The Jewish and Christian Sources of the Legend of the Vault
rally goes back a long way . 5 They have identified a Christian source , of which the earliest evidence also dates back to Antiquity , with a Greek author , Philostorgius , describing a hidden vault under the Temple . Philostorgius ( c . 370 AD – c . 430 AD ) was the author of a Church History in twelve books , known to us only through an epitome produced by the Byzantine scholar and patriarch Photius ( c . 820 – 90 AD ). Despite being the work of a “ heretic ”— Philostorgius was an “ Arian ”— fairly extensive use has been made of this Church History , as it recounts numerous episodes in the ancient history of Christianity . Photius ’ epitome was translated into a French edition published by Louis Cousin in 1676 , and includes the episode involving the hidden , secret “ Vault .” In this account , the Emperor Julian ( 355 – 363 ) decided to rebuild the Temple in an effort to invalidate Jesus ’ prophecy that it would be destroyed forever ( Mt 24.2 ). During the initial work on the foundations , a stone was moved , revealing the entrance to a cave carved out from the rock . A worker fell in and upon feeling around , found a plinth with a scroll placed on top . When he came back up , this was discovered to consist of the first verse of the Prologue to John ’ s Gospel . Here , quite naturally given the Christian context , the discovery no longer concerns the Ark of the Covenant , but rath- er the book of the New Covenant , and this is in fact the “ Legend of the Vault ” in the Irish tradition of the Royal Arch . Century after century , the tradition was maintained in certain circles and among religious scholars : first in Protestantism , where a key reference to the legend can be found in Samuel Lee ’ s Orbis Miraculum , or the Temple of Solomon ( London , 1659 ), and then in a Catholic context , with three pages dedicated to it in Abbé Fleury ’ s influential Histoire ecclésiastique ( 1724 , vol . 4 , 89 – 91 ): a highly successful work present in all good French libraries in the eighteenth century . Philostorgius ’ legend was often supplemented by aspects drawn from the work of another ancient author , Ammianus Marcellinus , one of Julian ’ s contemporaries and a committed pagan hostile to Christianity . In his account , during the abortive attempt to rebuild Solomon ’ s Temple , the laborers were also prevented from continuing their work by balls of fire that burst from the foundations and made the place inaccessible ( see Ammianus Marcellinus , trans . C . D . Yonge , Roman History [ London : Bohn , 1862 ], Book 23 ; and Fleury , 91 ). In a Biblical context , “ fire is a sign of divine presence and action .” 6 The work on the Temple foundations therefore brought about a theophany .
The connection between these religious sources and Masonry is not
5 For an overview of the sources of the legend of the Royal Arch identified by English Masonic historians , the reader is referred to two seminal works : Bernard E . Jones on the Royal Arch in Freemason ’ s Book of the Royal Arch ( London : George G . Harrap & Co , 1957 ), 126-130 , and Harry Carr , Harry Carr ’ s World of Freemasonry : The Collected Papers and Talks of Harry Carr ( London : Lewis Masonic , 1983 ), 172-4 and 359 .
6 Marcel Viller , Charles Baumgartner , and André Rayez , Dictionnaire de spiritualité : Ascétique et mystique , doctrine et histoire ( Beauchesne : Paris , 1964 ), “ Feu ,” vol . V , 247 .
5