![]() Soon additional chapters were formed at Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth. Phi Beta Kappa actually replicated the manner in which they established new chapters directly from the model used by Freemasonry. These are closely related to the principal tenants of Freemasonry: Friendship, Morality, and Brotherly Love. In the Phi Beta Kappa ritual, the founders named “friendship, morality, and literature as essential characteristics” (Voorhees, p.12). The three Greek letters stood for Philosophia Biou Kybernetes, “Love of Wisdom, the Guide of Life,” a parallel to Freemasonry’s reverence for “Light,” or knowledge. The oaths of Phi Beta Kappa mentioned the “Holy Evangelists of Almighty God” and a “Supreme Being,” both of which are commonly referenced in Masonic lodge ritual (Voorhees, 1945, p. Freemasonry and Phi Beta Kappa both required new initiates to take voluntary oaths of fidelity. First, both organizations held their meetings within a shroud of secrecy. Similarities between Phi Beta Kappa and Freemasonry are easily seen. ![]() Two of the founding members and a total of ten early members of Phi Beta Kappa were Freemasons (Torbenson). Although not sanctioned by or directly connected to Freemasonry, Phi Beta Kappa patterned its initiations, oaths, and modes of proliferation after those of Freemasonry (Voorhees). That year marked the founding of the first Greek-letter society, the college fraternity Phi Beta Kappa at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. ![]() PHI BETA KAPPA: It was in the year of 1776 that the age of college fraternities took a secretive turn (Torbenson, 1992). These fraternities supported fidelity, scholarship, and the development of speaking skills through debate and literary circles. The establishment and development of these fraternities closely mimicked the maturation of the American branch of Freemasonry. Prior to 1776, Yale College, the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), and the College of William and Mary all had student fraternal organizations (Voorhees, 1945). In some cases, the influence is little more than an association of ritual and secrecy, but in many cases the relationships between Freemasonry and college fraternal organizations are strong and even enduring.ĭuring the half century before the Revolutionary War, college fraternities had a meager yet building existence. Masonic symbolism and philosophy had a strong influence in the early development of many of the so-called “Greek-letter” organizations so commonly seen and accepted on college campuses throughout the United States. ![]()
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