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

428 LAW
LEBANON
Grand Lodge of Scotland, and died in office in
1870, highly esteemed. In 1859 he published
a new edition of the History, with many additions,
under the title of The History of Freemasonry
and the Grand Lodge of Scotland, with
chapters on the Knights Templar, Knights of
St. John, Mark Masonry, and the R . A . Degree.
Law, Sacred. See Sacred Law.
Laws, General . See Laws of Masonry .
Laws, Local . See Laws of Masonry.
Laws of Masonry . The laws of Masonry,
or those rules of action by which the Institution
is governed, are very properly divided
into three classes : 1 . Landmarks. 2 . General
Laws or Regulations . 3 . Local Laws or
Regulations .
1 . Landmarks. These are the unwritten
laws of the Order, derived from those ancient
and universal customs which date at so remote
a period that we have no record of their origin .
2. General Laws . These are all those Regulations
that have been enacted by such bodies
as had at the time universal jurisdiction .
They operate therefore, over the Craft
wheresoever dispersed ; and as the paramount
bodies which enacted them have long
ceased to exist, it would seem that they are
unrepealable . It is generally agreed that
these General or Universal Laws are to be
found in the old Constitutions and Charges,
so far as they were recognized and accepted
by the Grand Lodge of England at the revival
in 1717, and adopted previous to the year
1721 .
3. Local Laws . These are the Regulations
which, since 1721, have been and continue to
be enacted by Grand Lodges . They are of
force only in those jurisdictions which have
adopted them, and are repealable by the bodies
which have enacted them . They must, to
be valid, be not repugnant to the Landmarks
or the General Laws, which are of paramount
authority .
Lawsuits . In the Old Charges which were
approved in 1722, and published in 1723, by
Anderson, in the Book of Constitutions, the
regulations as to lawsuits are thus laid down :
"And if any of them do you injury, you must
apply to your own or his Lodge, and from
thence you may appeal to the Grand Lodge,
at the Quarterly Communication, and from
thence to the Annual Grand Lodge, as has
been the ancient laudable conduct of our forefathers
in every nation ; never taking a legal
course but when the case cannot be otherwise
decided, and patiently listening to the honest
and friendly advice of Master and Fellows,
when they would prevent you going to law
with strangers, or would excite you to put a
speedy period to all lawsuits, that so you may
mind the affair of Masonry with the more
alacrity and success ; but with respect to
Brothers or Fellows at law, the Master and
Brethren should kindly offer their mediation,
which ought to be thankfully submitted to by
the contending brethren ; and if that submission
is impracticable, they must, however,
carry on their process or lawsuit without
wrath and rancor, (not in the common way,)
saying or doing nothing which may hinder
brotherly love and good offices to be renewed
and continued ; that all may see the benign
influence of Masonry, as all true Masons have
done from the beginning of the world, and will
do to the end of time ." (Constitutions, 1723,
p . 56.)
Lax Observance . (Observantia Lata.)
When the Rite of Strict Observance was instituted
in Germany by Von Hund, its disciples
gave to all the other German Lodges
which refused to submit to its obedience and
adopt its innovations, but preferred to remain
faithful to the English Rite, the title of
" Lodges of Lax Observance ." Ragon, in his
OrthodoxieMaconnique (p . 236), has committed
the unaccountable error of calling it a schism,
established at Vienna in 1767 ; thus evidently
confounding it with Starck's Rite of the
Clerks of Strict Observance .
Lay Brothers. A society founded in the
eleventh century, consisting of two classes,
who were skilled in architecture ; also recognized
as a degree in the Rite of Strict Observance
.
Layer . A term used in the old Records to
designate a workman inferior to an Operative
Freemason . Thus : "Alsoe that no Mason
make moulds, square or rule to any rough
layers." (Harleian MS ., No . 2054 .)
In Dr . Murray's new English Dictionary
the word is said to mean "one who lays stones ;
a mason," and is described as obsolete in this
sense . A quotation is given from Wyclif's
Bible of 1382, 1 Chron . xxii. 15, "Many craftise
men, masouns and leyers ." [E . L. H .]
Lazarus, Order of. An order instituted
in Palestine, termed the "United Order of St .
Lazarus and of our Beloved Lady of Mount
Carmel ." It was a military order engaged
against the Saracens, by whom it was nearly
destroyed . In 1150 the knights assumed the
vows of Obedience, Poverty, and Chastity, in
the presence of William the Patriarch . In
1572, Gregory XII . united the Italian knights
of the order with that of St. Maurice. Vincent
de Paul, in 1617, founded a religious order,
which was approved in 1626, and erected into
a congregation in 1632, and so called from the
priory of St . Lazarus in Paris, which was occupied
by the order during the French Revolution.
The members are called Priests of
the Mission and are employed in teaching and
missionary labors .
Lebanon . A mountain, or rather a range
of mountains in Syria, extending'from beyond
Sidon to Tyre, and forming the northern
boundary of Palestine . Lebanon is celebrated
for the cedars which it produces, many
of which are from fifty to eighty feet in height,
and cover with their branches a space of
ground the diameter of which is still greater .
Hiram, King of Tyre, in whose dominions
Mount Lebanon was situated, furnished these
trees for the building of the Temple of Solomon.
In relation to Lebanon, Kitto, in his
Biblical Cyclopedia, has these remarks : "The
forests of the Lebanon mountains only could