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

316 HALL
HAMBURG
be blue, in a Chapter red, and in a Council
and Commandery black .
In a Lodge room the dais should be elevated
on three steps, and provided with a
pedestal for the Master, while on each side
are seats for the Past Masters, and dignitaries
who may visit the Lodge. The pedestal
of the Senior Warden in the west should
be elevated on two steps and that of the
Junior Warden in the south on one .
A similar arrangement, either permanent
or temporary, should be provided in the
Chapter room for working the intermediate
degrees ; but the eastern dais should be
supplied with three pedestals instead of one,
for the reception of the Grand Council . The
tabernacle also forms an essential part of
the Chapter room . This is sometimes
erected in the center of the room, although
the consistency of the symbolism would
require that the whole room, during the
working of the Royal Arch Degree, should
be deemed a tabernacle, and then the veils
would, with propriety, extend from the
ceiling to the floor, and from one side of the
room to the other. There are some other
arrangements required in the construction
of a Chapter room, of which it is unnecessary
to speak .
Councils of Royal and Select Masters are
usually held in Chapter rooms, with an entire
disregard of the historical teachings
of the degrees. In a properly constructed
Council chamber, which, of course, would
be in a distinct apartment, there should be
no veils, but nine curtains of a stone color ;
and these, except the last, starting from one
side of the room, should stop short of the
other, so as to form a narrow passage between
the wall and the extremities of the
curtains, reaching from the door to the
ninth curtain, which alone should reach
across the entire extent of the room . These
are used only in the Select Degree, and can
be removed when the Royal Master is to
be conferred . Unlike a Lodge and Chapter,
in a Council there is no dais or raised platform
; but three tables, of a triangular form,
are placed upon the level of the floor in the
east . It is, however, very seldom that the
funds of a Council will permit of the indulgence
in a separate room, and those bodies
are content to work, although at a disadvantage,
in a Chapter room .
It is impossible, with any convenience,
to work a Commandery in a Lodge, or even
a Chapter room . The officers and their
stations are so different, that what is suitable
for one is unsuitable for the other . The
dais, which has but one station in a Lodge
and three in a Chapter, requires four in a
Commandery, the Prelate taking his proper
place on the right of the Generalissimo . But
there are other more important differences .
The principal apartment should be capable
of a division by a curtain, which should
separate the Asylum proper from the rest
of the room, as the mystical veil in the ancient
Church shut off the prospect of the altar,
during the eucharistic sacrifice, from the
view of the catechumens . There are several
other rooms required in the Templar ritual
which are not used by a Lodge, a Chapter,
or a Council, and which makes it necessary
that the apartments of a Commandery should
be distinct . A banquet-room in close proximity
to the Asylum is essential ; and convenience
requires that there should be an
armory for the deposit of the arms and
costume of the Knights. But it is unnecessary
to speak of reflection rooms, and other
places well known to those who are familiar
with the ritual, and which cannot be dispensed
with.
Hallelujah . (Praise the Lord .) Expression
of applause in the degree of Sublime
Ecossais, Heavenly Jerusalem, and
others.
Halliwell Manuscript. The earliest of
the old Constitutions. It is in poetic form,
and was probably transcribed in 1390 from
an earlier copy. The manuscript is in the
King's Library of the British Museum . It
was published in 1840 by James O. Halliwell,
and again in 1844, under the title of
The Early History of Freemasonry in England.
The Masonic character of the poem
remained unknown until its discovery by
Mr . Halliwell, who was not a Mason, because
it was catalogued as A Poem of Moral
Duties .
It is now more commonly known as the
"Regius MS .," because it formed part of
the Royal Library commenced by Henry
VII . and presented to the British Museum
by George II . [E . L . H .1
Hamaliel . The name of the angel that,
in accordance with the Kabbalistical system,
governs the planet Venus .
Hamburg. In 1733, the Earl of Strathmore,
Grand Master of England, granted a
deputation "to eleven German gentlemen,
good Brothers, for constituting a Lodge at
Hamburg." (Anderson, Constitutions, 1738,
p . 194 .) Of the proceedings of this Lodge
we have no information . In 1740, Bro .
Luettman brought from England a Warrant
for the establishment of a Lodge, and a patent
for himself, as Provincial Grand Master of
Hamburg and Lower Saxony . In October
1741, it assumed the name of Absalom and
in the same year the Provincial Grand lodge
of Hamburg and Saxony was opened, a body
which, Findel says (p . 239), was the oldest
Mother Lodge in Germany . About the year
1787, the Provincial Grand Lodge adopted
the newly-invented Rite of Frederick L.
Schroder, consisting of only three degrees .
In 1801, it declared itself an independent
Grand Lodge, and has so continued . The
Grand Lodge of Hamburg practises Schroder's
Rite. (See SchrOder .) There is also in Hamburg
a sort of Chapter, which was formed by
Schroder under the title . of Geschichtliche
Engbund, or Historical Select Union. It
was intended as a substitute for Fessler's
degrees of Knowledge, the members of which
employ their time in studying the various