Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

ANDROGYNOUS MASONRY 85Calatrava." They, as it . were, served as models to thecanonesses, who, till the end of the last century, broughtcourtly pomp and mundane pleasures into the very cloistersof France, and compelled austere moralists to excuse it bysaying that it was dans le gout de la nation .471 . Other Androgynous Societies .-In the Order of the" Companions of Penelope, or the Palladium of Ladies,"whose statutes are said to have been drawn up by Fenelon(with how much truth is easily imagined), the trials consistin showing the candidate that work is the palladium ofwomen ; whence we may assume the pursuits of this societyto have been very different from the equivocal occupationsof other Orders. The Order of the "Mopses " owed its originto a religious scruple . Pope Clement XII . having issued, in1738, a Bull condemning Freemasonry, Clement Augustus,Duke of Bavaria and Elector of Cologne, instituted, underthe above name (derived from the German word Mops, ayoung mastiff, the symbol of fidelity), what was pretended tobe a new society, but what was, in fact, only Freemasonryunder another name . Immediately after their establishmentthe Mopses became an androgynous order, admitting femalesto all the offices except that of Grated Master, which wasfor life ; but there was a Grand Mistress, elected every sixmonths. Their ceremonies were grotesque . The candidatefor admission did not knock, but scratch at the door, and,being purposely kept waiting, barked like a dog . On beingadmitted into the lodge he had a collar round his neck, towhich a chain was attached . He was blindfolded, and lednine times round the room, while the Mopses present madeas great a din as possible with sticks, swords, chains, shovels,and dismal howlings . He was then questioned as to hisintentions, and having replied that he desired to become aMops, was asked by the master whether he was prepared tokiss the most ignoble part of that animal . Of course thisraised the candidate's anger ; but in spite of his resistance,the model of a dog, made of wax, wood, or some othermaterial, was pushed against his face . Having taken theoath, he had his eyes unbandaged, and was taught the signs,which were all of a ludicrous description. In 1777 therewas established in Denmark the androgynous order ofthe "Society of the Chain," to which belongs the honourof having founded, and of maintaining at its own expense,the Asylum for the Blind at Copenhagen, the largest andbest managed of similar institutions in Europe . The Orderof "Perseverance," the date of whose foundation is un-