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

278 FRANCIS
FRANKLIN
to see eventually healed. One of the most
extraordinary acts of the Grand Orient of
France has been the abolition in 1871 of the
office of Grand Master, the duties being performed
by the President of the Council of the
Order.
Discussion and an attempted avoidance of a
threatening Masonic calamity by a large number
of the Fraternity of France did not avail to
prevent the General Assembl of the Grand
Orient of France from competing its overthrow
and that of its subordinates by the
almost unanimous adoption of the now famous
amendment of Art . I . of the Constitution of
Masonry, on September 14, 1877 .
The following is the text of the amendment
and of the original second paragraph which
was expunged :
Orip;inal paragraph : "Freemasonry has for
its principles the existence of God, the immortality
of the soul, and the solidarity of
mankind "
Substituted amendment : "Whereas, Freemasonry
is not a religion, and has therefore no
doctrine or dogma to affirm in its Constitution,
the Assembly adopting the Vaeu IX., has
decided and decreed that the second paragraph
of Article I. of the Constitution shall be
erased, and that for the words of the said
article the following shall be substituted : I.
Being an institution essentially philanthropic,
philosophic, and progressive, Freemasonry
has for its object, search after truth, study of
universal morality, sciences and arts, and the
practice of benevolence . It has for its
principles, absolute liberty of conscience and
human solidarity, it excludes no person on
account of his belief and its motto is Liberty,
Equality, and Fraternity."
The adoption of the above was after a full
and deliberate consideration by its constituents,
who for more than a year were in the
throes of deep deliberation and judgment .
[The Grand Lodge of England appointed a
committee to consider this action of the Grand
Orient in thus expunging the existence of
T . G. A. O. T. U . from its tenets, and they
reported that such alteration is "opposed to
the traditions, practice and feelings of all true
and genuine Masons from the earliest to the
present time" ; and it was resolved that foreign
brethren could only be received as visitors if
they had been initiated in a Lodge professing
belief in T. G. A . O . T . U ., and would themselves
acknowledge such belief to be an
essential landmark of the Order. Similar
action was taken by other Grand Lodges, and
wherever the English language is spoken the
Grant Orient of France is no longer regarded
as a Masonic body . E . L. . H]
Francis H., Emperor of Germany, was a
bitter enemy of Freemasonry . In 1789, he
ordered all the Lodges in his dominions to be
closed, and directed all civil and military
functionaries to take an oath never to unite
with any secret society, under pain of exemplary
punishment and destitution of office .
In 1794, he proposed to the diet of Ratisbon
the suppression of the Freemasons, the Illumi-
nati, and all other secret societies . The diet,
controlled by the influence of Prussia, Brunswick,
and Hanover, refused to accede to the
proposition, replying to the emperor that he
might interdict the Lodges in his own states .
but that others claimed Germanic liberty .
In 1801, he renewed his opposition to secret
societies, and especially to the Masonic
Lodges, and all civil, military, and ecclesiastical
functionaries were restrained from taking
any part in them under the penalty of forfeiting
their offices .
Francken, Henry A. The first Deputy
Inspector General appointed by Stephen
Morin, under his commission from the Emperors
of the East and West . Francken received
his degrees and his appointment at
Kingston, Jamaica . The date is not known,
but it must have been between 1762 and 1767 .
Francken soon afterward repaired to the
United States, where he gave the appointment
of a Deputy to Moses M . Hayes, at Boston,
and organized a council of Princes of Jerusalem
at Albany . He may be considered as the first
propagator of the high degrees in the United
States.
Franc-Macon, Franc-Magonnerle. The
French names of Freemason and of Freemasonry
. The construction of these words is not
conformable to the genius or the idiom of the
French language, which would more properly
employ the terms "Macon libre," and "Ma-
9onnerie libre" ; and hence Laurens, in his
Essais historiques et critiques sur la Franc
Maconnerie, adduces their incorporation into
the language as an evidence that the Institution
in France was derived directly from
England, the words being a literal and unidiomatic
translation of the English titles .
But he blunders in supposing that Franc-
Mason and Franc-Masonry are any part of the
English language .
Frankfort-on-the-Main . A Provincial
Grand Lodge was established in this city, in
1766, by the Grand Lodge of England . In
the dissensions which soon after prevailed
among the Masons of Germany, the Provincial
Grand Lodge of Frankfort, not finding itself
supported by its mother Grand Lodge, declared
itself independent in 1783. Since 1823,
it has worked under the title of the "Grosse
Mutterloge des Eklektischen Freimaurer-
Bandes zu Frankfurt A . M."
It has now 21 Lodges and 9 "Circles" under
its jurisdiction .
Franklin, Benjamin. This sage and
patriot was born in the city of Boston, Massachusetts,
on the 6th of January, 1706 . He
was most probably initiated in 1731 in the St .
John's Lode at Philadelphia (Gould's Hist .
of F . M ., iii . 429 .) In 1734 he was elected
Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge
of Pennsylvania ; and in November of the
same year Franklin applied to Henry Price,
who had received from England authority
to establish Masonry in this country, for a
confirmation of those powers conferred by
the first deputation or warrant . It is probable
that the request was granted, although