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Article THE HISTORICAL DEGREES; Page 1 of 12 →
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The Historical Degrees;
THE HISTORICAL DEGREES ;
OR , THE SUBLIME AND INEFFABLE DEGREES OF THE ANCIENT AftD ACCEPTED BITE . I Continued from vol . i ., p . 1208 ;]
The nineteenth degree is styled Grand Pontiff , and an appellation more decidedly papal could scarcely be found ; " except in this and some other Masonic degrees , the modern title of pontiff would appear to he applied exclusively to the head of the Romish church . Yet it can be undoubtedly traced to the early days of ancient Rome , when Numa Pompilius ( e . g . 710—672 ) founded the college of priests , and
instituted the office of Pontifex Maximus . The pontiffs stood in the place of an ecclesiastical court afc Rome , having superintendence and power over all persons in . matters connected with religion and ceremonial laws ; and apnongst their numerous duties was the government of the Vestal virgins , and the superintendence of their moral conduct . The Brethren who reach this
Masonic degree however , are not , as we are advised , possessed of any of these extraordinary powers , but are occupied in an examination of the Apocalyptic mysteries of the New Jerusalem , as set forth in
Revelations xxi . and xxii . There are Iavo chief officers ; a Thrice Puissant in the cast ., who is seated on a throne under a canopy of blue , wearing a white satin robe , and the Warden in the Avest , who bears a staff of gold . All the members are clothed in white , and wear blue "fillets embroidered with tAvelve golden stars . The decorations or-hangings of the Lodge represent the vault of heaven—celestial blue , with stars of gold . *
Grand Master ad Vitarn , or Crand Master of all the Symbolic . Lodges is the name bestowed on the twentieth degree . Here the Brother is again led to temple-building . The historical lecture refers to the period of the destruction of the third temple by Titus , a . p . 70 . The Christian Freemasons then in the Holy Land , filled with sorrow departed from their home with , the determination of erecting a fourth
* Rosetti , with some ingenuity , endeavours to prove the intimate connexion with Freemasonry that exists , not only in Dante ' s IHvma Oommedia , but in the visions of Emanuel Swedenborg . All Rosetti ' s . arguments in support of this theory are derived from the catechisms of some Templar order , and a degree called the " Black and White Eagle . " Swccbnborg ' s rhapsodies have all a reference to the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse . TOL V . E
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Historical Degrees;
THE HISTORICAL DEGREES ;
OR , THE SUBLIME AND INEFFABLE DEGREES OF THE ANCIENT AftD ACCEPTED BITE . I Continued from vol . i ., p . 1208 ;]
The nineteenth degree is styled Grand Pontiff , and an appellation more decidedly papal could scarcely be found ; " except in this and some other Masonic degrees , the modern title of pontiff would appear to he applied exclusively to the head of the Romish church . Yet it can be undoubtedly traced to the early days of ancient Rome , when Numa Pompilius ( e . g . 710—672 ) founded the college of priests , and
instituted the office of Pontifex Maximus . The pontiffs stood in the place of an ecclesiastical court afc Rome , having superintendence and power over all persons in . matters connected with religion and ceremonial laws ; and apnongst their numerous duties was the government of the Vestal virgins , and the superintendence of their moral conduct . The Brethren who reach this
Masonic degree however , are not , as we are advised , possessed of any of these extraordinary powers , but are occupied in an examination of the Apocalyptic mysteries of the New Jerusalem , as set forth in
Revelations xxi . and xxii . There are Iavo chief officers ; a Thrice Puissant in the cast ., who is seated on a throne under a canopy of blue , wearing a white satin robe , and the Warden in the Avest , who bears a staff of gold . All the members are clothed in white , and wear blue "fillets embroidered with tAvelve golden stars . The decorations or-hangings of the Lodge represent the vault of heaven—celestial blue , with stars of gold . *
Grand Master ad Vitarn , or Crand Master of all the Symbolic . Lodges is the name bestowed on the twentieth degree . Here the Brother is again led to temple-building . The historical lecture refers to the period of the destruction of the third temple by Titus , a . p . 70 . The Christian Freemasons then in the Holy Land , filled with sorrow departed from their home with , the determination of erecting a fourth
* Rosetti , with some ingenuity , endeavours to prove the intimate connexion with Freemasonry that exists , not only in Dante ' s IHvma Oommedia , but in the visions of Emanuel Swedenborg . All Rosetti ' s . arguments in support of this theory are derived from the catechisms of some Templar order , and a degree called the " Black and White Eagle . " Swccbnborg ' s rhapsodies have all a reference to the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse . TOL V . E