booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

Apprentices, Fellow Crafts, and Master Masons, the first two distinguished by different pass-words and
grips and paid at different rates of wages, the last consisting only of three persons-Solomon himself, Hiram
King of Tyre, who had provided him with wood and precious stones and Hiram Abiff. Now, before the completion
of the Temple fifteen of the Fellow Crafts conspired together to find out the secrets of the Master
Masons and resolved to waylay Hiram Abiff at the door of the Temple.
At the last moment twelve of the fifteen drew back, but the remaining three carried out the fell design,
and after threatening Hiram in vain in order to obtain the secrets, killed him with three blows on the head,
delivered by each in turn. They then conveyed the body away to some distance from Jerusalem and buried it
on Mount Moriah. Solomon, informed of the disappearance of the master-builder, sent out fifteen Fellow
Crafts to seek for him; five of these, having arrived at the mountain, noticed a place where the earth had
been disturbed and there discovered the body of Hiram. Leaving a branch of acacia to mark the spot, they returned
with their story to Solomon, who ordered them to go and exhume the body-an order that was immediately
carried out.
The murder and exhumation, or " raising," of Hiram, accompanied by extraordinary lamentations, form
the climax of Craft Masonry; and when it is remembered that in all probability no such tragedy ever took
place, that possibly no one known as Hiram Abiff ever existed,(19) the whole story can only be regarded as
the survival of some ancient cult relating not to an actual event, but to an esoteric doctrine. A legend and a
ceremony of this kind is indeed to be found in many earlier mythologies; the story of the murder of Hiram
had been foreshadowed by the Egyptian legend of the murder of Osiris and the quest for his body by Isis,
whilst the lamentations around the tomb of Hiram had a counterpart in the mourning ceremonies for Osiris
and Adonis-both, like Hiram, subsequently " raised "-and later on in that which took place around the catafalque
of Manes, who, like Hiram, was barbarously put to death and is said to have been known to the
Manicheans as " the son of the widow." But in the form given to it by Freemasonry the legend is purely
Judaic, and would therefore appear to have derived from the Judaic version of the ancient tradition. The pillars
of the Temple, Jachin and Boaz, which play so important a part in Craft Masonry, are symbols which
occur in the Jewish Cabala, where they are described as two of the ten Sephiroths.(20) A writer of the eighteenth
century, referring to " fyve curiosities " he has discovered in Scotland, describes one as- The Mason
word, which tho' some make a Misterie of it, I will not conceal a little of what I know. It is lyke a Rabbinical
Tradition in way of Comment on Jachin and Boaz, the Two Pillars erected in Solomon's Temple with ane
Addition delyvered from Hand to Hand, by which they know and become familiar one with another.
This is precisely the system by which the Cabala was handed down amongst the Jews. The Jewish Encyclopædia
lends colour to the theory of Cabalistic transmission by suggesting that the story of Hiram " may
possibly trace back to the Rabbinic legend concerning the Temple of Solomon," that " while all the workmen
were killed so that they should not build another temple devoted to idolatry, Hiram himself was raised
to Heaven like Enoch."(21)
How did this Rabbinic legend find its way into Freemasonry? Advocates of the Roman Collegia theory
explain it in the following manner. After the building of the Temple of Solomon the masons who had been
engaged in the work were dispersed and a number made their way to Europe, some to Marseilles, some perhaps
to Rome, where they may have introduced Judaic legends to the Collegia, which then passed on to the
Comacini Masters of the seventh century and from these to the medival working guilds of England, France,
and Germany. It is said that during the Middle Ages a story concerning the Temple of Solomon was current
amongst the compagnonnages of France. In one of these groups, known as " the children of Solomon," the
legend of Hiram appears to have existed much in its present form; according to another group the victim of
the murder was not Hiram Abiff, but one of his companions named Maître Jacques, who, whilst engaged
with Hiram on the construction of the Temple, met his death at the hands of five wicked Fellow Crafts, instigated
by a sixth, the Pre Soubise.(22)
But the date at which this legend originated is unknown. Clavel thinks that the " Hebraic mysteries existed
as early as the Roman Collegia, which he describes as largely Judaised (23); Yarker expresses precisely
the opposite view: " It is not so difficult to connect Freemasonry with the Collegia; the difficulty lies in attributing
Jewish traditions to the Collegia, and we say on the evidence of the oldest charges that such traditions
had no existence in Saxon times." (24) Again: " So far as this country is concerned, we know nothing
from documents of a Masonry dating from Solomon's Temple until after the Crusades, when the constitution
believed to have been sanctioned by King Athelstan gradually underwent a change." (25) In a discussion
which took place recently at the Quatuor Coronati Lodge the Hiramic legend could only be traced back-and
then without absolute certainty-to the fourteenth century, which would coincide with the date indicated by
Yarker.(26)
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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