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

FIDUCIAL
FINDEL 265
hands as the representatives of Honor and
Truth, without which there can be no fidelity
nor truth among men . Masonry, borrowing
its ideals from the ancient p oets, also makes
the right hand the symbol of Fidelity.
Fiducial Sign. That is, the sign of confiding
trust, called also the sign of Truth and
Hope . One of the signs of the English Royal
Arch system, which is thus explained b y Dr .
Oliver (Diet . Symb . Mas .) : " The fiducial
sign shows us if we prostrate ourselves with
our face to the earth, we thus throw ourselves
on the mercy of our Creator and Judge, lookin
g forward with humble confidence to his
holy promises, by which alone we hope to pass
through the Ark of our redemption into the
mansion of eternal bliss and glory to the
presence of Him who is the great I AM, the
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the
Ending, the First and the Last ."
Field Lodge, or Army Lodge . A lodge
duly instituted under proper authority from a
grand body of competent jurisdiction, and
authorized to exercise during its peripatetic
existence all the powers and privileges that it
might possess if permanently located . Charters
of this nature, as the name implies, are
intended for the tented field, and have been
of the greatest service to humanity in its trying
hours, when the worst of passions are
appealed to .
Fifteen. A sacred number symbolic of the
name of God, because the letters of the holy
name V, JAH, are equal, in the Hebrew mode
of numeration by the letters of the alphabet,
to fifteen ; for' is equal to ten, and 71 is equal to
five. Hence, from veneration for this sacred
name, the Hebrews do not, in ordinary comp
utation, when they wish to express the number
fifteen, make use of these two letters, but
of two others, which are equivalent to nine
and six.
Finances. According to universal usage
in Masonry, the Treasurer of the Lodge or
other body is the banker or depositary of the
finances of the Lodge . They are first received
by the Secretary, who receipts for them, and
immediately pays them over to the Treasurer .
The Treasurer distributes them under the
orders of the Master and the consent of the
Lodge . This consent can only be known officially
to him by the statement of the Secretary,
and hence all orders drawn on the
Treasurer for the disbursement of money
should be countersigned by the Secretary .
Finch, William . A Masonic charlatan,
who flourished at the end of the last and the
beginning of the present century . Finch was
a tailor in Canterbury, who, having been expelled
for some misconduct by the Grand
Lodge, commenced a system of practical Masonry
on his own account, and opened a Lodge
in his house, where he undertook to initiate
candidates and to give instructions in Masonry
. He published a great number of pamphlets,
many of them in a ci pher of his own,
which he pretended were for the instruction of
the Fraternity . Among the books published
by him are : Masonic Treatise, with an Eluci-
dation on the Religious and Moral Beauties of
Freemasonry etc . ; printed at Canterbury in
1802. The iFectures, Laws, and Ceremonies of
the Holy Arch Degree of Freemasonry, etc . ;
Lambeth 1812 . The Origin of Freemasons,
etc. ; London, 1816 . Finch found many dupes,
and made a great deal of money . But having
on one occasion been sued by an engraver
named Smith, for money due fr printing his
plates, Finch pleaded an offset of money due
by Smith for initiation and instruction in Masonry.
Smith brought the Grand Secretary
and other distinguished Masons into court,
who testified that Finch was an impostor .
In consequence of this exposure, Finch lost
credit with the community, and, sinking into
obscurity, died sometime after, in abject
poverty .
As it is impossible to read Finch's Treatises
without a knowledge of the cipher employed
by him, the following key will be found useful .
We owe it to the researches of Bro . H. C. Levander
(Freem . Mag . and Rev ., 1859, p. 490) .
In the first part of the book the cipher used is
formed by reversing the alphabet, writing z
for a, y for b, etc . The cipher used on the
title-page differs somewhat from this, as will
be seen from the following tables :
FOR THE TITLE-PAGE .
Cipher. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k,1, m, n, o,
p, q, r, a, t, u v, w, x, y, z .
Key. b, d, f, h, j, l, n, p, r, t, v, x, z, y, w,
u, a, q, o, in, k, i, g, e, c, a .
FOR THE FIRST PART.
Cipher. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, b, i, j, k, 1, m, n,
o, p, q, r, a, t, u, v, w, x, y, z .
Key . z, y, x, w, v u, t, s, r, q, p, o, n, m, 1,
k, j, i, h, g, f, e, d, c, b, a .
In the second part of the work, a totally
different system is employed . The words may
be deciphered by taking the last letter, then
the first, then the last but one, then the second,
and so on . Two or three words are also
often run into one ; for example, ereetemhdrdoh,
is he ordered them . The nine digits represent
certain words of fre quent recurrence, a
repetition of the same digit denoting the
plural ; thus, 1 stands for Lodge; 11, for
Lodges ; 3, Fellow-Craft ; 33, Fellow-Crafts,
etc .
Findel, J . G. A Masonic writer of more
than ordinary note, who was admitted in the
lodge "Eleusis zur Verschwiegenheit," at
Baireuth, in 1856 . He was editor of the Bauhiitte,
an interesting journal, at Leipsic, in
1858, and added materially to Masonic literature
in founding the Verein Deutscher Freimaurer,
about 1860, and publishing, in 1874,
Geist and Form der Freimaurerei .
His best known and most important work
is his Geschichte der Freimaurerei (or General
History of Freemasonry) published in 1861,
which has been translated into English,
French, and other languages, and was the
first attempt at a critical history of the Craft .
He died in 1905.
Fines. Fines for non-attendance or neglect
of duty are not now usually imposed in
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