CHAPTER XIII. MARK MASON. "Mark Masons, all appear THIS rank or degree was unquestionably among our ancient brethren attached to the Fellow-Craft, or lay between him and the Master Mason. For a long period it has been abandoned by the Grand Lodge of England, and we believe it is out of use in France, if even it ever was practised in that country. It has always been practised in Ireland, Scotland, and America. But they all differ in the ritual. The Mark Degree has, however, to a certain extent been restored to English Masonry, but not formally, as the Grand Lodge does not at present acknowledge it. This restoration has been brought about by warrant of constitution from Scotland, and the ceremonial is of that country's practice. This is called the Mark Master, and the chief distinction between the Man and the Master-or the Irish and Scottish practice-is, that the ceremonial of the former is made the legend in the latter. The legend narrates the discovery of the missing key-stone of the arch, which had been rejected by the assistant overseers, as not being a truly squared stone. The workman, when made known by his mark, was rewarded and honoured. The legend is exceedingly interesting, and it is very desirable the Mark should be restored to the Fellow-Craft. The degree of the Mark Man is practised under the Irish Constitution only, and the Albany Lodge at Newport in the Isle of Wight holds its warrant from the Irish Lodge. The historical legend shows, that during the building of Solomon's Temple, among the workmen employed, one, on presenting the result of his labours to the overseer, had the stone rejected when tried by the square; it was consequently cast aside, and its artist treated with contumely. Some time after, when the arch, the work on which they were then employed, was near its completion, the key-stone or centre could not be found,—the master overseer having given out the work,-until after a diligent search the stone which the assistant overseer had rejected was discovered to be that wanting, and its contriver being known by his mark being cut upon it, was honoured and rewarded, and proclaimed entitled to the degree of a skilled craftsman. The ritual is strictly in harmony with this narrative, and all who have witnessed its performance acknowledge it to be not only interesting, but strictly in harmony with Craft Masonry. The Mark Degree, as far as can be learned from a cubical stone over a century old, contained illustrations of the seven liberal sciences, viz., Grammar, Arithmetic, Logic, Rhetoric, Music, Astronomy, and Geometry, which are now referred to in the Second Degree. The stone in question bears also on its face symbols which seem to show Astrology was included in the system of instruction. The angelic influences on the actions of men formed a portion of belief with many nations and religions; it is prominent in the Mohammedan faith, and, by the Cabala, at one period with the Jews. In the degree of the Knight of the Sun, 28° of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, these same celestial names appear as junior officers, and they have a mallet in one hand and a sword in the other, We have been told that this degree was formerly in practice in England. The evidence furnished by the stone in question, and the use of one of the working implements of the Mark Mason, bears it out; for this, the first implement put into the hands of the young Mason, appears no where beyond the symbolic degrees. Our transatlantic brethren hold the mark in high estimation, and so also it is looked upon in Scotland; but the former seek to connect it by illustration with the Tessera Hospitalis of the ancient Romans, but without logical argument, as with the ancients the practice was the breaking a die in two parts, a totally different matter to each selecting a peculiar and distinguishing mark of his own, and as we well know, originated when the capability of writing their names was confined to the few, we may say to the learned clerks. There is abundant evidence of the use of the Mason's mark in ecclesiastical structures all over the world, and especially those erected during the middle ages and after the Crusades. More than thirty different marks were found on the various buildings in Malta, some of which are in the alphabet character; among the ruined structures in Syria a traveller copied as many; and further, of a building called the Old Khan, he says, "This is a large and imposing quadrangular building, constructed of square blocks of limestone, each marked with a Mason's monogram." The use of the mark was general in Great Britain, and those who entered the higher degrees always accompanied their signature of attendance with their Mason's mark. On the Bible which Robert Burns gave to his Highland Mary at their last parting, is his Mason's mark. Thus it must be conceded that the Mark was the operative part of Craft Masonry, for in early times the architects were generally ecclesiastics, and especially high dignitaries, as our celebrated countryman William of Wykeham, and they were the Master Masons. The skilled artisan or workman was not slighted or neglected, and the record of his labours was preserved in his mark on the stone. In those days the architect and the workman worked with one heart and one mind, not as in these latter times in distinct classes; and by this unity and brotherhood it was that the glorious structures to God and his service, that cover our own and other lands, were constructed. Mr. Ainsworth, in his notice of the city of Al Hadha, in Mesopotamia, whose walls are covered with Masonic Marks, in reference to its plan of construction says, "A square within a circle, and in its exact centre, certainly points out that a system was observed in its construction." Mr. Godwin, in a paper read before the Antiquarian Society, referring to this subject, says "that these marks are to be found in great abundance on all the ancient buildings of England and France, and that in his opinion, these marks, if collected and compared, might assist in connecting the various bands of operatives, who, under the protection of the Church mystically united, spread themselves over Europe during the middle ages, and are known as Freemasons." He observes also, that in conversation in September, 1844, with a Mason at work on the Cathedral of Canterbury, he found that many masons, who were all Freemasons, had their mystic marks handed down from generation to generation; this man had his mark from his father, and he received it from his grandfather. It has been noticed that by the evidence of the Cubical Stone, Astrology formed part of, or was connected with, the Mark Degree. The practice of this science, which is now confined to the impostors who pretend to reveal the future, found universal belief among all the nations of antiquity except the Greeks, and prevailed through the whole world during the middle ages. This science is based upon the supposition that the heavenly bodies are the instruments by which the Creator regulates the course of events in this world, giving them different powers according to their different positions. ASTRONOMY and ASTROLOGY seem to have been used by the Greeks in the same sense, and Cicero uses the word Astrologia to express astronomical knowledge. Astrology may properly be taken to mean the science of the stars, and Astronomy their order and arrangement. These sciences were studied in unison by the learned mathematicians of bygone times, as the books of the Rosicrucians show. There was doubtless in Astronomical and Masonic symbols much in common, and the two sciences were practised by the same men. In the ritual of the present day, Astronomy is alluded to as the "mirrored study, wherein you are enabled to contemplate the intellectual faculties, and trace them from their development through the paths of heavenly science, even to the throne of God Himself." The Jewel of the Mark Degree is a Key-stone, with initials of a sentence running around the centre, in which the brother's mark ought to be engraved. |