Section 6

But to make every link in this chain of connection
complete, it is necessary that the mystic artists of
Tyre should be proved to be at least contempora-
neous with the building of King Solomon's temple;
and the evidence of that fact we shall now attempt to
produce.

Lawrie, whose elaborate researches into this subject
leave us nothing further to discover, places the arrival
of the Dionysiacs in Asia Minor at the time of the
Ionic migration, when ''the inhabitants of Attica, com-
plaining of the narrowness of their territory and the un-
fruitfulness of its soil, went in quest of more extensive
and fertile settlements. Being joined by a number of
the inhabitants of surrounding provinces, they sailed
to Asia Minor, drove out the original inhabitants, and
seized upon the most eligible situations, and united
them under the name of Ionia, because the greatest
number of the refugees were natives of that Grecian
province."^

With their knowledge of the arts of sculpture and
architecture, in which the Greeks had already made
some progress, the emigrants brought over to their new
settlements their religious customs also, and introduced
to Asia the mysteries of Athene and Dionysus long be-

1 Lawrie, "History of Freemasonry," p. 27.

DiONYSiAC Artificers 51

fore they had been corrupted by the Hcentiousness of
the mother country.

Now, Playfair places the Ionic migration in the year
1044 B. C, GiUies in 1055, and the Abbe Barthelemy in
1076. But the latest of these periods will extend as
far back as forty-four years before the commencement
of the temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, and will give
ample time for the establishment of the Dionysiac
fraternity at the city of Tyre, and the initiation of
'^ Hiram the Builder" into its mysteries.

Let us now pursue the chain of historical events
which finally united this purest branch of the Spurious
Freemasonry of the pagan nations with the Primitive
Freemasonry of the Jews at Jerusalem.

When Solomon, king of Israel, was about to build,
in accordance with the purposes of his father, David,
"a house unto the name of Jehovah, his God," he made
his intention known to Hiram, king of Tyre, his friend
and ally; and because he was well aware of the archi-
tectural skill of the Tyrian Dionysiacs, he besought that
monarch's assistance to enable him to carry his pious
design into execution.

Scripture informs us that Hiram complied with the
request of Solomon, and sent him the necessary work-
men to assist him in the glorious undertaking. Among
others, he sent an architect, who is briefly described,
in the First Book of Kings, as "a widow's son, of the
tribe of Naphtali, and his father a man of Tyre, a
worker in brass, a man filled with wisdom and under-
standing and cunning to work all works in brass" and
more fully, in the Second Book of Chronicles, as "a
cunning man, endued with understanding of Hiram my
father's, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan,
and his father, a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold.

52 Symbolism op Freemasonry

and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber,
in purple, in blue, and in fine linen and in crimson, also
to grave any manner of graving, and to find out any
device which shall be put to him."

To this man — this widow's son (as Scripture history,
as well as Masonic tradition informs us) — was intrusted
by King Solomon an important position among the
workmen at the sacred edifice which was constructed
on Mount Moriah. His knowledge and experience as
an artificer, and his eminent skill in every kind of
"curious and cunning workmanship," readily placed
him at the head of both the Jewish and Tyrian crafts-
men, as the chief builder and principal conductor of the
works; and it is to him, by means of the large authority
which this position gave him, that we attribute the
union of two people, so antagonistical in race, so dissim-
ilar in manners, and so opposed in religion, as the Jews
and Tyrians, in one common brotherhood, which resulted
in the organization of the institution of Freemasonry.

This Hiram, as a Tyrian and an artificer, must have
been connected with the Dionysiac fraternity; nor
could he have been a very humble or inconspicuous
member, if we may judge of his rank in the society,
from the amount of talent which he is said to have
possessed, and from the elevated position that he held
in the affections, and at the court, of the king of Tyre.
He must, therefore, have been well acquainted with all
the ceremonial usages of the Dionysiac artificers, and
must have enjoyed a long experience of the advantages
of the government and discipline which they practised
in the erection of the many sacred edifices in which
they were engaged.

A portion of these ceremonial usages and of this
discipline he would naturally be inclined to introduce

DiONYSiAC Artificers 53

among the workmen at Jerusalem. He therefore united
them in a society, similar in many respects to that of
the Dionysiac artificers. He taught lessons of charity
and brotherly love; he established a ceremony of
initiation, to test experimentally the fortitude and
worth of the candidate; adopted modes of recognition;
and impressed the obligations of duty and principles
of morality by means of symbols and allegories.

To the laborers and men of burden, the Ish Sabalj
and to the Craftsmen, corresponding with the first and
second degrees of more modern Freemasonry, but little
secret knowledge was confided. Like the aspirants in
the lesser Mysteries of paganism, their instructions
were simply to purify and prepare them for a more
solemn ordeal, and for the knowledge of the sublimest
truths. These were to be found only in the Master's
degree, which it was intended should be in imitation of
the greater Mysteries; and in it were to be unfolded,
explained, and enforced the great doctrines of the
unity of God and the immortality of the soul.

But here there must have at once arisen an appar-
ently insurmountable obstacle to the further continu-
ation of the resemblance of Freemasonry to the Mys-
teries of Dionysus. In the pagan Mysteries, we have
already said that these lessons were allegorically taught
by means of a legend. Now, in the Mysteries of
Dionysus, the legend was that of the death and sub-
sequent resuscitation or resurrection of the god Diony-
sus. But it would have been utterly impossible to
introduce such a legend as the basis of any instructions
to be communicated to Jewish candidates. Any allu-
sion to the mythological fables of their Gentile neigh-
bors, any celebration of the myths of pagan theology,
would have been equally offensive to the taste and

54 Symbolism of Freemasonry

repugnant to the religious prejudices of a nation edu-
cated, from generation to generation, in the worship
of a divine being jealous of his prerogatives, and who
had made himself known to his people as the Jehovah,
the God of time present, past, and future.

How this obstacle would have been surmounted by
the Israelitish founder of the Order we are unable
to say. A substitute would, no doubt, have been
invented which would have met all the symbolic re-
quirements of the legend of the Mysteries, or Spurious
Freemasonry, without violating the religious principles
of the Primitive Freemasonry of the Jews. But the
necessity for such invention never existed, and before
the completion of the temple a melancholy event is
said to have occurred, which served to cut the Gordian
knot, and the death of its chief architect has supplied
Freemasonry with its appropriate legend — a legend
which, like the legends of all the Mysteries, is used to
testify our faith in the resurrection of the body and
the immortality of the soul.

Before concluding this part of the subject, it is proper
that something should be said of the authenticity of
the legend of the third degree. Some distinguished
Freemasons are disposed to give it full credence as an
historical fact, while others look upon it only as a
beautiful allegory. So far as the question has any
bearing upon the symbolism of Freemasonry it is not
of importance; but those who contend for its historical
character assert that they do so on the following
grounds:

First. Because the character of the legend is such as
to meet all the requirements of the well-known axiom
of Vincentius Lirinensis, as to what we are to believe
in traditionary matters:

DiONYSiAC Artificers 55

*'Quod semper J quod uhiquej quod ah omnibus tra-
ditum est.^'^

That is, we are to believe whatever tradition has
been at all times, in all places, and by all persons
handed down.

With this rule the legend of Hiram Abif, they say,
agrees in every respect. It has been universally re-
ceived, and almost universally credited, among Free-
masons from the earliest times. We have no record
of any Freemasonry having ever existed since the time
of the temple without it. Indeed, it is so closely
interwoven into the whole system, forming the most
essential part of it, and giving it its most determi-
native character, that it is evident that the institution
could no more exist without the legend, than the legend
could have been retained without the institution. This,
therefore, the advocates of the historical character of the
legend think, gives probability at least to its truth.

Second. It is not contradicted by the scriptural
history of the transactions at the temple, and there-
fore, in the absence of the only existing written author-
ity on the subject, we are at liberty to depend on tra-
ditional information, provided the tradition be, as it
is contended that in this instance it is, reasonable,
probable, and supported by uninterrupted succession.

* Vincentius Lirinensis or Vincent of Lirens, who lived in the
fifth century of the Christian era, wrote a controversial treatise
entitled "Commonitorium," remarkable for the blind veneration
which it pays to the voice of tradition. The rule which he there
lays down, and which is cited in the text, "What always, what every-
where, and what by all has been passed along,'* may be considered,
in a modified application, as an axiom by which we may test the
probability, at least, of all sorts of traditions. None out of the pale of
Vincent's church will go so far as he did in making it the criterion or
standard test of positive truth.

56 Symbolism op Freemasonry

Third. It is contended that the very silence of
Scripture in relation to the death of Hiram, the Builder,
is an argument in favor of the mysterious nature of
that death. A man so important in his position as to
have been called the favorite of two kings — sent by
one and received by the other as a gift of surpassing
value, and the donation thought worthy of a special
record — would hardly have passed into oblivion, when
his labor was finished, without the memento of a single
line, unless his death had taken place in such a way as
to render a public account of it improper. And this
is supposed to have been the fact. It became the
legend of the new Mysteries, and, like those of the
old ones, was only to be divulged when accompanied
with the symbolic instructions which it was intended
to impress upon the minds of the aspirants.

But if, on the other hand, it be admitted that the
legend of the third degree is a fiction — that the whole
Masonic and extra-scriptural account of Hiram Abif is
simply a myth — it could not, in the slightest degree,
affect the theory which it is our object to establish.
For since, in a mythic relation, as the learned Mtiller^
has observed, fact and imagination, the real and the
ideal, are very closely united. Since the myth itself
always arises, according to the same author, out of a
necessity and unconsciousness on the part of its f ramers,
and by impulses which act alike on all, we must go back
to the Spurious Freemasonry of the Dionysiacs for the
principle which led to the involuntary formation of this
Hiramic myth.

Then we arrive at the same result, which has been
already indicated, namely, that the necessity of the
religious sentiment in the Jewish mind, to which the

* "Proleg. zu einer wissenshaftlich. Mythologie."

DiONYSiAC Artificers 57

introduction of the legend of Dionysus would have
been abhorrent, led to the substitution for it of that of
Hiram, in which the ideal parts of the narrative have
been intimately blended with real transactions.

Thus, that there was such a man as Hiram Abif,
that he was the chief builder at the temple of Jeru-
salem, that he was the confidential friend of the kings
of Israel and Tyre, which is indicated by his title of
Ahf or father, and that he is not heard of after the
completion of the temple — these are all historical facts.
That he died by violence, and in the way described in
the Masonic legend, may be also true, or may be merely
mythical elements incorporated into the historical
narrative.

But whether this be so or not — whether the legend
be a fact or a fiction, a history or a myth — this, at least,
is certain; that it was adopted by the Solomonic Free-
masons of the temple as a substitute for the idolatrous
legend of the death of Dionysus which belonged to the
Dionysiac Mysteries of the Tyrian workmen.^

* The reader should carefully consider a later hypothesis that has
been devised and has grown in strength since the time of Bro.
Mackey. This is the probabihty of there having been two Hirams,
one the father of the other. The newer explanation clears up some
awkward inferences from the BibHcal record, and by permitting the
assumption that the second Hiram took the place of the father be-
cause of a disabling misfortune occurring to Hiram Abif, there is the
further advantage of a close alignment with the usual Masonic
legend and explanation.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Union of Speculative and Operative Freemasonry
AT THE Temple of Solomon

THUS, then, we arrive at another important epoch
in our study of the history of the origin of Free-
masonry and the reader will to advantage note in
a general way the ground over which we have traveled.
We have shown how the Primitive Freemasonry,
originating in this new world, with Noah, was handed
down to his descendants as a purely speculative insti-
tution, embracing certain traditions of the nature of
God and of the soul.

We have shown how, soon after the Deluge, the
descendants of Noah separated, one portion, losing their
traditions, and substituting in their place idolatrous
and polytheistic religions, while the other and smaller
portion retained and communicated those original tradi-
tions under the nam6 of the Primitive Freemasonry of
antiquity.

We have shown how, among the polytheistic nations,
there were a few persons who still had a dim and clouded
understanding of these traditions, and that they taught
them in certain secret institutions known as the Mys-
teries, thus establishing another branch of the specu-
lative science which we now know under the name of
the Spurious Freemasonry of antiquity.

58

Speculative and Operative Freemasonry 59

We have shown how one sect or division of these
Spurious Freemasons existed at Tyre about the time of
the building of King Solomon's temple, and that they
added to their speculative science, which was much
purer than that of their contemporary Gentile mystics,
the practice of the arts of architecture and sculpture,
under the name of the Dionysiac Fraternity of Ar-
tificers.

Lastly, we have shown how, at the building of the
Solomonic temple and on the invitation of the king of
Israel, a large body of these architects repaired from
Tyre to Jerusalem, organized a new institution, or,
rather, a modification of the two old ones, the Primitive
Freemasons among the Israelites yielding somewhat
and the Spurious Freemasons among the Tyrians yield-
ing more; the former purifying the speculative sicence,
and the latter introducing the operative art, together
with the mystical ceremonies with which they accom-
panied its administration.

At this epoch, then, we place the first union of
Speculative and Operative Freemasonry — a union
which continued uninterruptedly to exist until a com-
paratively recent period, to which we shall have occa-
sion hereafter briefly to advert.

The other branches of the Spurious Freemasonry
were not, however, altogether and at once abolished by
this union, but continued also to exist and teach their
half-truthful dogmas for ages after, with interrupted
success and diminished influence, until in the fifth
century of the Christian era the whole of them were
forbidden by the Emperor Theodosius.

From time to time, however, other partial unions
took place, as in the instance of Pythagoras, who,
originally a member of the school of Spurious Free-

60 Symbolism of Freemasonry

masonry, was during his visit to Babylon, about four
hundred and fifty years after the union at the temple
of Jerusalem, initiated by the captive Israelites into
the rites of Temple Freemasonry. From that circum-
stance the instructions of that sage approximate much
more nearly to the principles of Freemasonry, both in
spirit and in letter, than those of any other of the
philosophers of antiquity. For that reason he is fa-
miliarly called, in the modern Masonic lectures, "an
ancient friend and brother," and an important symbol
of the Order, the forty-seventh problem of EucHd, has
been consecrated to his memory.

We do not now propose to enter upon so extensive
a task as to trace the history of the institution from the
completion of the first temple to its destruction by
Nebuchadnezzar, through the seventy-two years of
Babylonish captivity to the rebuilding of the second
temple by Zerubbabel thence to the devastation of
Jerusalem by Titus, when it was first introduced into
Europe through all its struggles in the middle ages,
sometimes protected and sometimes persecuted by the
church, sometimes forbidden by the law and oftener
encouraged by the monarch; until, in the beginning of
the sixteenth century, it assumed its present organiza-
tion. The details would require more time for their
mention than the limits of the present work will
permit. 1