BAPTISM, MASONIC

The term Masonic Baptism has been applied in the United States by some authorities to that ceremony which is used in certain of the advanced Degrees, and which, more properly, should be called Lustration. It has been objected that the use of the term is calculated to give needless offence to scrupulous persons who might suppose it to be an imitation of a Christian sacrament. But, in fact, the Masonic baptism has no allusion whatsoever, either in form or design, to the sacrament of the Church. It is simply a lustration or purification by water, a ceremony which was common to all the ancient initiations (see Lustration).