Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/830

 BIASON&Y

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MASOH&Y

me recommend you to pursue such knowledge and cultivate such dispositions as will seoure you the Brotherly respect of this society and the honour of your further advancement in it " (Calcott; Oliver, ibid., II f 301-303) . It is merely through inconsistency that some Grand Lodges of North America insist on belief in the Divine inspiration of the Bible as a necessary qualification and that not a few Masons in America and Germany declare Masonry an essentially *' Chris- tian institution '\ According to the German Grand Lodges, Christ is only * * the wise and virtuous pure man " jMxr excellence, the principal model and teacher of ^'Humanity" ("Sign.", 1904, 45sg.,54; Gruber (5), 49 sqq. ; Idem (4), 23 sq. ) . In the Swedish system, practised by the German Country Grand Lodge, Christ is said to have taught besides the exoteric Christia]i doctrine, destined for the people and the duller mass of his dis- ciples, an esoteric doctrine for his chosen disciples, such as St. John, in which He denied that He was God (Findel, **Die Schule der Hierarchic, etc.", 1870, 15 sqq. ; Schiffmann, " Die Entstehimg der RitterCTade ", 1882, 85, 92, 95 sq.). Freemasonry, it is hela, is the descendant of the Christian secret society, in which this esoteric doctrine was propagated. It is evident, however, that even in this restricted sense of "unsec- tarian" Christianity, Freemasonry is not a Christian institution, as it acknowledges many pre-Christian models and teachers of " Humanity ". All instructed Masons agree in the objective import of this Masonic principle of "Humanity", according to which belief m dogmas is a matter of secondary importance, or even prejudicial to the law of universal love and toler- ance. Freemason rv, therefore, is opposed not only to Cathohcism and Christianity, but also to the whole system of supernatural truth. The only serious discrepancies among Masons re-

farding the interpretation of the texts of 1723 and 738 refer to the words: "And if he rightly under- stands the Art, he will never he a stupid Atheist or an irreligious Liberiine'\ The controversy as to the meaning of these words has been particularly sharp since 13 September, 1877, when the Grand Orient of France erased the paragraph, introduced in 1854 into its Constitutions, by whicn the existence of God and the immortality of soul were declared the basis of Freemasonry (Bulletin du Grand Orient de France, 1877, 236-50) and gave to the first article of its new Constitutions the following tenor: "Freemasonry, an essentially philanthropic, philosophic (naturalist, adog- matic) and progressive institution, has for its object the search after truth, the study of universal morality, of the sciences and arts and the practice of beneficence. It has for its principles absolute liberty of conscience and human solidarity. It excludes none on account of his belief. Its device is Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. " On 10 September, 1878, the Grand Orient, moreover, decreed to expunse from the Rituals and the lodge proceedings all allusions to religious dogmas as the 83rmbols of the Grand Architect, the Bible, etc. These measures called out solemn protests from nearly all the Anglo-American and German organs and led to a rupture between the Anglo-American Grand Lodges and the Gr.\ Or.*, of France. As many freethinkmg Masons both in America and in Europe sympathize in this struggle with the French, a world-wiae breach resulted. Quite recently many Grand Lodges of the United States refused to recognise the Grand Lodge of Switzerland as a regular body, for the reason that it entertains friendly relations with the atheistical Grand Orient of France ("Intern. Bull.", Berne, 1908, No. 2). This rupture might seem to show, that in the above paragraph of the Old Charges" the belief in a personal God is declared the most essential prerequi- site and duty of a Mason and that Anglo-American Masonry, at least, is an uncompromising champion of this Ixjlief against the impiety of Latin Masonry. But in truth all Masonry is full of ambiguity'. The

texts of 1723 and 1738 of the fundamental law con< ceming Atheism are purposely ambiguous. Atheism is not positively conaenmed, but just sufficiently dis- avowed to meet the exigencies of the time, when an open admission of it woula have been fatal to Bfaeoniy. It is not said that AtUeists cannot be admitted, or that no Mason can be an Atheist, but merely that if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist, eto., i. e., he will not hold or profess Atheism in a stupid way, by statements, for instance that shock religious feeling and bring Masoniy into bad repute. And even such a stupid Atheist incurs no stronger censure than the simple ascertaining of the fact that he does not rightly understand the art, a merely theo- retical judgment without any practical sanction. Such a disavowal tends rather to encourage modern poai- tivist or scientific Atheism. Scarcely more serious is the rejection of Atheism by the British, American and some German Grand Lodges in their struggle with the Grand Orient of France. The English Grand Loc^, it is true, in its quarterly communication of 6 March, 1878 (Chr., 1878, 1, 161) adopted four resolutions, in which belief in the Great Arcnitect of the Universe is declared to be the most important ancient landmark of the order, and an exphcit profession of that belief is required of visiting brethren belonging to the Grand Orient of France, as a condition for entrance into the English lod^. Similar measures were taken by the Irish, Scottish, and North American Grand Lodges. But this behef in a Great Architect is so va^e and symbolical, that almost every kind of Atheism and even of "stupid" Atheism may be covered by it. Moreover, British and American Grand Lodges declare that they are fully satisfied with such a vague, in fact merely verbal declaration, without further inquiry into the nature of this belief, and that they do not dream of claiming for Freemasonry that it is a "church", a "coimcil", a "synod". Consequently even those are acknowledged as Masons who with Spencer and other Naturalist philosophers of the a^ call God the hidden all-powerful principle working m nature, or, like the followers of " Handbuch" (3rd ed., II, 231), maintain as the two pillars of religion "the sentiment of tnan's littleness in the immensity of space and time", and "the assurance that whatever \a real has its origin from the good and whatever happens must be for the best".

An American Grand Orator Zabriskie (Arixona) on 13 November, 1889, proclaimed, that "individual members may believe in many gods, if their conscience and judgment so dictate" (Chr., 1890, I, 243). Li- mousin (Acacia, 1907, I, 48), approved by German Masons (Sign., 1907, 133 sq.), says: "The majority of men conceive God in the sense of exoteric relifions as an all-powerful man; others conceive God as t£e high- est idea a man can form in the sense of esoteric reli- gions. * ' The latter are called Atheists according to the exoteric notion of God repudiated by science, but they are not Atheists according to the esoteric and true notion of God. On the contraiy, add others (Sign., 1905, 54), they are less Atheists than churchmen, from whom they differ only by holding a higher idea of God or the Divine. In this sense Thevenot, Grand Secre- tary of the Grand Orient of France, in an official lettei to the Grand Lodge of Scotland (30 January, 1878), states: "French Masonry does not beUeve that there exist Atheists in the absolute sense of the word" (Chr., 1878, I, 134) ; and Pike himself (Morals and Dogma, 643 sqq.) avows : " A man who has a higher conception of God than those about him and who denies tJ^t their conception is God, is very likely to be called an Atheist by men who are really far less believers in God than he ", ete. Thus the whole controversy turns out to be merely nominal and formal. Moreover, it is to be noticed that the clause declaring belief in the great Architect a condition of admission, was introduced into the text of the Constitutions of the Grand Lodft