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

38 AHIMAN
AHIMAN
upon which, one of the four, named Ahiman,
says that no such history has ever yet been
composed and suggests that it never can be .
It is clear, therefore, that the first word of the
title is the name of this personage . What
then does "Rezon " signify? Now the
Geneva or "Breeches" Bible, published in
1560, contains a table giving the meanings of
the Bible names and explains Ahiman as " a
prepared brother " or " brother of the right
hand " and Rezon as " a secretary," so that
the title of the book would mean " Brother
Secretary ." That Dermott used the Geneva
Bible is plain from the fact that he quotes
from it in his Address to the reader, and
therefore it may fairly be assumed that
he selected these names to suit his purpose
from the list given in it, especially as he
styles himself on his title-page merely " Secretary
."
But the history of the origin of the book is
more important and more interesting than the
history of the derivation of its title .
The premier Grand Lodge of England was
established in 1717 and ruled the Masons of
London and the South of England without opposition
until in 1751 when some Irish Masons
established another body in London, who professed
to work " according to the old institutions,"
and called themselves ` Antient "
Masons and the members of the older Grand
Lodge " Moderns " maintaining that they
alone preserved the ancient usages of Masonry
.
The former of these contending bodies, the
Grand Lodge of England, had, in the year
1722, caused Dr . James Anderson to collect
and compile all the statutes and regulations
by which the Fraternity had in former times
been governed ; and these, after having been
submitted to due revision, were published in
1723, by Anderson, with the title of The Constitutions
of the Freemasons . This work, of
which several other editions subsequently
appeared, has always been called the Book
of Constitutions, and contains the foundations
of the written law by which the Grand
Lodge of England and the Lodges deriving
from it, both in that country and in America,
are governed . But when the Irish Masons
established their rival Grand Lodge, they
found it necessary, also, to have a, Book of
Constitutions ; and accordingly, Laurence
Dermott, who was at one time their Grand
Secretary, and afterward their Deputy
Grand Master, compiled such a work, the first
edition of which was published by James Bedford,
at London, in 1756, with the following
title : Ahiman Rezon : or a Help to a Brother;
showing the Excellency of Secrecy, and the first
cause or motive of the Institution of Masonry ;
the Principles of the Craft ; and the Benefits
from a strict Observance thereof, etc ., etc . ; also
the Old and New Regulations, etc . To which is
added the greatest collection of Masons' Songs,
etc. By Bro . Laurence Dermott, Secretary . 8vo,
20A
p seecond edition was published in 1764
with this title : Ahiman Rezon : or a help to
all that are or would be Free and Accepted
Masons ; containing the Quintessence of all
that has been published on the Subject of Freemasonry,
with many Additions, which renders
this Work more useful than any other Book of
Constitution now extant . By Lau. Dermott, Secretary
. London, 1764 . 8vo . 224 pp .
A third edition was published in 1778, with
the following title : Ahiman Rezon : or a Help
to all that are or would be Free and Accepted
Masons, (with many Additions .) By Lau . Dermott,
D.G .M. Printed for James Jones, Grand
Secretary ; and Sold by Peter Shatwell, in the
Strand. London, 1778 . 8vo, 232 pp .
Five other editions were published : the 4th,
in 1778 ; the 5th in 1787 ; the 6th in 1800 ; the
7th in 1801 ; the 8th in 1807, and the 9th
in 1813 . In this year, the Ancient Grand
Lodge was dissolved by the union of the two
Grand Lodges of England, and a new Book of
Constitutions having been adopted for the
united body, the Ahiman Rezon became useless,
and no subsequent edition was ever published
.
The earlier editions of this work are among
the rarest of Masonic publications, and are
highly prized by collectors .
In the year 1855, Mr . Leon Hyneman, of
Philadelphia, who was engaged in a reprint of
old standard Masonic works (an enterprise
which should have received better patronage
than it did), republished the second edition,
with a few explanatory notes .
As this book contains those principles of
Masonic law by which, for three-fourths of a
century, a large and intelligent portion of the
Craft was governed ; and as it is now becoming
rare and, to the generality of readers, inaccessible,
some brief review of its contents may
not be uninteresting .
In the Preface or Address to the reader,
Dermott pokes fun at the History of Freemasonry
as written by Dr . Anderson and
others, and wittily explains the reason why
he has not published a history of Freemasonry
.
There is next a "Philacteria for such Gentlemen
as may be inclined to become Freemasons
." This article, which was not in the
first edition, but appeared for the first time in
the second, consists of directions as to the
method to be pursued by one who desires to
be made a Freemason . This is followed by an
account of what Dermott calls "Modern
Masonry," that is, the system pursued by the
original Grand Lodge of England, and of the
differences existing between it and " Ancient
Masonry," or the system of his own Grand
Lodge . He contends that there are material
differences between the two systems ; that of
the Ancients being universal and that of the
Moderns not ; a Modern being able with
safety to communicate all his secrets to an
Ancient, while an Ancient cannot communicate
his to a Modern ; a Modern having no
right to be called free and accepted ; all of
which, in his opinion, show that the Ancients
have secrets which are not in the possession of
the Moderns . This, he considers, a convinc-