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* MASONS. 151 Councils of Princes of Jorusalem, Chapters of Rose Croix, and Consistories. The Ancient and Primitive Rite of Jfeniphis was establislied in llontauban, France, in 1814, by Jacques Etienne Marconis and others. On November 9, 1850, the first organization of the Ancient and Primitive Rite in America was created in Xew York imder the title of 'A Supreme Council Sublime blasters of the Great Work Ninetieth Degree' by Jacques Etienne JIarconis. On !March 1, 1857, he organ- ized a 'Sovereign Grand Council-Gener.al Ninety- fourth Degree' and granted a charter with full authorily for the administration and government of the Order, and on Jime 21, 1802, a 'Sovereign Sanctuary Ninety-fifth Degree' was created in and for the continent of America in affiliation with the Grand Orient of France. The 'Jlystic Temple Grand Council-General Ninety-fourth De- gree' lias charge of the State of New York. There are branches in existence for the government of other countries under titles of Sovereign Sanctu- aries, viz. for Great Britain and Ireland, Egypt, Rumania. Naples, Palermo, and India. MASO'RA, MASSORAH, MASSORETH (Heb. tradition, from wi'ixar, to hand over I . A particular collection of critical notes on the text of the Old Testament, its divisions, accents, vowels, grammatical forms, letters, etc. Accord- ing to the early mode of Semitic writing, only the consonants were indicated; hence in the course of time there inevitably arose a vast num- ber of variants in the Old Testament text, or rather different ways of reading and interpreting the same letters by dividing them into different words with different vowels and accents. Some measures for the more accurate preservation of the documents became indispensable, and the desideratum was supplied by the Slasora, which, by fixing an immutable reading upon each verse, word, and letter, put an end to the confusion and left the individual fancy free to take its own views for homiletical purposes only. The origin of the JIasora is shrouded in mystery, though tradition carries it back to the days of Ezra. The first certain traces of it are found in certain Halachistic works treating of the syna- gogue rolls of the Pentateuch, and the mode of writing them, and it is reasonable to suppose that practical necessities called forth by the in- stitution of readings from the Pentateuch and Prophets as a regular feature of relitrions ser- vices led to accurate determination of the text of each verse, the number of letters, and the pronunciation of each word, including the proper intonation. A late Talmudic treatise, Masse- flicth ffnpherim, treats of these matters. Some of the earliest works on the subject have survived in their titles only, such as The Hook of the Croinif:, The Book of the f^oundi. etc. There can hardly be a doubt that the Masora. like the Halacha and Hnsgada. was the work, not of one ape or century, but of niany ages and centuries, as. indeed, we find in ancient authorities mention of different svstems of accentuation used in Tiberias. Babylon f -Assyria), and Palestine. In the period of Hadrian we learn of two scholars, Nakkai and TTamnium. who are said to have pounted the number of verses in the books of the ■Old Testament, but the systematic work of the Masoretes belongs to a much later period. The vowel system at present employed, which is their work, cannot be traced further back than the ■seventh century, and appears to be based on the MASPERO. example fumi.shed by Syrian grammarians; but before this was perfected at Tiberias in Pales- tine, another system, chiefly superlinear in char- acter and much more complicated, was evolved and adopted in Babylonia. These two systems are distinguished as the Tiberian and the Baby- lonian respectively. It was in Tiberias that the ilasora was first committed to writing, between the sixth and ninth centuries A.D. ponographs, memorial verses, finally glosses on the margins of the text, seem to have been the earliest forms of the written Masora, which gradually expanded into one of the most elaborate and minute sys- tems, laid down in the 'Great Jlasora,' made up of longer notes placed upon the upper and lower margins (about the eleventh century). Besides this there was compiled the 'Small ilasora,' notes placed between the columns of the texts. A further distinction is made between JIasora texfiKilis and fiiialis, the former containing all the marginal notes: the latter, larger annota- tions, which, for Avant of space, had to be placed at the end of the paragraph. Of independent Masoretic works, the most important is the one known as Ochlah iccochlah. The final arrange- ment of the Masora, which was first printed in Bomberg's Rabbinical Bible (Venice, 1524-25), is due to Jacob ben Chayim ben Adonijah, and to Felix Pratensis. The language of the Masora is Aramaic, and besides the difileulty of this idiom, the obscure abbreviations, contractions, sym- bolical signs, etc., with which the work abounds, render its study exceedingly difficult. An ex- planation of the Masora is found in Elias Le- vita's Masoreth H<immesoreth (trans, into Ger- man by Seniler, Halle, 1772), and Buxtorfs Tiberias (Basel. 1620). Consult also: Ginsburg, The Massorah (London. 1880-85) ; id., Introdue- Hon to the ITehrew Bible (London, 180fl) ; Har- ris, "Rise and Development of the ^Massorah," in the Jevish Quarterly Review, vol. i. (1888); Konig. Einleitvng in das Alte Testament (Leip- zig. i8n,3). MASPERO, ma'spe-ro', G.STON Cajiille Chakles (1846—). A distinguished French Egyptologist. He was born at Paris. .June 23. 1846, and received his early education at the Lyc6e Louis le Grand. At the age of fourteen years he studied the Egyptian language privately, and in 1805, when he entered the Eeole Norniale, he had attained a high degree of proficiency in the interpretation of hieroglyphic texts. Two years later he ])ublished. with the approval of Mariette, his Essai stir Vinscription dMieatoire dii temple d'Abydos et la jeunesne de Kesostris. In 1807 he went to Montevideo to cofiperate with Vicente Fidel Lopez in his studies on the Indian dialects of Peru, translating into French and editing Lopez's work. Les races aryeiiiies de Peroti. On his return to Paris, a year later, he resumed his Egyptological studies, and in 1809 he read before the Academic des Inscriptions a memoir on the .bbott Papyrus, containing an official report in regard to the tomb roblieries in the Theban necrop- olis under Rameses IX. This memoir, under the title Une enquHe judieinire a Thebes au temps (fe la XXeme dynnstie. was published at Paris in 1871. In 18fin Maspero became repetiteur in the department of Egyptology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, and three years later he passed the ex- amination for the degree of doctor, presenting two theses.: De Carchemidis Oppidi Sitn et Uistoria Antiquissima and Dti genre dpistolaire chez les