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

248 EQUERRY
ERICA
Equerry. An officer in some courts who
has the charge of horses . For some unknown
reason the title has been introduced into some
of the high degrees .
Eques . A Latin word signifying knight.
Every member of the Rite of Strict Observance,
on attaining to the seventh or highest
degree, received a "characteristic name "
which was formed in Latin by the addition of a
noun in the ablative case, governed by the
preposition a or ab to the word Eques, as
"Eques a Serpents,' ; or Knight of the Serpent,
"Eques ab Aquila, ,, or Knight of the Eagle
etc., and by this name he was ever afterward
known in the Order . Thus Bode, one of the
founders of the Rite, was recognized as
"Eques A6 Lilio Convallium," or Knight o
the Lily of the Valleys, and the Baron Hun y
another founder, as "Eques ab Ense," or
Knight of the Sword . A similar custom prevailed
among the Illuminati and in the Royal
Order of Scotland . Eques signified among the
Romans a knight, but in the Middle Ages the
knight was called miles; although the Latin
word miles denoted only a soldier, yet, by the
usage of chivalry, it received the nobler signification.
Indeed, Muratori says, on the authority
of an old inscription, that Eques was
inferior in dignity to Mites . (See Miles )
Eques Professus . Professed Knight . The
seventh and last degree of the Rite of Strict
Observance. Added, it is said, to the original
series by Von Hund .
Equilateral Triangle . (See Triangle.)
Equity . The equipoised balance is an ancient
symbol of equity. On the medals, this
virtue is represented by a female holding in
the right hand a balance, and in the left a
measuring wand, to indicate that she gives to
each one his just measure . In the Ancient
and Accepted Rite, the Thirty-first Degree,
or Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander
is illustrative of the virtue of equity ; and
hence the balance is a prominent symbol of
that degree, as it is also of the Sixteenth Degree,
or Princes of Jerusalem, because according
to the old rituals, they were chiefs
in Masonry, and administered justice to the
inferior degrees .
Equivocation . The words of the covenant
of Masonry require that it should be
made without evasion, equivocation, or mental
reservation. This is exactly in accordance
with the law of ethics in relation to promises
made . And it properly applies in this case,
because the covenant, as it is called, is simply a
promise, or series of promises, made by the
candidate to the Fraternity-to the brotherhood
into whose association he is about to be
admitted . In making a promise, an evasion is
the eluding or avoiding the terms of the promise
; and this is done, or attempted to be done,
by equivocation, which is by giving to the
words used a secret signification different
from that which they were intendW to convey
by him who imposed the promise, so as to mislead,
or by a mental reservation which is a concealment
or withholding in the mind of the
promiser of certain conditions under which he
makes it, which conditions are not known to
the one to whom the promise is made . All of
this is in direct violation of the law of veracity .
The doctrine of the Jesuits is very different .
Suarez, one of their most distinguished casuists,
lays it down as good law, that if any one
makes a promise or contract, be may secretly
understand that he does not sincerely promise,
or that he promises without any intention of
fulfilling the promise. This is not the rule of
Masonry, which requires that the words of
the covenant be taken in the patent sense
which they were intended by the ordinary use
of language to convey. It adheres to the
true rule of ethics, which is, as Paley says,
that a promise is binding in the sense in
which the promiser supposed the promisee to
receive it .
Eranol. Among the ancient Greeks there
were friendly societies, whose object was, like
the modern Masonic Lodges, to relieve the
distresses of their necessitous members . They
were permanently organized, and had a common
fund by the voluntary contributions of
the members. If a member was reduced to
poverty or was in temporary distress for
money, he applied to the eranos, and, if worthy,
received the necessary assistance, which was,
however, advanced rather as a loan than a
gift, and the amount was to be returned when
the recipient was in better circumstances . In
the days of the Roman Empire these friendly
societies were frequent among the Greek cities,
and were looked on with suspicion by the
emperors, as tending to political combinations .
Smith says (Diet. Gr . and Rom. Ant. s . v.
Evani) that the Anglo-Saxon gilds, or fraternities
for mutual aid, resembled the eranoi
of the Greeks . In their spirit, these Grecian
confraternities partook more of the Masonic
character, as charitable associations, than of
the modern friendly societies, where relief is
based on a system of mutual insurance ; for
the assistance was given only to cases of actual
need, and did not depend on any calculation of
natural contingencies .
Erica. The Egyptians selected the erica
as a sacred plant. The origin of the consecration
of this plant will be peculiarly interesting
to the Masonic student . There was a legend
in the mysteries of Osiris, which related that
Isis, when in search of the body of her murdered
husband, discovered it interred at the
brow of a hill near which an erica grew ; and
hence, after the recovery of the body and the
resurrection of the god, when she established
the mysteries to commemorate her loss and her
recovery, she adopted the erica as a sacred
plant, in memory of its having pointed out the
spot where the mangled remains of Osiris were
concealed .
Ragon (Cours des Initiations, p . 151), thus
alludes to this mystical event : "Isis found the
body of Osiris in the neighborhood of Biblos,
and near a tall plant called the erica . O
pressed with grief, she seated herself on t)e
margin of a fountain whose waters issued
from a rock . This rock is the small hill mentioned
in the ritual ; the erica has been re-