Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

XXIVSCHISMATIC RITES AND SECTS478 . Schismatic Rites and Sects.-The pretended derivationof Freemasonry from the Knights Templars has already beenreferred to ; but Masonry, the system, not the name, existedbefore the Order of the Temple, and the Templars themselveshad masonic rites and degrees three hundred yearsbefore their downfall. Those who, however, maintain theabove view say that the three assassins symbolise the threebetrayers of the Order, and Hiram the Grand Master Molay ;and according to the ritual of the Grand Lodge of the ThreeGlobes, a German degree, the lights around the coffin signifythe flames of the pile on which Molay was burnt. To theRosicrucians and to certain German lodges Hiram is Christ,and the three assassins, Judas that betrays, Peter that deniesHim, and Thomas that disbelieves His resurrection . Theancient Scotch rite had its origin in other false accounts ofthe rise of the Order . In the last century schisms withoutnumber arose in the masonic body . It would be impossiblein a work like this to give particulars of all ; we have alreadydone so of several ; a few more may be briefly referred to .The Moravian Brothers of the Order of Religious Freemasons,or Order of the "Mustard Seed," was a Germanrite founded, circa 1712, by Count Zinzendorf, the same whoafterwards invented the rite already described in § 438 .Some authorities assert this Order of the "Mustard-Seed"to have originated in England in 1708, and thence tohave spread to Holland and Germany, and to have beenadopted by Zinzendorf, circa I712-i4, when he was a studentat Halle . The mysteries were founded on the passage inSt. Mark iv. 30-32, in which Christ compares the kingdomof heaven to a grain of mustard-seed . The brethrenrecognised each other by a ring inscribed with the words"No one of us lives for himself ." The jewel was a crossof gold, surmounted by a mustard-plant with the words9z