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

OLIVER,
_Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry_, vol. ii. p. 171.
[169] "Le grade de Maitre va donc nous retracer allegoriquement la mort
du
_dieu-lumiere_--mourant en hiver pour reparaitre et ressusciter au
printemps."--RAGON, _Cours Philos. et Interp. des Init._ p. 158.
[170] "Dans l'ordre moral, Hiram n'est autre chose que la raison
eternelle, par qui tout est pondere, regle, conserve."--DES ETANGS,
_Oeuvres Maconniques_, p. 90.
[171] With the same argument would I meet the hypothesis that Hiram was
the representative of Charles I. of England--an hypothesis now so
generally abandoned, that I have not thought it worth noticing in the
text.
[172] "The initiation into the Mysteries," he says, "scenically
represented the mythic descent into Hades and the return from thence to
the light of day; by which was meant the entrance into the Ark and the
subsequent liberation from its dark enclosure. Such Mysteries were
established in almost every part of the pagan world; and those of Ceres
were substantially the same as the Orgies of Adonis, Osiris, Hu,
Mithras,
and the Cabiri. They all equally related to the allegorical
disappearance,
or death, or descent of the great father at their commencement, and to
his
invention, or revival, or return from Hades, at their conclusion."--
_Origin
of Pagan Idolatry,_ vol. iv. b. iv. ch. v. p. 384--But this Arkite
theory, as it is called, has not met with the general approbation of
subsequent writers.
[173] Mount Calvary is a small hill or eminence, situated in a westerly
direction from that Mount Moriah on which the temple of Solomon was
built.
It was originally a hillock of notable eminence, but has, in modern
times,
been greatly reduced by the excavations made in it for the construction
of
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Buckingham, in his Palestine, p. 283,
says, "The present rock, called Calvary, and enclosed within the Church
of
the Holy Sepulchre, bears marks, in every part that is naked, of its
having been a round nodule of rock standing above the common level of
the
surface."
[174] Dr. Beard, in the art. "Golgotha," in Kitto's Encyc. of Bib.
Lit.,
reasons in a similar method as to the place of the crucifixion, and
supposing that the soldiers, from the fear of a popular tumult, would
hurry Jesus to the most convenient spot for execution, says, "Then the
road to Joppa or Damascus would be most convenient, and no spot in the
vicinity would probably be so suitable as the slight rounded elevation
which bore the name of Calvary."