores Dei, or worshipers
of God ; but by others, with perhaps more
plausibility, from the Gaelic, Cuildich, which
means a secluded corner, and evidently alludes
to their recluse mode of life . The Culdees
are said to have come over into Britain with
the Roman legions ; and thus it has been conjectured
that these primitive Christians were
in some way connected with the Roman Colleges
of Architects, branches of which body, it
is well known, everywhere accompanied the
legionary armies of the empire . The chief seat
of the Culdees was in the island of Iona where
St . Columba, coming out of Ireland ; with
twelve brethren, in the year 563, established
their principal monastery . At Avernethy, the
capital of the kingdom of the Picts, they
founded another in the year 600, and subsequently
other principal seats at Dunkeld, St .
Andrew's, Brechin, Dunblane, Dumferline,
Kirkaldy, Melrose, and many other places in
Scotland . A writer in the London Freemasons'
Quarterly Review (1842, p . 36) says they were
little solicitous to raise architectural structures,
but sought chiefly to civilize and socialize
mankind by imparting to them the knowledge
of those pure principles . which they
taught in their Lodges . Lenning and Gadicke,
however, both state that the Culdees had organized
within themselves, and as a part of
their social system, Corporations of Builders ;
and that they exercised the architectural art
in the construction of many sacred edifices in
Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and even in other
countries of Northern Europe . Gadicke also
claims that the York Constitutions of the
tenth century were derived from them . But
neither of these German lexicographers has
furnished us with authorities upon which these
statements are founded . It is, however, undeniable,
that Masonic writers have always
claimed that there was a connection-it might
be only a mythical one-between these apostolic
Christians and the early Masonry of Ireland
and Scotland . The Culdees were opposed
and persecuted by the adherents of St .
Au ine, and were eventually extinguished
in Scotland . But their complete suppression
did not take place until about the fourteenth
century .
Cumulation of Rites . The practise by a
Lodge of two or more Rites, as the American
or York and the Ancient Accepted Scottish, or
the Scottish and French Modern Rites . This
cumulation of Rites has been practised to a
considerable extent in France, and in Louisiana
in the United States .
Cunning. Used by old English writers
in the sense of skilful. Thus, in 1 Kings
vii . 14, it is said of the architect who was sent
by the King of Tyre to assist King Solomon in