|
FREEMASONRY AND RELIGION
CHAPTER X
Masonic essays (1998)
W.M. DON FALCONER
Civilisation began when the stone age hunter gatherers first captured wild
animals for domestication, established grazing and developed agriculture. From
that time, the development of civilisation was directly related to the
progressive improvements in masonry that enabled better buildings to be erected
and more effective irrigation schemes and other facilities to be constructed.
With the advance of civilisation, humans developed a consciousness of their
mental and emotional life and also began to differentiate between their physical
beings, their minds and their spirits. This evolution of the human psyche
awakened a belief in the existence of some higher controlling power which,
though unseen, was felt to have a direct connection with emotion and morality.
Thus evolved the concept of god and a complementary human soul. Various rites of
worship developed as a natural outcome of these emotional and spiritual
processes, whence religions came into existence. As the nomads developed a more
settled life, religious leaders soon demanded permanent and more substantial
places of worship, which only the masons could construct. Hence masonry, which
first evolved to supply some of mankind's material requirements, also became an
indispensable agent of religion to provide for some of mankind's spiritual
needs.
In the context of this discussion, freemasonry means the system of moral
teaching and its associated traditions and rituals that, in earlier times, were
a significant component of day to day life in lodges of operative masons and are
now incorporated in the ceremonies of modern speculative Freemasonry. When
compiling the rituals used in modern Freemasonry, the emerging speculative
masons defined freemasonry as a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory
and illustrated by symbols. The authors based the ceremonial procedures on those
used in operative lodges, adapting them for use in social surroundings instead
of in a working environment. Although the fundamental elements of operative
practice were retained, the explanations became more erudite and were expressed
more verbosely. When operative masons were receiving instruction, the practical
applications of their working tools and the methods to be used when carrying out
the work were of primary importance, but those applications and methods were
also used symbolically to give moral instruction. In speculative lodges the
emphasis is reversed.
The ability of medieval operative masons to devise ceremonials similar to
those used in modern speculative lodges has often been questioned. Even a
masonic writer as eminent as A.E.Waite could not imagine how "horny handed
labourers" could have developed a system of symbolism and philosophy to give
moral instruction within the lodge. A most improbable solution was offered by
R.F.Gould, the renowned masonic historian, who thought that operative masons
might have accepted "gentlemen" into their ranks to transform the operative
craft into a speculative art. Both writers seem to have overlooked the fact that
the members of medieval operative lodges included many skilled artificers who
were required to work as much with their brains as with their hands. They were
supervised by Master Masons of superior knowledge and skill, well versed in
religious matters, the graphic arts, sculpture and geometry, as well as in the
manual aspects of their trade. It should also be remembered that medieval
operative masons were living in an era when the rituals of the church were
becoming established, when Passion Plays were a regular feature of religious
observances and pageantry was a part of everyday life. All of these factors
would have encouraged the development of ritual within the lodges. The undoubted
capabilities of the operative masons in all aspects of the design, construction
and symbolic adornment of ecclesiastical buildings were confirmed by the Council
of Nicea in 787, when it ruled that "the arrangement belongs to the clergy and
the execution to the artist".
Compacted earth was first used by Advanced Hunters of the Near East to
construct primitive circular dwellings about 12,000 years ago. They soon added
stone footings, set in hard clay, which improved stability and provided
protection against the exceptionally high runoffs that were occurring during the
melt down after the last great Ice Age. With the discovery of mud brick
production, building erection was greatly enhanced, ushering in the Agricultural
Revolution started by the Late Hunters in the New Stone Age. A pre-eminent
example of early advances in masonry is a township of some four hectares
constructed at Jericho around 8000 BC. It included a group of round beehive
houses of mud brick, at least one round defensive stone tower and a massive
stone wall surrounding the development. Undressed water-worn stones were used,
but they were split to provide a stable laying surface and were carefully set in
hard clay. The earliest known religious buildings were constructed around 6500
BC at ?atal H?y?k in Turkey. The intimate association of masonry with religion
was firmly established in Mesopotamia when the Sumerians constructed a
continuous series of temples at Eridu, dating from 5500 BC or earlier until
about 3000 BC.
The first religious structure mentioned in the Bible, the temple-tower or
ziggurat called the Tower of Babel, also was constructed during that period,
probably some time before 4000 BC. Sumerian tombs in the Royal Cemetery of Ur,
constructed between 2700 BC and 2370 BC, are of particular interest because all
were roofed in stone and buried deep in the alluvial flood plain. They were of
composite construction using limestone masonry, mud brick, kiln fired brick and
timber, because the nearest source of rock was at least 60 kilometres away. The
earliest tomb had a corbel vault, but later tombs had either barrel vaults or
domes with pendentives, the spherical triangular segments that connect square
corners to true arches. In Egypt during the same period, massive chambered tombs
for royal burials were being constructed of mud brick with flat roofs, called
mastaba tombs from the Arabic mastabah meaning a bench. Imhotep, the renowned
architect of the pharaoh Zoser, is credited with the invention of stone masonry
in Egypt. He was responsible for what is reputed to be the first pyramid
constructed of dressed stone, the Step Pyramid built for Zoser at Saqqara around
2650 BC. This was an abrupt departure from the mud brick construction previously
used in Egypt.
The three pyramids of Giza are reputed to have been built for Khufu (Cheops),
Khafra (Chephren) and Menkaura (Mycerinus) during the period 2500 BC to 2400 BC,
but their ages and their assignment to specific pharaohs is based solely on
doubtful circumstantial evidence. Mounting evidence implies that these pyramids
might date from as early as Tep Zepi, or the First Time of Egypt around 10450
BC. The construction of these three pyramids differs from and is vastly superior
to that of all other pyramids in Egypt, most of which have deteriorated badly,
many having collapsed into rubble. Unlike the later pyramids, the pyramids of
Giza did not contain mummies or funerary objects, nor did they have any
hieroglyphic inscriptions or other adornments. There is compelling evidence that
the arrangements of the chambers, galleries and shafts in the Great Pyramid of
Khufu are of religious significance, reflecting ancient Egyptian beliefs
concerning the rebirth of the pharaohs and the transmigration of their souls to
the astral plane of the heavenly Duat. The pyramids of Giza incorporate 12
million tonnes of dressed stone, or forty percent of the total mass of the
eighty pyramids built in Egypt. Khufu's pyramid is the largest stone structure
in the world, incorporating 2.5 million limestone blocks weighing up to 12
tonnes each and laid in 203 courses, accurately fitted without mortar. The
68,000 square metres of external surface was clad with polished limestone facing
blocks weighing 15 tonnes each. The Grand Gallery, climbing on a slope of 26.5o
to the King's Chamber, is constructed of 30 tonne black granite blocks from
Aswan, 750 kilometres to the south. The walls of the King's Chamber comprise 70
tonne blocks of red granite, supporting a flat ceiling of 50 tonne blocks. The
Queen's Chamber is constructed of white limestone blocks and has a gabled
ceiling exactly on the east-west axis.
Subsequently many magnificent temples of dressed stone also were constructed
in Egypt, of which the remarkable complexes at Karnak commenced around 1990 BC
and at Abu Simbel commenced around 1200 BC probably are the best known. The
first permanent religious structure described in the bible is the temple at
Jerusalem, built by King Solomon with the assistance of Hiram King of Tyre and
his building specialists and completed around 950 BC. Although the temple
building itself was only about 30 metres by 10 metres, very much smaller than
any of the temples in Egypt, its opulence has never been surpassed. The layout
of the temple was based on an extensive series of Canaanite temples dating from
as early as 2500 BC and a later series built by the Phoenicians in Syria from as
early as 1400 BC. The Phoenicians then were renowned for their building
activities in the Levant and culturally were much more advanced than the
Hebrews.
Three centuries after its construction, in the time of Josiah, King Solomon's
temple needed extensive repairs which had to be financed by the worshippers.
Then in 587 BC the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar, when he sacked
Jerusalem, removed the Ark of the Covenant and deported the remainder of the
Hebrews into Babylonish captivity. When Cyrus the Elamite king conquered Babylon
in 539 BC and founded the vast Persian Empire, Judea became one of its provinces
and remained so for the next 200 years. In 538 BC Cyrus issued a decree
releasing the Israelites from their captivity and allowing them to rebuild their
temple. Under the leadership of Sheshbazzar or Zerubbabel in 535 BC, Ezra in 458
BC and Nehemiah in 445 BC, about 42,360 Israelites returned to Jerusalem.
Rebuilding of the temple soon began under Joshua the high priest, but the many
difficulties that were encountered necessitated Zerubbabel's visit to Cyrus and
delayed completion of the temple until 515 BC. This second temple, usually
called Zerubbabel's, was similar to Solomon's though much less ornate. However
it survived for almost 500 years, until the Roman general Pompey captured
Jerusalem in 63 BC and the Roman consul Crassus plundered the temple nine years
later.
When Antipater, a Jew of Idumaean descent, was appointed procurator of Judea
by Julius Caesar in 47 BC, he appointed his son Herod as military prefect of
Galilee. The Romans were so impressed by Herod's abilities that they appointed
him "King of the Jews" when the Parthians invaded Syria and Palestine in 40 BC.
After three years of fighting, culminating with the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark
Antony in the battle of Actium, he established his position and ruled as Herod
the Great from 37 BC until his death in 4 BC. Herod was an indefatigable
builder, who decided to demonstrate his own grandeur by restoring Zerubbabel's
temple as a much more beautiful building of twice the area, set in a complex of
courtyards covering an area of some ten hectares surrounded by a massive stone
wall constructed using blocks usually 1.25 metres high and 4.6 metres long.
Herod trained 1,000 priests as masons and also had the work carried out in
stages, so that the ritual observances were not interrupted. Although the work
was begun in 20 BC and the main structure was completed within ten years, the
whole complex was not completed until 64 AD. The temple was burned when
Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman armies in 70 AD.
Greece emerged as a colonising nation around 1100 BC, soon becoming the
centre of learning, art and religious thought in the western Mediterranean. The
era of classical masonry began with the erection of the first of the Greek stone
temples at Corinth and Isthmia some time before 650 BC, where the Doric order
originated. The Ionic order was established during the next hundred years, with
the construction of the temples at Corfu and Ephesus. The Corinthian order was
first used in Delphi around 390 BC. Without doubt the most famous of the
classical Greek structures are the Parthenon and its surrounding structures on
the Acropolis in Athens, built between 447 BC and 432 BC. The Parthenon was
about 115 metres long and 55 metres wide, with a pitched roof and completely
surrounded by a colonnade of forty six massive Doric columns. The Parthenon
typified the monolithic unity of Greek temples and was the ultimate expression
of the Greek city-state. The emphasis which the Greeks placed on the ancient
Mysteries continued into the turbulent period of Roman rule and must have had a
significant influence on the development of speculative masonic thought, because
it is still reflected in masonic ceremonials. Roman architecture owes much to
Greek architecture, but it is not simply an extension of it. Probably the two
most significant differences are the greater magnitude of the Roman buildings
and the more elaborate decoration of their interiors which are designed to match
their exteriors and to reflect their imperial pride and growing self awareness.
One of the most interesting examples of Roman masonry is the temple complex
at Baalbek, on the site of an ancient holy place of the Canaanites. To provide
for greater public participation around 1200 BC, the Canaanites constructed a
raised stone court surrounded by a stone wall, thus creating a sanctuary at the
centre of which they erected a sacrificial altar, similar to the forecourt used
some 250 years later by the priests of King Solomon's temple. Alexander the
Great defeated the Persian Empire and entered Egypt in triumph in 332 BC, when
the Beqa'a valley became part of the Egyptian Empire and the Ptolemies proposed
building a huge temple at Baalbek. However, construction was delayed by
disputations with the Seleucids, who won the Beqa'a valley in 198 BC under
Antiochus the Great. When the Roman general Pompey occupied Phoenicia in 64 AD,
an immense podium with an area of about 17,000 square metres was nearing
completion at Baalbek. The Temple of Jupiter on the podium had been under
construction for about four years. The structure was completed around 70 AD, but
embellishments continued for at least another sixty years. The sandstone
foundation courses were laid with the largest stones ever used in masonry
construction, perfectly fitted without mortar. They were up to 20 metres long
and 4 metres square in cross-section, weighing as much as 800 tonnes each. The
temple was surrounded by a colonnade of fifty four of the tallest monolithic
columns that exist from antiquity. They were of pink granite from Aswan in upper
Egypt, having shafts 16.6 metres high and 2 metres in diameter and weighing 135
tonnes.
The Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek was adjacent to the Temple of Jupiter and
similar in construction, but only about half the area. Nevertheless the Temple
of Bacchus was larger than the Parthenon of Athens and is still the best
preserved of all Roman temples. Also in the Baalbek complex were the much
smaller Temple of Venus and Temple of the Muses. The Emperor Constantine
declared Christianity to be the religion of the Roman Empire in 313 AD and a
Christian church was built in the township, but it was destroyed in 361 AD when
Julian "the Apostate" came to power. When Theodosius came to power in 379 AD he
destroyed the altar of sacrifice and the observation tower in the Great Court
and replaced them with a Christian Basilica that was 63 metres by 36 metres and
raised on a podium 2 metres high. However, when Syria became an Arab state in
637 AD, the Basilica was converted into a palace and the Temples of Jupiter and
Bacchus were converted into a huge walled fortress with a surrounding moat. The
fortress was only abandoned when Baalbek became part of the Ottoman Empire in
1517 AD. To this day the precinct is known to the Arabs as the Kala'a, meaning a
fortress.
The final phase in the evolution of speculative freemasonry followed the
decline and fall of the Roman Empire. In addition to their work constructing
castles, fortifications and other public facilities, the operative masons in
Britain and Europe were engaged on an intensive program of cathedral building
that continued almost without a break from around 500 until at least 1700. It is
not known how many cathedrals were built in Britain and Europe during those
1,200 years of intensive construction, but there were several hundred as well as
an even greater number of priories and other ecclesiastical buildings. Most of
the finest of those cathedrals have survived the ravages of man and nature and
are still in service. The operative or Guild Masons in England were organised
with royal approval from at least as early as the Annual Assemblage of 926,
which was encouraged and authorised by King Athelstan. The lodges of operative
masons assembled under the guardianship of craft guilds, which originally were
in the form of religious fraternities that continued until Henry VIII disendowed
all religious fraternities by the Act of 1547. It is evident from the old
catechisms and the Ancient Charges, that the masters of operative lodges were
responsible for the moral and religious conduct of their apprentices and
fellows, as well as for their welfare and practical training in the craft of
masonry. It also is clear that the tools and procedures employed by operative
masons in their work were woven into simple dramas that were enacted to
illustrate moral principles, which in turn were adapted by Dr James Anderson and
others for incorporation in the speculative rituals still used in modern lodges
of Freemasonry.
York and its Minster are of special importance in the annals of English
masonry. The present York Minster is on the site of a wooden chapel erected for
the baptism of Edwin of Deira, King of Northumbria, together with the members of
his court, by Paulinus the first Bishop of York on Easter Day in 627. The King
had been converted to Christianity by his Kentish wife, who previously had been
converted to Christianity by the Roman mission led by St Augustine, who arrived
in Kent in 597. The renowned historian known as the Venerable Bede, who lived in
the Jarrow monastery on Tyneside from 682 until his death in 735, records that
Edwin soon replaced the chapel with a stone church, which became the centre of
the Bishopric and continued as such until the church was burned down about 741.
It was replaced by another magnificent stone church about 55 metres long and 17
metres wide, that was commenced by Archbishop Albert around 767. When this
church was ruined with the city during the troubles following the Norman
conquest, its rebuilding was begun around 1080 by the first Norman Archbishop,
Thomas de Bayeux. About a century later the choir was rebuilt by Archbishop
Roger de Pont-l'Ev^que.
The last church was replaced by the present York Minster progressively and in
distinct stages. The first work was the addition of the south transept that was
commenced in 1220, followed by the addition of the north transept that was
commenced in 1241. Work on the new nave, chapter house and vestibule was
commenced in 1291 and completed by about 1345. The Norman choir was then
replaced, commencing in 1361. The final stage of construction was the erection
of a central tower begun in 1400 and completed in 1423, followed by the erection
of the western towers 62 metre high, begun in 1433 and completed in 1474, when
construction had been in progress for some 250 years. The choir was badly
damaged by fire in 1829 and the nave also was damaged by fire in 1840. After
almost 500 years of continuous use, investigations revealed that the central
tower and west end of the Minster were in danger of collapse, as a result of
water erosion and fatigue in the building materials. Extensive remedial works
carried out since the 1960s have restored the foundations fully and strengthened
the fabric of the building.
The development of the Gothic style of cathedrals in France, where the height
of the building almost became an obsession and flying buttresses were used to
support the main aisles, completes the story of the close association between
freemasonry and religion. The Cathedral of the Notre-Dame in Paris probably is
the best known example of this style, begun in 1163 and completed with the
erection of the western towers around 1240. It is noted for the lightness of the
stone skeleton and the richness of its glowing glass, which captures the genius
of Gothic architecture. However, the world famous Chartres Cathedral is
considered to be the most authentic surviving example of that most spiritual of
all periods in European history. It is a cathedral church in the middle of a
town, which distinguishes Gothic cathedrals from the earlier monastic churches
that were set in the French countryside and had enclosures of cells and
cloisters. Originally there was a small church of unknown age on the site, which
by 1020 had been replaced by a cathedral almost as large as the present one. The
cathedral was extended at the western end in the 1130s, when two bays, a
vestibule and two towers framing the Royal Portal and its renowned sculptures
were added.
A dreadful fire that razed much of the township of Chartres in 1194, also
destroyed all of the first cathedral except the western end and the crypt.
Reconstruction was commenced almost immediately and continued unabated while a
dozen other cathedrals were also under construction in the vicinity. No
architect was engaged to design and supervise the work, which was carried out
under more than thirty successive contracts, or "campaigns", controlled by nine
different Master Masons engaged cyclically throughout the construction period.
The first Master Mason prepared the original design, set out the building and
constructed the foundations in less than a year. Each of the Master Masons was
engaged more than once, but the first and some others were engaged several
times. Each successive builder made some modifications in the details of the
design, but without altering any of the work already done. The cathedral was
completed during the 1230s. The successful completion of this complicated and
beautiful structure under very difficult conditions, coupled with the proven
durability of the building, demonstrates beyond all doubt the remarkable
ability, integrity and capacity of medieval freemasons.
Many hypotheses have been advanced about the evolution of modern speculative
Freemasonry. One suggestion is that Freemasonry was invented by members of the
four speculative lodges in London who joined to form the first Grand Lodge of
England in 1717. Another suggestion that once received strong support perceives
Freemasonry as a direct offshoot of the Rosicrucian movement. Two of the more
tenable claims are that Freemasonry is either a direct or an indirect derivative
of the medieval lodges of operative masons. It also has been asserted that
Freemasonry was founded in antiquity and revived by the Knights Templar in the
Holy Land. Although the extensive association of the Knights Templar with
operative masons does not appear to account for the emergence of modern
speculative Freemasonry, it undoubtedly influenced the speculative aspects of
operative masonry. It is surprising that the protagonists who advance one or
another of these theories, usually do not acknowledge the possibility that
modern speculative Freemasonry could have evolved from more than one source. A
brief review of these theories will help to put the relationship between
freemasonry and religion in its proper perspective.
It is significant that the key episodes on which the rituals are based in the
degrees of the Craft, the Mark, the Royal Arch, the Cryptic Council and their
associated orders are all biblical events recorded in passages of scripture in
the Old Testament. A well known example is the Hiramic legend relating to the
untimely death of the architect during the construction of King Solomon's temple
at Jerusalem. Although not detailed in the Old Testament, the narrative of the
legend is ancient and many variations and amplifications of it are to be found
in the Judaic apocrypha and the earliest Talmudic traditions. In The Hiram Key,
Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas describe extensive investigations they
carried out, from which they conclude that the Hiramic legend originally
referred to the murder, around 1600 BC, of Seqenenre Tao a Theban pharaoh. They
also give an interesting Egyptian derivation of the substitute word. The name of
the central figure in the Hiramic legend is not always the same in the various
versions of the Traditional Histories of English operative masons.
It is clear from the Cooke MS of about 1410, that the architect of King
Solomon's temple and the events concerning the construction of the temple
already were firmly established in the traditions of the guilds of operative
masons. If speculative Freemasonry had been invented in England during the
period of religious fervour and intolerance that prevailed for about two
centuries prior to the formation of the first Grand Lodge, the Hiramic legend
probably would not have been included and the degrees almost certainly would
have had a strong Christian emphasis based on events taken from the New
Testament. However, the orders that include degrees with a Christian basis did
not appear until the 1750s and 1800s, after the first Grand Lodge of England had
been established. Although it is believed that some members of the lodges
forming first Grand Lodge were Rosicrucians, who would have exerted a strong
Christian influence on modern speculative development, there is no evidence of
any direct connection between the Rosicrucian movement and freemasonry.
The weight of evidence supports the view that speculative Freemasonry was
derived indirectly from the ceremonials of English operative lodges, through
speculative lodges that probably had some operative masons as members, at about
the same time as many Scottish operative lodges were making a direct transition
to speculative lodges. The early development of operative masonry in England and
Scotland was similar, although the lodges in Scotland were smaller and more
dispersed, with much of the work carried out under contract instead of by direct
labour. In London the Fellowship of Masons, probably established around 1356,
had an inner conclave from the 1620s that was known as the Acception, whose
members included operative masons and also many who were not tradesmen. The
conditions that prevailed during the Reformation and the need to maintain
secrecy within organisations, explain the dearth of records in England, which is
the reason why it is much more difficult to establish the evolution of
Freemasonry in England than in Scotland.
In 1441 King James II appointed Sir William St Clair (now Sinclair), the
Laird of Roslin, as hereditary patron and protector of Scottish masons. In
Edinburgh in 1475 the Seal of Cause was issued, establishing trade regulations
for masons in Scotland about a century earlier than any similar regulations were
issued in England. The Schaw Statutes of 1598 and 1599 strengthened those
regulations and formalised arrangements for the management of Scottish operative
lodges. With the express permission of William Schaw, the St Clair Charters of
1601 and 1628, signed by representatives of many widely dispersed lodges,
confirmed that the Lairds of Roslin had been for ages and would continue to be
patrons and protectors of the mason craft in Scotland. Records of Scottish
operative lodges from 1598 onwards indicate that ritual work was being carried
out and they frequently record the admission of non-masons as members. In 1736
four old Scottish operative lodges associated in the formation of the Grand
Lodge of Scotland. The thirty-three lodges that met later in the same year and
elected William St Clair, the Laird of Roslin, as the first Grand Master Mason
of Scotland also were or had been operative lodges. This differs significantly
from the formation of the first Grand Lodge in England by four speculative
lodges, of which few if any of the members had been operative masons.
It would be appropriate now to consider the "de-Christianising of the Craft"
often mentioned by masonic authors. Any Christian influence stemmed from the
fact that, when purely speculative Freemasonry was being organised, Christianity
was the only religion recognised in England. For centuries in England and on the
Continent it had been the custom of the old crafts and guilds, including the
masons, to have their patron saints on whose days festivals were held. Many
ancient lodges held a festival on June 24, the summer solstice that had been a
day of heathen rejoicing, but which in early Christian times became St John the
Baptist's day. They also held a festival on December 27, the winter solstice
which also had been a day of heathen rejoicing, but became St John the
Evangelist's day. Although other saints were held in high regard by masons,
including the Four Crowned Martyrs known as Quatuor Coronati in Latin, the two
Saints John were adopted as the patron saints of Freemasonry, giving rise to
such old expressions as "a St John's Lodge" and "the St John's Men". In the
early days of speculative lodges the officers were installed every six months,
usually on the days of the Saints John. Nowadays the annual festivals in England
are held on St George's Day and in Scotland on St Andrew's Day.
Some authors have expressed the opinion that prior to the Constitutions of
1723 masons were expected to be Christians, but it is not known whether there
was any firm basis for that opinion. There is no record that any of the Craft
rituals referred to Jesus Christ, but it has been suggested that some of the
symbolism might have been given a Trinitarian explanation. The records of some
catechisms in the early 1700s include references of a Christian character, more
particularly in the Royal Arch. The "precious corner-stone for a firm
foundation", from Isaiah 28, verse 16 and the tau cross used as "a sign of the
righteous on the foreheads of the Lord's people", from Ezekial 9, verse 4, also
came into question because of their later Christian connotations. Even the
pentalpha, a magical sign used in ancient times as a talisman against the danger
of fire and adopted in Freemasonry as an emblem of the five points of
fellowship, was questioned because it became a Christian symbol alluding to the
five wounds of Christ. Fortunately these and other symbols of ancient origin,
like the triple tau, survived the "de-Christianising of the Craft". From the
early 1720s the Jewish membership of lodges steadily increased and any Christian
overtones that had been in the ritual were progressively eliminated. These
superficial changes, which reflected a desire for Freemasonry to be open to all
men believing in God irrespective of their creed, were fostered by the Duke of
Sussex who was a Hebrew scholar, a member of Jewish learned societies and also a
supporter of Christian Emancipation.
There is strong evidence in Scotland of an association between the Knights
Templar and Freemasonry, especially in relation to the Mark and the Royal Arch.
Extensive studies carried out on this and related subjects in the 1980s and
1990s are described and commented on by the investigators in two excellent
books. The earlier book is The Temple and the Lodge by Michael Baigent and
Richard Leigh and the other is The Hiram Key already mentioned in relation to
the Hiramic legend. The association between the Knights Templar and Freemasonry
will be summarised briefly for reference. The Poor Soldiers of Christ and the
Temple of Solomon, known as the Knights Templar, were established in France in
1118 or earlier. It is significant in the later history of the Knights Templar
that their first Grand Master, Hugues de Payen, was married to Catherine de St
Clair, a Scottish woman of Norman descent, who set up the first Templar
preceptory outside the Holy Land on her family's property a few kilometres south
of Edinburgh. This was the Preceptory of Balantrodoch, in the village now called
Temple, not far from where Rosslyn Chapel was built later.
When Hugues de Payens first went to Jerusalem with eight other knights, it
was ostensibly to protect Christian pilgrims on their journeys in the Holy Land,
but the French historian Gaetan Delaforge, who made a special study of the
Knights Templar, states in his book The Templar Tradition in the Age of Aquarius
that their real task was to obtain relics and manuscripts containing the secret
traditions of Judaism and ancient Egypt. Hugues de Payen persuaded King Baldwin
I to give him a section of the royal palace that was in the area of the Temple.
The nine knights apparently spent their first nine years on this project and
carried out extensive excavations under the Temple, but no record of the results
is available. In 1895 Lieutenant Charles Wilson led a contingent of Royal
Engineers from Britain to explore and map the passages and chambers under the
ruins of the Temple. In his book, The Excavation of Jerusalem, Wilson states
that many discarded relics of the Templars were found underground and that many
of the passages and chambers were vaulted with keystone arches. Official reports
of modern Israeli archaeological investigations also support the proposition
that the knights were searching the Temple ruins for something special.
The Knights Templar included many operative masons in their establishment and
also engaged local masons to work with them constructing a wide range of
castles, hospitals and ecclesiastical buildings in the Holy Land over about 150
years. During that time the Templar masons must have acquired a sound knowledge
of the customs and traditions of the local masons, whose direct lineage extended
back through the Phoenicians to the Sumerians and also the Egyptians. The
Templar castle constructed around 1217 at Athlit, about fifteen kilometres south
of Haifa, was their last great stronghold to be abandoned when al-Ashraf, with
an army of a quarter of a million men, finally defeated the Knights Templar in
1291. The cemetery at Athlit contains two of the oldest known masonic graves,
with well preserved headstones each having a large Templar cross carved
vertically in the centre, between a kevel on the left and a Master Mason's
gallows square on the right. When Philippe IV, King of France, ordered all
Templars to be seized in October 1307, the large Templar fleet escaped,
reputedly around Ireland to Argyll in Scotland, where there are many Templar
relics. In March 1314 after intensive interrogation, torture and trial by the
Inquisition, the Grand Master Jacques de Molay was roasted to death over a slow
fire.
Meanwhile a large number of Templars had escaped to Scotland and are reported
to have provided the force of horsemen that swung the battle in Robert Bruce's
favour at Bannockburn on 24 June 1314. After Bruce died in 1329 and in
accordance with his dying wish, Sir James Douglas, Sir William St Clair, Sir
William Keith and two other knights set out with Bruce's heart in a silver
casket to be buried in the Holy Land. All except Sir William Keith died in Spain
supporting King Alfonso XI in his campaign against the Moors at Granada. Sir
William Keith, whose arm was broken, brought the casket back to Scotland and
Bruce's heart was buried under the east window of the chancel in Melrose Abbey.
The close association of the Lairds of Roslin with the Knights Templar and
masonic tradition culminated when a later Sir William St Clair decided to build
a large collegiate church. The foundations were laid in 1446 and Rosslyn Chapel
was completed in the 1480's, although the main church was never built. The
chapel is a remarkable structure, with a foundation plan similar to the temple
at Jerusalem and external rows of spires that appear to be modelled on the
drawing of the "Heavenly Jerusalem" by Lambert of St Omer who died about 1121.
Rosslyn Chapel incorporates two highly ornamented pillars representing Jachin
and Boaz and it is ornately decorated inside with Celtic, Templar and masonic
symbols. The embellishments include a wounded head relevant to the Hiramic
legend, a Latin inscription quoting part of Zerubbabel's discourse when he
sought Cyrus's support during the rebuilding of the temple and symbols of
significance in the Royal Arch. Rosslyn Chapel also has a scroll shrine in the
form of a vault sealed under a metre of rock, the contents of which are unknown,
but which Knight and Lomas believe may contain relics from the vaults under the
Temple at Jerusalem. A remarkable feature of the interior decorations are the
accurate representations of maize and aloe plants from the New World that must
have been carved into the columns and arches around 1470, although Columbus's
first landing on the mainland was not until 1498. This gives weight to the
belief that, after its arrival in Scotland, the Templar fleet sailed west in
search of the land that is called Merica in the Nasorean scrolls and marked by a
star. It seems that the Templars almost certainly landed on the New England
coast of America early in 1308 and after settling there journeyed back to
Scotland more than once. This contention is supported by the famous image of a
fourteenth century knight carved on a rock at Westford in Massachussets and also
by the stone tower at Newport in Rhode Island, constructed like a round Templar
church, that was recorded as an existing "Norman Villa" by the Italian navigator
Giovanni de Verrazano, who was thought to be the first European to discover that
part of the coastline.
Several other organisations and ethical systems have been put forward from
time to time as the progenitors of freemasonry. It is unlikely that any of them
would have been the direct ancestor of modern speculative freemasonry, although
several probably influenced the course of freemasonry directly or indirectly.
Among the more tenuous possible associations are the Druids and the Culdees
whose influence, if any, would have been similar to that of the Rosicrucians
mentioned earlier. The ancient Celtic priests of Germany, Gaul and Britain,
called the Druids, are not known to have had any association with the craft of
masonry and very little is known of their rites and ceremonies, so their
supposed influence on freemasonry at best is conjectural. We do not know what
contact the Culdees, a fraternity of monks who lived in isolation in groups of
cells in Scotland from the 700s, had with the craft of masonry, so their
supposed influence also is conjectural though possibly more tangible. The
Mithraic cult was devoted to the ancient Persian light-god, whose worship became
popular in the Roman Empire. As the Persians and Babylonians were pre-eminent
among the ancient builders, whence there was a continuous line of descent over
several thousand years through the Canaanites and Phoenicians to the Roman
builders in the eastern Mediterranean, it is reasonable to assume that the
Mithraic cult influenced the development of ancient esoteric freemasonry. The
systems of morality taught for several thousand years through the symbolism and
elaborate rituals of the ancient Mysteries of Egypt and Greece, also must have
influenced ancient freemasonry. The Essenes, who were closely connected to the
Pythagoreans, probably had a greater influence. Menahem, a Diaspora Essene,
founded the Magians whose name reflects their Babylonian culture. They shared
the traditions of the Palestine Essenes, but did not enforce seclusion nor have
the same strict views on morality. The Jewish historian Josephus records in War
that Menahem told the young Herod he would become king, for which Herod held him
and all Essenes in honour and trusted them throughout his reign. The Diaspora
Essenes supported restitution of the Davidic rule, but they could accept another
king with the David in a subordinate role, which was more acceptable to Herod
than the proposals for the priesthood in the Temple Scroll prepared by the
Palestine Essenes when Herod announced around 21 BC that he would rebuild the
temple. Herod's decision to train 1,000 priests as masons probably was in
deference to Menahem's influence. The preparation and obligation of candidates
and the degrees and allegorical instruction they received at Qumran, as detailed
in the scroll called the Manual of Discipline or Community Rule, are closely
mirrored in freemasonry.
Socio-religious craft clubs called the Collegia flourished at the height of
the Roman Empire and probably accompanied the Roman armies and masons to
Britain. During the reign of Emperor Henry III (1039-56), the Pope is said to
have issued a diploma to an Italian group, the Travelling Architects, to build
churches all over Europe. The Comacine Masters of Italy and the Steinmetzen or
stonecutters of Germany also are supposed to have been established by Papal
Bulls, but none of these documents has been found. In 1260 the stonemasons of
France received their code and privileges from Charles Martel who appears in the
Ancient Charges of English masonry, which suggests a positive connection. A code
of masons issued in France in 1407 and the later Compagnonnage of journeyman
masons have similarities with English masonry.
RETROSPECT
The foregoing historical summary briefly outlines the key role that has been
played by operative masonry in the support of religion during the progress of
civilisation over almost 12,000 years, from the beginnings of operative masonry
until its decline and replacement by modern Freemasonry. By its very nature,
operative masonry takes into account the practical experience of previous ages,
builds upon it and passes its new found knowledge on to succeeding generations.
The intimate association of operative masonry with the ancient priesthoods and
later with the Medieval and Renaissance ecclesiastical fraternity, must have
influenced the masons' lives sufficiently to mould their beliefs into the true
principles of freemasonry. It is an inevitable consequence of operative practice
and traditions, that the system of moral teaching and its associated rituals
used in speculative freemasonry, also would have been acquired progressively,
developed and passed on, even as language itself has evolved through the
centuries.
back to top |
