ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
FREEMASONRY
AND ITS KINDRED SCIENCES
by ALBERT C. MACKEY M. D.

Browse the Encyclopedia by clicking on any of the letters below.

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V

The Hebrew letter is vau. The twenty-second letter in the English alphabet, of the Hebrew, numerical value of six . Its definition, a nail, which in form it represents, and as a Divine name connected with it is Vezio, cum splendore or with brilliancy, the V and O in Hebrew being equal. As a Roman numeral its value is five

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VACANCIES IN OFFICE

Every Masonic officer is elected and installed to hold his office for the time for which he has been elected, and until his successor shall be installed This is in the nature of a contract between the officer and the Lodge, Chapter, or other Body which has elected him, and to its terms he signifies his assent in the most Solemn manner at the time of his installation. It follows from this that to resign the office would be on his part to violate his contract Vacancies in office, there fore, can only occur by death . Even a removal from the Jurisdiction, with the intention of permanent absence, will not vacate a Masonic office, because the person removing might change his intention, and return For the reasons why neither resignation nor removal can vacate an office (see Succession to the Chair).

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VAGAO
or BAGAOS

Found in the Fourth Degree of the French Rite of Adoption

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VALE
or VALLEY

The vale or valle or vally was introduced at an early period into the symbolism of Freemasonry. A catechism of the beginning of the eighteenth century says that "the Lodge stands upon holy ground, or the highest hill or lowest vale, or in the vale of Jehoshaphat, or any other secret place." And Browne, who in the beginning of the nineteenth century gave a correct version of the Prestonian lectures, says that "our ancient Brethren met on the highest hills, the lowest dales, even in the valley of Jehoshaphat, or some such secret place."

Hutchinson (see Spirit of Masonry, page 94) has dilated on this Subject, but with a mistaken view of the true import of the symbol. He says: " We place the spiritual Lodge in the vale of Jehoshaphat, implying thereby that the principles of Masonry are derived from the knowledge of God, and are established in the judgment of the Lord." And he adds: "The highest hills and lowest valleys were from the earliest times esteemed sacred, and it was supposed the spirit of God was peculiarly diffusive in those places . " It is true that worship in high places was an ancient idolatrous usage.

But there is no evidence that the superstition extended to valleys. Hutchinson's subsequent reference to the Druidical and Oriental worship in groves has no bearing on the subject, for groves are not necessarily valleys. The particular reference to the valley of Jehoshaphat would seem in that case to carry an allusion to the peculiar sanctity of that, spot, as meaning, in the original, the valley of the judgment of God. But the fact is that the old Freemasons did not derive their idea that the Lodge was situated in a valley from any idolatrous practice of the ancients.

Valleys in our Freemasonry, is a symbol of secrecy. And although we are not disposed to believe that the use of the word in this sense was borrowed from any meaning which it had in Hebrew, yet it is a singular coincidence that the Hebrew word for valley, gnemeth, Signifies also deep, or, as Bate (Critica Hebraea) defines it, "whatever lies remote from sight, as counsels and designs which are deep or close." This very word is used in Job (xii, 22) where it is said that God "discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death."

The Lodge, therefore, is said to he placed in a valley because, the valley being the symbol of secrecy, it is intended to indicate the secrecy in which the acts of the Lodge should be concealed. And this interpretation agrees precisely with what is said in the passages already cited, where the Lodge is said to stand in the lowest vale "or any secret place." It is Supported also by the present instructions in the United States. the ideas of which at least Webb derived from Preston. It is there taught that our ancient brethren met on the highest hills and lowest vales, the better to observe the approach of cowans and eavesdroppers, and to guard against surprise (see Valley).

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VALHALLA

The worth German or Scandinavian hall of the gods.

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VALLEY

In the Capitular Degrees of the French Rite, this word is used instead of Orient, to designate the seat of the Chapter. Thus on such a Body a document would be dated from the Valley of Paris, instead of the Orient of Paris. The word, says the Dictionaire Masonnique, is often incorrectly employed to designate the South and North sides or the Lodge, where the expression should be "the column of the South" and "the column of the North." Thus, a Warden will address the Brethren of his valley, instead of the Brethren of his column The valley includes the whole Lodge or Chapter; the columns are its divisions (see Vale ).

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VAN RENSSELAER, KILLIAN HENRY

Born 1799, died Jamlary 28, 1881. A native of Albany, New York State, and descendant of the well-known old Knickerbocker family, whose name he bore. He had held various positions ire Craft Massonry, but in 1824 he became prominent in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, to which he devoted himself for the remainder of his life, becoming an Inspector General on June 17, 1845. Brother Van Rensselaer commanded the Supreme Council that rebelled against the ruling of Edward A. Raymond, and thus was formed another Supreme Body in the Northern States, whose difficulties were finally overcome as were all schisms of every nature of the Ancient and Accepted ,Scottish Rite, on May 17, 1867. Brother Van, as he was familiarly termed, resided during the last thirty y ears of his life in the West, and died in California, an outlying suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. One more Sincerely devoted to the cause of Freemasons, and without a day of relenting earnestness, will not in time be found (see Red Cross of Rome and Constantine)

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VASSAL, PIERRE GERARD

A French physician and Masonic writer, who was born at Manosques, in France, October 24, 1769. He was intended by his parents for the Church, and entered the Seminary of Marseilles for the purpose of pursuing his ecclesiastical studies. At the commencement of the revolution he left the School and joined the army, where, however, he remained only eighteen months.

He then applied himself to the study of medicine, and pursued the practice of the profession during the rest of his life, acquiring an extensive reputation as a physician.

He was elected a member of several medical societies, to whose transactions he contributed several valuable essays. He is said to have introduced to the profession the use of the Digitalis purpurea (dried leaves of the foxglove plant) as à remedial agent, especially in diseases of the heart.

He was initiated into Freemasonry about the year 1811, and thenceforth took an active part in the Institution.

He presided in the Lodge, Chapter, and Areopagus of the Sept Ecossais Réunis, meaning in French the Seven Reunited Scottish, with great zeal and devotion; was in 1819 elected ,Secretary-General of the Grand Orient, and in 1827 President of the College of Rites He attained the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and was a warm advocate of Scottish Freemasonry. But his zeal was tempered by his judgment, and he did not hesitate to denounce the errors that had crept into the system, an impartiality of criticism which greatly surprised Ragon.

His principal Masonic worlds are Essai historique sur l'institution du RitEcossais, or HistoricalEssay on the Institution of the Scottish Rite, Paris, 1827, and a valuable historical contribution to Freemasonry entitled Cours complet de la Maçonnerie, ou Histoire générale de Initiation depuis son Origine jusque'à son institution en France, or Complete Course of Masonry, or General History of Initiation since its Origin up to its Institution in France, Paris, 1832. In private life, Vassal was distinguished for his kind heart and benevolent disposition. The Lodge of Sept Ecossais Reunis presented him a medal in 1830 as a recognition of his active labors in Freemasonry. He died May 4, 1840, at Paris.

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VAUGHAN, THOMAS

Wrote Famine and Confession of the Fraternity of R. C., and other similar books. Pen name was Eugenius Philalethes.

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VAULT OF STEEL

The French title is Voute d'ancier. The French Freemasons so call the Arch of Steel, which see.

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VAULT, SECRET

As a symbol, the Secret Vault does not present itself in the first Degrees of Freemasonry. It is found only in the advanced Degrees, Such as the Royal Arch of all the Rites, where it plays an important part. Doctor Oliver, in his Historical Landmarks (volume ii, page 434), gives, while referring to the building of the second Temple, the following general detail of the Masonic legend of this vault:

The foundations of the Temple were opened, and cleared from the accumulation of rubbish, that a level might be procured for the commencement of the building. While engaged in excavations for this purpose, three fortunate Sojourners are said to have discovered our ancient Stone of Foundation, which had been deposited in the secret crypt by Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty, to prevent the communication of ineffable secrets to profane or unworthy persons.

The discovery having been communicated to the Prince, Prophet, and Priest of the Jews, the stone was adopted as the chief corner-stone of the re-edified building, and thus became in a new and more expressive sense, the type of a more excellent Dispensation. An avenue was also accidentally discovered, supported by seven pairs of pillars, perfect and entire, which, from their situation, had escaped the fury of the flames that had consumed the Temple, and the desolation of war that had destroyed the city.

The Secret Vault, which had been built by Solomon as a secure depository for certain secrets that would inevitably have been lost without some such expedient for their preservation, communicated by a subterranean avenue with the king's palace; but at the destruction of Jerusalem the entrance having been closed by the rubbish of falling buildings, it had been discovered by the appearance of a keystone amongst the foundations of the Sanctum Sanctorum. A careful inspection was then made, and the invaluable secrets were placed in safe custody.

To support this legend, there is no historical evidence and no authority except that of the Talmudic writers. It is clearly a mythical symbol, and as such we must accept it. We cannot altogether reject it, because it is so ultimately and so extensively connected with the symbolism of the Lost and the Recovered Word, that if we reject the theory of the Secret Vault, we must abandon all of that Symbolism and with it the whole of the science of Masonic symbolism. Fortunately, there is ample evidence in the present appearance of Jerusalem and its subterranean topography, to remove from any tacit and, as it were, conventional assent to the theory, features of absurdity or impossibility.

Considered simply an historical question, there can be no doubt of the existence of immense vaults beneath the superstructure of the original Temple of Solomon. Prime, Robinson, and other writers who in recent times have described the topography of Jerusalem, speak of the existence of these structures, which they visited and, in some instances, carefully examined. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the Roman Emperor Hadrian erected on the site of the House of the Lord a Temple of Venus, which in its turn was destroyed, and the place subsequently became a depository of all manner of filth. But the Calif Omar, after his conquest of Jerusalem, sought out the ancient site, and, having caused it to be cleansed of its impurities, he directed a Mosque to be erected on the rock which rises in the center of the mountain.

Fifty years afterward the Sultan Abd-el-Meluk displaced the edifice of Omar, and erected that splendid building which remains to this day, and is still incorrectly called by Christians the Mosque of Omar, but known to Mussulmans as Elkubbet-es-Sukrah, or the Dome of the Rock. This is supposed to occupy the exact site of the original Solomonic Temple, and is viewed with equal reverence by Jews and Mohammedans, the former of whom, says Prime, (Tent Life in the holy Land, page 183), "have a faith that the ark is within its bosom now."

Bartlett (Walks about Jerusalem, page 170), in describing a vault beneath this Mosque of Omar, says: "Beneath the dome, at the southeast angle of the Temple wall, conspicuous from all points a small subterraneous place of prayer, forming the entrance to the extensive vaults which support the level platform of the mosque above."

Doctor Barclay (City of the Great Ring) describes in many places of his interesting topography of Jerusalem, the vaults and subterranean chambers which are to be found beneath the site of the old Temple.

Conformable with this historical amount is the Talmudical legend, in which the Jewish Rabbis state that, in preparing the foundations of the Temple, the workmen discovered a subterranean vault sustained by seven arches, rising from as many pairs of pillars. This vault escaped notice at the destruction of Jerusalem, in consequence of its being filled with rubbish. The legend adds that Josiah, foreseeing the destruction of the Temple, commanded the Levites to deposit the Ark of the Covenant in this vault, where it was found by some of the workmen of Zerubbabel at the building of the second Temple. In the earliest ages, the cave or vault was deemed sacred. The first worship was in cave temples, which were either natural or formed by art to resemble the excavations of nature.