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

ASSASSINS
ASSOCIATES 83
Persia attained a high degree ; so that during
his reign of forty-six years the Persian literature
attained a point of excellence beyond that
of Alexandria under the Ptolemies, and of
France under Francis I . The old belief that
they were a confederacy of murderers-whence
we have taken our English word assassinsmust
now be abandoned as a figment of the
credulity of past centuries, and we must be content
to look upon them as a secret society of
philosophers, whose political relations, however,
merged them into a dynasty . If we
interpret Freemasonry as a generic term,
signifying a philosophic sect which teaches
truth by a mystical initiation and secret symbols,
then Higgms was not very far in error in
calling them the Freemasons of the East .
Assassins of the Third Degree . There
is in Freemasonry a legend of certain unworthy
Craftsmen who entered into a conspiracy
to extort from a distinguished brother
a secret of which he was the possessor . The
legend is altogether symbolic, and when its
symbolism is truly comprehended, becomes
surpassingly beautiful . By those who look
at it as having the pretension of an historical
fact, it is sometimes treated with indifference,
and sometimes considered an absurdity . But
it is not thus that the legends and symbols of
Masonry must be read, if we would learn
their true spirit . To behold the goddess in
all her glorious beauty, the veil that conceals
her statue must be withdrawn . Masonic
writers who have sought to interpret the symbolism
of the legend of the conspiracy of the
three assassins, have not agreed always in the
interpretation, although they have finally
arrived at the same result, namely, that it has
a spiritual signification . Those who trace
Speculative Masonry to the ancient solar
worship, of whom Ragon may be considered as
the exponent, find in this legend a symbol of
the conspiracy of the three winter months to
destroy the life-giving heat of the sun . Those
who, like the disciples of the Rite of Strict
Observance, trace Masonry to a Templar
origin, explain the legend as referring to the
conspiracy of the three renegade knights who
falsely accused the Order, and thus aided King
Philip and Pope Clement to abolish Templarism,
and to slay its Grand Master. Hutchinson
and Oliver, who labored to give a Christian
interpretation to all the symbols of Masonry,
referred the legend to the crucifixion of
the Messiah, the type of which is, of course,
the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain .
Others, of whom the Chevalier Ramsay was
the leader, sought to give it a political significance
; and, making Charles I . the type
of the Builder, symbolized Cromwell and
his adherents as the conspirators. The Masonic
scholars whose aim has been to identify
the modern system of Freemasonry with the
Ancient Mysteries, and especially with the
Egyptian, which they supposed to be the germ
as Ahriman contending against Ormuzd. And
lastly, in the Philosophic degrees, the myth is
interpreted as signifying the war of Falsehood,
Ignorance, and Superstition against Truth .
Of the supposed names of the three Assassins,
there is hardly any end of variations, for they
materially differ in all the principal rites.
Thus, we have Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum in
the York and American Rites . In the Adonhiramite
system we have Romvel, Gravelot,
and Abiram . In the Scottish Rite we find the
names given in the old rituals as Jubelum
Akirop, sometimes Abiram, Jubelo Romvel,
and Jubela Gravelot . Schterke and Oterfiit
are in some of the German rituals, while other
Scottish rituals have Abiram, Romvel, and
Hobhen. In all these names there is manifest
corruption, and the patience of many
Masonic scholars has been well-nigh exhausted
in seeking for some plausible and
satisfactory derivation .
Assembly . The meetings of the Craft during
the operative period in the Middle Ages,
were called "assemblies," which appear to
have been tantamount to the modern Lodges
and they are constantly spoken of in the Old'
Constitutions . The word assembly was also
often used in these documents to indicate a
larger meeting of the whole Craft, which was
equivalent to the modem Grand Lodge, and
which was held annually. The York MS .,
No . 1, about the year 1600, says " that Edwin
procured of ye King his father a charter and
commission to hold every yeare ap assembly
wheresoever they would within ye realm of
England," and this statement, whether true
or false, is repeated in all the old records .
Preston says, speaking of that medieval
period, that "a sufficient number of Masons
met together within a certain district, with
the consent of the sheriff or chief magistrate
of the place, were empowered at this time to
make Masons," etc . To this assembly, every
Mason was bound, when summoned, to
appear . Thus, in the Harleian MS ., circa
1660, it is ordained that "every Master and
Fellow come to the Assembly, if it be within
five miles about him, if he have any warning ."
The term "General Assembly," to indicate
the annual meeting, is said to have been first
used at the meeting, held on December 27,
1663, as quoted by Preston . In the Old
Constitutions printed in 1722 by Roberts
and which claims to be taken from a MS . of
the eighteenth century, the term used is
"Yearly Assembly ." Anderson speaks of an
Old Constitution which used the word
"General ;" but his quotations are not always
verbally accurate .
Assistance. See Aid and Assistance .
Associates of the Temple . During the
Middle Ages, many persons of rank, who were
desirous of participating in the spiritual advantages
supposed to be enjoyed by the
Templars in consequence of the good works
of all the others, interpret the conspirators as done by the Fraternity, but who were unwilling
to submit to the discipline of the brethren
the symbol of the Evil Principle, or Typhon,
slaying the Good Principle or Osiris ; or, when made valuable donations to the Order, and
they refer to the Zoroastio'Mysteriea of Persia, were, in consequence, admitted into a sort of