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

380 KEY
KEYSTONE
town, and Frankford, and a nation
granted for a fifth at Shelbyville . ese five
Lodges met in convention at Lexin on on
September 8, 1800 . Having resolv that it
was expedient to organize a Grand Lodge, an
address was prepared to the Grand Lodge of
Virginia, an the convention adjourned to October
16th . On that day it reassembled and
organized the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, William
Murray being elected Grand Master .
Chapters of Royal Arch Masons, independent
of the Grand Lodge, were first established
by Thomas Smith Webb in 1816, and
the Grand Chapter was formed December 4,
1817 .
The Grand Council of Royal and Select
Masters was organized December 10, 1827.
The Grand Encampment (now the Grand
Commandery) was organized October 5, 1847 .
Scottish Masonry was introduced into Kentucky,
and the Grand Consistory organized at
Louisville, in August 1852, by Bro . Albert G .
Mackey, Secretary-~eneral of the Supreme
Council for the Southern Jurisdiction .
Key. "The key," says Dr. Oliver (Landm .,
i., 180, note), "is one of the most important
symbols of Freemasonry. It bears the appearance
of a common metal instrument, confined
to the performance of one simple act .
But the well-instructed brother beholds in it
the symbol which teaches him to keep a tongue
of good report, and to abstain from the debasing
vices of slander and defamation." Among
the ancients the key was a symbol of silence
and circumspection ; and thus Sophocles alludes
to it in the (Edipus Coloneus (1051),
where he makes the chorus speak of "the
golden key which had come upon the tongue of
the ministering hierophant in the mysteries of
Eleusis-r`ov ,cal Xpvoea rcx-a s &l yXc ,ro S€SaKe
spomr6mov evµoXrcaav ." Callimachus says that
the priestess of Ceres bore a key as the ensign
of her mystic office . The key was in the mysteries
of Isis a hieroglyphic of the opening or
disclosing of the heart and conscience, in the
kingdom of death, for trial and judgment .
In the old rituals of Masonry the key was
an important symbol and Dr . Oliver regrets
that it has been abandoned in the modern system
. In the rituals of the First Degree, in the
eighteenth century, allusion is made to a key
by whose help the secrets of Masonry are to be
obtained, which key "is said to hang and not to
lie, because it is always to hang in a brother's
defence and not to lie to his prejudice ." It was
said, too, to hang "by the thread of life at the
entrance," and was closely connected with the
heart, because the tongue "ought to utter
nothing but what the heart dictates ." And,
finall , this key is described as being "compose
of no metal, but a tongue of good
report." In the ritual of the Master's Degree
in the Adonhi ramite Rite, we find this catechism
:
"Q. What do you conceal?
"A . All the secrets which have been intrusted
to me .
",Q. Where do you conceal them?
"A . In the heart .
"Q. Have you a key to gain entrance there?
"A . Yes, Right Worshipful .
"Q. Where do you keep it?
"A . In a box of coral which opens and shuts
only with ivory keys .
"Q. Of what metal is it composed?
"A . Of none . It is a tongue obedient to
reason, which knows only how to speak well of
those of whom it s eaks in their absence as in
their presence ." (Reeueil Pr6cieux, p . 87 .)
All of this shows that the key as a symbol
was formerly equivalent to the modern symbol
of the "instructive tongue," which, however,
with almost the same interpretation, has
now been transformed to the Second or Fellow-
Craft's Degree. The key, however, is still
preserved as a symbol of secrecy in the Royal
Arch Degree ; and it is also presented to us in
the same sense in the ivory key of the Secret
Master, or Fourth Degree of the Scottish Rite,
In many of the German Lodges an ivory key is
made a part of the Masonic clothing of each
brother, to remind him that he should lock up
or conceal the secrets of Freemasonry in his
heart .
But among the ancients the key was also a
symbol of power ; and thus among the Greeks
the title of KAe1SovXos, or key-bearer, was bestowed
upon one holding high office ; and with
the Romans, the keys -are given to the bride
on the day of marriage, as a token that the
authority of the house was bestowed upon
her ; and if afterward divorced, they were
taken from her, as a symbol of the deprivation
of her office. Among the Hebrews the key was
used in the same sense. "As the robe and the
baldric," says Lowth (Is ., p . 2, s. 4), "were the
ensigns of power and authority, so likewise
was the key the mark of office, either sacred
or civil." Thus in Isaiah it is said : "The key
of the house of David will I lay upon his
shoulders ; so he shall open, and none shall
shut ; and he shall shut, and none shall open "
(xxii. 22) . Our Savior expressed a similar
idea when he said to St . Peter, "I will give
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ."
It is in reference to this interpretation of the
symbol, and not that of secrecy that the key
has been adopted as the officia' jewel of the
treasurer of a Lodge, because he has the purse,
the source of power, under his command .
Key of Masonry. See Knight of the Sun .
Keystone. The stone placed in the center
of an arch which preserves the others in
their places, and secures firmness and stability
to the arch. As it was formerly the custom of
Operative Masons to place a peculiar mark on
each stone of a building to designate the workman
by whom it had been adjusted, so the
Keystone was most likely to receive the most
prominent mark, that of the superintendent
of the structure . Such is related to have occurred
to that Keystone which plays so important
a part in the legend of the Royal Arch
Degree.
The objection has sometimes been made
that the arch was unknown in the time of
Solomon . But this objection has been completely
laid at rest by the researches of an-