THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

Masonry.
CADMILLUS. One of the gods of the Cabiri, who was slain by his
brothers,
on which circumstance the legend of the Cabiric or Samothracian
Mysteries
is founded. He is the analogue of the Builder in the Hiramic legend of
Freemasonry. 256
CAIRNS. Heaps of stones of a conical form, erected by the Druids. Some
suppose them to have been sepulchral monuments, others altars. They
were
undoubtedly of a religious character, since sacrificial fires were
lighted
upon them, and processions were made around them. These processions
were
analogous to the circumambulations in Masonry, and were conducted like
them with reference to the apparent course of the sun.
CASSIA. A gross corruption of _Acacia_. The cassia is an aromatic
plant,
but it has no mystical or symbolic character.
CELTIC MYSTERIES. The religious rites of ancient Gaul and Britain, more
familiarly known as _Druidism_, which see.. 109
CEREMONIES. The outer garments which cover and adorn Freemasonry as
clothing does the human body.
Although ceremonies give neither life nor truth to doctrines or
principles, yet they have an admirable influence, since by their use
certain things are made to acquire a sacred character which they would
not
otherwise have had; and hence Lord Coke has most wisely said that
"prudent
antiquity did, for more solemnity and better memory and observation of
that which is to be done, express substances under ceremonies.".
CERES. Among the Romans the goddess of agriculture; but among the more
poetic Greeks she became, as Demeter, the symbol of the prolific earth.
See _Demeter_.
CHARTER OF COLOGNE. A masonic document of great celebrity, but not of
unquestioned authenticity. It is a declaration or affirmation of the
design and principles of Freemasonry, issued in the year 1535, by a
convention of masons who had assembled in the city of Cologne. The
original is in the Latin language. The assertors of the authenticity of
the document claim that it was found in the chest of a lodge at
Amsterdam
in 1637, and afterwards regularly transmitted from hand to hand until
the
year 1816, when it was presented to Prince Frederick of Nassau, through
whom it was at that time made known to the masonic world. Others assert
that it is a forgery, which was perpetrated about the year 1816. Like
the
Leland manuscript, it is one of those vexed questions of masonic
literary