THE

MASONIC TRESTLE-BOARD,

PART II.

ADAPTED TO THE

WORK AND LECTURES

AS PRACTISED IN THE

CHAPTERS, COUNCILS, AND ENCAMPMENTS

OF

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS,

IN THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

BY CHARLES W. MOORE,

EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MONTHLY MAGAZINE,

STEREOTYPE EDITION.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY CHARLES W. MOORE,

AT THE OFFICE OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE, 21 SCHOOL TREET.

Tuttle & Dennett, Printers.

1856.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by

CHARLES W. MOORE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

STEREOTYPED AT THE
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.

PREFACE.

THIS work has been prepared as a SECOND PART to the TRESTLEBOARD, (originally designed for Lodges only,) at the urgent solicitation of Masonic bodies and influential Brethren in various parts of the country, who were desirous of having, in one convenient volume, a full, complete, and perfect MANUAL for LODGES, CHAPTERS, COUNCILS, and ENCAMPMENTS.

It contains all the ILLUSTRATIONS, SCRIPTURES, CHARGES, and FORMS OF CEREMONIES, required in the practical workings (whether esoteric or exoteric) of the various bodies for which it is designed.

--

Ceremonies of Installation for Councils of Royal and Select Masters, heretofore a desideratum, — and new Installation Services for Encampments, are given. To the whole have been added such original HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS as were thought to be useful, or necessary to a correct and intelligible elucidation of the RITUALS.

That part of the work which is designed for the use of the Chapters has been carefully arranged and adapted to the system of Work and Lectures, as revised and adopted by the General Grand Chapter of the United States, at its triennial session in September last; and has received the sanction and recommendation of the General Grand High Priest, and other present and past officers of that body.

The Encampment Illustrations, in their arrangement and adaptation, are in strict conformity with the Ritual, as exemplified before the General Grand Encampment, at its late triennial session. We are not aware that this portion of the work needs further revision. The arrangement and historical elucidations will particularly commend themselves to Brethren of the knightly Orders.

The style of the JEWELS for Chapters and Encampments, as represented in the accompanying Plate, is that which has recently been approved and adopted by the General Grand Chapter and Encampment of the United States.

In the confident belief that the TRESTLE-BOARD is now as perfect in its arrangement as the purposes for which it is intended require, and that it will be found to possess superior claims over any other MANUAL of the kind extant, the entire work has been STEREOTYPED, and is now respectfully submitted to the Fraternity in the United States. BOSTON, MASS., Oct. 1850.

CONSECRATION AND DEDICATION OF CHAPTERS,

INSTALLATION OF CHAPTERS,

ENCAMPMENT ORDERS.

46

52

CONSTITUTION AND DEDICATION OF ENCAMPMENTS,

INSTALLATION OF ENCAMPMENTS, .

THE

TRESTLE-BOARD.

PART II.

FOR THE USE OF

CHAPTERS, COUNCILS AND ENCAMFMENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE DEGREE OF MARK-MASTER.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

THIS is a beautiful Degree; and, in competent hands, is capable of being illustrated in a manner to render it one of the most instructive and interesting in Masonry.

If tradition, sanctioned by its own internal evidence, may be taken as authority on the subject, the Degree had its origin at the building of the first Temple at Jerusalem, and was originally connected with-if it did not form a part of- the Degree of Fellow-Craft. A Mark Lodge, say our traditions, primarily consisted of the Overseers of the Craftsmen employed at the building of King Solomon's Temple. When a Craftsman had made the requisite proficiency to entitle him to advancement to the rank of an Overseer, he became a Mark-Man, Mark-Master, or the Master of a Mark; and it was thereafter made his duty to see that the proper Mark was placed upon the work executed by those under his immediate supervision, that it might be known and distinguished when promiscuously carried up for inspection. Hence the phrase Mark-Master; hence, also, the name of the Degree.

This was the practical use of the Mark. It continued to be so used by the architects and builders of Europe, as late as the sixteenth century; and the discovery of Marks in cathedrals and other public edifices, erected in the middle ages, is at this time regarded as one of the most interesting results of archæo'ogical investigation.