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

312 GUILLEMAIN
GYPSIES
the adherents of the house of Stuart upon some
of their enemies as marks of infamy . Such,
for instance, is Romvel, the name of one of the
Assassins in certain Scottish degrees, which
is probably a corruption of Cromwell . Jubelum
Guibbs, another name of one of these traitors,
has much puzzled the Masonic etymologists .
I think that I have found its origin in the
name of the Rev . Adam Gib, who was an antiburgher
clergyman of Edinburgh. When
that city was taken possession of by the young
Pretender, Charles Edward, in 1745 the
clergy generally fled . But Gib removes only
three miles from the city, where, collecting his
loyal congregation, he hurled anathemas for
five successive Sundays against the Pretender,
and boldly prayed for the downfall of
the rebellion . He subsequently joined the
loyal army, and at Falkirk took a rebel prisoner
. So active was Gib in his opposition to
the cause of the house of Stuart, and so obnoxious
had he become, that several attempts
were made by the rebels to take his life . On
Charles Edward's return to France he erected
in 1747 his "Primordial Chapter ; ' at Arras ;
and in the composition of the high degrees
there practised, it is very probable that he bestowed
the name of his old enemy Gib on the
most atrocio p s of the Assassins who figure in
the legend of Third Degree . The letter u was
doubtless inserted to prevent the French, in
pronouncing the name, from falling into the
soft sound of the G and calling the word Jib .
The additional b and s were the natural and
customary results of a French attempt to spell
a foreign proper name. (See Arras, Primordial
Chapter of.)
Guillemain de St. Victor, Louis . A distinguished
French writer, who published several
works on Freemasonry, the most valuable
and best known of which is his Recueil
Precieux de la Magonnerie Adonhiramite, first
issued at Paris in 1782 . This work, of which
several editions were published, contains the
catechisms of the first four degrees of Adoniramite
Masonry, and an account of several
other degrees, and is enriched with many
learned notes. Ragon, who speaks highly of
the work, erroneously attributes its authorship
to the celebrated Baron de Tschoudy .
Gustavus IV ., King of Sweden . He was
initiated into Masonry, at Stockholm, on the
10th of March, 1793 . Ten years after, on the
9th of March, 1803, Gustavus issued an Ordonnance
by which he required all the secret
societies in his dominions to make known to
the stadtholders of the cities where they resided,
and in the provinces to his governors,
not only the formula of the oath which they
administered to their members, but the duties
which they prescribed, and the object of their
association ; and also to submit at any time to
a personal inspection by the officers of government
. But at the end of the Ordonnance the
King says : "The Freemasons, who are under
our immediate protection, are alone excepted
from this inspection, and from this Ordonnance
in general."
Guttural Point of Entrance .
From the
Latin gutter, the throat. The throat is that
avenue of the body which is most employed in
the sins of intemperance, and hence it suggests
to the Mason certain symbolic instructions
in relation to the virtue of temperance .
(See Points of Entrance Perfect .)
Gymnosophist . The Eighth Degree of
the Kabbalistic Rite .
Gymnosophists . (Signifying "naked
sages.") A name given by the Greeks to
those ancient Hindu philosophers who lived
solitarily in the woods, wore little or no clothing,
and addicted themselves to mystical contemplation
and the practise of the most rigorous
asceticism . Strabo divides them into
Brahmans and Samans, the former of whom
adhered to the strictest principles of caste,
while the latter admitted any one into their
number regarding whose character and kindred
they were satisfied . They believed in
the immortality of the soul and its migration
into other bodies . They practised celibacy,
abstained from wine, and lived on fruits .
They held riches in contempt, and abstained
from sensual indulgences .
Gypsies . Cornelius Van Paun, more generally
known as De Paun, in his Philosophical
Researches on the Egyptians and Chinese (Paris,
1774), advances the theory that Freemasonry
originated with the Gypsies . He says : "Every
person who was not guilty of some crime could
obtain admission to the lesser mysteries .
Those vagabonds called Egyptian priests in
Greece and Italy required considerable sums
for initiation ; and their successors, the Gypsies,
practise similar mummeries to obtain
money . And thus was Freemasonry introduced
into Europe ." But De Paun is remarkable
for the paradoxical character of his opinions.
Mr . James Simpson, who has written
a rather exhaustive History of the Gypsies
(1866), finds (p. 387) "a considerable resemblance
between Gypsyism, in its harmless
aspect, and Freemasonry-with this difference,
that the former is a general, while the
latter is a special, society ; that is to say, the
Gypsies have the language, or some of the
words and the signs peculiar to the whole
race, which each individual or class will use
for different purposes . The race does not
necessarily, and does not in fact, have intercourse
with every other member of it . In that
respect they resemble any ordinary community
of men ." And he adds : "There axe many
Gypsies Freemasons ; indeed, they are the
very people to push their way into a Masons'
Lodge ; for they have secrets of their own, and
are naturally anxious to pry into those of
others, by which they may be benefited . I was
told of a Gypsy who died, lately, the Master
of a Masons' Lodge . A friend, a Mason told
me the other day of his having entered a louse
in Yetholm where were five Gypsies, all of
whom responded to his Masonic signs." But
it must be remembered that Simpson is writing
of the Gypsies of Scotland, a kingdom
where the race is considerably advanced above
those of any other country in civilization and
in social position.