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

LIBERTAS
LIBRARY 445
who was his own master-free, independent,
and often a nobleman .
Mosheim, speaking of the state of literature
in the eleventh century, uses the following
language : "The seven liberal arts ; as they
were now styled, were taught in the greatest
part of the schools that were erected in this
century for the education of youth . The first
stage of these sciences was grammar, which
was followed successively by rhetoric and
logic. When the disciple, having learned
these branches, which were generally known
by the name of trivium, extended his ambition
further, and was desirous of new improvement
in the sciences, he was conducted slowly
through the quadrivium (arithmetic, music,
geometry, and astronomy) to the very summit
of literary fame."
The Freemasons of the Middle Ages, always
anxious to elevate their profession above
the position of a mere operative art, readily
assumed these liberal arts and sciences as a
part of their course of knowledge, thus seeking
to assimilate themselves rather to the scholars
who were above them than to the workmen
who were below them .* Hence in all the
Old Constitutions we find these liberal arts
and sciences introduced at the beginning as
forming an essential part of the body of Masonry
. Thus, in the Lansdowne MS ., whose
date is about 1560 (and it may be taken as a
fair specimen of all the others, these sciences
are thus referred to :
"Wee minde to shew you the charge that
belongs to every trew Mason to keep, for in
good and (faith if you take good heed it is
well worthy to be kept for A worthy Craft and
curious science,-Sirs, there be Seaven Liberall
Sciencies of the which the Noble Craft
of Masonry is one ." And then the writer
proceeds to define them in the order which
they still retain . It is noteworthy, however,
that that order must have been changed ; for
in what is probably the earliest of the manuscripts-the
Regius MS .-geometry appears
as the last, instead of the fifth of the sciences,
and arithmetic as the sixth . (Lines 557-563 .)
It is not therefore surprising that, on the
revival of Masonry in 1717, these seven liberal
arts and sciences were made a part of the
system of instruction . At first, of course,
they were placed in the Entered Apprentice's
Degree, that being the most important degree
of the period, and they were made to refer to
the seven Masons who composed a Lodge.
Afterward, on the more methodical division
of the degrees, they were transferred to the
Fellow-Craft, because that was the degree
symbolic of science, and were made to refer
to seven of the steps of the winding stairs,
that being itself, when prop erly interpreted, a
symbol of the progress of knowledge . And
there they still remain .
Libertas . (Latin) Liberty. A significant
* The claim has been made that Charlemagne,
in his castle at Aix-la-Chapelle, set
apart a sep arate place where the Seven Liberal
Arts and Sciences were taught. [E. E. C .]
word in the Red Cross Degree . It refers to
the "liberty of passage" gained by the returning
Jews over their opponents at the river
Euphrates, as described in the Scottish Rite
degree of Knight of the East, where the old
French rituals have "liberty du passer ."
Liberte, Ordre de la . (Order of Liberty.)
A French androgyn Order existing in Paris in
1740, and the precursor of "La Magonnerie
d'Adoption ." (Thory, Acta Let., i ., 320 .)
Libertine . The Charges of 1722 commence
by saying that "a Mason is obliged by
his tenure to obey the moral law- and if he
rightly understands the art, he will never be a
stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious libertine ."
(Constitutions, 1723, p. 50 .) The word "libertine"
there used conveyed a meaning different
from that which it now bears . In the
present usage of language it signifies a profligate
and licentious person, but originally it
meant a freethinker, or Deist. Derived from
the Latin "libertinus," a man that was once a
bondsman but who has been made free, it was
metaphorically used to designate one who had
been released, or who had released himself
from the bonds of religious belief, and become
in matters of faith a doubter or denier. Hence
"a stupid Atheist" denoted, to use the language
of the Psalmist, "the fool who has said
in his heart there is no God," while an "irreligious
libertine" designated the man who,
with a degree less of unbelief denies the distinctive
doctrines of revealed religion . And
this meaning of the expression connects itself
very appropriately with the succeeding paragraph
of the Charge . "But though in ancient
times, Masons were charged in every country
to be of the religion of that country or nation,
whatever it was, yet 'tis now thought more expedient
only to oblige them to that religion in
which all men agree, leaving their particular
opinions to themselves ."
The expression "irreligious libertine," alluding,
as it does, to a scoffer at religious
truths, is eminently suggestive of the religious
character of our Institution, which, founded as
it is on the great doctrines of religion, cannot
be properly appreciated by anyone who
doubts or denies their truth .
" Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ." The
motto of the French Freemasons .
Liberty of Passage . A significant phrase
in the high degrees . (See Libertas .) The
French rituals designate it by the letters
L . - . D .' . P.'% as the initials of liberte de passer,
or liberty of passage . But Bro . Pike proposes
to interpret these letters as liberte de penser,
liberty of thought ; the prerogative of a
freeman and a Freemason .
Library. It is the duty as well as the interest
of Lodges to facilitate the efforts of the
members in the acquisition of Masonic knowledge,
and no method is more appropriate than
the formation of Masonic libraries . The establishment
of a Grand Lodge libr ary is of
course not objectionable, but it is of far less
value and importance than a Lodge library .
The original outlay of a few dollars in the beginning
for its .establishment, and of a few