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

LEFRANC
LEGEND 433
have, in consequence, in former years been
many "bright Masons" and "skilful lecturers
" whose brightness and skill consisted only
in the easy repetition from memory of the set
form of phrases established by Webb, and who
were otherwise ignorant of all the science, the
philosophy, and the history of Masonry . But
m the later years, a perfect verbal knowledge
of the lectures has not been esteemed so highly
in America as in England, and the most erudite
Masons have devoted themselves to the
study of-those illustrations and that symbolism
of the Order which lie outside of the lectures.
Book Masonry-that is, the study of
the principles of the Institution as any other
science is studied, by means of the various
treatises which have been written on these
subjects-has been, from year to year, getting
more popular with the American Masonic public
which is becoming emphatically a reading
people .
The lecture on the Third Degree is eminently
Hutchinsonian in its character, and
contains the bud from which, by a little cultivation,
we might bring forth a gorgeous blossom
of symbolism. Hence, the Third Degree
has always been the favorite of American Masons.
But the lectures of the First and Second
degrees, the latter particularly, are meaer
and unsatisfactory . The explanations,
f
or instance, of the form and extent of the
Lodge, of its covering of the theological ladder,
and especially of the point within the
circle, will disappoint any intellectual student
who is seeking, in a symbolical science, for
some rational explanation of its symbols that
promises to be worthy of his investigations .
Lefranc. The Abb6 Lefranc, Superior of
the House of the Eudistes at Caen was a very
bitter enemy of Freemasonry, an~ the author
of two libelous works against Freemasonry,
both published in Paris ; the first and best
known, entitled Le Voile leve pour les curteux,
ou le secret des revolutions, revels d
l'aide de la Franc-Magonnerie, 1791 (republished
at Liege in 1827), and the other, Conjuration
contre la religion Catholique et les
souverains, dont le projet, eongu eu France,
doit s'exeeuter dens l'univers entier, 1792 .
In these scandalous books, and especially in
the former, Lefranc has, to use the language
of Thory (Acta Let ., i ., 192), "vomited the
most undeserved abuse of the Order." Of the
Veil Lifted, the two great detractors of Masonry,
Robison and Barruel, entertained different
opinions. Robison made great use of it
in his Proofs of a Conspiracy ; but Barruel,
while speaking highly of the Abbt's virtues,
doubts his accuracy and declines to trust to
his authority . Lefranc was slain in the massacre
of September 2d, at the Convent of the
Carmelites, in Paris, with one hundred and
ninety-one other priests . Thory (1 . c.) says
that M . Ledhui, a Freemason, who was present
at the sanguinary scene, attempted to
save the life of Lefranc, and nearly lost his
own in the effort . The Abbt; says that, on the
death of a friend, who was a zealous Mason
and Master of a Lodge, he found among his
papers a collection of Masonic writings containing
the rituals of a great many degrees,
and from these he obtained the information
on which he has based his attacks upon the
Order . Some idea may be formed of his accuracy
and credibility from the fact that he
asserts that Faustus Socinus, the Father of
Modern Unitarianism, was the contriver and
inventor of the Masonic system-a theory so
absurd that even Robison and Barruel both
reject it .
Left Hand. Among the ancients the left
hand was a symbol of equity and justice .
Thus, Apuleius (Met ., 1. xi .), when describing
the procession in honor of Isis says one of the
ministers of the sacred rites "bore the symbol
of equity, a left hand, fashioned with the palm
extended ; which seems to be more adapted to
adm inistering equity than the right, from its
natural inertness, and its being endowed
with no craft and no subtlety ."
Left Side. In the symbolism of Masonry,
the First Degree is represented by the left
side, which is to indicate that as the left is the
weaker part of the body, so is the Entered Apprentice
s Degree the weakest part of Masonry.
This doctrine, that the left is the
weaker side of the body, is very ancient . Plato
says it arises from the fact that the right is
more used ; but Aristotle contends that the
organs of the right side are by nature more
powerful than those of the left .
Legally Constituted . See Constituted,
Legally .
Legate. In the Middle Ages, a legate, or
legatus, was one who was, says Du Cange
(Glossar.), "in provincias a Principe ad exercendas
judicias mittebalur," sent by a prince
into the provinces to exercise judicial functions
. The word is now applied by the Supreme
Council of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite to designate certain persons who
are sent into unoccupied territory to propagate
the Rite . The word is, however, of recent
origin, not having been used before 1866 .
A legate should be in possession of at least the
Thirty-second Degree .
Legend . Strictly speaking, a legend, from
the Latin, legendus, "to be read," should be
restricted to a story that has been committed
to writing ; but by good usage the word has
been applied more extensively, and now properly
means a narrative, whether true or false,
that has been traditionally preserved from
the time of its first oral communication . Such
is the definition of a Masonic legend . The
authors of the Conversations Lexicon, referring
to the monkish lives of the saints which
originated in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
say that the title legend was given to all
fictions which made pretensions to truth .
Such a remark, however correct it may be in
reference to these monkish narratives, which
were often invented as ecclesiastical exercises,
is by no means applicable to the legends of
Freemasonry . These are not necessarily fictitious,
but are either based on actual and historical
facts which have been but slightly modified,
or they are the offspring and expansion