A Forgotten Emblem of the "Modern" Masons

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TYLER’s SWORD

A Forgotten Emblem of the “Modern” Masons

In the satirical introduction to Dermott’s Ahiman Rezon, 1764, p. xxxii., is the following passage:—"There is now in my neighbourhood a large piece of iron scroll work, ornamented with foliage, etc., painted and gilt (the whole at an incredible expense), and placed before the Master’s chair, with a gigantic sword fixed therein, during the communication of the members, a thing contrary to all the private and public rules of Masonry, all the implements of war and bloodshed being confined to the Lodge door, from the day that the flaming sword was placed in the east of the garden of Eden, to the day that the sagacious modern placed his grand sword of state in the midst of his lodge."

The next edition, 1778, at p. xl., commences "There is now in Wapping a large piece" etc.

The remainder of the text is as above, and this is continued through the editions of the work down to that of 1813, the last. The above does not appear in the first edition (1756).

Now in the Constitutional Lodge, 294, at Beverley, there still remains a fine specimen of the sword alluded to by Dermott, and I enclose a sketch. The sword itself is nearly four feet long, with polished blade and gilt handle. The stand is wood painted and gilded. The central portions of the metal arch and beam, below are hinged to admit the sword, and fastened with pins.

I remember to have seen a similar sword and stand at the Old Globe Lodge, 200, at Scarborough, many years ago, but it has disappeared. In the Humber Lodge, 57, at Hull, there is a precisely similar sword, but no stand, probably it belonged to the extinct Rodney Lodge, (Modern).
—M. C. Peck.

Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol xi. (1893), "Notes and Queries". p. 196. Click on the image to download a 400dpi print quality GIF file.

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