The Web of Hiram

Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite

4. Secret Master

5. Perfect Master

6. Intimate Secretary

7. Provost and Judge

8. Intendant of Buildings

9. Master Elect of Nine

10. Master Elect of Fifteen

11. Sublime Master Elected

12. Grand Master Architect

13. Royal Arch of Enoch

14. Grand Elect, Perfect and Sublime Master Mason

15. Knight of the East or Sword

16. Prince of Jerusalem

17. Knights of the East and West

18. Knight of the Rose-Croix de Heredom

19. Grand Pontiff

20. Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges

21. Noachite or Prussian Knight

22. Knight of the Royal Axe

23. Chief of the Tabernacle

24. Prince of the Tabernacle

25. Knight of the Brazen Serpent

26. Prince of Mercy

27 Commander of the Temple

28. Knight of the Sun

29. Knight of St Andrew, or Patriarch of the Crusades

30. Knight Kadosh

31. Grand Inspector Commander

32. Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.

33. Inspector-General

KNIGHT OF ST ANDREW

OR

PATRIARCH OF THE CRUSADES

The Twenty-Ninth Grade of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and the Eleventh Degree of the Historical and Philosophical Series

ARGUMENT

The degree of Knight of St. Andrew is intended to inculcate equality - representing the poor knight equal to the monarch; and exhibits the requisites of knighthood  -protection to the defenceless and innocent, the possession of virtue, patience, and firmness and represents the Knight as the exponent of truth, and one alike without fear and without reproach.

The Cross of St. Andrew, in heraldry, is termed the Cross Saltire, emblem of suffering and humility. Tradition says that St. Andrew was crucified on the 30th of November, on a cross of that form.

The beautiful Masonic doctrine of Toleration is exemplified in this, the last of the instructive degrees of the Historical and Philosophical Series.

The lecture of this degree is inserted in this volume, and is a fitting climax to the theory of Universal Religion.

APARTMENTS, AND THEIR DECORATIONS, ETC

Two apartments are necessary, beside the preparation-room.

THE FIRST APARTMENT

The hangings are crimson, supported by white columns; seats of the Master and Wardens, crimson, with gilt ornaments, while those of all the other knights are blue.

In each corner of the Chapter-room is a St. Andrew's Cross; and nine lights, by threes, are on the East, West, and South sides of the altar, in the centre of the room. During a reception this hall represents the court of Salah-eddin (Saladin), the great Sultan of Egypt and Syria. No Masonic emblems appear. A parchment Koran lies on a table in front of the throne, and Saracenic standards, displaying the Crescent, stand near the seats pf the Grand Master and the Wardens. The Chapter-room at this time is hung with green and gold. Ottomans, in lieu of chairs, and other Saracenic and Eastern properties, should be disposed about the hall.

THE SECOND APARTMENT

The second apartment should be a well-furnished room, in the Eastern style, arranged with accommodations for washing, and containing a table, on which are a cross-hilted sword, and a Bible or Koran.

OFFICERS, AND THEIR DRESS WHEN IN THE CHAPTER

1. VENERABLE GRAND MASTER

2. SENIOR WARDEN

3. JUNIOR WARDEN.

4. MASTER OF CEREMONIES

5. SENIOR DEACON

6. JUNIOR DEACON

7. TREASURER

8. SECRETARY

9. CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD

10. HOSPITALLER

11. SENTINEL

The Knights are all dressed in crimson robes, with a deep scarlet sash around the waist, a green collar edged with crimson about the neck, to which the Jewel is suspended, and a white silk sash worn from the left shoulder to the right hip, ornamented with gold fringe. On the left breast is the large white Cross of St. Andrew.

The Jewel is two interlaced triangles, formed by arcs of large circles, with the concave outward, made of gold, and enclosing a pair of compasses open to twenty- five degrees. At the bottom, and to one of the points, is suspended a St. Andrew's Cross of gold, surmounted by a knight's helmet; on the centre of the cross is the letter yod, enclosed in an equilateral triangle, and this again in a ring formed by a winged serpent; between the two lower arms of the cross may be suspended a key; on the corners of the cross the letters

Assemblies of this degree are styled Chapters.

The -Battery is nine, by **-***-****

OFFICERS AND THEIR COSTUME, IN THE COURT OF SALADIN

The throne is occupied by the Master of Ceremonies, who represents the Sultan, while the Grand Master represents Hugh of Tiberias, Lord of Galilee. The Senior Warden represents Malek Adhel, brother of the Sultan (Malek Adhel, Sayf-eddin-the just king and sword of religion). The Junior Warden, in the South, represents Malek Modaffer, Taki-edden-(the victorious king and devoted to religion) -Prince of Hamah and nephew of the Sultan. The Senior Deacon, seated on the right of the throne, is Malek Daher-(triumphant king)-son of the Sultan and Prince of Aleppo; the Junior Deacon, on the left of the throne, Malek Afdel-(excellent king)-son of the Sultan and Prince of Damascus; and the Captain of the Guard - who accompanies the Grand Master, and, after introducing him, seats himself on the right of the Senior Warden, the Emir of Emessa.

The Knights all wear the Turkish costume - hat is, the wide trowsers, vest and turban, all white, and a red sash around the waist, with a scimetar.

Behind the throne is a banner, in the shape of a shroud, white, on which, in black, are these words.

"Salah-eddin, king of kings-Satah-eddin, victor of victors - Salah-eddin must die."

RECEPTION

M.: of C.:  Noble knight, since your forces entered this land of ours, I have learned something of your institution of knighthood, and would fain know more. I understand the sanctity of the knightly word, as you may see by the confidence I have placed in yours; and 1 have also heard from those who have been in your camps, as prisoners and otherwise, that there is among you a strange equality, so that a knight, though poor, may sit in the presence of a monarch. Tell me if that be so.

G.: M.: It is. Thou hast not been misinformed. The name of Knight, and gentle blood, entitle the possessor to place himself in the same rank with sovereigns of the first degree, so far as regards all but kingly authority and dominion. If the greatest king were to wound the honour of the poorest knight, he could not, by the law of chivalry, refuse satisfaction by single combat.

M.: of C.: And how may he aspire to mate in marriage?

G.: M.: With the noblest and proudest dame in Christendom. The poorest knight is free, in all honourable service, to devote his hand and sword, the fame of his exploits, and the deep devotion of his heart, to the fairest princess that ever wore a coronet.

G.: M.: Thou must profess thy belief in the one true and everliving God; and ye Saracens worship not the true God.

M.: of C.: Thou art mistaken, prince, for thou knowest not our faith. Doth not the Koran say, "There is no God but God-the living, the self-substisting?" Your God is our God; there is no God but He - the most merciful. To God belongeth the east and the west - therefore, whithersoever ye turn yourselves to pray, there is the face of God; for God is omnipresent and omniscient. We believe in God, and that which hath been sent down to us, and that which hath been sent unto Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob, and the tribes; and that which was delivered unto Moses and Jesus; and that which was delivered unto the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to God are we resigned. So speaketh the Koran everywhere.

G.: M.: Princely Saladin, didst thou ever think of the Lord Jesus Christ, or does thy faith allow thee to believe in him?

M.: of C.: Doth not the Koran say that whosoever believeth in God and the last day, and doeth that which is right, shall have their reward with their Lord? Doth it not say," We formerly delivered the book of the law unto Moses, and caused apostles to succeed him, and gave evident miracles to Jesus, the Son of Mary, and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit? The angels said: O Mary, verily God hath chosen thee - verily God sendeth thee the good tidings, that thou shalt bear the Word, proceeding from himself; his name shall be Christ Jesus; God shall teach him the Scripture and wisdom, and the law and the gospel, and shall appoint him his apostle to the children of Israel. God took him up unto himself, and God is mighty and wise. And there shall not be one of those who have received the Scriptures who shall not believe in him before his death; and on the day of resurrection he shall be a witness against them ?" These are the words of the Koran; and all the followers of the Prophet believe that Christ was an apostle from God, born of a Virgin and inspired, and did teach the truth.

You will now wash both hands and face, which, with the ceremonies performed, is a symbol of that baptismal rite observed among all Eastern nations, by way of purification - emblematical of that purity and innocence of soul, without which no one can enter into the order of knighthood nor into the pure abode of happiness above.

The candidate for knighthood not only serves a long apprenticeship in arms, and shows himself valiant and daring, and above all base apprehension of death, but should pass through a long and rigid probation, to prove himself, for his virtue, temperance, faith, constancy, and nobleness of heart, fit to be enrolled in the ranks of Chivalry. These, under circumstances, may be dispensed with, and the Order conferred even upon the field.

I do enjoin both of you, if you are not resolved to be henceforward virtuous, chaste, humble before God, merciful, tolerant, generous, and charitable, to proceed no further, lest hereafter you should be disgraced before the whole world as false and disloyal knights. Remember, your word must hereafter never be broken; you must never strike a prostrate foe, nor slay the prisoner that can no longer resist, nor refuse moderate ransom, nor defile yourselves with many women; and all true and loyal knights must be your brothers, and all distressed virgins your sisters, and all poor and destitute orphans your children.

PRAYER

Our Father, who art in heaven - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - the one only true God I look now upon these candidates, about to become knights and thy servants; aid them to perform punctually the vows they are about to assume; strengthen their good resolutions, and suffer not temptation to overcome them. Make them true knights, and teach them to exercise whatever powers they have with gentleness and moderation, and for the benefit of mankind and thy glory. Aid them to be true and loyal, frank and sincere; and may their knighthood here below be but preparatory to their final initiation into the mysteries of thy heaven of perfect happiness and perfect purity. Amen!

My brethren, I need not enlarge further to you on the duties of a knight. The Order of Knights Ecossais is a chivalric order, of great antiquity, and has numbered among its members many kings and princes; but its greatest boast is its intimate connection and alliance with an Order more ancient still.

In the name of God, St. Andrew, and St. Michael the Archangel, I dub thee Knight of the Ancient and Venerable Order of G.: Scottish Knights of St. Andrew-known also as Patriarchs of the Crusades.

Rise, good Knight and true Mason: be faithful, fearless, and merciful.

LECTURE

Masonry is the handmaid of religion. The Brahmin, the Jew, the Mahometan, the Catholic, the Protestant - each professing his peculiar religion, sanctioned by the laws, by time, and by climate - may retain their faith, and yet may be Masons.

Masonry teaches, and has preserved in their purity, the cardinal tenets of the old primitive faith, which underlie and are the foundation of all religions. Masonry is the universal morality which is suitable to the inhabitants of every clime - to the man of every creed. It has taught no doctrines except those truths that tend directly to the well-being of man; and those who have attempted to direct it toward useless vengeance, political ends, the Kabala, Hermeticism, Alchemy, Templarism, and Jesuitism, have merely perverted it to purposes foreign to its pure spirit and real nature.

The best, and, indeed, the only good Mason, is he who, with the power of labour, does the work of life the upright mechanic, merchant, or farmer-the man who exercises the power of thought, of justice, or of love - whose whole life is one great act of performance of Masonic duty. The natural work of Masonry is practical life: the use of all the faculties in their proper spheres and for their natural functions.

Love of truth, justice, and generosity, as attributes of God, must appear in a life marked by these qualities. The natural form of Masonry - is goodness, morality, living a true, just, affectionate, self-faithful life, from the motive of a good man. It is loyal obedience to God's law. The good Mason does that which is good, which comes in his way, from a love of duty; and not merely because a law enacted by man or God commands his will to do it. Not in, vain does the poor or oppressed look up to him.

You find such men in all Christian sects, Protestant and Catholic; in all the great religious parties of the civilized world - among Buddhists, Mahometans, and Jews. They are kind fathers, generous citizens, and unimpeachable in their business: you see their Masonry in their works and in their play. The true Mason loves not only his kindred and his country, but all mankind; not only the good, but also the evil among his brethren. Though the ancient and the honourable of the earth bid him bow down to them, his stubborn knee bends only at the bidding of his manly soul His Masonry is his freedom before God, not his bondage unto men.

The old theologies, the philosophies of religion of ancient times, will not suffice us now; there are errors to be made way with, and their places supplied with new truths, radiant with the glories of heaven. There are great wrongs and evils in Church and State, in domestic, social, and public life, to be righted and outgrown. Masonry cannot in our age forsake the broad way of life; she must journey on in the open street, appear in the crowded square, and teach men by her deeds - her life - more eloquent than any lips.

This degree is much devoted to Toleration, and it inculcates in the strongest manner that great leading idea of the Ancient Art - that a belief in the one true God, and a moral and virtuous life, constitute the only religious requisites needed to enable a man to be a Mason.

It has ever the most vivid remembrance of the terrible and artificial torments that were used to put down new forms of religion or extinguish the old. It sees with the eye of memory the ruthless extermination of all the people, of all sexes and ages - because it was their misfortune not to know the God of the Hebrews, or to worship him under the wrong name - by the savage troops of Moses and Joshua. It sees the thumbscrews and the racks; the whip, the gallows, and the stake; the victims of Diocletian and Claverhouse; the miserable covenanters; the non- conformists; Servetus bound, and the unoffending Quaker hung. It sees Cranmer hold his arm, now no longer erring, in the flame, until the hand drops off, in the consuming heat. It sees the persecutions of Peter and Paul, the martyrdom of Stephen, the trials of Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, and Irenaeus; and then, in turn, the sufferings of the wretched Pagans under the Christian emperors, as of the Papists in Ireland, and under Elizabeth and the besotted Henry; and all that in all ages have suffered by hunger and nakedness, peril and prison, the rack, the stake, and the sword - it sees them all, and shudders at the long roll of human atrocities.

Man never had the right to usurp the unexercised prerogative of God, and condemn and punish another for his belief. Born in a Protestant land, we are of that faith: if we had opened our eyes to the light under the shadows of St. Peter's at Rome, we should have been devout Romanists; born in the Jewish quarter of Aleppo, we should have contemned Christ as an impostor; in Constantinople, we should have cried, ' Allah il Allah - God is great, and Mahomet is his Prophet." Birthplace and education give us our faith.

Few believe in any religion because they have examined the evidences of its authenticity, and made up a formal judgment, upon weighing the testimony. Not one in ten thousand knows anything about the proofs of his faith. We believe what we are taught; and those are most fanatical who know least of the evidences on which their creed is based.

What is truth to me is not truth to another. The same arguments and evidences that convince one mind, make no impression on another: this difference is in men at their birth. No man is entitled positively to assert that he is right, where other men, equally intelligent and equally well-informed, hold directly the opposite opinion. Each thinks it impossible for the other to be sincere; and each, as to that, is equally in error. "What is truth?" was a profound question - the most suggestive one ever put to man. Many beliefs of former and present times seem incomprehensible. They startle us with a new glimpse into the human soul - that mysterious thing, more mysterious the more we note its workings.

Here is a man, superior to myself in intellect and learning, and yet he sincerely believes what seems to me too absurd to merit confutation; and I cannot conceive, and sincerely do not believe, that he is both sane and honest; and yet, he is both. His reason is as perfect as mine, and he, is as honest as I am.

The fancies of a lunatic are realities to him. Our dreams are realities while they last; and in the past, no more unreal than what we have acted in our waking hours. No man can say that he hath as sure possession of a truth as of a chattel.

When men entertain opinions diametrically opposed to each other, and each is honest, who shall decide which hath the truth, and how can either say with certainty that he hath it? We know not what is the truth. That we ourselves believe and feel absolutely certain that our own belief is true, is, in reality, not the slightest proof of the fact, seem it never so certain and incapable of doubt to us.

Therefore no man hath, or ever had, a right to persecute another for his belief; for there cannot be two antagonistic rights; and if one can persecute another because he himself is satisfied that the belief of that other is erroneous, the other has, for the same reason, equally as certain a right to persecute him.

The truth comes to us as the image of a rod comes to us through the water, bent and distorted: an argument sinks into and convinces the mind of one man, while from that of another it rebounds most quickly. It is no merit in a man to have a particular faith, excellent, and sound, and philosophic as it may be. It is no more a merit than his prejudices and his passions.

The sincere Moslem has as much right to persecute us, as we to persecute him ; and therefore Masonry wisely requires no more than a belief in one great. all-powerful Deity, the Father and Preserver of the universe. Therefore she teaches her votaries that toleration is one of the chief duties of every good Mason. The Masonic system regards all the human race as members of one great family - as having the same origin and the same destination; all distinctions of rank, lineage, or nativity, are alike unknown. The whole tenor of the life of the benevolent Founder of the Christian religion was unremitting benevolence; his kind offices were extended alike to Gentiles and Jews, to publicans and sinners, as well as to his disciples.

Yet Masonry is eternally vigilant that no atheist or base libertine contaminates with his unhallowed tread the Sanctum sanctorum of our temple; such can never gain admission there, without the grossest violation of vows the most sacred and solemn. It requires the acknowledgment of the existence of the Grand Master of the Universe, and to reverence his great and sacred name, irrespective of sectarian ideas; in a word, to practise every virtue which adorns and ennobles the human character, and fly every vice which sullies and degrades it. It inculcates a generous love for all mankind, it matters not of what religious creed.

No evil hath so afflicted the world as intolerance of religious opinion; the human beings it has slain in various ways, if once and together brought to life, would make a nation of people, which, left to live and increase, would have doubled the population of the civilized portion of the world; among which civilized portion it chiefly is that religious wars are waged.

No man truly obeys the Masonic law who merely tolerates those whose religious opinions are opposed to his own. Every man's opinions are his own private property, and the rights of all men to maintain each his own are perfectly equal. Merely to tolerate, to bear with an opposing opinion, is to assume it to be heretical, and assert the right to persecute, if we would, and claim our toleration as a merit.

The Mason's creed goes further than that; no man, it holds, has any right, in any way, to interfere with the religious belief of another. It holds that each man is absolutely sovereign as to his own belief, and that belief is a matter absolutely foreign to all who do not entertain the same belief; and that if there were any right of persecution at all, it would in all cases be it mutual right, because one party has the same right as the other to sit as judge in his own case - and God is the only magistrate that can rightfully decide between them.

To that Great Judge Masonry refers the matter; and, opening wide its portals, it invites to enter there, and live in peace and harmony, the Protestant, the Catholic, the Jew, the Moslem - every one who will lead a truly virtuous and moral life, love his brethren, minister to the sick and distressed, and believe in the One, All-Powerful, All-Wise, Everywhere- Present God-Architect, Creator, and Preserver of all things-by whose universal law of Harmony ever rolls on this universe: the great, vast, infinite circle of successive death and life; to whose ineffable name let all true Masons pay profoundest homage! For whose thousand blessings poured upon us let us feel the sincerest gratitude, now, henceforth, and forever.

Amen.