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

290 GAGE
GEDALIAH
Engmasonslish and published in the London Free-
' Magazine .
Gage. See Twenty-four-Inch Gage .
Galahad. Also spelled Galaad . Most probably
a corruption of Gilead . Said in the
old rituals to have been the keeper of the
Seals in the Scottish degree of Knights of the
Ninth, Arch or Sacred Vault of James VI .
G :. A .• . .• . .• . . • .
Great Architect of the Universe, which see .
Gangler . The title given to the candidate
in the Scandinavian mysteries, signifying wanderer
. The application is also made to the sun .
Garinus. Said in the old ritual of the degree
of Knights of the East and West to have
been the Patriarch of Jerusalem, between
whose hands the first Knights of that Order
took, in 1182, their vows . It is a corruption,
by the French ritualists, of Garimond or Garimund,
Patriarch of Jerusalem, before whom
the Hospitalers took their three vows of obedience,
chastity, and poverty .
Gassicourt, Cadet de . An apothecary of
Paris, who, in the year 1796, published a work
entitled Le Tombeau de Jacques Molai, ou histoire
secrete et abregee des inities anciens et modernes
. In this book which embraced all the
errors of Barruel and Robison, he made the
same charges of atheism and conspiracy
against the Fraternity, and loaded the Chevalier
Ramsay with the most vehement indignation
as a libertine and traitor . But
De Gassicourt subsequently acknowledged his
folly in writing against a society of which he
really knew nothing . In fact, in 1805, he solicited
admission into the Order, and was initiated
in the Lodge "1'Abeille," at Paris,
where, in the various offices of Orator and
Master, which he filled, he taught and recommended
that Institution which he had once
abused ; and even on a public occasion pronounced
the eulogy of- that Ramsay whom he
had formerly anathematized .
Gaston, John . Grand Duke of Tuscany ;
in 1737 he inaugurated a persecution against
the Freemasons in his dominions .
Gates of the Temple . In the system of
Freemasonry, the Temple of Solomon is represented
as having a gate on the east, west,
and south sides, but none on the north . In
reference to the historical Temple of Jerusalem,
such a representation is wholly incorrect .
In the walls of the building itself there were no
places of entrance except the door of the porch,
which gave admission to the house . But in the
surrounding courts there were gates at every
point of the compass. The Masonic idea of
the Temple is, however, entirely symbolic .
The Temple is to the Speculative Mason only
a symbol, not an historical building, and the
gates are imaginary and symbolic also . They
are, in the first place, symbols of the progress
of the sun in his daily course, rising in the east,
culminating to the meridian in the south, and
setting in the west . They are also, in the allegory
of life, which it is the object of the Third
Degree to illustrate, symbols of the three stages
of youth, manhood, and old age, or, more
properly, of birth, lite, and death.
Gaudlnl, Theobald de . Known as the
monk Gaudini. Elected Grand Master of
Templars, 1291 ; died 1301 .
Gauntlets . Gloves formerly made of steel
and worn by knights as a protection to their
hands in battle. They have been adopted in
the United States, as a part of the costume of a
Knights Templar, under a regulation of the
Grand Encampment, which directs them to be
"of buff leather, the flap to extend four inches
upwards from the wrist, and to have the
appropriate cross embroidered in gold, on
the proper colored velvet, two inches in
length."
Gavel. The common gavel is one of the
working tools of an Entered Apprentice . It is
made use of by the Operative Mason to break
off the corners of the rough ashlar, and thus
fit it the better for the builder's use, and is
therefore adopted as a symbol in Speculative
Masonry, to admonish us of the duty of
divesting our minds and consciences of all
the vices and impurities of life, thereby fitting
our bodies as living stones for that spiritual
building not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens.
It borrows its name from its shape, being
that of the gable or gavel end of a house ; and
this word again comes from the German gipfel
a summit, top, or peak-the idea of a pointed
extremity being common to all .
The true form of the gavel is that of the
stone-mason's hammer.
It is to be
made with a cutting
edge, as in the annexed
engraving
that "to break it may off be used the
corners of rough
stones," an operation which could never be
effected by the common hammer or mallet .
The gavel thus shaped will give, when looked
at in front, the exact representation of the
gavel or gable end of a house, whence, as has
been already said, the name is derived .
"Hiram,"
The gavel
because,
of the
like
Master
that architect,
is also called
it governs
the Craft and keeps order in the Lodge,
a
as he did in the Temple .
Gebal . A city of Phoenicia, on the Mediterranean,
and under Mount Lebanon . It was
the Byblos of the Greeks, where the worship
of Adonis, the Syrian Thammuz, was celebrated.
The inhabitants, who were Giblites
or, in Masonic language, Giblemites, are
said to have been distinguished for the art of
stone-carving, and are called in the 1st Book
of Kings" stone-squarers ." (See Giblim .)
Gedallah . The second officer in a Council
of Superexcellent Masters represents Gedaliah
the son of Pashur . An historical error
has crept into the ritual of this degree in reference
to the Gedaliah who is represented in
it . I have sought to elucidate the question
in my work on Cryptic Masonry in the following
manner :
There are five persons of the name of Gedaliah
who are mentioned in Scripture, but