A little bit about Pike, Albert
Albert Pike, born December 29, 1809, was the oldest of six children born
to Benjamin and Sarah Andrews Pike. Pike was raised in a Christian home
and attended an Episcopal church. Pike was quite brilliant and passed
the entrance examination at Harvard College when he was 15 years old,
but could not attend because he had no funds. After traveling as far
west as Santa Fe, Pike settled in Arkansas, where he worked as editor of
a newspaper before being admitted to the bar. In Arkansas, he met Mary
Ann Hamilton, and married her on November 28, 1834. To this blessed
union were born 11 children.
He was 41 years old when he applied for admission in the Western Star
Lodge No. 2 in Little Rock, Ark., in 1850. Active in the Grand Lodge of
Arkansas, Pike took the 10 degrees of the York Rite from 1850 to 1853.
He received the 29 degrees of the Scottish Rite in March 1853 from
Albert Gallatin Mackey in Charleston, S.C. The Scottish Rite had been
introduced in the United States in 1783. Charleston was the location of
the first Supreme Council, which governed the Scottish Rite in the
United States, until a Northern Supreme Council was established in New
York City in 1813.
The boundary between the Southern and Northern Jurisdictions, still
recognized today, was firmly established in 1828. Mackey invited Pike to
join the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction in 1858 in
Charleston, and he became the Grand Commander of the Supreme Council the
following year. Pike held that office until his death, while supporting
himself in various occupations such as editor of the Memphis Daily
Appeal from February 1867 to September 1868, as well as his law
practice. Pike later opened a law office in Washington, D.C., and argued
a number of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. However, Pike was
impoverished by the Civil War and remained so much of his life, often
borrowing money for basic living expenses from the Supreme Council
before the council voted him an annuity in 1879 of $1,200 a year for the
remainder of his life. He died on April 2, 1892, in Washington, D.C.
Realizing that a revision of the ritual was necessary if Scottish Rite
Freemasonry were to survive, Mackey encouraged Pike to revise the ritual
to produce a standard ritual for use in all states in the Southern
Jurisdiction. Revision began in 1855, and after some changes, the
Supreme Council endorsed Pike’s revision in 1861. Minor changes were
made in two degrees in 1873 after the York Rite bodies in Missouri
objected that the 29th and 30th degrees revealed secrets of the York
Rite.
Pike is best known for his major work, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, published in 1871. Morals and
Dogma should not be confused with Pike’s revision of the Scottish Rite
ritual. They are separate works. Walter Lee Brown writes that Pike
"intended it [Morals and Dogma] to be a supplement to that great
'connected system of moral, religious and philosophical instruction'
that he had developed in his revision of the Scottish ritual."
Morals and Dogma was traditionally given to the candidate upon his
receipt of the 14th degree of the Scottish Rite. This practice was
stopped in 1974. Morals and Dogma has not been given to candidates since
1974. A Bridge to Light, by Rex R. Hutchens, is provided to candidates
today. Hutchens laments that Morals and Dogma is read by so few Masons.
A Bridge to Light was written to be "a bridge between the ceremonies of
the degrees and their lectures in Morals and Dogma." While recommended
to Masons, we cannot conclude that Masons are expected to accept every
thought in A Bridge to Light. Books by liberal theologians and writings
by non-Christian philosophers are assigned by professors in Baptist
colleges and seminaries. Students are not expected to accept the
teachings found in these books and writings. Rather, they are assigned
to help students understand the thoughts of men of the past and their
struggle to understand themselves and their relationship to God. With
exposure to these ideas, students can better form and defend their own
understanding of these critical issues. Bio contributed to QB by: Phillip G. Elam · Can we improve this biography? Write us your version.
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More on the Author
Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than a great author. There are but two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written; and to write what is worthy of being read; and the
Pike, Albert
