CHRISTIANIZATION OF FREEMASONRY.  The interpretation of its symbols from a Christian point of view.  This is an error into which Hutchinson and Oliver in England, and Scott and one or two others of less celebrity in this country, have fallen.  It is impossible to derive Freemasonry from Christianity, because the former, in point of time, preceded the latter.  In fact, the symbols of Freemasonry are Solomonic, and its religion was derived from the ancient priesthood.

The infusion of the Christian element was, however, a natural result of surrounding circumstances; yet to sustain it would be fatal to the cosmopolitan character of the institution.

Such interpretation is therefore modern, and does not belong to the ancient system.

CIRCULAR TEMPLES.  These were used in the initiations of the religion of Zoroaster.  Like the square temples of Masonry, and the other Mysteries, they were symbolic of the world, and the symbol was completed by making the circumference of the circle a representation of the zodiac.

CIRCUMAMBULATION.  The ceremony of perambulating the lodge, or going in procession around the altar, which was universally practised in the ancient initiations and other religious ceremonies, and was always performed so that the persons moving should have the altar on their right hand.  The rite was symbolic of the apparent daily course of the sun from the east to the west by the way of the south, and was undoubtedly derived from the ancient sun-worship.

CIVILIZATION.  Freemasonry is a result of civilization, for it exists in no savage or barbarous state of society; and in return it has proved, by its social and moral principles, a means of extending and elevating the civilization which gave it birth.

Freemasonry is therefore a type of civilization, bearing the same relation to the profane world that civilization does to the savage state.

COLLEGES OF ARTIFICERS.  The Collegia Fabrorum, or Workmen’s Colleges, were established in Rome by Numa, who for this purpose distributed all the artisans of the city into companies, or colleges, according to their arts and trades.  They resembled the modern corporations, or guilds, which sprang up in the middle ages.  The rule established by their founder, that not less than three could constitute a college,—­“tres faciunt collegium,”—­has been retained in the regulations of the third degree of masonry, to a lodge of which these colleges bore other analogies.

COLOGNE, CHARTER OF.  See Charter of Cologne.

COMMON GAVEL.  See Gavel.

CONSECRATION.  The appropriating or dedicating, with certain ceremonies, anything to sacred purposes or offices, by separating it from common use.  Masonic lodges, like ancient temples and modern churches, have always been consecrated.  Hobbes, in his Leviathan (p. iv. c. 44), gives the best definition of this ceremony.  “To consecrate is in Scripture to offer, give, or dedicate, in pious and decent language and gesture, a man, or any other thing, to God, by separating it from common use.”.