THE CORNERSTONE
Gird up thy loins like a man For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me:
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast
understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath
stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or
who laid the corner-stone thereof When the morning stars sang together, And all
the sons of God shouted for joy?
This magnificent poetry from Job (38:3-7) sets forth the challenge of the
Great Architect to his suffering son, and seems definitely to tie up the idea of
a corner-stone, a foundation, a beginning, with man's littleness and
unimportance.
Some such inchoate thought in the dim beginnings of civilization must have
led early man, conscious of his weakness, to think his buildings required
supernatural protection. Men built long before Job, and confessed their fears
that the spirit of the earth, the air, of nature, would destroy what they
erected, unless a spiritual defender haunted the structure to defend it. As the
gods were far stronger than men, that sacrificed to them must be of the best.
Hence arose that incredibly awful rite of "foundation sacrifice" in which human
victims were walled up in the corner-stones, thrown hound into the hollowed
foundation to die a miserable death of suffocation, or, more mercifully, be
crushed to death by the stone laid on top of their trembling bodies.
Two schools of thought profess to give the actual origin of foundation
sacrifice; that it was necessary to protect a building from enemies, the angry
ghost haunting the structure to drive away those who would injure it; that it
would propitiate the gods, especially Mother Earth because of the load thus to
be placed upon her.
Legendary accounts of human sacrifices in connection with buildings are found
in all lands and times, from that which has St. Columbia burying St. Oran alive
in the foundations of a monastery, to the walling in of a child in the building
of the castle of Liebenstein. In Italy the bridge at Arta, so legend tells, fell
down as fast as built, until they walled in the masterbuilder's wife, when it
stood, but in response to her dying curse, trembled always in use. The familiar
child's game "London Bridge is falling down" has been traced by ethnologists to
a legend that a human sacrifice was consummated when it was first built.
In Africa, Borneo, Polynesia, foundations have been laid on human victims,
and even today animal or fowl sacrifices are made in connection with the setting
of center poles in some savage tribes.
L. D. Burdick (Foundation Rites and Kindred Ceremonies) says:
"In building a house in Alaska, until it came into possession of the United
States in 1867, human sacrifices were common in making the foundations. It is
said at the present time the same ceremonies are enacted. with the exception of
the sacrifices. The earlier ceremony is described by one familiar with it. A
spot is designated for the fireplace, and four holes dug for the corner posts. A
slave that has been captured in war, or is a descendant of such a slave, is
blindfolded and compelled to lie face uppermost in the place selected for the
fireplace. A sapling is cut and laid across the throat of the slave. At a given
signal the two nearest relatives of the host sit upon the respective ends of the
sapling and thereby choke the slave to death. Four more slaves are crushed in
the post-holes with a club ornamented with the host's coat of arms."
Sir Walter Scott has preserved some of the horror of the ancient practice in
verse:
"Yet well the It chess wretch might shriek, Well might her paleness terror
speak! For there were seen in that dark wall Two niches, narrow, deep and tall
Who enters at such grisly door Shall never, I weed find exit more,"
And, again:
"And now that blind old Abbot rose, To speak the Chapter's doom On those the
wall was to enclose. Alive, within the tomb."
Charles C. Hunt, noted Masonic authority and Librarian, gives the following
instances of human sacrifices in connection with the laying of corner-stones and
the foundations of the buildings:
"In Polynesia, the center pillar of the Temple of Maerva was planted in the
body of a human victim.
"In Siam, the gates of the cities were erected on posts under which four or
eight persons were buried alive, their spirits being supposed to act as guardian
angels.
"In Burma, we read that the city gates of Mandalay were swung on posts
erected on a living child.
"Four persons were buried alive in the foundations of the walls of Sandel,
and one at Granderkesse.
"A babe was buried in the foundation of the Church of Blex, in Oldenburg, and
under the corner-stone of the old Church of Brounsover, near Rugby, England, two
skeletons were found.
"When Hiel. the Bethelite, built Jerico, we are told, 'He laid the
foundations thereof in Abiram, his first born, and set up the gates thereof in
his youngest son, Segub.' I Kings, xvi :34.
"This custom is alluded to by Shakespeare in Henry VI: 'Look here, I throw my
infamy at thee; I will not ruinate my father's house, Who gave his blood to
lince the stones together, And set up Lancaster.'
"Also in King John iv:2: 'There is no sure foundations set on blood, no
certain life achieved by other's death.'
"Later in King John iv :3 the King's nephew as he leaps from the castle walls
exclaims: 'O me ! my uncle's spirit is in these stones.'
"Customs remain - the reasons for them change." We throw rice after a bridal
couple ,how many know it is a symbol of fertility? A man doffs his hat to a
woman, survival of a day when a knight removed his helmet to show he knew he was
in the presence of one who would not harm him. The small boy says "By golly,"
totally unaware that he repeats a corrupted ancient oath when men swore "by Goll."
the hand, to tell the truth, and offered the right hand as a sacrifice if they
lied !
Freemasons lay corner-stones with corn and wine and oil, and in the hollowed
center put the book, the picture, the coin, the newspaper of the day many all
unknowing that these are the remains of the ancient superstition that without a
human sacrifice to provide a protective ghost to haunt the building it will
fall. The familiar practice of dedicating, constituting and consecrating a new
Lodge with corm wine and oil also has its roots in the ancient foundation
sacrifice.
In time, human victims were replaced with animals, and these were gradually
supplanted with the fruits of the earth. The Hindoos think that the spirit of a
human sacrifice enters the body of an animal, the spirit of the animal when
sacrificed, enters the earth in which it is buried, and grows and lives again in
the plants. Thus, corn, wine, oil, grain, grape and olive, became in time
symbols of the ancient, dreadful sacrificial rites. In days of long ago a
slave's neck was broken across the bows of the newly launched vessel, that his
spirit might forever protect it. We break a bottle of wine - fruit of the earth
- but the symbolism is of sacrifice.
The practice of laying a corner-stone with ceremonies, making it a special
occasion of rejoicing or solemn consecration is as old as the art of building.
Ezra, Jewish Historian, describes the laying of the corner-stone of the second
Temple, replacing that built by Solomon:
"And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they
set the priests in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of
Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David, King of
Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the
Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all
the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the
foundation of the house of the Lord was laid."
Corner-stone laying was so important in Biblical times that its symbolism is
used by the sacred writers, and appears throughout both Old and New Testaments.
Cases in point:
"Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious
corner-stone, a sure foundation." Is. xxviii:16.
"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ." I Peter ii :5.
"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ." I Cor iii :11.
"Ye are . . . of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone; in
whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the
Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the
Spirit." Eph. ii:19-22.
Delmar Duane Darrah (Evolution of Freemasonry) states:
"The first record of the laying of a cornerstone by any Masonic body is to be
found in Mist's Weekly Journal of May 26, 1722. The affair took place in
connection with the building of St. Martin's in the Field. After the first stone
had been laid by the Bishop of Salisbury, the account states: 'The first stone
of the foundation at the same corner above ground being twelve feet above the
other, was laid with a great deal of ceremony by the society of Free Masons,
who. on that occasion, were very generous to the workmen.' Anderson in his
writings records: 'That it being a royal parish church, King George I sent his
Lord Almoner and Surveyor General attended by brother Gih (the architect of that
grand pile), with many Freemasons in solemn procession from the palace to level
the footstone of the southeast corner by giving it three great knocks with a
mallet in the King's name, and laying upon it a purse of one hundred guineas.
When the trumpeters sounded all joined in joyful acclamations and the Craftsmen
went to the Tavern to drink a toast to the King and the Craft."
Corner-stones are laid in the Northeast corner - Entered Apprentices stand in
the Northeast corner of the Lodge. The point midway between the darkness of the
North and the brilliance of the East was chosen by ancient builders as the point
of beginning, a spot to mark a birth, a commencement of a new structure.
Obviously he who stands in the darkness has no light; as obviously, on whom
falls the whole light of the brilliant east and its rising sun is not in
darkness. Half way between, then, is a symbol of a beginning - the traveler has
left the darkness and moved towards the light. Those who build have left the
"darkness" in which is no building, and progressed far enough towards "light" to
lay a foundation stone, what better place than that which by its position
symbolizes movement away from blackness into the day ?
The symbolism of the Northeast corner in the Entered Apprentices' degree is
the same, and of course taken from this ancient practice of laying the
corner-stone in the Northeast corner. He who stands there in the Lodge, "a just
and upright Mason," is himself a corner-stone of the Lodge which will he. A
Lodge is erected not only by, but upon her sons. The Entered Apprentice of today
is the veteran of tomorrow. Even as all corner-stones laid with any ceremony,
Masonic or otherwise, connect with the ancient idea of sacrifice, so the Entered
Apprentice in the Northeast corner is a symbol of the sacrifice of his passions
and prejudices, his ignorance and selfishness, to the doctrine of the
brotherhood of man.
The history of all sacrifice, for whatever purpose, is one of a gradually
winning away from blood, human life, suffering, first to animals, then to plants
and grain, finally to symbols. German legends tell of the walling in of an empty
coffin, in place of the human victim: other builders buried a burning lamp,
which, extinguished by the stone, gave up its "ghost" to protect the building.
Legend says that the city of Naples is built upon an egg - and an egg, though
not itself living, contains the germ of life.
It will come as no surprise to the thoughtful Freemason to learn that many
attempts have been made to connect the Legend of Hiram Abif with foundation and
corner-stone sacrifices. Many legends tell of builders and architects who have
erected some wonderful structures, only to be killed that no rival to their
handiwork ever be erected.
But legend and folk lore are often parallel streams - they drain a period of
history as thousand rivers may drain a continent. Sometimes they meet and form
one, like the tributaries to the Mississippi. Other streams flow separately into
the ocean. There seems to be no inescapable logic connecting the Legend of the
Master Builder with foundation sacrifices.
Nor is there need. There is every evidence that our symbolism of corn and
wine and oil our foundation deposits, perpetuate an old, old custom, once
unhallowed, now sanctified with age. That our Entered Apprentices in the
Northeast are symbols both of foundations for the future, and of sacrifice of
human nature for brotherhoods is undoubted. Our legend of Hiram goes back to the
old mystery religions still teaching as gloriously as of old the answer to Job's
dispairing cry "if a man die shall he live again?"
It is for Freemasons to rejoice that in the very body of ritual, sublimated
from a coarser age to customs beautiful and tender, are so many rivers of legend
and of fancy, so many etherial and intangible remains of the birth of knowledge,
the beginnings of religion. When we think of Freemasonry as a repository of
traditions old when Rome fell, it becomes to us not merely "just another
organization" but what it is - the oldest of all systems of philosophy and
ethics "veiled in allegory and teaching by symbols" the highest and noblest
aspirations of man.
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