s 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.".

CONSECRATION, ELEMENTS OF. Those things, the use of which in the ceremony
as constituent and elementary parts of it, are necessary to the perfecting
and legalizing of the act of consecration. In Freemasonry, these elements
of consecration are _corn_, _wine_, and _oil_,--which see.

CORN. One of the three elements of masonic consecration, and as a symbol
of plenty it is intended, under the name of the "corn of nourishment," to
remind us of those temporal blessings of life, support, and nourishment
which we receive from the Giver of all good.

CORNER STONE. The most important stone in the edifice, and in its
symbolism referring to an impressive ceremony in the first degree of
Masonry.

The ancients laid it with peculiar ceremonies, and among the Oriental
nations it was the symbol of a prince, or chief.

It is one of the most impressive symbols of Masonr