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Grand Master’s Message
Sir Knight David J. Kussman, GCT Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar
To the Sir Knights of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
The title of my message for this Christmas season may be a bit confusing for some of you; but if you recall my former profession as a law enforcement practitioner and a student of the Bible from my youth, you will come to see the connection.
Sergeant Joe Friday used several times his famous quote in the Dragnet television series, “Just the facts….” The Apostle Luke was also a seeker and reporter of the facts.
The Gospel of Luke is one of only two books in the New Testament that was written by a Gentile. Luke was a physician who never met Jesus. He was not an eyewitness of the events of the gospel account. He was a dear friend of the Apostle Paul and probably traveled with him on his last two missionary journeys.
Luke was writing as an historian who had compiled the accounts of others after careful research. He addressed this book and its sequel, the Book of Acts, to Theophilus, who was probably an early Greek believer. Luke’s intent was to confirm to Theophilus that the events he recorded were absolutely true.
While Matthew presented Jesus as the Jewish Messiah and King, and Mark painted the picture of Jesus as a Servant, Luke emphasized the humanity of Jesus, and presented Him as the Perfect Man. Who would be better qualified to bear witness to the humanity of Jesus than a Physician?
Luke wrote in a very high form of Greek, with a very sophisticated vocabulary. He used numerous medical terms, as one might expect. The Greeks were obsessed with humanity, and the quest for perfect humanity, and Luke wanted to show them Jesus, the Perfect Man.
It is quite likely that Luke interviewed Mary, the mother of Jesus. He included details
of her story that no one else would be privy to. While Matthew’s gospel gives the legal genealogy of Jesus (Matt 1:1-16) through His stepfather Joseph, Luke gives us the actual biological genealogy of Jesus through His mother Mary (Luke 3: 23-38). Many heresies would arise in the early church concerning the genealogy of Jesus, including those of the Gnostics, who denied the humanity of Jesus. Luke clearly demonstrated to a Greek audience that these philosophical heresies were unfounded – Jesus was in fact a man, fully God and fully man.
Some believe the gospel of Luke was written later than the gospels of Mark and Matthew, but that isn’t necessarily true. Liberal scholars have dated it after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 since Luke, quoting Jesus, gives such detailed and accurate predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem. Of course, if you believe in prophecy, and if you believe that Jesus could foretell the future, you come to a different conclusion.
Luke provides a unique perspective of the life of Christ. And along with the other three gospel writers, he helps us to see who Jesus really is, and what He said and did.
As Sergeant Joe Friday would conclude: just the facts…
Lady Kim and I wish all of you and yours a warm and loving Thanksgiving, a very Merry Christmas, and a blessed New Year!
Our journey continues . . . .
David J. Kussman, GCT Grand Master
Veritas • Perspicuitas • Templarii
Saint Luke the Evangelist, altar of Our Lady in the parish church of Saint John of Nepomuk in Stupnik, Croatia
KNIGHT TEMPLAR
VOLUME LXXI FALL 2025
Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States of America
David
J.
Kussman Grand Master
Jack Harper
Grand Generalissimo & Publisher
ADDRESS CHANGE OR CHANGE IN MEMBERSHIP
Please report all changes in membership to the Grand Recorder:
Lawrence E. Tucker
Grand Recorder
Grand Encampment Office
3 Sugar Creek Center Blvd Ste 410 Sugar Land, TX 77478
Phone: (713) 349-8700
Fax: (713) 349-8710
E-mail: larry@gektusa.org
Magazine and correspondence to the editor should be sent in electronic form to the managing editor whose contact information is shown below. All photos or images should be property of the author, or used with permission or under license by the author, unless expressly noted otherwise.
Ben Williams Managing Editor
Laughing Lion 1100 W Littleton Blvd Ste 440 Littleton, CO 80120
Phone: (720) 328-5343
Fax: (720) 328-5297
E-mail: ben@ktmag.org
visit our website at:
Grand Prelate’s Message
Sir Knight Paul Erickson, GCT Grand Prelate of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV)
We have been taught from time immemorial that the Bible has been given to us to be the rule and guide of our faith. I have always taken that to mean the Bible is not meant to guide us just in church and our Masonic life, but throughout our daily life as well.
So, in choosing the above scripture, and knowing it is mostly referring to coming together as brothers and sisters in a church setting, I wanted to relate it to our daily life.
“Coming together” can mean more than going to church; it can also mean going to lodge, visiting with brothers you haven’t seen for a while, going to a lodge practice, or a festival – anywhere we gather and spend time together. And like the scripture says, “stir up one another to love and good works,” and not neglect to meet in community, a habit for many of us.
When we come together in these circumstances, we stir one another up by working together and learning our ritual. As we perform well, word gets out and soon brothers who haven’t come out for a while start to show up because they have heard how much fun we are having. After all, having sideliners makes all the hard work worthwhile.
Prelate is a five-dollar word for chaplain. If you apply the passage above, it adapts as a job description. As chaplains – or prelates – we stir one another up when we call on a brother who has not been out for a while. A simple phone call lets them know that they are missed. Add to the call that you are willing to pick them up and take them home, and you have just shown them they are not only missed, but cared for.
What if you know they are sick? Sending them a get well card or giving them a call also sends a powerful message. And remember, even though I am writing this for the Knight Templar magazine, it also applies to all who serve commanderies, lodges, chapters, or councils, or any other body for that matter. Ultimately, the office of prelate or chaplain is what you make of it. Those of you who have taken the Templar Chaplain course know this. Which, by the way, now has over 500 enrolled students. The prayer of Jabez applies here too.
10 Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked. (1 Chronicles 4:10 [ESV])
While you are contemplating how to stir up one another to love and good works, you can pray the prayer of Jabez, and ask the Lord to expand your borders, serving your friends and neighbors too. Trust me, praying for someone is far more rewarding than reciting an already written prayer. Just watch how much they will perk up knowing you are willing to pray for
and/or with them. Think of how it will lift their spirits when a brother opens his eyes after surgery and finds you waiting there to check on him and see how he is doing.
In closing, two more scriptures also come to mind:
The Golden Rule 12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12 [ESV])
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (John 13:34 [ESV])
Blessings to all sir knights, their wives and loved one’s wheresoever dispersed, Paul
Paul Erickson, KGC Grand Prelate
KNIGHTS CAPITAL of the
SK B. Chris Ruli, EPC and Grand Historian of the Grand Commandery of the District of Columbia, presents the official and comprehensive history of the Knights Templar in Washington, D.C.
Presented in a beautiful hardcover format with over 70 illustrations, Ruli’s new work is a must-have for any Sir Knight interested in American Templar history.
B. Chris Ruli Scan code to purchase
Robert Elsner is Associate Grand Prelate of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar. He is Past Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of South Carolina. Robert is a psychologist and theologian and has taught chaplaincy, family and community medicine, and psychology for almost thirty years. He has written several Masonic books, as well as many scientific books and dozens of peer-reviewed scholarly articles. He resides in Birmingham, AL.
Bruce Pruitt is an honorary Past Grand Master of the Grand Encampment and Past Grand Commander of California.
Editor
Ben Williams is a Registered Patent Attorney based out of Denver, Colorado. He’s a Past Department Commander for the Northwest Department and has held many Masonic offices in his home state of Colorado. He’s married to his patient and caring wife, Tiffany, a history teacher. They have a daughter, Adelyn, and a beagle, Warwick.
On the Cover: AI generated image. Chat GPT – 14 SEP 2025
FROM THE EDITOR
Templary has never been more relevant. Contemplate that statement. It is an important concept to hold onto. Our institution is a force for good in the world. And it is needed now more than ever.
A hundred years ago, it's hard to comprehend how impactful and important the Knights Templar were to our society. In 1892, for example, when Denver hosted the 25th Triennial Conclave of the Grand Encampment, there were less knights than there are now. And yet, when the members of Mary Commandery No. 36 of Pennsylvania stopped in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on their "pilgrimage" to Denver, they were met by the governor of New Mexico at the station and received a personal tour of the city. Their private train was luxurious and well-appointed. And they dined in style. To be clear, this is a subordinate commandery from Pennsylvania that was met personally by the governor of New Mexico.
The 25th Triennial doubled the size of Denver overnight –more than 100,000 people came to the city (which was just thirty years old) to witness the spectacle. The city was "illuminated," lit up with tens of thousands of lights in Templar colors. The newspapers reported that the city could resolve daylight three miles away! To assist in accommodating the visitors, about 1,000 sir knights of Colorado (then, the membership of the Silver State) had raised the equivalent of $2 million for a hospitality fund. See article on page 33 for more on this.
What is the difference between our Order then and now? Aside from a less distracted and more personable society overall back then, for better or
worse, our membership comprised industry leaders, politicians, and professionals. Initiation fees were almost one thousand dollars. In the Constitution adopted by the Grand Encampment in 1856, for example, Article 4, § 1, stated that "No Subordinate Commandery shall confer the Orders of Knighthood for a less sum than twenty dollars." According to in2013dollars.com, that's equivalent to $762.30 today. That was the lower limit. It's reasonable to presume at least some jurisdictions conferred the orders for more. To charter a commandery cost around $3,500 in 2025 dollars (not including additional fees for the actual charter itself). Per capita was the equivalent of $76.23.
To be clear, I am not advocating increasing our dues. But these numbers do put things in perspective. Subordinate commanderies chartered private trains with dining and smoking cars and traveled the country from coast-tocoast to attend the triennials in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. They were welcomed by state government at almost every stop, and their movements were widely covered by the press. Their impact changed the host cities forever.
Today, you would be hard pressed to see an article about a subordinate commandery in a local paper. Even then, the article would likely be buried somewhere toward the back. I'm not going to speculate on the reasons for this, but it is a fact that in Colorado, for example, membership is one-third of what it was at the end of the nineteenth century, even while the population of the state has increased from 540,000 to 6 million (a 11,011% increase!). Has our relevance in society decreased
proportionally? Maybe. But our lessons and ritual-work remain as relevant as ever: personal transformation starts in the commandery, at the foot of the triangle. It culminates at the point of the sword by the touch of the blade.
What seems clear is we need to become the change we wish to see in our Order and, by extension, in society as a whole. That means looking the part (wearing our uniforms in public with pride) but also being the part. The code of chivalry must inform our actions. The blade must not rust; like a good, clear mirror, it should reflect God's Glory. Honesty, integrity, industry, camaraderie must inform our daily lives. We must look out for each other. Defend each other, and the weak and the downtrodden. To do this, we must first hold each other accountable – there must be consequences for failure as well as success. That's hard. But the path of knighthood requires duty, and duty arises in consequence.
In the end, our communities should know we exist because our good acts have moved them. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16 [KJV]).
One way to interpret this is not to let fear stifle right action. Speak up for truth. Commit to unbounded love. Be visible in goodness. Help someone you've never met. Commit anonymous acts of benevolence – strive to complete one act each day. How can you help? Slip a quarter into a parking meter. Help someone load groceries into her car. Volunteer to be a Watch DOG® at the local school. Drive a brother to lodge. Feed the birds. Sow wildflowers around the lake where you walk your dog. Learn the hymns
and sing loudly in church. Plant a tree. Say "good morning" to your neighbors. Leave a note thanking your trash men. Pick up a piece of litter. Save a struggling worm from the desert of the pavement. Listen actively. Be prepared to fill the vacuum with benevolence and good will. Ask yourself, how can I be of service? Be mindful of the moment: is now a time ripe for right action? If so, do it. If not, make it so. This requires constant vigilance; it takes effort to listen. Stay happy, secure in the peace of God, knowing always that you are a knight templar. You have been chosen by your fellows to excel. You're more than you were yesterday. Each day in Templary is a day of self-improvement. Read the Bible. Study religion. Learn a new language. Pray.
Each day you are accountable to your vows of knighthood, to your fellow sir knights, and to God. When you enlisted under the banner of Templary, when you took the sealed libation, you contracted with your higher self to newfound purpose. The sword's edge is keen – it cuts both ways. Remember your vows of Knighthood. We are the ones we've been waiting for!
Still contemplating ways to be of service? You could always write an article for the Knight Templar magazine. It may not get published, but that's not the point. Writing an article is a committment to learn something well enough to express it clearly. This is an exercise worthy in the act. The truth is, by living for others we ultimately become more ourselves.
Sir Knight Lokie Leo Voight Recognized for 60 Years Service to the York Rite by Winchester Commandery
by Joshua Payne
Winchester, VA – On April 21, 2025, at Winchester Commandery No. 12’s stated conclave, Eminent Commander Jason Curtis ‘Jake’ Trenary, KCT, with the assistance of his officers and sir knights present, opened Winchester Commandery for business. After numerous items of business, the time arrived to show gratitude, appreciation, and to celebrate a mentor, friend, family member, and sir knight that has served for over 60 years in our community and fraternity.
Lokie Leo Voight was knighted on April 24, 1965, in Winchester Commandery No. 12. He has served the Winchester community and the Commonwealth of Virginia in many capacities. He joined DeMolay as a
child in Richmond, Virginia, in the 1940s, and served as the state secretary and treasurer of the DeMolay of Virginia for over 20 years. He is a 60-plus year York Rite Mason, being a member of John Dove Chapter No. 21 of Winchester, Virginia; past master of Winchester Hiram Lodge No. 21; and district deputy grand master of Masonic District 3. He has served on the Committee on Work of the Grand Lodge of Virginia since 1999.
During the presentation, Eminent Trenary presented Sir Knight Voight with a pin and plaque to commemorate the occasion. The Grand Commandery of Virginia extends its gratitude and recognition of Sir Knight Voight and is honored to count his distin-
guished service among our ranks. All present, except for Eminent Trenary and Eminent Bourelle, were DeMolay boys of Lokie, which made the night even more special. KT
Eminent Jason Curtis ‘Jake’ Trenary, KCT; Sir Knight Lokie Leo Voight; Most Worshipful and Right Eminent James Winfield Golladay, Jr. KCT; Eminent and Most Excellent Raymond Douglas Steele, KCT; Eminent Daniel James Carter; and Eminent Matthew Scott Bourelle.
Joshua Payne
Joshua Payne
A Decades-Long Campaign to Protect Sight AAO Recognizes the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc.
It is 30 years since the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc. (KTEF) joined the American Academy of Ophthalmology in a journey to improve the vision care of patients both across the United States and around the globe," said Academy CEO Stephen D. McLeod, MD. “At the Academy’s 2025 annual meeting we honor its steadfast commitment to supporting the care so many patients need today, and its foresight in supporting innovative educational programs that help the patients of tomorrow.”
Historic commitment to eye care
The Grand Encampment of Knights Templar formed KTEF in 1956. Since then, KTEF has disbursed more than $181 million for vision research, patient care, and education, thanks to the annual fundraising campaigns of Knights Templar members. KTEF’s philanthropy has included generous donations to the Academy Foundation.
At Illuminate the Night, the Academy celebrates a philanthropic partner
From a 1995 donation of $2.25 million to support the National EyeCare Project (now EyeCare America) to a gift of $5 million in 2022 for a first-of-itskind virtual reality (VR) surgery environment, KTEF has been a generous philanthropic partner of the Academy. As a mark of recognition, KTEF was named a 2025 Academy Foundation Honoree at the Illuminate the Night celebration on Saturday, Oct. 18, in Orlando.
Three decades of synergy
“Year after year the passion and dedication that the Sir Knights bring to our shared goal of protecting and restoring sight for patients across the globe is inspirational,” said McLeod. “They are truly
invested in this mission.” KTEF donations to the Academy Foundation have helped to support a wide range of Academy activities, including the four groundbreaking programs discussed below.
KTEF and EyeCare America
“Ophthalmologists usually think of a mission trip as leaving the country, but there are many patients in our own community who need help. EyeCare America gives ophthalmologists the opportunity to serve enormously grateful patients right in their own office during their normal working day,” said Christie L. Morse, MD, a former chair of the EyeCare America (ECA) Steering Committee who will also be honored at Illuminate the Night.
The ECA program began in 1985 as the National Eye Care Project, with Academy volunteers providing eye exams and care to eligible patients, often with no out-of-pocket cost for the patient. By 1995, it was the largest public service program in U.S. medi -
cine, and that year’s $2.25 million donation from KTEF enabled it to expand further. Previously, the KTEF had run its own program, providing assistance to those who faced loss of sight due to the need for surgical treatment. But “they were looking for a program where they could leverage their dollars a little bit better.” said the 1995 Academy President Richard P. Mills, MD, MPH, speaking in 2010 for an Academy oral history series.1 This led them to an ongoing partnership with the Academy. “It has been a win-win situation for both organizations,” said Mills.
This year, the Academy expanded the program’s patient pool from eligible adults aged 65 and older to uninsured and underinsured adults aged 18 and over.
KTEF Pediatric Ophthalmology Education Center
In 2014, a $1 million donation from KTEF funded the development of the KTEF Pediatric Ophthalmology Education
Andrey Kuzmin–
Center, which launched in 2015. The center enables U.S.-based and international ophthalmologists to access a single online source of vetted, high-quality clinical resources. In addition to case reports and surgical videos, the center also features simulators for strabismus diagnosis and retinoscopy that have reduced learning time from weeks to days for ophthalmologists worldwide. “By providing free access to simulators, case-based training, surgical videos, and other tools, the education center has had a global impact on pediatric eye care,” said Morse.
The two Academy members spearheading this project – K. David Epley, MD, and Faruk H. Örge, MD – mobilized almost 200 members of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus to create the initial content for the center. For their roles in developing both this center and KTEF’s VR simulator (see below), Epley and Örge
will be presented with the Academy’s 2025 Distinguished Service Award.
KTEF IRIS Registry Pediatric Ophthalmology Research Fund
The 2014 launch of the Academy’s IRIS Registry put ophthalmology at the forefront of a new era in big data analyses. Indeed, by the summer of 2025, the IRIS Registry included one quarter of the U.S. population and housed data on more than 805 million patient visits.
Anticipating the unprecedented opportunities that big data provided for researchers, KTEF donated $2 million to establish the KTEF Pediatric Ophthalmology Research Fund in 2018. The goals of this program are to enhance the IRIS Registry as a resource for practices and researchers, and to support Academy members in private practice who want to use
IRIS Registry data to investigate diseases affecting children and to uncover optimal, real-world approaches to prevention and treatment.
Recipients of the fund’s research grants learn about the IRIS Registry, receive an introduction to big data analytics, and work closely with Academy staff on the analysis.
KTEF Pediatric Ophthalmology
VR Simulation Program
After receiving a $5 million grant from KTEF in 2022, the Academy worked with fundamental XR to develop the KTEF Pediatric Ophthalmology VR Simulation Program (aao.org/vr), which was launched in 2024. The platform provides a free VR simulator for ophthalmologists and trainees around the world. For those who do not have access to a
VR headset, a desktop version of the simulator also was developed. The platform’s first module focuses on retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Despite ROP being the leading cause of preventable blindness in children worldwide, trainees have little opportunity to learn and practice proper techniques for examining and treating babies, said Örge. “Indeed, many countries don’t allow residents to perform any pediatric surgeries, so there was a huge need for an ROP simulator.” KT
BACK FROM THE BRINK
How sincerity, commitment, and zeal saved the York Rite in historic Golden, Colorado. by
Ben Williams
GOLDEN, COLORADO –
The York Rite has been active in historic Golden, Colorado, for 150 years. But after years of waning participation, in April, 2025, the groups reached a dead end. They voted to disband.
Like many bodies, the same officers occupied parallel stations in chapter, council, and commandery. They struggled to open; many meetings devolved to a table in the dining room. So, in April, they mustered a final push to traverse the chasm. A quorum was attained for the purpose. One by one, the bodies were opened and the vote taken. The final meeting was scheduled for June 12, when the charters would be surrendered and the good, square work officially culminated.
The vote was unanimous, merge with the York Rite bodies up in Georgetown and disburse sizable donations to Golden City Lodge No. 1.
On May 5, 2025, officers arrived at Golden City Lodge No. 1 to present the check. Suddenly, reality sunk in.
"We really didn't want to do it," Lee Miller, Secretary of the bodies, said. "We decided just to ask them [Golden City Lodge No. 1] if anyone had ever really talked to them about the York Rite . . . . Not one single hand went up."
"There were only five of us there," Mike Tims, in the East for each of the bodies, said. "I was introducing the members [of the Golden York Rite bodies] to the Lodge, and it just welled up inside of me. Bunch of grown men, and I'm crying in front of them saying that this is all that remains of the Golden York Rite bodies!" He said.
Their sincerity was effective. By the end of the meeting, they
had five petitions for membership and two affiliations. At the June meeting, meant to be the final meeting, a final farewell to the York Rite in Golden, a motion to reconsider was raised. The vote was again unanimous: but now the bodies would not surrender their charters. Instead, they would bring the new members into Golden. So, over the summer months when the bodies were dark, the new members went through the festivals held around the state. The chapter up in the old, abandoned quarry near Akron; the council in Grand Junction; and then the commandery, in the forest of Rye, high up in the Sangre de Christo Mountains.
When the bodies reopened in September, they did so with full form openings. Then, six more petitions were read, and two more affiliations added to the rolls. Fifteen new members since May. Today, the bodies are conferring the degrees and Orders themselves. The Mark Mason will be conferred
in October. The companions and sir knights are working, bound together with newfound purpose.
"I would almost equate it to divine intervention!" Tims said with a chuckle, comparing the sentiment in Golden City Lodge No. 1 that evening in May with Baptist revivals he attended years hence. "Hairs were standing up! I mean, there was an energy in the room. You could touch it," he said.
"No one wants to see a [Masonic] body shut down. All it really takes is a face-to-face conversation," he said.
And, perhaps also, a truthful heart. In the ruins of the chapter, council, and commandery, when the members had become dispirited, and the pillars were breaking, where avenues for change seemed foreclosed, there, in the ruins, a truth was revealed. Like the keystone in the rubbish, it raised up and united the groups in spans. Now, a new temple is emerging from the rubble.
There is growth statewide,
not just in the Golden York Rite bodies, but across the board – in the York Rite in Colorado. For the first time in decades, a net gain in membership was reported at the Grand Sessions in September.
"I love the lessons," Tims said, contemplating the York Rite. "My favorite part, though, is where we close and have fellowship at the end of the evening. I love the ritual work. You know me. I love the lessons. But for me, the best part is the fellowship of the York Rite." KT
Sir Knights march in the Golden City parade in 2018.
Ben Williams
The History of the Ritual of the Order of Malta
Interestingly, the Order of Malta, as promulgated as part of the York Rite of Freemasonry, was not part of the work of the Grand Encampment until 1856, and even then, many commanderies didn’t confer it.
It was typically appended as a short, instructional section investing the newly-made Knight Templar with Maltese signs and words of recognition.
More confounding, the Constitution adopted at the formation of the Grand Encampment in 1816 included the clause, “The rule of succession in conferring the orders of Knighthood shall be as follows, viz: Knight of the Red Cross, Knight Templar, Knight of Malta.”1 Then, at the 13th Triennial in 1856, reference to the Knight of Malta as a required degree was removed from the Constitution.
Sir Knight Robert Morris (poet and wellknown founder of the Order of the Eastern Star) was appointed to a committee to revise the Constitution in 1856, along with the likes of Masonic scholar and author, Sir Knight Albert G. Mackey. Both spoke in favor of striking the Knight of Malta from the required succession set forth in the Constitution. Mackey made the motion.
Morris said later that the Knight of Malta was “stricken out because the Knights of Malta had never been a regular Order in the American Commanderies and Encampments,” and “not until recently [i.e., mid-1800s] has any American Sir Knight been possessed of the real secrets of that Order.”2 According to Morris, the Grand Encampment only came by the ritual in 1857 via the Provincial Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Conclave of Canada (as it was then styled), Sir Knight W. J. B. McLeod Moore, who was working under the Grand Conclave of England and Wales (now styled a “Great Priory”). “In striking out the words, ‘Knight of Malta,’” he said, “the Grand Encampment acknowledged the right of the Commanderies to communicate what they knew of the Order as an Honorary Order, but forbid the further deception of styling it regular when it is not so.”3 (Emphasis in original.)
Thus, in September of 1856, the Grand
1 Const. art. III § 2. See Proceedings (1816-1856), 51.
2 Proceedings, (1874), 42.
3 Id.
by Ben Williams
Encampment amended the Consitituion to omit the Knights of Malta from the succession of degree work.4
There appears to be some antipathy toward the Knights of Malta in the early days of the Grand Encampment. In 1857, during his visit to the Grand Commandery of Ohio, in explaining the amendment to the Constitution, Grand Master William B. Hubbard was heard to remark:
The Order of the Knights of Malta has never been even here [i.e., in the U.S.] a prerequisite, or intercalary degree or Order to that of Templar. That Order, it is believed, upon sufficient authority, was not like the Templars, based upon Ancient Craft Masonry. At all events, abundant history and legends show that those “two Orders had nothing in common,” nay. More, that they not only “never sympathized with each other,” but that Templars had not Knightly confidence in that Order and held themselves far above a Knight of Malta, in courage, devotion to Christian duty, and unspotted and unsullied honor. The Templars had however possessed themselves of the secrets of the Knights of Malta, and were careful to communicate them to every new made member of their Order. Hence the Order of Malta is not honored with a name in our revised Constitution; but it was explained and understood at Hartford, while the revision of the present Constitution was under consideration, that each candidate for our Order, on being dubbed and created a Knight of the most Valiant and Magnanimous Order of Knight Templar, should be instructed in the secrets of the Knights of Malta: That each Templar was entitled to them and that they would be communicated the same as heretofore: Thus most appropriately conforming to our “Ancient Knight Templar.”5
Interestingly, this mode is in line with European Chivalric Masonry, ancestor also to
4 It bears noting, among other amendments made in 1856, the Constitution was also amended to hold that no one could petition for the Orders of Knighthood for any fee less than $20. That’s around $760 in present value, according to officialdata.org. (Note that this was a reduction; before the amendment, the fee was $30 or $1,140.17 present value.)
5 Proceedings, (1874), 42-43.
the degrees of the Consistory in the Ancient and Accepted Rite. Consider, for example, the language in Etienne Morin’s degree of Kadosh or Elect of the IX, from his Order of the Royal Secret in 1760: “By the degree of nine elected, when your heart was disposed to revenge, you have been prepared to the implacable hatred that you have sworn to the Knights of Malta, in whom you ought to [avenge] the death of James de Molay.”
Essentially, before 1857, the Order of Malta was likely given as some sort of brief instructive lecture, probably during the second section of the Order of the Temple; a didactic episode treating of the history of the Knights Hospitaller, Knights of Rhodes, and the Knights of Malta, no doubt drawing on the acquisition of Templar property by a rival Order. According to Sir Knight John Q. Fellows, speaking as Grand Master at the 19th Triennial held in New Orleans in1874, the instruction included a typical locution, which clearly informed Sir Knight Hubbard’s remarks (above) to the Grand Commandery of Ohio, in which we note similar idiolect:
Although there is no direct proof that the Knights of Malta took an active part in the conspiracy against the Templars, still they looked with apathy on the ruin of their rivals, and seized with avidity their share of the spoils; and it is believed, on sufficient authority, that the Order of Knights of Malta was not, like that of the Temple, founded on the first three degrees of Freemasonry. At least history and legends clearly prove that the two Orders possessed nothing in common – nay, more, a Templar considered himself far above the Knights of Malta in all that related to personal courage, devotion to Christian duty, and pure and unsullied honor. The Templars, however, had obtained possession of the peculiar secrets of the Knights of Malta, and were careful to communicate them to each new-made member of their Order, as a safeguard and protection against the machinations of the Knights of Malta, and for that reason they will now be communicated to you.
Cue the inevitable gesticulations. From the above, we can draw two conclusions: first, the orders promulgated this side of the Atlantic lacked any meaningful Order of Malta. Second,
Albert Mackey and Rob Morris (both active in the Ancient and Accepted Rite) thought the original Constitution should be changed to reflect this fact. Notably, Grand Master Hubbard was also active in the Scottish Rite (he famously turned down serving as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Northern Jurisdiction in 1851).
Six years later, though, Sir Knight Benjamin French restored the Order of Malta – he devised his own version, the one used in his home jurisdiction, Massachusetts.
“I doubted at the time [when the Constitution was amended] the expediency of the change,” he said, “and, although I have followed it, I am convinced of its impropriety. Indeed, I see no reason why the regular work in conferring of that Order should not be adopted in all Commanderies, as it is in some, if not all, of those in Massachusetts.”6 So a resolution was adopted to require use of the Massachusetts ritual (which French devised) wherever the Order was conferred. The Order was not obligatory, though, and was still part of the Order of the Temple proper. “[T]he Grand Master held that it was not considered necessary nor obligatory on any Commandery to confer the Order of Malta,” Sir Knight John Q. Fellows told the Knights in Conclave in 1874, “and though, when conferred, the ritual promulgated by Past Grand Master French in 1863 should be used, when attainable, yet the conferring of the Order should not be encouraged, because that ritual was not similar in style or substance to the ritual of the Order of the Temple, or even of the Red Cross, and was in no wise the ritual of the real Order of Malta.”7 Grand Master Fellows is emphatic, “the whole ritual is really puerile,” he said, “and detracts from the dignity and sublimity of the ceremonies of the preceding Order.”8
The ritual was referred to a special committee of five. At the 20th Triennial in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1877, the committee reported:
The Committee on the Order of the Knights of Malta and its Ritual, appointed at the last Triennial Conclave, beg leave to submit the following report:
We have given the subject our careful consideration, and have come to the conclusion that the present Ritual, which was promulgated by Grand Master French, is not the correct work and is very unsatisfactory. It is simply a portion of the Mediterranean Pass, with some of the attributes of the Knights of Malta.
We have agreed upon what we believe is the correct work, and submit it for your
6 Proceedings (1862), 32.
7 Proceedings (1874), 45.
8 Id.
consideration.
Owing to the death of our lamented frater and associate, Sir Knight George Frank Gouley, of Missouri, Eminent Sir Knight Wm. B. Isaacs, of Virginia, was appointed to his place, but on account of his absence, we have been unable to confer with him on this subject.
The rest of the committee are all united in recommending the work herewith presented for your adoption.
Adoption of the ritual was postponed, however. The committee again reported on the ritual at the 21st Triennial, in Chicago,1880. The ritual was referred back again. Finally, at the 22nd Triennial in San Francisco, in 1883, a “thoroughly revised” ritual was adopted.
“It has been our object to produce a ceremonial which should be free from startling novelties or meaningless effects, carefully avoiding the use of any ceremony or word not fully warranted by the Christian character of the Order,” the committee said.9 The committee kept in view the “unreliable” Maltese Ritual of Masonic Knighthood, prepared by Sir Knight French; the Knights of Malta Ritual as revised and adopted by the Grand Conclave of England and Wales (as it was then styled) around 1851; the Revised Canadian Masonic Order of Malta, from 1879 (basically the English ritual); “fragmentary English and Scottish Rituals in use previous to the revisal of the Rituals in 1851”; and the “old Ceremonial of conferring the Order of Knights of Malta, as given by Vertot and other standard authorities.”10 Care was taken to reduce the number of parts required (but the committee noted the parts could be broken up and shared at will since the imperative number was devised for accessibility).
“We have endeavored to prepare a Ceremonial which may be made very effective upon grand festival occasions, as a religious, chivalric pageant, giving ample opportunity for the introduction of appropriate costumes, banners, paraphernalia, processions, music, etc.,” the committee said, “all, however, in strict accord and harmony with the solemn religious dignity and Christian character of the Order. How far we have succeeded in this is for the Grand Encampment to determine.”11
“Possibly some will say that the Ceremonial submitted is too highly religious and Christian in its character,” the committee qualified. “To this we reply, that we have
9 Proceedings (1883), 262.
10 Id. I believe the committee refers to René d’Aubert de Vertot d’Aubœf’s Histoire des Chevaliers Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jerusalem, published in Paris in 1726.
11 Proceedings (1883), 263.
added nothing to what we found. We did not feel authorized, even had we been so disposed, to modify or change the long-established and well-known Christian character of the Order to make it conform to any real or imaginary religious sentiment of to-day. We preferred to leave it, in this respect, just how we found it.”12 (Emphasis in original.) Due to concerns over length and the quantity of paraphernalia required (think of all the banners, the table, and other accoutrements), the short version was also prepared and recommended.
Both rituals were adopted upon motion.13 This may have been the first time a Templar ritual was agreed to be committed to print and it was made a knightly offense for anyone to buy a ritual from any unauthorized printing.
This is the ritual which, aside from the recent amendment to the short form ritual to include the declaration of accepting Christ as savior, remains in use today. For thirty-nine years the Orders were conferred chronologically, the Order of Malta last. But at the 33rd
12 Id.
13 Proceedings (1883), 264.
Valetta, the capital of Malta.
Triennial Conclave in Los Angeles, in 1916, the Order of the Temple was elevated to its position as the last Order in the succession to Knighthood, a change implemented in 1917 by Grand Master Lee Smith in his General Order No. 3.
While it is often said that there is no historical connection with the mediaeval Orders upon which the family of Freemasonry draws its inspiration, it is interesting to note that, in the opinion of our learned forebears, some historical connection was presumed common knowledge. Consider the remarks by Grand Master James H. Hopkins regarding the Order of Malta. Sir Knight Hopkins was a congressman, serving the 22nd district in Pennsylvania, from 1883-1885 and 1875-1877, and an active attorney in Washington, D.C. He wasn’t an idiot. While we cannot know upon what authorities he based his opinions, he suggests a learned view. For example, he claimed to have been shown “Ordinances of the General Grand Chapter in Malta” dated to 1631.
“I had the extreme pleasure of examining an old folio, procured in Malta by Sir Knight [John W.] Moore [a naval officer], from the Grand Prior of the Order [of Malta],” he said
in 1877.14 Included among the historic folio was, he said, the “mode of conferring the Grand Cross of St. John of Jerusalem.” Sir Knight Hopkins was of the opinion, which he seemed to take as common knowledge, that “there are two, perhaps three, branches of the Order of Malta, one, or rather two, Protestant, the other Roman Catholic, and doubtless both, or all, are genuine successors of the original Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem,” he said. He suggests the Order scattered and was “reorganized upon different bases.”
“Some of its members had found refuge in Masonic Lodges; and revived their Order under the guardianship of that ancient fraternity,” he posits. “And this is the branch which has been brought to us . . . . The sixth, or English, Langue of this division, is presided over by the Duke of Manchester, in London.15 So far as I can learn, the Roman Catholic branch is confined to Austria and Italy, including the Islands of the Mediterranean.”
14 Proceedings (1877), 86.
15 He must be referring to George Victor Drogo Montagu, Lord Kimbolton and Viscount Manderville, 8th Duke of Manchester.
Sir Knight Hopkins raises an interesting question. If the Order had attached to the peerage, as Sir Knight Hopkins suggests, then familial succession might pass on the forms of the Order alongside the title. Certainly, families have maintained successions in various secretive societies. That said, we have no evidence to suggest the Dukedom of Manchester assumed any offshoot of the Order of Malta – Henry VIII prescribed the Catholic Order in 1540. And Elizabeth I divested most of its land in 1559.
According to its website, the Catholic Grand Priory of England didn’t reestablish itself until 1993. The Masonic Order, though, emerged as a national body as early as 1791 and remains, uninterrupted. KT
SOME KEY WORDS FOR A KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
There are a few unusual and quite interesting words that become important to a Mason who becomes a knight of the Order of the Temple. The ritual book of the Grand Encampment carefully provides a Vocabulary to ensure that the words are pronounced correctly. However, it does not provide any information about their source or derivation. Here is a short review about some of these words which should prove of interest to members of the Order.
ZERUBBABEL
The members of the York Rite soon become familiar with the character Zerubbabel. His name shows up in both the New and Old Testament, but primarily the latter. He was a direct descendant of King David and was considered
the ruler of the nation of Judah, although he did not occupy a throne. He is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3:19. He is also found in the two genealogies of Jesus given in Matthew 1:12-13 and Luke 3:27. During Zerubbabel’s day, the Jews had previously been conquered by the Babylonians and were subsequently under the rule of the Persians. The most important acts of Zerubbabel are found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Here we read of his return to Jerusalem with a large group of captives to ensure the construction of the second temple to Almighty God. He was also involved in rebuilding the walls of the city (Ezra 2:1-70 and Nehemiah 12:1). Zerubbabel’s temple was completed in 515 BC. (Ezra 3:8; 6:15).
By W. Bruce Pruitt
TATNAI and SHETHAR-BOZNAI
Tatnai, (or Tattenai) was a Persian governor in the area west of the Euphraties River. Shethar-Boznai was also an official of Persia close enough to Judah to be concerned about their strength and ability. In the ceremonies of the Order of the Red Cross their names allow the candidate to travel from one place to another. While Zerubbabel and the workmen were building the second temple, those two came to Jerusalem and requested the opportunity to assist in the work. Their motives must not have been sincere; they later sent letters to the king criticizing
the Jews and suggested that they would eventually rebel. Read Ezra 4:1-7, 5:3, 5:6, 6:6 and accompanying verses for a fascinating story.
MAHER-SHALAlHASH-BAZ
This word is pronounced Ma’her-shal’al-hash’baz. It is a Hebrew word that literally means: “spoil speeds, prey hastens.” The word was given by God to the prophet Isaiah to predict the conquest of Damascus and Samaria by the king of Assyria. Isaiah was to display the word on a tablet to show God gave this information a year in advance. Isaiah was also instructed to give this name to
Shethar Boznai, as imagined by ChatGPT.
Golgotha, as imagined by ChatGPT.
Golgotha as imagined by Midjourney
Left: Zerbabbel returns having traversed the Persian dominions where the work continues to rebuild the Temple.
A.I.
his second son (Isaiah 8:1-4). It is important for a sir knight to master pronouncing this tongue twister to be able to pass inspection at the opening ceremony.
GOLGOTHA
Golgotha is a Hebrew word meaning “skull” or “a place of a skull.” It is pronounced gol-go’tha with emphasis on the middle syllable. It refers to a hill on the outskirts of Jerusalem on which Jesus was crucified. There is no question about why the hill is referred to by such a name. The formations along the face of the hill as you look at it from the city are very prominent. There is a story about an English military officer who, many years ago, noticed it while waiting for a bus. This experience gave him the initiative to search for and find the “Garden Tomb,” a place where many believe Jesus was buried. The hill is along a major road which made it a natural place to conduct crucifixion; people passing by witnessed the
horror of crucifixion, voluntarily or not.
It is interesting to look at the different ways in which the authors of the four Gospels report the taking of Jesus to that hill. The following quotes are taken from the New American Standard of the Bible: (NAS)
Matthew 27:33: “And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull.”
Mark 15:22: “ And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.”
Luke 23:33: “And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
John 19:17-18: “They took Jesus therefore, and when He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called A Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.”
There is very little difference
in these various passages between them as quoted from NAS and the King James (KJ) and Revised Standard versions (RSV). The NAS version adds in the Luke passage an alternate translation for Skull as the Latin “Calvarius,” or “Calvarias” or in English “Calvary.” Interestingly in the KJ Bible, in the Luke passage, Calvary is used instead of Skull. This word, Calvary, is the one used by most modern-day Protestants.
CONCLUSION
These are only a few of the fascinating words from scripture that Sir Knights of the Temple learn about and live with as they enjoy participating in the Commandery. A large percentage of Freemasonry is derived from Holy Scripture. It is therefore incumbent on brothers of the Craft to spend time in that sacred volume, and to learn and enjoy what the Great Architect has provided to us. KT
REFERENCES
New American Standard Bible; Study Edition; A. J. Holman Co., Philadelphia & New York; copyright 1962 – 1976.
The Holy Bible, Authorized or King James Version, A. J. Holman Co. Nashville, TN, copyright 1924 – 1940.
The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Thomas Nelson & Sons, Toronto, New York, Edinburgh, copyright Old Testament 1952, New Testament 1946.
The Westminster Dictionary to the Bible, Ed. John D. Davis, Henry Snyder Gehman, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, copyright 1944 .
Ritual of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States of America, Paul C. Rodenhauser Grand Recorder, 1979, with Pronouncing Vocabulary, Dr. Bryon K. Hunsberger & Maurice E. White, 1935.
london MITHRAEUM
The Blitz razed buildings, but raised others.
MITHRAEUM
by Ben Williams
London is an ancient city. Almost two millennia are buried there. Probably founded in the mid-first century, after the Roman Emperor Claudius sent his legions across the Channel in AD 43, the city has been continuously populated ever since. It was probably populated earlier still. But the Romans brought history with them.
When the city was decimated in the Blitz, this ancient past was exposed. On a broken plot between Victoria Street and Cannon Street in Walbrook, while excavating in an exploratory trench in the early 1950s, archeologist William Grimes recorded fragments of a building. He marked the site for further investigation, but it wasn’t until two years later, in 1954, during preparations for construction of a new building for Legal & General on the site, that the temple was discovered.
At first, it was assumed the ruin was a church. But when a broken head wrought in Italian marble emerged from the mud, bearing the
Photo: The London Mithraeum in its current restored state.
likeness of a Phrygian-capped wearing god, they realized they had stumbled on something else, a temple to a solar archetypical god – Mithras, the Romanized Mitra of Persia. There was some excitement. This was one of only four Mithraea discovered in England, and the only one discovered south of Hadrian’s wall. It was dated to AD 240.
Mithraism is an anomaly in Roman religion. Interestingly, it bears similarity with, and perhaps suggests an influence on, Freemasonry and Christianity. For example, members of the religion called themselves syndexioi, roughly translatable as “by the right” or “by the righthand” or “handshake,” and identified themselves with two right hands grasped. They enjoyed feasts together and celebrated Sunday (the day of the Sun) as a holy day. Some have claimed that Mithras and Jesus shared a birthday, December 25, but that is not definitively known (although, treating of a solar
archetype, it makes sense). Little is known about their rites and ceremonies, but what is known is they performed initiation through seven degrees, perhaps associated with an ascent through the spheres identified by the classical planets. Members were often merchants who availed themselves of a network of sympathetic initiates drawn across the empire. Mutual relief was inculcated.
The likeness of the god is often shown slaughtering a bull; a sign, some argue, of the ascendancy of the Age of Aries over the Age of Taurus, or implicative of fertility in the sacrifice of the bull shedding its blood that others may live, or perhaps the slaying of one’s animalistic nature. Other iconography hint at the stages of initiation, perhaps akin to a trestle board in Masonic instruction: the raven, indicative of the first degree, perhaps (known as Corax, or “raven” in Latin, sacred to the sun, and here, mercury); a scorpion, dog and snake, tearing
at the bull, symbolic of constellations perhaps or maybe the vices; a comely youth, venereal and concupiscent; torches aflame, hoisted like the perpendicular parallel lines of the Masonic circumpunct; and the glorious sun, coroneted and radiant. The degrees were titled Corax (“raven”), Nymphus (“bridegroom”), Miles (“soldier”), Leo (“lion”), Perses (Persian), and Heliodromus, (“sun-runner” or “the course of the sun”). The seventh and final grade was titled Pater, or “father.”
Like the Masonry of the Enlightenment, Mithraism seems to have traveled with the military. It made it all the way to the farthest extremity of the Empire, up to the Scottish borderlands. Mithraea were found at Carrawburgh, Rudchester, and Houseteads, forts pressed up against Hadrian’s Wall, erected by the emperor whose name it bears in AD 122, a 73 mile impediment to keep the Picts north of the line. There must be more Mithraea in
England – their subterranean aspect makes discovery difficult, except where archeological scrutiny is already incipient (such as excavations along Hadrian’s Wall).
The Mithraeum in London is believed to have been part of an estate, perhaps belonging to Ulpius Silvanus, a veteran of the Second Augustinian Legion, whose name was discovered inscribed on a relief on site. The temple was originally built about seven meters (23 feet) below ground, sunken eastwest into the banks of the river Walbrook (now culverted under the city) and was probably accessible through another building. It’s estimated the nave could seat around thirty people comfortably. Here the syndexioi met to perform their secretive rites. Everything else devolves to speculation – their secrets were buried with them.
Legal & General, a financial services group who’d bought the land, agreed to pay to move the Mithraeum while they built their fifteen-story, modernist Bucklers-
Top Left: Tauroctony (Mithras slaying the bill), second century Rome. Top right: Mithraeum (with tauroctony as statue), in Ostia Antica, Rome. Above left: King Mithridates shakes hands with the god Herakles, Turkey, c. 70 BC. Above right: approximate locations of Mithraea discovered in England.
Right: White marble relief of the tauroctony found at Walbrook. Dated to AD 180-220. The central medallion depicts a bull-slaying scene. Around the border are the twelve signs of the zodiac. The sun ("Sol") and moon ("Luna") are depicted in the top corners, the two wind gods in the bottom. The inscription indicates that "Ulpius Silvanus, initiated into a Mithraic grade at Orange, France, paid his vows to Mithras" (Ulpius Silvanus factus Arausione emeritus leg(ionis) II aug(ustae) votum solvit, "Ulpius Silvanus, having become retired from Arausion's legion, paid the vow of Augustus II").
Left: Nama Coracibus tutela Mercurii (“hail to the ravens under the protection of Mercury”). Mosaic from Mithraeum in Ostia, Rome, showing the raven and the Mercurial caduceus. Below: Bucklersbury House, Legal & General. The building was finished in 1958. Designed by architect Owen Campbell-Jones & Sons, it was the first over-100ft high block in the city. The postwar design was fraught with blowback, however, and described as a "monstrous carbunkle" by then-Prince Charles (now King Charles III) in a speech to the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1984.
bury House. The ruin was disassembled stone by stone and rebuilt about a hundred yards westward, reassembled at ground level along a north-south axis (like the Masonic Lodge, Mithraea were typically situated east-west). In the process, over 14,000 artefacts were discovered, 405 legible Roman tablets (including the first known written reference to Londinium, dated to AD 65) and three tons of animal bones. The anoxic conditions emplaced by the Walbrook river were preservative. The site was dubbed “Pompei of the North.”
The site was opened to the public in 1962. Some disturbances were material, including the use of modern concrete to shore up the Kentish ragstone walls, addition of unoriginal stone, and introduction
of a mismatched paved floor. The reconstruction led the archeologist Grimes to remark that the reconstruction had rendered the ruin “virtually meaningless.” Despite the anachronisms, though, the Mithraeum became a tourist hotspot. Thousands visited the site. A bus stop was named for the Mithraeum to accommodate the traffic.
In 2007, Buklersbury House was demolished. The site stayed vacant until 2010 when Bloomberg, the information giant, bought it. As part of the planning permission to develop the lot, the City of London required restoring the Mithraeum as close as possible to its original aspect. Problems persisted in determining how best to disassemble the previous
reconstruction; how to discard the modern cement without damaging the original stone. But in 2012, it was discovered that the concrete could be cut with diamond-tipped chainsaws. Stonemasons were brought in from Paye Conservation to assist in the relocation, and to rebuild some of the structures. Construction was commenced in 2016, and the exhibit opened in fall of 2017.
They took care, sourcing ragstone from the last surviving quarry in Kent, forming replacement brick by hand from clay dredged from the Humber estuary. They prepared dry mixes of hydraulic lime mortars, at proportions determined from samples taken from other second and third century Roman buildings in
London. New oak was treated to look like the waterlogged surviving timbers originally recorded by Grimes. The idea was to restore the ruin to its condition when discovered, accordant with the meticulous records Grimes had made.
Fragmentary evidence suggested the original floor may have been timber. However, it was decided to leave the floor in semblance to how the Mithraeum was discovered – bare earth. Due to structural concerns, and to allow visitors access to the floor, a resin cast was made of similar flooring, and hand painted to resemble the condition in 1962. Stone by stone, brick by brick, the Mithraeum was restored 23 feet underground, almost in its original location. Discovery of additional portions
Above: Bloomberg's European HQ. Home to the London Mithreum, which is open to th e public and free to visit, Bloomberg's European HQ was designed by Foster & Partners and opened in 2017. Comprised of 9,600 tons of Derbyshire sandstone it cost £1 billion. The "ventilation fins" shown on the windows are bronze. The mithraeum is 23 feet below street level, and accessed through the building's ground floor.
during the relocation resulted in moving the reconstruction slightly west of its original lie, to preserve the additional discovery in situ.
Bloomberg contracted with New York design firm Local Projects to devise the experiential exhibit. “A ruin is an incomplete dialogue between an incomplete reality and the imagination of the spectator,” said Jake Barton of Local Projects, quoting Christopher Woodward in In Ruins: A journey through history, art, and literature. The idea was to create an immersive space which elicited echoes of the past. The unfinished elements suggested by creative lighting, minimalizing orthogonals, and glass. Lighting artist Matthew Schreiber was contracted to elicit walls and columns that could fade and dissipate like an afterimage. To increase the immersive experience, fog and music were introduced – chanting of Latin culled from graffiti found at other religious sites.
The entire exhibit covers
three floors. You descend 23 feet underground into the Mithraeum having passed through an art museum on the ground floor of Bloomberg, where over 600 artefacts found onsite are displayed. You move through the centuries as you pass down the mezzanine, reaching the fifth century there. Then into the darkness and the illumination in the cavern below.
The Mithraeum is free to visit and open to the public. Next time you’re in London, stop by. You just need to register in advance for crowd control. https://www. londonmithraeum.com/visit. KT
ABOVE: Hadrian's Wall above Cawfield Crags on the Pennine Way walking trail. BOTTOM LEFT: Cawfield Quarry face
TheTriennial that put
William Henry Jackson. Photochrome by Detroit Publishing Co. – Library of Congress. Public Domain
put Denver on the Map! the 25th Triennial changed the West forever
In the late nineteenth century, Templary was in the ascendant. Cities moved to host the Triennial Conclave like contemporary cities vie for national sporting events. The Triennial was important, and not just to Knights Templar. Economic repercussions spread across the nation, along the railroads, and at every stop in between.
Barely thirty years after its founding, Denver succeeded in hosting the 25th Triennial1 of the
1 Note that triennial conclaves are
Grand Encampment. Scheduled for August 9-12, 1892, the city had three years to prepare. It took all three. The impact of the conclave was unprecedented in Denver’s history: in the months leading up to the Triennial, the city was transformed. Consider, by way of example, that in February 1892, there were no paved streets in Denver. By August, just six months later, miles of paving had been lain and over seven miles of
termed “Triennials” while the three year period is a triennium
No. 4 wire installed throughout to make Denver, at that time, probably the most electrified city in the world. The influence of the fraternity cannot be overstated: Denver would never be the same.
“The local committee at Denver has made extensive preparations for the entertainment of visiting knights, and quarters have already been assigned for more than 50,000 applicants; and although 100,000 visitors are expected there will be no lack of accommodations,” reported the Greely Tribune on July 14, 1892, a
little less than a month out. “They are coming, Father Abraham, Nearly a Hundred Thousand,” ran a headline in Leadville’s Herald Democrat, on August 2, 1892.
The parade through the city was expected to comprise 30,000 knights. It would take two and a half hours to walk the route. Over 100,000 bystanders were expected. The city had set up thousands of incandescent lights, in Templar colors, to “illuminate” the city. Lumber was in such high demand that it was being rented. By the end of July, the committee on horses
TOP LEFT:
Headquarters of Mary Commandery No. 36, from Pennsylvania, catercorner to the Brown Palace Hotel.
TOP RIGHT:
Dining car in private train commissioned by Mary Commandery No. 36 for their crosscountry "pilgrimage".
LEFT: Templar arch welcoming Templars en route to the 25th Triennial in Denver, erected in Manitou Springs, 75 miles south of Denver on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad line.
BOTTOM LEFT:
Menu for breakfast for the Knights of Mary Commandery No. 36 served in their dining car during their westward voyage.
and carriages had contracted130 additional horses just to have on hand.
“‘There’s millions in it,’ is the favorite phrase expressive of the fortunes to be made by persons who pre-empt available vacant lots and erect stands for the accommodation of the sweltering multitude,” the Rocky Mountain News reported on July 9, 1892. “One speculator of mathematical turn claims that with an expenditure of $500, in rental of the ground and lumber, he will line his pockets to the tune of $2,500. He estimates that seats [for the parade] will sell for $1 each.” For perspective, $2,500 in 1892 is equivalent to about $88,315 today (2025).
Colorado commanderies, comprising around 1,000 knights,2 had already contributed $60,000 (more than $2 million, present value) into a special “Conclave Fund,” for receiving and entertaining the visitors. With just a week
2 According to the Proceedings of the 25th Triennial, Colorado comprised 938 Templars in 1890, 1,094 in 1891, and 1,395 in 1892. See 1892 Proceedings of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States, (Ellis Jones, Richmond VA, 1892) 76.
B.F. Brown
before the conclave, they had raised an additional $35,948.50 from nonmembers, mainly citizens of Denver. Still, “The committee is hampered for funds,” the Rocky Mountain News reported, anticipating “$125,000 [$4.4 million present value] can be profitably expended in the reception and entertainment of the thousands who will come to Denver next week.”3
And come they did. Thousands of representatives, from 312 commanderies and 38 grand commanderies, from across the United States. At least 120 extra-scheduled trains (in addition to the dozens of regular trains) were requisitioned for the knights; special trains, chartered trains, non-stop trains, commandeered by commanderies for the pilgrimage. For example, Cincinnati Commandery No. 3, departing Cincinnati on August 4, chartered a vestibuled train of five Pullman sleepers and took stops at Colorado Springs, Manitou, Garden of the Gods, and Pikes Peak. Cache Commandery No. 27, of Ohio, took four sleepers and a dining car, and adorned their engine with a streamer: “Pike’s Peak or Bust!” it said. Mary Commandery No. 36 of Philadelphia commissioned a vestibuled train with smoking and dining cars, and drawing-room sleepers. They traveled in style (see the breakfast menu aboard St. Mary Commandery No. 36’s carriage left).
The movements of the knights were widely reported. On Aug. 2, 1892, the front page of Leadville’s Herald Democrat informed its readers:
Baltimore, Aug. 1 – over 200 Knights Templar, with their families, left Baltimore today for the Denver encampment. Every large Commandery in the state is represented.
New York, Aug. 1 – The first carloads of Knights Templar bound for the Denver Encampment left to-day. Over 2500 will leave here in the next three days.
3 Rocky Mountain News, July 31, 1892.
Dayton, Aug. 1 – A special train on the Erie railroad passed through at noon, carrying Knights Templar from New York to Denver. There were on the train three Commanderies, St. Omers No. 19, of Elmira, Malta No. 2, of Binghamton, and St. Johns of Olean.
Chicago, Aug. 1 – The Boston commandery, Knights Templar, numbering 125 members, is at the Sherman house, on their way to the great conclave of their order in Denver. Immediately upon arriving in the city, the knights went to the world’s fair grounds, where they spent the day until 3 o clock; then they returned to the Sherman house for dinner. They will leave for Denver to-night.
Detroit, Aug. 1 – St. John commandery No. 4, Knights Templar, of Philadelphia, was received and entertained in royal style by Detroit Commandery today. They are on their way to the triennial conclave in Denver. There are also about forty-five of the visiting knights and twenty ladies.
The arrivals began in earnest on Saturday, August 6. Reports from the night before held that trains were backed up for fifteen miles either side of Denver.
Almost Every Train Yesterday Carried Wearers of the Spotless Plume of Chivalry
Forty plumed and belted knights, as strong and brave as those who shivered lances in the lists at Ashby, drew up in line in front of the big marquee at the depot crossroads, and forty swords flashed in the dim half light and four score eyes flashed spirit there for deeds
LEFT: Goddess of Templary. MIDDLE: 16th Street in Denver, c. 1895. RIGHT: Denver's Union Station c. 1890
ABOVE: The parade route through Denver, in which an estimated 30,000 knights participated, took approximately 2 hours to complete.
of derring do.”4
Then, Sunday August 7, the enormousness of the event materialized. In the words of one reporter from the Rocky Mountain News:
Yesterday the statistics resolved themselves into facts, into long dust-covered trains and armies of pilgrims, into rush and roar, clang of bells, shriek of whistles, crash of bands, waving banners, undulating plumes, mountains of baggage, sharp command and gallant salute; into whirling eddies of locomotive smoke that hurled itself against lord and lady, knight
7, 1892.
and squire, cut rate excursionist and palace millionaires; into the uproar and chaos of an upheaval.
By noon Monday, August 8, 57,000 knights had been located to their various headquarters, at hotels and buildings throughout the city. The Rocky Mountain News estimated at least 20,000 more had located themselves. Another 25,000 were expected by noon the next day. Every hotel in the city was commissioned. Knights were stationed at the Gilman, Oxford, Princeton, Lindell, Windsor, Markam, Belvoir, St. James, Capitol Hill, Glenarm, Broadway, Union, Albany, Gilsey,
Imperial, Albany, and Gunury hotels (among others – and various other commercial spaces let for quartering the commanderies) and, of course, at the Brown Palace, the headquarters of the Grand Commanderies of Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Texas, among other subordinate commanderies, and the general headquarters for the conclave. The population of Denver had doubled overnight.
The Brown Palace, a landmark of Denver, opened just three days before the Triennial. Costing over $1.5 million ($53 million
present value), it was wrought of Colorado red granite, and Arizona sandstone; its enormous atrium hung upon electro-copper plated iron, gilded with Mexican onyx and marble. It was billed as “the finest hotel in the world,” and, importantly in those days, “absolutely fireproof.” Two telegraph companies were operating in the lobby. It was electrically lit throughout. The Brown Palace wasn’t just impressive: it was a modern marvel. Undoubtedly, the Knights Templar were significant in its opening. The owners, Bush & Tabor, were the largest civilian donors to the “Conclave Fund,”
Rand McNally & Co.'s map of the Denver Rio Grande Railway in 1886.
ponying up $2,000 (about $70,652 present value) to support the conclave.5
The Henry C. Brown Palace hotel, conceded to be the finest hotel in the world, was opened last evening and for a week will be the general headquarters of the conclave. All of the business rooms on the ground floor have been engaged by the various state
5 Rocky Mountain News, July 31, 1892.
This page: ads and clippings from the Rocky Mountain News. The portrait is of Sir Knight Byron Carr, Grand Commander of Colorado. The August 7 and 9, 1892, editions ran bios of many of the grand commanders who attended the Triennial.
commanderies, all of which enter into the central rotunda, the common ground upon which the sir knights from all parts of the United States meet to exchange greetings.6
The Brown Hotel presented a carnival scene during the entire day and far into the night. From early morning,
6 Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 7, 1892.
the magnificent rotunda was crowded with guests, the elegant costumes of the ladies and the handsome uniforms of the Knights Templar combining to render the ever moving, ever changing throng one of universal brilliancy.7
The Grand Commandery of Colorado took over the Kittredge building next to the Masonic Building at 1614 Welton St., which would host the Triennial session.
The headquarters of the Colorado commanderies in the Kittredge building blooms like a flower garden. Early yesterday morning, Grand Commander Carr moved his office to the platform in the rear of the ground floor. All day the decorators, with skillful fingers, added to the attractiveness of the great reception room and the quarters of the commanderies on the second floor.8
Sir Knight Clifford Allen, a member of Mary Commandery No. 36 of Philadelphia, recorded his commandery’s pilgrimage by train to Denver (they went all the way to California and back to Denver). His impressions inform
7 Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 9, 1892.
8 Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 7, 1892.
a vivid scene.
There were also other headquarters outside of the Templars’ own. The former residents of our own State had organized a Pennsylvania Club, which kept open house and the same was true of other States. All day long the visiting, serenading, marching and countermarching continued. St. John’s, with their cowboy band, occupied a goodly share of attention, at least the band did. They were togged out so as to look real devilish, with their six shooters stuck in their hip pockets. The drum major carried a pistol that was encrusted all over the handle with precious stones of all kinds. It did us no good to see him pull out his gun and fire a blank cartridge over the top of the steer horn prizes, carried in front of the band on poles, when he wanted them to blow.
Banners, bunting, flowers, and electric lights were everywhere; buildings adorned from roof to floor with flags, silks, drapery, garlands, and Masonic and Templar symbols. Entire
This page: clippings from the Rocky Mountain News, showing artist renderings of some of the decorations adorning the buildings of Denver. The entire city was transformed, covered in drapery and electric lights. Denver was, for a time, probably the most electrified city in the world!
buildings were covered. Arches spanned the streets and the crossroads. Over 27,000 incandescent lights had been strung over the city; arc lights and large, 5,000 candle-power search lights were erected atop the Brown Palace, People’s Bank, and on each side of the Union Depot tower. The Rocky Mountain News reported they could resolve daylight up to three miles away!
Some of these lavish decorations were bleached by rains that swept in on August 8. But the festivities were undaunted. The illumination was a spectacle to behold, among the largest the world had seen.
"It is apparent, from the vast number of people in the streets to-night, that the principal streets of the city will not be passable when all our visitors have reached the city unless carriages and other
vehicles are kept off the streets during the illumination,” the mayor announced.9 “I have therefore to earnestly request of our citizens that in deference to the comfort and safety of our visitors they refrain from driving upon the district included between Larimar and Tremont and Fifteenth and Seventeenth streets after 8 o’clock p.m., and all policemen are requested to see that the streets are kept free from vehicles during the illumination.10
“Venus Blushes and Hides Her Diminished Brilliancy Before the Lights,” gushed a reporter in the Rocky Mountain News. “Diamond studded streets like Pearly Approaches to the Jasper Gates” ran a headline.11
In preparation for the “illu-
9 Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 9, 1892.
10 Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 9, 1892.
11 Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 9, 1892.
mination,” when the entire city would be lit up, the Consolidated Electric Light Company had lain an extra seven miles of cable and increased its generating capacity by at least one-third. “Seven dynamos were set apart for the increased illumination alone, feeding seven separate districts with over 20,000 lamps entirely independent of other signs and the regular commercial and city lighting and being the same as if a district plant and lines had been created,” the Rocky Mountain News reported. Boilers were upgraded, engines doubled. The cost was $35,000 ($1.2 million, present value) and the illumination cost $2,000 each night for the three nights it ran ($73,000 present value).12 The city was the beneficiary – increased electrification and perhaps, for a
12 Allen, Pilgrimage of Mary Commandery No. 36 186.
Grand Master John P. S. Gobin LEFT: in 1863 in Union dress. ABOVE: Sir Knight Gobin in 1914.
BELOW: Arapahoe Street in Denver, c. 1895.
time, the most powerful grid in the world. Commercial spaces joined the throng of their own accord, covering their facades with incandescent lamps in Templar colors.
“A cloud of radiant, trembling, silver light, softened and mellowed by 10,000 shafts of glorious purple and crimson, was thrown about the city and through it, like the play of the aurora of the North, flashed the brilliant pathways of the great search lights as they were whirled hither and thither,” the Rocky Mountain News reported. “There is no city in the world where electric lighting is so much used as in Denver.”13
The immense masses of humanity on the streets of Denver tonight were a sight long to be remembered. Sidewalk and street were alike filled and the Mayor had requested all street traffic,
13 Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 9, 1892.
except that of the cable cars and necessary carriages, to cease in order to lessen the chance of accidents. The illumination of the city, by means of colored incandescent globes and the electric light, was one of the greatest sights that has been witnessed on this continent. The grand arches that had been built across the main streets blazed with the lights. The fronts of public and private buildings were studded with them and both sides of the streets for miles were lined with globes of all colors. Strings of them crossed the streets at intervals, suspended from the center of which were designs of various forms and wonderfully rich in colors. All this was not merely on two or three streets, but on dozens of them. We had thought the illuminations of St. Louis in 1886 a hard thing to surpass, but have concluded that we must yield the
The 25 th Triennial was presided over by Grand Master John P. S. Gobin, an attorney who served as a state senator for the 17th district and seventh lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. In 1864, Sir Knight Gobin had led the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment across Louisiana during the Red River Campaign in the Civil War. He received multiple commendations for valor.
Sir Knight Byron L. Carr was Grand Commander of Colorado. Sir Knight Carr served as the tenth attorney general for Colorado, elected for successive terms from 1895 to 1898 (the first in Colorado to serve twice) and was an important voice in the Constitutional Convention for Colorado in 1875. He also fought for the North in the Civil War, losing an
14 Allen, Pilgrimage of Mary Commandery No. 36, 180.
palm to Denver.14
arm at Appomattox on the eve of General Lee’s surrender. In 1871, he opened the first school in Longmont. He was a member of St. Vrain Lodge No. 23, Past High Priest of Longmont Chapter No. 8 R. A. M., and Past Commander of Long’s Peak Commandery No. 12. He served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Colorado, A.F. & A.M., in 1879. Making light of the sudden storm that had swept in abruptly on August 8, Grand Commander Carr said:
Most Eminent Sir and Sir Knights of the Grand Encampment – I have been accused of having had considerable to do with the bringing of this Grand Conclave to Colorado, to which charge I plead guilty; but I have been accused of saying certain things of which I am innocent, for instance, I have been accused of saying that, at the time I extended an invitation to the Grand Encampment for Colorado, we never had any rain in August. That is absolutely untrue, because, as a matter of fact, whenever our streets get dry and dusty and we want them sprinkled for an occasion like this, we always order a shower. A Sir Knight met me in the Masonic Temple a few days ago and said : “ Sir Carr, you are the man that brought this Conclave to Denver, now where is that nice, clear weather you promised us ?” The mercury then stood at about 102 in the shade, and we residents of Colorado said that it was very comfortable summer weather. But finding it unsuited to our visiting Fraters, we made a special requisition for just the
kind of weather we knew you wanted, and you know the result. Yesterday I received a special telegram from the Weather Department, announcing that the indications for Tuesday were fair and pleasant. It is fortunate, however, that the matter was not carried too far, otherwise the Colorado Commanderies would have been in danger of taking congestive chills.
When we invited you to come to Denver three years ago, we promised you the highest kind of entertainment which the Grand Encampment had ever received, and now, in the fulfillment of that promise, I extend to the Grand Encampment an invitation to hold one session of this Conclave on the summit of Pike’s Peak, 15,000 feet above the sea. If this is not satisfactory, we will order a moderately sized snow storm for your entertainment.
Most Eminent Sir [addressing Grand Master Gobin], I have received words of hearty welcome from the people of Colorado, through His Excellency the Governor; I have received the freedom of the city and tender of its hospitality from the eloquent tongue of its mayor, on behalf of the Grand Commandery of Colorado and twenty-three subordinate Commanderies within its jurisdiction – yes, sir, and on behalf of each Knight Templar in Colorado and his wife and family, I extend to you a cordial and fraternal and knightly welcome, but I beg you to accept the assurance that wherever you
may sojourn within our territory, whether it be among the snow banks of the continental divide, or the Grand valley, or in the waving grain fields of the Arkansas or the Platte, wherever you find the home of the Knights Templar, you will find the latchstring on the outside of the door; you will find an extra plate upon the table, and you will find a cot in the best chamber wherein to rest your weary limbs – Again I say welcome, thrice welcome, to the unbounded hospitality of the Silver State.”15
Grand Master Gobin responded thus:
Sir Knights – The words of welcome uttered by the chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, His Excellency, the Governor, His Honor the Mayor, and the Grand Commander of the Templars of the State, reach our hearts, and if it were at all questionable, would certainly convince us that our stay here in your midst cannot but be pleasant. We appreciate the kindly greetings, and accept them in the spirit in which they are extended. Your beautiful city, your wonderful State are full of interest to us, and we are interested in your continued progress and prosperity.
The Grand Encampment is distinctively a representative body – distinctively a body of representative American citizens. As such we have come from the remote East and West, from every part of this great nation, but in your midst we are
15 1892 Proceedings, 4-5.
"Among the items of business considered and acted upon by the Grand Encampment at the 25th Triennial Conclave, perhaps the most significant was adoption of the standardized ritual for the Illustrious Order of the Red Cross and Order of the Temple."
all Templars – all citizens with but one thought predominant –which is to present to the world our best efforts in the direction of principles we advocate and maintain. With us, State lines are obliterated, and we are interested in your success – we rejoice in the bright future apparent, and congratulate you upon your magnificent work in the past.
To the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade we return our thanks for this beautiful floral testimonial. To one and all we return our thanks for this magnificent reception and unstinted efforts to make our stay in your midst pleasant and profitable. We will carry to our homes pleasant recollections, and ever recall with throbbing hearts the Twenty-fifth Triennial Conclave in the Silver City of the Silver State. Again, gentlemen, thanks – earnest, heartfelt thanks.
Among the items of business considered and acted upon by the Grand Encampment at the 25th
Triennial Conclave, perhaps the most significant was adoption of the standardized ritual for the Illustrious Order of the Red Cross and Order of the Temple. With few exceptions, this is the ritual in use today. This significant event culminated almost two decades of deliberation on the matter.
The Order of Malta was not in issue. The Order of Malta had been adopted in 1877 as the ritual in use by the Great Priory of England and Wales; it was implemented by the Grand Encampment in lieu of a ritual promulgated by Grand Master French in 1862 which was found to have “neither antiquity nor appropriateness to recommend it.” 16 Instead, “The English Ritual, especially as recently revised, is much more in harmony with the history of the Order; it is far ampler in its scope, more elaborate in its details, and is rendered
with more solemnity and effect.”17 (See article on page 17.)
Intriguingly, the Order of Malta was not originally part of Templary in the United States. Many commanderies did not confer it at all. Even during the period between 1856 and 1862, when it began to come into use, it was conferred typically as an adjunct section of the Order of the Temple only, and then merely instructive to invest the candidate with such signs and modes of recognition as were necessary to recognize Knights of Malta. Conformant with continental Chivalric Masonry, wherein the Knights of Malta often took an adversarial role, such instruction was probably rendered as:
Although there is no direct proof that the Knights of Malta took an active part in the conspiracy against the Templars, still they looked with apathy on the ruin of
Sir Knight Byron L. Carr, Grand Commander of Colorado. Carr lost an arm at Appomattox on the eve of General Lee's surrender in 1865. Carr was an important voice in framing Colorado's Constitution, serving as Colorado's Attorney General twice.
their rivals, and seized with avidity their share of the spoils; and it is believed, on sufficient authority, that the Order of Knights of Malta was not, like that of the Temple, founded on the first three degrees of Freemasonry. At least history and legends clearly prove that the two Orders possessed nothing in common – nay more, a Templar considered himself far above the Knights of Malta in all that related to personal courage, devotion to Christian duty, and pure and unsullied honor. The Templars, however, had obtained possession of the peculiar secrets of the Knights of Malta, and were careful to communicate them to each newmade member of their order, as a safeguard and protection against the machinations of the Knights of Malta, and for that reason they will now be communicated to
you.18
Interestingly, Malta became a standalone Order in 1877, and for thirty-nine years was conferred as the last Order in Templary, until 1916 when the Constitution was amended at the 33 rd Triennial Conclave in Los Angeles, whence it became properly subordinate to the Order of Knight Templar. The change was implemented in General Order No. 3, becoming effective in 1917.
Nonetheless, the formal, standardized Orders of the Red Cross and Temple were adopted in Denver in 1892 after decades of deliberations. By 1871, membership in the Grand Encampment was approaching 45,000 disbursed across the United States and variations to the ritual were becoming prominent enough to raise
18 1874 Proceedings, 43-44.
Looking west down 17th Street, Denver, 1890.
Grand Master Charles Roome, in 1889. Roome was an engineer and president of the Manhattan Gas Light Company. During the civil was he served with distinction for the North, rising through the ranks from Captain to Brigadier General in 1865. He served as the Grand Master of New York in 1879.
concern.19 Under the Constitution, it was the Grand Master’s duty to ensure uniformity in the work. So, in 1871, a special committee was formed on motion by Sir Knight Gould from Kansas to prepare a “complete manual for ritual, tactics, and drill, fully adapted for all occasions for Templars’ use . . . to be published, and its use made imperative throughout the entire jurisdiction of the Grand Encampment.” 20 Printing of the ritual was unpopular. The motion failed. Variation in the work persisted. In 1874, the Grand Encampment amended its code of laws to expressly state, “the Ritual, as promulgated by the Grand Encampment, cannot be altered or abridged.”
Also in 1871, the Grand Commander of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Sir Knight Dean, ordered preparation of a manuscript of the work being conferred in Boston. Boston had maintained its ritual through the “entire anti-Masonic struggle” by
19 According to the 1877 Proceedings, there were 43,281 members it 1875, 46,859 in 1876, and 47,831 in 1877.
Grand Master Benjamin Dean was an attorney who served in the Massachusetts State Senate and was a U.S. Representative for Massachusetts for the 45th United States Congress. His leadership as Grand Commander of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in 1871 lead to preservation of the ritual.
performing “weekly rehearsals” at members’ homes.21 The lineage went back, unbroken, to Thomas Smith Webb. For example, Henry Fowle, Commander of Boston Commandery (then styled an “Encampment”) from 1805 to 1823 had as an officer Sir Knight Abram A. Dame, who served as Junior Warden, and “has been active in his attendance upon the meetings of Boston Commandery, and has been the teacher of the work and lectures to his numerous successors.” 22
At Sir Knight Dean’s request, Sir Knight Dame prepared a manuscript of the lectures, as weekly performed in Boston, which was then certified by other knights with a direct and consistent knowledge of the work. “This manuscript, which I now produce,”
Sir Knight Dean said to the Grand Commandery of Boston in 1871, “has the entire sanction of all the eminent and learned Sir Knights to whom I have alluded, as the lectures taught and used in the days of the founders of Templar Masonry in this Commonwealth.
21 1883 Proceedings, 93.
22 1883 Proceedings 93.
ABOVE: George Cooper Connor's work to ensure uniformity in the ritual was widely recognized and praised by the Grand Encampment.
RIGHT: Masons in front of 1614 Welton Street, Denver, in 1891.
It is impossible that there should be anything more authentic,” he said.
Twelve years later, Sir Knight Dean presided as Grand Master at the 22nd Triennial Conclave, held at San Francisco in1883. Due to the rising concern regarding variations in the work, he presented the standardized work adopted by Massachusetts and Rhode Island to the assembly.
At this time, when there is so much interest and desire for uniformity in the Rituals of the Order, I feel that I could do no act more acceptable to this Grand Encampment. More than that, I have no doubt whatever that in presenting this manuscript of the work and lectures, I present the only adopted and authorized work of this Grand Encampment.23
In 1886, at the 23rd Triennial in St. Louis, a ritual committee was again formed. Breaking with tradition, the ritual was printed and circulated to all commanderies across the Grand Encampment with an order to disseminate the same to all subordinate comman-
23 1883 Proceedings, 93.
deries. However, as one might imagine, problems arose. Several Grand Commanderies objected to the ritual as inferior to their own. For example, at its Grand Sessions in 1888, the Grand Commandery of Tennessee had resolved “that this Grand Commandery, deeply impressed with the inferiority of the Rituals adopted by the Grand Encampment at St. Louis in 1886, and while recognizing our vows of obedience, do not hold that they extend so far as to make it our duty to use bad grammar, promulgate untruthfulness, make vital omissions in necessary ceremonies, and misquote the Holy Scriptures, do hereby absolve our Subordinates from the use of the Rituals aforesaid until the meeting of the Grand Encampment in 1889.”24
The Grand Commandery of Iowa went farther, and refused to use the new ritual, ordering it returned to the M. E. Grand Recorder. “A short time ago,” wrote Grand Commander Dewey, “you were supplied with a Ritual sent to you from the Grand Recorder’s office. It is my order, and you are hereby commanded, to return at
24 1889 Proceedings, 107.
once the said Ritual to the Grand Recorder at Des Moines, Iowa. Herein do not fail,” he wrote. It is notable to observe that both the Grand Commanderies of Iowa and Kentucky had eminent ritualists (Sir Knight Bower, in the case of Iowa, and Sir Knight Connor, in the case of Kentucky, both of whom were instrumental in revising the ritual in the coming years).
During his triennium, Grand Master Charles Roome skillfully managed this dissent to maintain the sovereignty of the Grand Encampment (which was undeniably placed in issue by the disobedience) and in constructing Templar law. While several Grand Commanderies relented in their position in recognition of the Grand Encampment’s supreme authority on the subject, the Grand Commandery of Iowa remained intractable. They claimed the action was void ab initio , due to failure to properly notice the Grand Encampment and for lack of a quorum of members present and voting (which is not the required threshold). Grand Master Roome did not revoke their charter; however, in 1888, he did pronounce the
ABOVE: According to the committee appointed by the Grand Encampment to review and standardize the Order of the Temple in-use today, in the latter-nineteenth century, the Priory of Ayr maintained the oldest Templar ritual in existence.
The Brown Palace, latter nineteenth century. At the time of its opening days before the 25th Triennial, it was billed as the most expensivelybuilt hotel in the world.
Grand Commandery of Iowa in a “state of disloyalty and rebellion” and forbade knightly intercourse therewith. 25 Thankfully, this was resolved in 1889 and a new committee for finalizing the ritual was appointed.
What the express issues with the ritual were, we may never know. However, one might have been the misspelling of “apostate” as “apostle” in the fifth libation (as performed at that time) among other alterations and/or omissions.26 This could present an inverse meaning significantly problematic for observant Sir Knights.
The extent of the issue should be clear. So when a new committee was appointed by Grand Master Roome in 1889, comprising at least one Sir Knight from each Grand Jurisdiction to review all the rituals and compile a definitive version, there was much animus to resolve. And this was resolved in Denver in 1892. The silver city was, literally and figuratively, illuminated with Templar light. The ritual was adopted unanimously.27
This ritual was important
25 1889 Proceedings, 164.
26 See 1889 Proceedings, 178
27 1892 Proceedings, 127-28.
because, in exercising its duty, the committee had reviewed not just every ritual submitted by the Grand Commanderies across the Grand Encampment, but also the oldest rituals extant at that time, including “The Ritual of the Prior of Ayr, supposed to be the oldest Priory in existence, certified to by the Prior”; “The Wigan Ritual, dated 1801, which is a copy of a still older Ritual – copy made by Sir Knight Thomas Lonsdale Ball”; the “old English Ritual for Knights Templar, copied by Sir Knight Matthew Cooke”; the “English Ritual, as promulgated by the Joint Committee from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, session of A.D. 1851”; the “Ritual of the Order of the Templar Order, as used in the Dominion of Canada, since its introduction from England, in A.D. 1854, with additions adopted in Canada, in A.D. 1877, certified to by the Great Prior, Co. W. J. B. MacLeod Moore”; and “ ‘The Hubbard Observance,’ with notes thereto, by Robert McCoy and J. W. Simons.”28
The unanimous adoption
28 1892 Proceedings, 125-26.
speaks for itself, especially considering the contention regarding the ritual over the decades preceding. Sir Knight McGown, of New York, made the following resolution, which was adopted: “Resolved, That the Rituals of the Illustrious Order of the Red Cross and the Valiant and Magnanimous Order of the Temple, this day adopted, be, and are hereby, declared to be the only Rituals of the Grand Encampment of the United States for those Orders. They may be used as soon as lawfully promulgated. After the first of January, A.D. 1894, no other Rituals for these Orders shall be used within the jurisdiction of this Grand Encampment.”29
Since the Orders of the Red Cross and the Temple were exemplified at the Triennial for consideration, it is fair to suggest that the first time the Orders were conferred in their current form (or at least substantially close thereto) in conclave assembled was at the Lodge building at 1614 Welton Street, in Denver. KT
29 1892 Proceedings, 128
Origins of the Beauceant
by Ben Williams
Founded in view of the 25th Triennial in Denver, the Order was formalized in 1913 when it became a national organization
It is often stated that the Social Order of the Beauceant was created as an auxiliary, to assist the Sir Knights of Colorado in preparation for the 25th Triennial in 1892. However, according to oral tradition, the group was founded incidental to the 25th Triennial, not because of it. As the story goes, when the ladies would ask their husbands what they had been up to at their late-night Templar meetings, the response frequently alleged was, “that’s none of your business.” So, in 1890, at a Templar banquet in Denver, the ladies announced the formation of a society they called, “Some of Our Business.”
This oral tradition is corroborated in the August 3, 1913, edition Rocky Mountain Sunday News, published ahead of the 32nd Triennial Session in Denver, at which the society was set to become a national organization endorsed by the Grand Encampment:
‘Some of Our Business’ Society to Expand
Knights Templar Ladies Popularize Order
Scene, a Knights Templar banquet. Knights are in secret confab.
Enterwives with brooms, banners and various other paraphernalia. Led by Mrs. Annie Frost, they descend upon husbands. Mrs. Frost mounts a chair, and begins to make a speech. She brings to the attention of all that the wives have been taking good care of their husbands, and declares that the time has come when the women must plan for their own pleasure, as to the knights. This has been the reason for the organization of the women present into the S.O.O.B. – “Some of Our Business” – a society which shall have as its purpose entertainment and recreation for wives and knights, while those nabobs are away at their own joy-fests.
This is the dramatized account of the founding of S.O.O.B. (Sacred [sic] Order of the Beauceant), which, for twenty-three years, has been merely a local organization, but which
of the Beauceant line up to open the assembly at 1614 Welton Street in 2018.
will step out of its swaddling clothes into a national organization during the thirty-second triennial conclave of Knights Templar. Today the organization numbers some hundred wives and widows of Knights Templar of Denver, has a ritual as pretty as any organization in the country, has the official sanction of the heads of Templarism, and has accomplished much already for local knights. Plans have been made to take in hand the opportunity which will be presented to form other chapters of the S.O.O.B. among the wives of knights who will be in attendance at the coming conclave with their husbands. Thus, a joke will have fathered one of the serious organizations allied with templarism.
The group originally met in members’ homes, meeting for the first time in a Masonic Lodge on Sept. 18, 1890. Certainly, the ladies of the Beauceant were instrumental in organizing the 25th Triennial Conclave. “During the winter of 1890-91 the insurrectionists held balls, bazars,” reported the Sunday News. “The affairs were so successful that the society was able to give $1,000 to the Knights Templar conclave of 1892.” That’s about $35,325.82 today. “Local Knights Templar began then to look upon ‘Some of Our Business’ as a rather profitable ‘business’ to have allied on their side.”
In 1913, ahead of the 32nd Triennial Conclave to be held at Denver, the S.O.O.B. changed its bylaws to expand its body nation-
wide. They maintained the acronym, S.O.O.B., but adopted the more serious moniker, “Social Order of the Beauceant,” because “[t]he Knights Templar of old carried the Beacueant in all his [sic] warfare in his gory endeavor to wrest the tomb of Christ from the hands of the Turks, in his expeditions with pilgrims on their way to the holy sepulchre to worship. As the war against evil and darkness is still waging, the Beauceant continues to appear in crusades which, though unlike the expeditions in the time of the crusades, are yet equally as important.”1
The social Order of the Beauceant teaches love of God and friendship and loyalty among women. Among the women of today a deeply felt need is the quality of loyalty and true friendship. This the S.O.O.B. would emphasize. Members are banded together to sympathize with and console those in sorrow and trouble, and to aid the Knights Templar. Arrangements have been made to provide charters to outsiders desiring them. The local society is enthusiastic in its endeavor to spread the Beacueant. The triennial in Denver will accomplish the nationalization of the society, and the joy among the “Some of Our Business” members is complete.2
1 The Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 3, 1913.
2 Ibid.
Ben Williams
Ladies
Listening to Power
The warlord surveyed the town from atop a nearby hill. Smoke billowed from almost every house. The streets were painted with the blood of the fallen, innocent or combatant. His captains came to him and said that there were no survivors, with the exception of a holy woman, who continued to insult and curse them. He commanded they kill her, but they would not kill a holy woman, so he commanded they bring her before him.
Her first words upon seeing him were curses upon his soul and upon his offspring for his sins. He puffed up his chest and bellowed: “Do you not know who I am, and how powerful I am? I have so much power that I can run you through with my sword without batting an eye.” She laughed at him. “Pathetic. You do not understand power. I am a child of God. I have so much power that I could let you run me through with your sword without batting an eye.”
What is power, really? Is it the might of arms? Is it the might of faith? A warlord gives orders on personal authority and fear, whereas we as Christian Knights follow orders out of love and assurance. If you cannot follow, you cannot lead. If you do not fully trust God and His sovereignty, are you a strong sir knight? Most of us are still learning to trust and learning to listen and follow.
It is often said that the only thing that stands between an organization or a nation’s success is the group of people willing to speak to power. While there is a lot of truth to this statement, it neglects that there is an often more important element of listening to power. How we listen, and to whom, represents even more thoroughly what we value. When we listen, we reinforce that the people to whom we pay attention matter. When we listen, we are making in investment in those who may not be able to do anything for us. We trust that it is worth it to listen.
In the Grand Encampment’s Commissioned Templar Chaplain program, two of our primary goals are incredibly basic. First is to simply be there for people. Be a ministry of presence, even if you don’t know what to say or do, just be there. Second is to learn to listen to understand. When most people “converse” with others, it is making allowances for other people to talk until we can bring the spotlight back to ourselves, not really paying attention to what the other person is saying except when it can reflect on us and give opportunities to share about our lives and our feelings. We call that listening to respond or listening to reply. It is selfish, and disempowering and devaluing the other person. We often try to respond with trite platitudes and expressions, without thinking of how they are going to actually be received.
I have had to help many people whose family members have died, for example, and they tend to be crushed by well-meaning but less-thinking individuals who say things to try and show sympathy, yet fail. Recently I heard a person whose mother had died being spoken
By Rob Elsner
to by a fellow church member. “I know exactly how you feel. I lost my mom ten years ago,” the well-meaning person said. While that can add to the commonality of their relationship, there is no way that you can know exactly how another person feels, as you did not know the depths of the relationship that person had with his mother, and thus de-value the recently bereaved person and that relationship. We often make statements like that to alleviate our own feelings of loss and seek out sympathy, and ties into a truth, that we should never grieve alone. Part of the problem is that too many do not know what we are grieving beyond a person’s death. We grieve many things that have been or could have been as well as people who are with us no more.
Grief hits us in different ways. All of us in this brotherhood have lost men to whom we had looked up: Those whose lives gave us shining examples. But we might also be grieving lost possibilities that we can barely name, and yet that is still grief. All of us feel grief, and we cannot let it rob us of Joy. We are a fraternity of Sir Knights who praise God and proclaim the Gospel of Christ. Jesus gives us commands in Luke 10:27, citing Deuteronomy 6:5 as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ (NIV). He continues that we should “Love your neighbor as yourself,” as it is said in Leviticus 19:18. Both of these require trust in God so that we can follow Him and live the lives he has commanded us to. The people who love you most are the ones who listen to you and are there for you.
John 13:34 tells us: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” This is a radical idea to many people. Jesus orders us, in a military term (ἐντολή, entolé- command, precept, order) that we must follow and obey: to love one another with that perfect example that He gave us. Jesus followed and led. He listened. He cared. He loved. He did not interrupt to tell about how awesome he is or what great things he had done. He never shared his own suffering to elicit sympathy from his followers, but occasionally warned them that he had to obey His Father in order for the divine purpose to be accomplished. Jesus listened. He cared. He loved.
Follow His orders and His example, Sir Knight. Lead through love. Listen, care, and love. Sign up for the Commissioned Templar Chaplain program along with about 560 others and learn more. Swell the ranks of service, following, and leading. If you are signed up and have stalled, come back. If you need help, we are here for you, whether it is for ideas for the projects or just the companionship. Join the CTC Facebook group if you are one of our 150+ CTC graduates. And if you are a graduate and want to get involved in grading or helping with one-day starter classes for the first few units at Department or local events, contact any of us on the TemplarEd.org site. We will listen and care. We will lead until you take over and bring us closer to the Kingdom here on earth with power give to you through your faith. We already love you, and there is nothing you can do about that, as Jesus has commanded. KT
Supreme Worthy President Homecoming
by Anne Johnson and Rachel
Mark) Lauren Ralston, Supreme Daughter of the Household,
Lei Lani Forrest, PSWP; Miss Tanya Cortez; Ms. Mona Robichaux; (Mrs. Eric) Rachel Hannah; (Mrs. David)
Chaplain;
TModena Watson,
Arthur) Kristine
he homecoming of (Mrs. David) Wynn Evans, Supreme Worthy President, was celebrated in Phoenix on June 20 and 21. Guests gathered at Revolu Taqueria on Friday evening, June 20, for a no-host happy hour. The following day, Mrs. Evans was honored with a western themed lunch at the Phoenix Scottish Rite. A pulled pork barbecue lunch was prepared and served by the Scottish Rite Culinary Team, led by Bro. (and Sir Knight) Cosmo Magliozzi. Mrs. Evans’s desire was for a family event, and so invitations were issued to all members of the Arizona Masonic family. Greetings were brought by the Grand Lodge of Arizona, Grand York Rite bodies, Grand Chapter Order of the Eastern Star, the Scottish Rite, and the Order of Amaranth. To ensure this was a family-friendly event, a play area was set up in the room for children and babies.
Following lunch, Mrs. Evans was presented gifts from her family, and her home assembly, Phoenix No. 213. Phoenix Lodge No. 2 unveiled a portrait of Mrs. Evans which will hang in their library alongside the portraits of Past Grand Masters of Arizona. Speakers congratulated her on the year completed and described the joy of traveling with her as she made her official visits. Mrs. Evans explained the symbols embroidered on her robe “for the last time.” Many of the symbols chosen emphasized that she is a part of her family’s Masonic legacy past and present. It is notable that Mrs. Evans is one of five Beauceant members in her family spanning four generations. Mrs. Evans concluded her talk by thanking her husband and children, her Beauceant sisters, and the Arizona Masonic family for their support during her journey to Supreme Worthy President. KT
Hannah
(Mrs.
Denver #1; Miss Kira Riffle; (Mrs. Gary) Rodena Josey; (Mrs. John)
Wynn Evans, Supreme Worthy President; Mrs.
Supreme Courier; (Mrs. Cosmo) Buena Magliozzi; (Mrs. Peter H) Anne Johnson, Supreme
3 recently resolved to commission portraits of two of our Beauceant Sisters, Phoenix Assembly No. 213, in honor of their outstanding service to the fraternity (Knights Templar and SOOB). These included (Mrs. John) Lei Lani Forrest, Past Supreme President, and (Mrs. David) Wynn Evans, who serves as the current Supreme President of the SOOB.
These portraits will be displayed in the George Roskruge – S. Barry Casey Library/Museum located in the Phoenix Masonic Temple in downtown Phoenix. Their portraits represent the first and only portraits of our female counterparts in the Masonic fraternity. They will share wall
space with all the Grand Masters of Arizona Masonry since its Charter dating 1892.
We honor them, not only for their personal service to the fraternity, but for their legacies in Arizona Masonry. Lei Lani’s father was a past Worshipful Master of Thunderbird Lodge No. 15, one of our Territorial lodges who received their charters in the days before Arizona was recognized as a state. Her late husband Sir Knight Joe Cortez also served as Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of Arizona in 2008.
Wynn’s Maternal Grandfather was Sir Knight Roland “Doc” Watson, a noted Mason in Arizona’s history. His service to the fraternity included: Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Arizona, 1984.
by William Garrard, Jr.
Grand Commander of Arizona, 1988.
Most Excellent Grand High Priest, Grand Chapter R.A.M.,1994.
KYGCH, 3 quadrants.
“Doc” passed to the “Celestial Lodge” above August 23, 2006. It was said that he died at his desk, working on updating the By-laws of the Grand Council, when he was a senior officer of the Grand Council of Cryptic Masons in Arizona. Wynn has certainly followed in the footsteps of this outstanding and deeply dedicated Masonic Grandfather. We are proud to have them featured in our Grand Library/Museum as a part of the proud history of Masonry in Arizona. KT
In Memory of Past Supreme Worthy Presidents
(Mrs. Charles H.) Janet S. Lee
(Mrs. Harry S.) Phyllis E. Maddox-Rodgers
Mrs. Lee laid down the mantle of earthly life on July 14, 2025. She was initiated into the Social Order of Beauceant at Carnegie
No. 80 in 1966. Mrs. Lee served as the Supreme Worthy President in 1991-92. Her motto was “Faith at Work” which was inspired by her scripture James 2:17: “So faith by itself, if it has no works is dead.” Her symbol was the butterfly, and she affectionately referred to the
Mrs. Maddox-Rodgers discarded the mantle of earthly life on June 26, 2025. She was initiated into the Social Order of Beauceant at Galveston Assembly No. 152 in 1973 where she served as Worthy President in 1982 & 1989. Mrs. Maddox-Rodgers served as the Supreme Worthy President in 1994-95. Her emblem was the Lamb of God holding the Beauceant colors Red, White &
by Jennifer Herring
Supreme Officers as the “Butterflies of 1982.” Embracing her motto inside and outside of the Order, Mrs. Lee will be remembered fondly for her contributions to her community and her unwavering commitment to helping others. KT
Black and the Shepherd’s Crook. Her motto was “Happiness is Serving Others.” Mrs. Maddox-Rodgers loved music and was an accomplished pianist. She was a beloved member of Melrose No. 204; she will be fondly remembered in part for directing the Supreme Choir at three Supreme Assemblies. KT
58th Voluntary Campaign Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc.
CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
Most Eminent Grand Master, Right Eminent Grand Officers and Sir Knights all, what a great year we had during the 57th Voluntary Campaign. Contributions for awards totaled $1,877,594.49. That is an increase of over 16%! The total amount received, including Trusts and Wills, topped out at $8,698,115.20, an increase of $337,648.88. I am told this was the most money raised in any Voluntary Campaign, ever. You men did it. You brought light to those in darkness. You continued the miracles of Jesus Christ by healing the blind and afflicted, you are true Apostles of Christ.
I am humbled to be selected again to serve as your chairman for the 58th Annual Voluntary Campaign for the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc. We all have a role to play, large or small, in the success of this organization. My role is a simple one, writing articles and encouraging the awesome members of the Knights Templar to open their wallets and make contributions to a worthy and necessary charitable institution. My role is small. Yours is large. You are the men
by Richard Jernigan
Bring the Light!
“The people living in darkness have seen a great light; and those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” Matthew 4:16 (NIV)
and women that get this job done. You are on the front lines of this fight against childhood blindness and elderly eye care. You are vital. Your role continues year after year to bring about the total obliteration of blindness in our children. Your importance in this cannot be undersold. It is vital, without you, the Knights Templar Eye Foundation does not exist.
During this last campaign we focused on the Website, Facebook, and videos created by the Foundation. We reminded ourselves of the miracles of Jesus Christ and His work in healing the blind. We tried to bring light to the process and work of the Eye Foundation and our Scientific Advisory Board. With your results we seem to have had some success. But the mission continues. The need for funding is ever increasing. Let us not sit on our laurels but continue to focus on the needs of others, on the mission of the Foundation and on the good of humanity. Do not let our past successes blind us to the future needs of these children. We cannot simply praise ourselves for the success of the past and then do nothing to secure the future. We must press forward. Let us set a
goal of generating a minimum of a five (5) percent increase over the prior year. I know you can do it. We must communicate with each other. Tell your stories of success. Share with us on social media or through articles in the magazine or talks at functions what projects you took last year that helped bring light to those in darkness. We must learn from each other. I learned a great deal this last year from you and especially the staff at the Eye Foundation. Please, take time soon to thank them for their service and dedication. I also offer my services to you. I am not the greatest fundraiser, but I am ready to travel to your meetings and speak on behalf of the Voluntary Campaign. I am ready to help you help others. Call, text, or email me; if I am available, I will be there by your side to see the success you are striving for. If you are looking for inspiration and the history of the Eye Foundation, I recommend you read the overview in the KTEF Information Booklet which the Foundation distributed throughout the year. Or you can find it on the KTEF website (ktef.org) on the home page where you will see the current
Information Booklet. When you open it, turn to pages 4 and 5. This short article tells the story of Sir Knight Allen DeLamater, the father of the Eye Foundation. It will touch your heart. May the Lord continue to bless you and keep you. In His and your service,
