HONOURS, GRAND.  The Grand Honours of Freemasonry are those
peculiar acts and gestures by which the Craft have always been
accustomed to express their homage, their joy, or their grief on memorable
occasions.  In the Symbolic Degrees of the American Rite, they are of two
kinds, the private and public, which are used on different occasions and for
different purposes.
     The Private Grand Honours of Freemasonry are performed in a manner
known only to Master Masons, since they can only be used in a Master's
Lodge.  They are practised by the Craft only on four occasions; when a
Masonic Hall is to be consecrated, a new Lodge to be constituted, a Master
Elect to be installed, or a Grand Master, or his Deputy, to be received on
an official visitation to a Lodge.  They are used at all these ceremonies as
tokens of congratulation and homage.  And as they can only be given by
Master Masons, it is evident that every consecration of a hall, or constitution
of a new Lodge, every installation of a Worshipful Master, and every re-
ception of a Grand Master, must be done in the Third Degree.  It is also
evident, from what has been said, that the mode and manner of giving the
private Grand honours can only personally communicated to Master
Masons.  They are among the aporrheta - the things forbidden to be
divulged.

     The Public Grand Honours, as their name imports, do not partake of
this secret character, They are

 given on all public occasions, in the presence of the profane as well as the
initiated.  They are used at the laying of corner-stones of public buildings,
or in other services in which the ministrations of the Fraternity are required,
and especially in funerals.  They are given in the following manner: Both
arms are crossed on the breast, the left uppermost, and the open palms;
of the hands sharply striking the shoulder,g; they are then raised above the
head, the palms striking each other, and then made to fall smartly upon the
thighs.  This is repeated three times, and as there are three blows given
each time, namely, on the breast, on the palms of the hands, and on the
thigh making nine concussions in all, the Grand Honours are technically
said to I)e given "by three times three." On the occasion of funerals, each
one of the,,e honours is accompanied by the words, The ?will of God i,-i
accomplished; so mote it be, audibly pronounced by the Brethren.
     These Grand Honours of Freemasonry have undoubtedly a classical
origin, and are bat an imitation of the plaudits and acclamations practised
by the ancient Greeks and Romans in their theaters, their senates, and their
public games.  There is abundant evidence in the writings of the ancients,
that in the days of the empire, the Romans had circumscribed the mode of
doing homage to their emperors and great men when they made their
appearance in public, and of expressing their approbation of actor.9 at the
theatre, within as explicit rules and regulations as those that govern the
system of giving the Grand Honours in Freemasonry.  This was not the
case in the earlier ages of Rome, for Ovid, speaking of the Sabines, says
that when they applauded, they did so without any rules of art, In medio
plausu, plausus tunc arte carebat.
     Propertius speaks, at a later day, of the ignorance of the country
people, who, at the theatres destroyed the general harmony by their
awkward attempts to join in the modulated applauses of the more skilful
citizens.
     The ancient Romans had carried their science on this subject to such
     an extent as to have divided these honours into three kinds, differing
     from each other in the mode in which the hands were struck against
     each other, and in the sound that thence resulted.  Suetonius, in his
     life of Nero (chapter xx), gives the names of these various kinds of
     applause, which he says were called bombi, imbrices, testoe, and
     Seneca, in his Quaestionum Naturalium, gives a description of the
     manner in which they were executed.  The bombi, or hums, were
     produced by striking the palms of the hands together, while they were
     in a hollow or concave position, and doing this at frequent intervals,
     but with little force, so as to imitate the humming sound of a swarm
     of bees.  The imbrices, or tiles, were made by briskly striking the
     flattened and extended palms of the hands against each other, so as
     to resemble the sound of hail pattering upon the tiles of a roof.  The
     testae, or earthen vases, were executed by striking the palm of the
     left hand, with the fingers of the right collected into one point.  By this
     blow a sound was elicited which imitated that given out by an earthen
     vase when struck by a stick.
     The Romans, and other ancient nations, having invested this system of
applauding with all the



accuracy of a science, used it in its various forms, not only for the purpose
of testifying their approbation of actors in the theater, but also bestowed it,
as a mark of respect or a token of adulation, on their emperors, and other
great men, on the occasion of their making their appearance in public. 
Huzzas and cheers have, in this latter case, been generally adopted by the
moderns, while the manual applause is only appropriated to successful
public speakers and declaimers.

The Freemasons, however, have altogether preserved the ancient custom
of applause, guarding and regulating its use by as strict, though different
rules as did the Romans; and thus showing, as another evidence of the
antiquity of their Institution, that the Grand Honors of Freemasonry are
legitimately derived from the plausus, or applaudings, practised by the
ancients on public occasions.  In the advanced Degrees, and in other Rites,
the Grand Honors are different from those of Ancient Craft Freemasonry in
the American Rite as, indeed, are those from those England from those of
the United States.

GRAND HONOURS

Q. What is the origin of Grand Honours?
What is the explanation for the movements of the hands and arms? What
is the significance of the various numbers of salutes given as Grand
Honours to the different ranks from Worshipful Master up to Grand Master?
[From Saskatchewan, Canada.]

A. Grand-Honours owe their origin to the first Book of Constitutions of 1723,
Regulation XXIII, in which the new Grand Master was to be saluted 'in due
form' after he had been proclaimed.

The 1738 B. of C., which then contained details of the Annual Installations
of Grand Masters from 1717 onwards, refers to:

Anthony Sayer, G.M., 1717. When the Assembly '... pay'd him the homage'.

George Payne, G.M., 1718. When the G. Wardens were 'Congratulated and
homaged'.

George Payne, G.M, again in 1720.  When it was agreed ... that the Brother
proposed [for election as G.M.] if present, shall be kindly saluted. . . .'

There can be no doubt that 'paying the homage' and 'saluting' were the
early fore-runners of our present-day Grand Honours, and the records show
Salutations only for the M.W.G.M. and the Grand Wardens, who were the
only Grand Officers in those early days.

By the time of the Union of the two Grand Lodges the list of Grand Officers
had increased enormously, and there was still no rule in the B. of C. (1815)
as to the number of Salutes, or who received them.  But hitherto we have
only discussed Salutes at the Annual Festival for the Installation of the
M.W.G.M.

It was not until 4 June 1930 that Salutes for the various Officers (with
varying numbers of Salutes according to according to Rank) were agreed
by the Grand Lodge, as an amendment to the 1926 B. of C. It was now
proper to Salute visiting Grand Offlcers on private lodge occasions; that
might have been customary before 1930, but the correct numbers of
Salutes were not prescribed until 1930.

There is no explanation for the movement of 'hands and arms' apart from
what is given in the ritual. The E.A. or F.C. 'Salutes' are the signs of those
degrees, simply used as a Salutation. The G. or R. Sign in the Third Degree
and in Grand Lodge (and sometimes in the inner Working of Craft Lodges)
is simply the appropriate sign used as a Saute.
 
The number of Salutes allocated to the various ranks of Grand and Past
Grand Officers is purely arbitrary and without any symbolism.  It would be
easy enough to write pages on the significance of the 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, but the
numbers were designed to distinguish different ranks, without any
symbolical intention.

Finally, it may be noted that, in English practice, the Worshipful Master only
receives these 'multiple Salutes' on the night of his Installation.

It is proper to add that the corresponding 'Honours' in Ireland and Scotland
differ vastly in numbers, etc., from English practice.

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