THE idea of a central altar originated in early Craft lodges, for in these the Royal Arch was nurtured. To the speculative Brethren of those days the Royal Arch ceremony was undoubtedly a religious ceremony, and, quite naturally, it centred spiritually upon an altar. In the minds of the Brethren would be many Biblical texts to inspire and guide them.
The Jews, as from the days of Noah, used an altar not only for sacrificial purposes, but as a memorial, the sacrificial altar being outside and in front of the Temple, while the altars of incense were within. Directions were given on Mount Sinai (Exodus xx, i4‑2G) for the erection of altars of earth or of unhewn stone to which the ascent should not be by steps. Later the altar was of wood covered with beautiful metals, and on this the incense was burned; the altar had horns, one at each corner, as found in the altars of American chapters to‑day. Altars in the early Christian centuries were of wood, and later of stone, but following the Reformation they gave way in English churches to what the Prayer Book calls “the Holy Table.”
The early eighteenth‑century lodges did not invariably have pedestals. The first pedestal was a central one, either an altar or a pedestal having the associations of an altar, and even to‑day the Master’s pedestal is, in a sense, a combination of altar and table. It must always be remembered that the early chapters ‑ held in lodge rooms ‑ were necessarily considerably influenced by the common lodge arrangement, and there naturally grew up in them the idea that the central pedestal was an altar around which gathered strongly religious and probably always Christian conceptions. The central altar survives not only in the chapter but in the St John’s lodges ‑ the ordinary Craft lodges ‑ of Scotland. It is obvious, also, that at the time when America took its speculative masonry from England there must have been a central altar in the English lodges, for to‑day it is a feature of the American lodges, although, in addition, the Master and his Wardens often have pedestals.
The altar in a chapter takes the form of a double cube (briefly, two cubes joined together), a form that has come to have a ceremonial significance, although the historic basis is unknown. The stone carries certain initial letters, and references to these occur in lodge minutes back to the early days. For example, it is known that the St James’s Chapter paid ｣1 10s. in 1803 for the gilding of fifteen letters; eleven years later the chapter resolved to make an alteration to the “Mystical Parts of the Pedestal.” As to the letters themselves, there is not much that can be said in the printed page. It must be admitted that there is no uniformity in regard to the language or languages represented by the initials. In an Edinburgh chapter the letters are in Hebrew. English initials are felt by many scholars to be meaningless. The usual language, we suppose, is Latin, equally illogical and anachronistic, where the three letters K.R.I.’ stand for Solomon King of Israel.’ the ‘R‘ being the Latin for’ Rex.’ The matter is one that is subject to much and, we fear, fruitless argument.
Three, Five, and Seven
The ceremony associated with the altar makes much of the numbers 3, 5, and 7. It may be noted that in King’s College, Cambridge, there are three steps in the south porch, five at the west door, and seven at the north porch. Says a writer in 1769: “These are numbers, with the mystery or, at least, the sound, of which Freemasons are said to be particularly well acquainted ” ‑ a telling piece of evidence that the Royal Arch ceremonial of that early day included a feature of which much is now made.
Each of these numbers has been credited with “mystic” properties, and many particular Biblical references to them will rise to the mind three branches to the candlestick; the altar three cubits high; three witnesses; windows in threes; three that “bear witness”; the three of the Trinity; “these three agree” (1 John v, 8); five years; five curtains; five rams; five goats; five smooth stones; “at the rebuke of five”; five loaves; seven kine; seven sabbaths; seven pillars; seven churches; seven candlesticks; seven golden vials; seven times; seven years; and so on.
Three was a ‘Perfect number,’ the symbol of the Deity. Some pre-Christian religions had three gods or had gods with three heads. There were three Fates and three Furies, three Christian graces and three kingdoms of nature. There are said to be five wits or senses; five books constitute the Torah (Pentateuch); five days multiplied by ten was the length of the original Pentecost. There were seven sacred planets; creation was complete in seven days; there were seven ages in the life of man; the Jewish jubilee was seven times seven; man was thought to have seven natures and to be composed of seven substances; there were seven churches, seven cities, seven dials, seven joys, seven sages, seven sisters, and as often seen in Masonic symbolism, seven stars.
The six lights around the altar owe much to the spiritual significance long since associated with candles, and, further, exemplify by their disposition the mystical importance given to the triangle, both plain and interlaced. In the quite early Craft lodges, certainly as far back as the 1730s, candles were placed to form simple triangles, and from them developed ultimately the present chapter arrangements of lights whose symbolism is so fully dealt with in the ritual and therefore need not be here explained. It is true that the arrangement of the candles is older than the final elaboration of the related symbolism.
The Principal Banners
Entering a chapter, we see the altar with its twelve small banners or ensigns around it, and beyond, in the East, four principal banners carrying ancient emblems; generally, also, we see in the East a fifth banner, centrally placed, displaying the Royal Arch device – the triple tau within a triangle within a circle. We may, in some chapters, see in the West three banners beyond the Sojourners. Let us deal first with the principal banners, secondly with the ensigns, and lastly with the banners sometimes seen in the West, and in doing so attempt to avoid any undue repetition of information to be found in the printed ritual.
The banner comes into freemasonry from ecclesiastical and high civic custom. Great significance attends its display in the chapels of certain orders of knighthood ‑ of the Garter, St George’s Chapel, Windsor; of the Bath, Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster, are examples ‑ where each knight’s personal banner is suspended above his stall on special occasions. It is thought that from the establishment of Grand Chapter in 1766 banners have been in use probably – to begin with, no more than four in number. If they were what are now the principal banners carrying the symbols of the ox, man, lion, and eagle they must have been borrowed from the 羨ntients,’ who had themselves recently discovered the four emblems in a coat of arms associated with a model of Solomon’s Temple originally exhibited in London in 1675 by a Spanish Jew, Jacob Jehudah Leon. The 羨ntients’ adopted the coat of arms complete with its symbolic devices just as they found it.
With regard to the arrangement of the four banners, there is no definite rule; Ezekiel in its tenth chapter gives the arrangement as cherub, man, lion, eagle, but in its first chapter as man, lion, ox, eagle. The lion represents the tribe of Judah, the man that of Reuben, the ox Ephraim, the eagle Dan. These tribes were encamped respectively east, south, west, and north of the Tabernacle. The order last given (lion, man, ox, eagle) is the sun‑wise direction. In the present armorial bearings of Grand Lodge, which, of course, incorporated those of the 羨ntients’ Grand Lodge at the Craft Union, the order is lion, ox (calf), man, eagle, agreeing with that given in Revelation iv, 7. Taking this order and remembering that the lion represents strength and power, the ox, or calf, patience and assiduity, the man intelligence and understanding, and the eagle promptness and celerity in doing the will and pleasure of the great I am, then the progression in meaning and significance is appropriate.
The Book of Revelation represents the emblems of four distinct beings: the Old Testament represents them as four faces. The oldest emblazonment known in the records of Freemasons’ Hall, London (date about 1776), shows a golden lion on a red ground, a black ox on a blue ground, a red man on a white or yellow ground, and a golden eagle on a green ground, but it is obvious that banners have been produced to suit the different tastes and whims of many individuals.
The derivation of these four emblems has been learnedly dealt with by G. S. Shepherd‑Jones. He recalls that the very ancient peoples regarded fire, light, and air as direct manifestations of the Deity, and symbolized them by the bull, the lion, and the eagle: the rage of the bull to denote fire; the piercing eyes of the lion to denote light; and the soaring flight of the eagle to denote air. Later they gave the Deity these three attributes, and depicted a human body with three heads ‑ those of the bull, the lion, and the eagle. To other ancient gods they gave several heads, and to some several arms, all in an attempt to signify their god and his attributes. Then, in the course of time, the Egyptians and possibly still earlier peoples transformed their three‑headed god into four separate figures which, after some elaboration, became the bull, the lion, the eagle, and the man. The Hebrews, after their exodus from Egypt, adopted the symbols, and thus we find the ox and the lion upon the bases of the lavers (brazen vessels in which the priests washed) of the Temple at Jerusalem.
These four sacred symbols, to which there are many references in the Jewish Talmud, were ascribed in a book by St Irenaeus (second century) to the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, so obviously they had acquired a Christian significance at a very early date. The eagle became a prominent church symbol, and in some old parish churches there was an eagle desk at which certain processions halted and the Gospel was sung. The Old Masonic Charges well knew the eagle symbol. The presence in an old lodge of a carved eagle may possibly mean either that the lodge was dedicated to St John the Evangelist, as lodges commonly were, or is evidence of a Royal Arch association. In the Chapter of St James, No. 2, is an eagle carved and gilded.
In their Christian application a winged man represented the incarnation of Christ; a winged ox His passion; a winged lion His resurrection; and the eagle His ascension (and in the order thus given are respectively associated with SS. Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John). All the four emblems appear on a notable crucifix, that in the cathedral of Minden, Germany. At the foot of the cross is the man, and at the head the eagle. At the end of the arm on the figure’s right is the lion, on his left the ox.
The arms of the Grand Lodge of England consist essentially of two cherubim (plural of cherub), one on each side of a shield. Above the shield is the Ark of the Covenant, over which is Hebrew lettering, Kodes la Adonai, meaning 践oliness to the Lord.’ We learn much of the genesis of the whole device when we read Exodus xxv, describing the cherubim spreading out their wings on high and covering the mercy seat with their wings. Cherubim in the coat of arms are obviously symbolic figures, probably derived from an Assyrian representation in a sacred figure of the wings of an eagle, the body partly of an ox and partly of a lion and the face of a man. These figures have a close affinity with the symbolic figures represented by the four principal banners.
The Twelve Ensigns
The ensigns arranged around the altar commemorate the Children of Israel during their forty years’ travel in the wilderness, in the course of which banners were regularly set up and the tribes assembled and pitched their tents around their own individual banner.
Each ensign carries an emblematic device, the choice of emblem being governed by Jacob’s prophecy relating to the posterity of the different tribes. These tribes had been scattered throughout the length,but not much of the breadth, of Palestine. In the extreme North, near Lake Meron, were Asher and Naphtali, south of them Zebulun, and to the east of the Sea of Galilee Manasseh. Much farther south, below Manasseh, came Gad, and at the extreme south, to the east of the Dead Sea, Reuben. The six other tribes were all west of the river Jordan: starting from the North, they were Issachar, next a branch of the tribe of Manasseh, then Ephraim, Dan, Benjamin (close to Jerusalem), and finally, on the west shore of the Dead Sea, Judah and Simeon.
Jacob had twelve sons, each the head of a tribe, but on his deathbed he adopted Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, although on the distribution of land by Joshua the tribes counted but as twelve. Levi had no land, but some cities and many privileges. Rather more than 700 years B.C. ten of the tribes revolted from the House of Israel and took Jeroboam as their king, leaving Judah and Benjamin still faithful to the government of the line of David. Vast numbers of the revolted tribes under Jeroboam were carried into captivity beyond the Euphrates, and it is unlikely that many of them ever returned. Ultimately the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar, this exile leading up to the epoch in Jewish history with which the story of the English Royal Arch is concerned.
Each ensign carries the name of a tribe and a distinguishing emblem, as here shown:
Judah ������ lion couchant and sceptre.
Benjamin �����. wolf.
Dan ������.. horse and rider, a serpent biting the heels of the
horse; sometimes an eagle in the background.
Asher ������ tree or cup.
Naphtali ����� hind.
Manasseh ����� vine on a wall.
(took the place of Levi)
Issachar �����.. ass couched between two burdens.
Zebulun ����� ship in haven.
Reuben ����� man on red ensign.
Simeon �����.. sword or crossed swords, sometimes with tower.
Gad ������ troop of horsemen.
Ephraim �����. ox.
Originally these ensigns were arranged to form a square, a most inconvenient arrangement, so it has come about that in most chapters the ensigns are in two lines, six in each, generally facing inward towards the altar, although sometimes all the ensigns face west. Some chapters have compromised by placing the ensigns in a slightly slanting position so that they can be clearly seen by anyone in the west.
Other Banners
Behind the Sojourners’ chairs in some chapters are three banners, and apparently their original emblems were respectively lion, sceptre, and crown. J. Heron Lepper thought that these banners were at an early date behind the chairs of the Three Principals, but at some time or another, possibly following the 1835 revision of ceremonies and ritual, they were moved over. In the process of time the crown emblem has been dropped or forgotten.
Some chapters early in the nineteenth century are believed to have displayed banners carrying the signs of the zodiac.
Tracing‑boards
Some of the old chapters had, and probably may still have, tracingboards, the idea of which came straight from Craft usage. In the old Irish chapters were boards depicting the symbols not only of the Royal Arch, but of the Craft and a number of additional degrees. It is thought that the oldest Irish floor‑cloth (and the floor‑cloth was in effect a tracing‑board) is owned by Lurgan Lodge, then No. 394, Irish Constitution, and its chief feature is an arch.
An engraved plate dated 1755 represents a very early instance of a tracing‑board displaying a Royal Arch idea. It is a curious illustration showing an arch in three stages and an indented border on a tracing‑board which is in course of use by the architect. In the Chapter of Fortitude, Edgbaston, No. 43, is a painted floor‑cloth, not thought to be older than 1840, showing the signs of the zodiac, while in the Chapter of Sincerity, Taunton, No. 261, is a tracing‑board, originally a cloth, dating back to the early 1800s, and displaying as one of its emblems the mariner’s compass. This last board, illustrated in a full‑page plate in the author’s earlier volume, is quite outstanding; within an indented border it includes a main arch supported by two great pillars, and inside that is seen a succession of three arches, with the Sojourners at work.
A Third‑degree tracing‑board belonging to the Britannia Lodge, No. 139, Sheffield (started as an Antients’ Lodge in 1761), presumably dating back to not earlier than the 1840s, displays the clearest possible evidence of association with the Royal Arch. Within an outline of a coffin (surmounted by a sprig of acacia) are a few bold Craft emblems and three pentalphas, those last probably an indication of the survival of the 羨ntients’ feeling originally in the lodge.
On old Craft tracing‑boards, banners, jewels, etc., a hand holding a plumb‑line is a symbol often indicating a Royal Arch connexion. It comes from the Antients’ ceremony of Installation, and dates back to the time when the Past Master’s ‘Degree’ was considered an essential step to the Royal Arch. It is a matter for conjecture whether anything was contributed to this particular symbolism as a result of Galileo Galilei’s investigation of the properties of the pendulum, but it is impossible to contemplate the well‑known statue of the great physicist holding a line with pendulum bob without instantly calling to mind the hand‑and‑plumb‑line symbol to be seen on numberless tracing‑boards and jewels of other days. An excellent example of a design in which the same symbol occurs is on a Royal Arch banner (1780‑1800) in the Masonic museum at Canterbury, reproduced in this book as Plate XIV.
The anchor, a device common on old tracing‑boards and jewels, was (and still is) a Christian emblem of eternal life, particularly so when combined with the cross.
The group of seven stars so commonly seen on old tracing‑boards, jewels, and the like is inspired by the texts in Revelations i, 16; ii, 1; and iii, 1, these speaking of the seven stars in the hand of Christ.