PRINCE OF ROSE CROIX, sometimes called KNIGHT or THE EAGLE AND PELICAN. The 18th degree of the Ancier and Accepted rite. It is the most ancient, interesting, an I most generally practiced of the philosophical degrees (•1 Masonry. It is found in all the principal rites, and whey it does not exist by name its place is supplied by whose symbols do not differ materially from it. To who have not gone beyond the symbolic degrees, the name is perhaps more familiarly known than any other of t1.2. higher degrees. Of its origin nothing satisfactory is know.. Baron Westerode, in 1784, supposes it to have been by the Knights Templar in Palestine, in the twelfth centu and asserts that Prince Edward, afterward King Edward I . was then admitted into the Order, under the auspices Raymond; he also says that the Order was derived fro Ormesius, its founder, an Egyptian Driest. who had bt, converted to Christianity. Raton has elaborately inN esti. gated the subject, and attributes its origin to a pious and learned monk, named John Valentine Andrea, who flourished in the latter part of the 16th century; and the same author says that Andrea, grieved at seeing the principles of Christianity forgotten in idle and vain disputes, and that science was made subservient to the pride of Man instead of contribi.ting to his happiness, passed his days in devising what he sup posed to be the most appropriate means of restoring each to its legitimate, moral and benevolent tendency. Clare' affirms that the degree was founded by the Jesuits, for the purpose of counteracting the insidious attacks of freethinkers upon the Romish faith, but offers no evidence in support of his assertion; when, in fact, they were the great enemies of Masonry, and so far from supporting it wrote a treatise against the Order. Oliver says that " the earliest notice that he finds of this degree is in a publication of 1613, entitled 'La Reformation universelle du monde entier avec la fama fra ternitatis de l'Ordre respectable de la Ruse-Croix.'"* And he adds: "It was known much sooner, although not probably as a degree in Masonry; for it existed, as a cabalistic science, from the earliest times, in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as among the Jews and Moors in times more recent."t The ceremonies of the degree are of the most imposing and impressive character. Its ritual is remarkable for elegance of diction, while the symbolic teaching is not only pleasing, but consistent, figuratively expressing the passage of man through the valley of the shadow of death, accompanied and sustained by the Masonic virtues—FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY —and his final reception into the abode of light, life, and immortality. VIRTUE and HUMILITY are the foundations and characteristics of this sublime degree. "A man's life," it has been beautifully said, "is laid in the loom of time, to a pattern which he does not see, but God does; and his heart is a shuttle. On one side of the loom is sorrow, and on tho
-other joy; and the shuttle, struck alternately by each, flies back and forth, carrying the thread, which is white or black, as the pattern needs, and in the end, when God shall lift up the finished garment, and all its changing hues shall glance out, it will then appear that the deep and dark colors were as needful to beauty as the light and high colors." Some writers have labored to give an exclusive Christian character to this degree; but the following words of one of the most eminent students of Masonry, and an ardent admirer of the Ancient and Accepted rite, may very properly be quoted,* and a study of the ritual will further prove the correctness of the remarks: "If anywhere brethren of a particular religious belief have been excluded from this degree, it merely shows how gravely the plans and purposes of Masonry may be misunderstood; for, whenever the door of any one degree is closed against him who believes in one God and the soul's immortality, on account of the other tenets of his faith, that degree is no longer Masonry." Bodies of this degree are styled Sovereign Chapters. In cases of reception, there are three apartments, beside the ordinary reception room. The presiding officer is styled Most Wise Master. The recipient is created and constituted "a Knight of the Eagle and Pelican, and Prince of the Order of Rose-Croix." To give the degree full effect music is required. The Knights are dressed in black, with black gloves and a sword. The collar should be reversible, of velvet or silk, crimson on one side and black on the other; plain, without device or embroidery on the crimson side, and with a passion-cross of scarlet on the black side. The apron. is, on one side, white satin, bordered with crimson; on the other, black velvet. On the white side is painted or embroidered the pelican side of the jewel. On the black side is a red passion-cross. The jewel hangs at the bottom of the collar, or is suspended to a narrow crimson watered ribbon on the breast. The jewel is a compass, its points resting on the segment of a circle ; at the bottom, on one side, is an eagle, with its wings extended and head slightly depressed; and on the other a pelican piercing its breast to feed its young, which are in a nest beneath it; between the legs of the compass is a red cross, and above a red rose in full bloom; on the summit of the compass is an antique crown. On the segment of the circle are the letters I. N.
The jewel is of gold, with the pelican and eagle of silver. In this jewel are included the most important symbols of the degree. The cross, the rose, the pelican, and the eagle, are all important symbols, the explanation of which will go far to a comprehension of what is the true design of the Rose Croix degree.