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

KNIGHT
KNIGHT 401
Knights Templar who received it were constituted
Knts Commanders .
Knight of the Lion . (Chevalier du Lion .)
The Twentieth Degree of the . Metropolitan
Chapter of France.
Knight of the Mediterranean Pass . An
honorary degree that was formerly conferred
in Encampments of Knights Templar but is
now disused . Its meetings were called Councils
; and its ritual which was very impressive
supplies the tradition that it was founded
about the year 1367, in consequence of certain
events which occurred to the Knights of Malta .
In an excursion made by a party of these
knights in search of forage and provisions,
they were attacked while crossing the river
Offanto (the ancient Aufidio) by a large body
of Saracens, under the command of the renowned
Amurath I . The Saracens had concealed
themselves in ambush, and when the
knights were on the middle of the bridge which
spanned the river, they were attacked by a
sudden charge of their enemies upon both
extremities of the bridge . A long and sanguinary
contest ensued ; the knights fought
with their usual valor, and were at length
victorious . The Saracens were defeated with
such immense slaughter that fifteen hundred
of their dead bodies encumbered the bridge,
and the river was literally stained with their
blood . In commemoration of this event, and
as a reward for their valor, the victorious
knights had free permission to pass and repass
in all the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea
without danger of molestation, whence the
name of the degree is derived . As the latter
part of this legend has not been verified by
voyagers in the Mediterranean, the degree has
long been disused . Dr . Mackey says that he
had a ritual of it, which was in the handwriting
of Dr . Moses Holbrook, the Grand Commander
of the Southern Supreme Council of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite .
Knight of the Moon . A mock Masonic
society established in the last century in London
. it ceased to exist in the year 1810 .
Knight of the Morning Star. Called
also Knight of Hope . A degree in the Archives
of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophical
Rite, which is said to be a modification
of the Kadosh .
Knight of the Ninth Arch . The Thirteenth
Degree of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, called also the "Royal Arch of
Solomon," and sometimes the "Royal Arch of
Enoch ." It is one of the most interesting and
impressive of what are called the Ineffable
degrees . Its legend refers to Enoch and to
the method by which, notwithstanding the
destructive influence of the deluge and the
lapse of time, he was enabled to preserve important
secrets to be afterward communicated
to the Craft . According to the present ritual,
its principal officers are a Thrice Puissant
Grand Master representing King Solomon,
and two Wardens, representing the King of
Tyre and the Inspector Adoniram . Bodies of
this degree are called Chapters. The color is
black strewed with tears . The jewel is a
circular medal of gold, around which is inscribed
the following letters : R . S. R . S . T. P .
S . R . I . A . Y . E. S ., with the date AnnoEnochi
2995. On the reverse is a blazing triangle
with the Tetragrammaton in the center in
Samaritan letters .
This degree claims great importance in the
history of Masonic ritualism. It is found,
under various modifications, in almost all the
Rites ; and, indeed, without it, or something
like it, the symbolism of Freemasonry cannot
be considered as complete . Indebted for its
origin to the inventive genius of the Chevalier
Ramsay, it was adopted by the Council of the
Emperors of the East and West, whence it
passed into the Ancient and Accepted Rite .
Though entirely different in its legend from
the Royal Arch of, the York and American
Rites, its symbolic design is the same, for one
common thought of a treasure lost and found
pervades them all . Vassal, who is exceedingly
flippant in much that he has written of
Ecossism, says of this degree, that, "considered
under its moral and religious aspects,
it offers nothing either instructive or useful ."
It is evident that he understood nothing of
its true symbolism .
Knight of the North . (Chevalier du
Nord.) A degree in the Archives of the Lodge
of Saint Louis des Amis Reunis at Calais .
Thory (Acta Lat ., i ., 328) mentions another
degree called Sublime Knight of the North,
which he says is the same as one in the collection
of Peuvret, which has the singular title
of Daybreak of the Rough Ashlar, Point du
Jour de la Pierre Brute .
Knight of the Phenix. (Chevalier du
Phenix .) The Fourth Degree of the Philosophic
Scottish Rite .
Knight of the Prussian Eagle . (Chevalier
de l'Aigle Prussien .) A degree in the collection
of H4cart .
Knight of the Puriflcatory . (Chevalier
du Purificatoire .) The Sixteenth Degree of
the Rite of the East according to the nomenclature
of Fustier .
Knight of the Pyramid . (Chevalier de
la Pyramide.) The Seventh Degree of the
Kabbalistic Rite .
Knight of the Rainbow . (Chevalier de
l'Arc-en-ciel .) The Sixty-eighth Degree of the
Rite of Mizraim .
Knight of the Red Cross . This degree,
whose legend dates it far anterior to the
Christian era, and in the reign of Darius,
has no analogy with the chivalric orders of
knighthood . It is purely Masonic, and intimately
connected with the Royal Arch Degree,
of which, in fact, it ought rightly to be
considered as an appendage. It is, however,
now always conferred in a Commandery of
Knights Templar in this country, and is given
as a preliminary to reception in that degree .
Formerly, the degree was sometimes conferred
in an independent council, which Webb
(edit. 1812, p . 123) defines to be "a council
that derives its authority immediately from
the Grand Encampm~e~nt unconnected with an
Encampment of Knights Templars ." The