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

62 ANTEDILUVIAN
ANTI-MASONIC
Antediluvian Masonry. Among the traditions
of Masonry, which, taken literally,
become incredible, but which, considered
allegorically, may contain a profound meaning,
not the least remarkable are those which relate
to the existence of a Masonic system before
the Flood . Thus, Anderson (Const., 1st
ed ., p . 3) says : "Without regarding uncertain
accounts, we may safely conclude the Old
World, that lasted 1656 years, could not be ignorant
of Masonry." Dr . Oliver has devoted
the twenty-eighth lecture in his Historical
Landmarks to an inquiry into " the nature and
design of Freemasonry before the Flood " ;
but he admits that any evidence of the existence
at that time of such an Institution must
be based on the identity of Freemasonry and
morality. " We may safely assume," he says,
"that whatever had for its object and
end an inducement to the practice of that
morality which is founded on the love of
God, may be identified with primitive Freemasonry."
The truth is, that antediluvian Masonry is
alluded to only in what is called the " ineffable
degrees" ; and that its only important
tradition is that of Enoch, who is traditionally
supposed to be its founder, or, at least, its
great heirophant . (See Enoch .)
Anthem . The anthem was originally a
piece of church music sung by alternate voices .
The word afterward, however, came to be
used as a designation of that kind of sacred
music which consisted of certain passages
taken out of the Scriptures, and adapted to
particular solemnities . In the permanent
poetry and music of Masonry the anthem is
very rarely used . The spirit of Masonic poetry
is lyrical, and therefore the ode is almost
altogether used (except on some special occasions)
in the solemnities and ceremonials of
the Order. There are really no Masonic anthems
.
Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry,
otherwise of Memphis . This rite claims a
derivation from Egypt, and an organization
from the High Grades which had entered
Egypt before the arrival of the French Army,
and it has been asserted that Napoleon and
Kleber were invested with a ring at the hands
of an Egyptian sage at the Pyramid of Cheops .
However that may be, in 1814 the Disciples
of Memphis were constituted as a Grand
Lodge at Montauban in France by G. M .
Marconis and others, being an incorporation
of the various rites worked in the previous
century and especially of the Primitive Rite of
Philadelphes of Narbonne (q. v .) . In the political
troubles that followed in France the
Lodge of the Disciples of Memphis was put to
sleep on March 7, 1816, and remained somnolent
until July 7, 1838, when J . E . Marconis
was elected Grand Hierophant and arranged
the documents, which the Rite then possessed,
into 90 degrees . The first Assembly of the
Supreme Power was held on September 25,
1838, and proclaimed on October 5th following
. The father of the new Grand Hierophant
seems to have been living and to have
sanctioned the proceedings . Lodges were
established in Paris and Brussels until the
government of France forbade the meetings
in 1841 ; however, in 1848 work was resumed
and the Rite spread to Roumania, Egypt,
America, and elsewhere .
In 1862 J . E . Marconis united the Rite
with the Grand Orient of France, retaining
apparently the rank of Grand Hierophant ;
and in 1865 a Concordat was executed between
the two bodies by which the relative
value of their different degrees was
settled .
In 1872 a Sovereign Sanctuary of the Rite
was established in England by some American
members with Bro . John Yarker as Grand
Master General, and has since continued at
work .
An official journal entitled The Kneph was
at one time issued by the authority of the
Sovereign Sanctuary, from which we learn
that the Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry
is " universal and open to every Master
Mason who is in good standing under some
constitutional Grand Lodge, and teaches the
Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of
Man." The degrees of the Rite are 95 in number,
starting with the three Craft degrees, and
divided into three series, and appear to have
been rearranged and renamed at various
times. [E . L. H .]
Anti-Masonic Books . There is no country
of the civilized world where Freeman
sonry has existed, in which opposition to
it has not, from time to time, exhibited
itself ; although it has always been
overcome by the purity and innocence
of the Institution . The Roman Catholic
religion has always been anti-Masonic, and
hence edicts have constantly been promulgated
by popes and sovereigns in Roman
Catholic countries against the Order . The
most important of these edicts is the bull
of Pope Clement XII ., which was issued
on the 24th of April, 1738, the authority of
which bull is still in existence, and forbids
any pious Catholic from uniting with a
Masonic Lodge, under the severest penalties
of ecclesiastical excommunication .
In the United States, where there are neither
popes to issue bulls nor kings to promulgate
edicts, the opposition to Freemasonry
had to take the form of a political party .
Such a party was organized in this country in
the year 1826, soon after the disappearance
of one William Morgan . The object of this
party was professedly to put down the Masonic
Institution as subversive of good government,
but really for the political aggrandizement
of its leaders, who used the opposition to
Freemasonry merely as a stepping-stone to
their own advancement to office . But the public
virtue of the masses of the American people
repudiated a party which was based on such
corrupt and mercenary views, and its ephemeral
existence was followed by a total annihilation
.
A society which has been deemed of so
much importance as to be the victim of so