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

322 HENRY
HERMES
son, that in the technical Masonic expression
of the "widow's son," the allusion is to the
widow of the decapitated monarch . Those
who look farther for the foundation of the
legend give, of course no credence to a statement
whose plausibility depends only on a
coincidence.
Henry VI . King of England from 1422 to
1461 . This monarch is closely connected
with the history of Masonry because, in the
beginning of his reign and during his minority,
the celebrated "Statute of Laborers," which
prohibited the congregations of the Masons,
was passed by an intolerant Parliament, and
because of the questions said to have been proposed
to the Masons by the king, and their
answers, which are contained in what is called
the "Leland Manuscript," a document which,
if authentic, is highly important ; but of
whose authenticity there are as many oppugners
as there are defenders .
Heredom . In what are called the "high
degrees" of the continental Rites, there is
nothing more puzzling than the etymology of
this word . We have the Royal Order of Heredom,
given as the ne plus ultra of Masonry in
Scotland, and in almost all the Rites the Rose
Croix of Heredom, but the true meaning of the
word is apparently unknown . Ragon, in his
Orthodoxie Mafonnique (p . 91), asserts that it
has a political signification, and that it was
invented between the years 1740 and 1745, by
the adherents of Charles Edward the Pretender,
at the Court of St . Germain, which was
the residence, during that period, of the unfortunate
prince, and that in their letters to
England, dated from Heredom, they mean to
denote St . Germain. He supposes it to be
derived from the Medieval Latin word "hceredum,"
signifying "a heritage," and that it
alludes to the Castle of St . Germain, the only
heritage left to the dethroned sovereign . But
as Ragon's favorite notion was that the
hautes grades were originally instituted for the
purpose of aiding the house of Stuart in its
restoration to the throne, a theory not now
generally accepted, at least without modification,
this etymology must be taken with
some grains of allowance. The suggestion is,
however, an ingenious one.
In some of the old manuscripts the word
Heroden is found as the name of a mountain
in Scotland ; and we sometimes find in the
French Cahiers the title of "Rose Croix de
Heroden ." There is not a very great difference
in the French pronunciation of Heredom and
Heroden, and one might be a corruption of the
other . I was once inclined to this theory ; but
even if it were the correct one we should gain
nothing, for the same difficulty would recur
in tracing the root and meaning of Heroden .
The most plausible derivation is one given
in 1858, by a writer in the London Freemasons'
Magazine. He thinks it should be spelled
"Heredom," and traces it to the two Greek
words, Iepbs, hieros holy, and SG,aos, domos,
house. It would thus refer to Masonry as
symbolically the Holy House or Temple. In
this way the title of Rose Croix of Heredom
would signify the Rosy Cross of the Holy
House of Masonry. This derivation is now
very generally recognized as the true one .
[But according to this view the word should
be "Hierodom ."-E . L . H.1
Hermalmes . A corruption of Hermes,
found in some of the old Constitutions .
Hermandad, The . (Spanish, "Brotherhood
.") An association of the principal cities
of Castile and Aragon bound by a solemn
league for the defense of their liberties in time
of trouble. The sovereigns approved this
brotherhood as agents for suppressing the increasing
power of the nobles, and without cost
to the government . The Hermandad was first
established in Aragon in the thirteenth century,
and in Castile about thirty years later,
while, in 1295, thirty-five cities of Castile and
Leon formed a joint confederacy, pledging
themselves to take summary vengeance on
every robber noble who injured a member of
the association. The Santa, or Holy Brotherhood,
finally checked so effectually the outrages
of the nobles, that Isabella of Castile,
in 1496, obtained the sanction of the Cortez
to reorganize and extend it over the whole
kingdom.
Hermes . In all the old manuscript records
which contain the Legend of the Craft,
mention is made of Hermes as one of the
founders of Masonry. Thus, in the" Grand
Lodge, No . 1, MS .," whose date is 1583-and
the statement is substantially and almost verbally
the same in all the others-that "The
great Hermarines that was Cubys sonne, the
which Cubye was Semmes sonne, that was
Noes sonne. This same Hermarines was
afterwards called Herpes the father of Wysdome
; he found one of the two pillars of stone,
and found the science written therein, and he
taught it to other men ."
There are two persons of the name of
Hermes mentioned in sacred history . The
first is the divine Hermes, called by the
Romans Mercury. Among the Egyptians he
was known as Thoth. Diodorus Siculus describes
him as the secretary of Osiris ; he is
commonly supposed to have been the son of
Mizraim, and Cumberland says that he was
the same as Osiris . There is, however, much
confusion among the mythologists concerning
his attributes .
The second was Hermes Trismegistus or
the Thrice Great, who was a celebrated Egyptian
legislator, priest, and philosopher, who
lived in the reign of Ninus, about the year of
the world 2670 . He is said to have written
thirty-six books on theology and philosophy,
and six upon medicine, all which are lost .
There are many traditions of him ; one of
which, related by Eusebius, is that he introduced
hieroglyphics into Egypt . This Hermes
Trismegistus, although the reality of his existence
is doubtful, was claimed by the alchemists
as the founder of their art, whence it is
called the Hermetic science, and whence we
get in Masonry, Hermetic Rites and Hermetic
degrees. It is to him that the Legend of the
Craft refers ; and, indeed, the York Constitu-