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CHAPTER II
part I - the heritage of freemasonry
THE SQUARE AND COMPASSES
W.
M. Don Falconer PM, PDGDC
The evolution of the human psyche
awakened a belief in the existence of some higher controlling power
that has a direct connection with emotion and morality.
THE RISE OF CIVILISATION
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 that, 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 is the system of
moral teaching and the associated traditions and rituals that, in
earlier times, were an important component of day-to-day life in
lodges of operative freemasons. Those systems, traditions and
rituals are now incorporated in the ceremonies of modern speculative
freemasonry. When modern speculative craft freemasons compiled the
rituals now in use, they defined freemasonry as a peculiar system of
morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. They based
the ceremonial procedures on those used in operative lodges, but
adapted 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 lengthy.
When operative freemasons 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 freemasons 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
said that he could not imagine how “horny handed labourers” could
have developed a system of symbolism and philosophy to give moral
instruction within the lodge. R.F.Gould, the renowned masonic
historian, offered a most improbable solution to the perceived
dilemma. He 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. The Master Masons had a superior knowledge and
skill and were well versed in religious matters, the graphic arts,
sculpture and geometry, as well as in the manual aspects of their
trade. It will be recalled that the medieval operative freemasons
were living in the 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 in the
operative lodges. In 787 the Council of Nicea confirmed the
undoubted capabilities of operative freemasons in all aspects of the
design, construction and symbolic adornment of ecclesiastical
buildings, when it ruled with respect to their establishment that
“the arrangement belongs to the clergy and the execution to the
artist”.
About 12,000 years ago the Advanced Hunters of the Near East
first used compacted earth to construct primitive circular
dwellings. 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 in about 8000 BCE. 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
in about 6500 BCE at Çatal Hüyük 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
from before 5500 BCE until about 3000 BCE.
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 BCE.
Sumerian tombs in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, constructed between 2700
BCE and 2370 BCE, 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 word 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 BCE. The pyramid
began as a mastaba tomb about 8 metres high, which was incorporated
into a rock structure raised progressively in six steps to a height
of 61 metres, fully encased in dressed Tura limestone blocks. 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 BCE to 2400 BCE, but the ages of the pyramids and
their assignment to specific pharaohs is based solely on doubtful
circumstantial evidence. There is mounting evidence that the
pyramids of Giza might date from as early as Zep Tepi, or the First
Time of Egypt, in about 10450 BCE. This suggestion is supported by
the fact that 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, while many have 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. Moreover, there also
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, which is forty percent of the total mass of the eighty
pyramids that were built in Egypt. Khufu’s pyramid is the largest
stone structure in the world and it incorporates about 2.5 million
limestone blocks that weigh up to 12 tonnes each, which were laid in
203 courses accurately fitted without mortar. The external surface
of Khufu’s pyramid, which is some 68,000 square metres in area, was
clad with polished limestone facing blocks weighing 15 tonnes each.
The King’s Chamber is reached through the Grand Gallery, which
ascends on a slope of 26.5°. It is constructed of 30 tonne blocks of
black granite from Aswan, 750 kilometres to the south. The walls of
the King’s Chamber are constructed with 70 tonne blocks of red
granite, which support a flat ceiling constructed 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.
After the great pyramids, many magnificent temples of dressed
stone were constructed in Egypt, of which the best known are
probably the remarkable complexes at Karnak that were commenced in
about 1990 BCE; also those at Abu Simbel that were commenced in
about 1200 BCE. Although the first religious structure mentioned in
the Bible was the Tower of Babel, the first that it describes in
detail was the temple built by King Solomon at Jerusalem, with the
assistance of Hiram King of Tyre and his building specialists.
Completed in about 950 BCE, King Solomon’s temple was much smaller
than any Egyptian temple, being only about 30 metres by 10 metres in
plan, but its opulence has never been surpassed. The layout of King
Solomon’s temple was based on an extensive series of Canaanite
temples dating from as early as 2500 BCE and a later series built by
the Phoenicians in Syria from as early as 1400 BCE. The Phoenicians
were renowned for their building activities in the Levant and
culturally they were much further advanced than the Hebrews. In the
time of Josiah, three centuries after King Solomon’s temple was
completed, it needed extensive repairs that had to be financed by
the worshippers. Later, in 587 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed King
Solomon’s temple when he sacked Jerusalem, took away the Ark of the
Covenant and deported the remainder of the Hebrews into Babylonish
captivity.
When Cyrus the Elamite king conquered Babylon in 539 BCE and
founded the vast Persian Empire, Judea became one of its provinces
and remained so for the next 200 years. Nevertheless, in 538 BCE
Cyrus issued a decree releasing the Israelites from their captivity,
allowing them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. The
return of the Israelites to Judea commenced under the leadership of
Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel, in about 537 BCE. Sheshbazzar was a
prince of Judah whom Cyrus appointed as governor of Judah, to whom
Cyrus entrusted the temple vessels that had been looted by
Nebuchadnezzar. Sheshbazzar may have been Zerubbabel’s uncle
Shenazzar, who was a son of King Jerhoiachin. King Jehoiachin and
the prophet Ezekiel were captured in 597 BCE and deported to
Babylon, where Ezekiel had a grand vision for a new temple.
Sheshbazzar is believed to have been the governor of Judea who is
referred to as Tirshatha in the scriptures. Tirshatha probably is a
Persian form of the Avestan tarsta, meaning reverend, which was used
as a title more or less equivalent to “His Excellency”.
Zerubbabel was the son of Salathiel and hence a grandson of King
Jehoiachin. The exact meaning of Zerubbabel is uncertain, but it is
believed to signify “offspring of Babylon”. Sheshbazzar and
Zerubbabel laid the foundations of the new temple in about 535 BCE,
but Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest were those primarily
responsible for carrying out the building work. Many difficulties
were encountered as a consequence of the turbulence of the
surrounding tribes, which delayed the rebuilding of the temple and
necessitated Zerubbabel's visit to Cyrus to gain his support. The
rebuilding of the temple was resumed in about 520 BCE and completed
by about 515 BCE. The return of the Israelites resumed under Ezra in
458 BCE and continued under Nehemiah in 445 BCE. A total of some
42,360 Israelites returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. The second
temple at Jerusalem is usually called Zerubbabel's temple. It was
similar to Solomon's temple, but much less ornate than either
Solomon’s temple or the temple visualised by the prophet Ezekiel.
However, Zerubbabel’s temple survived for almost 500 years, until
the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE and the Roman
consul Crassus plundered the temple nine years later.
In 47 BCE Julius Caesar appointed Antipater, a Jew of Idumaean
descent, as procurator of Judea. Antipater then appointed his son
Herod as the military prefect of Galilee. When the Parthians invaded
Syria and Palestine in 40 BCE, the Romans were so impressed by
Herod’s abilities that they appointed him “King of the Jews”. After
three years of fighting, culminating with the defeat of Cleopatra
and Mark Antony in the battle of Actium, Herod established his
position and ruled as Herod the Great from 37 BCE until his death in
4 BCE. 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. It was set in a
complex of courtyards covering an area of some ten hectares,
surrounded by a massive stone wall that was constructed using blocks
mostly 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 work
began in 20 BCE and the main structure was completed within ten
years, the whole complex was not completed until 64 CE. The temple
was razed to the ground and burned when the Roman armies destroyed
Jerusalem in 70 CE.
Greece emerged as a colonising nation about 1100 BCE and soon
become the centre of learning, art and religious thought in the
eastern 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 BCE, 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 BCE. 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 BCE and 432 BCE. 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 that the Greeks
placed on the ancient Mysteries continued into the turbulent period
of Roman rule, which influenced the development of speculative
thought that is still reflected in masonic ceremonials. Roman
architecture owes much to Greek architecture, but is not simply an
extension of it. The two most significant differences are the
greater size of the Roman buildings and the more elaborate
decoration of their interiors, which are designed to match their
exteriors and to reflect the imperial pride and growing
self-awareness of the Romans.
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 BCE, 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 BCE, 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 BCE under Antiochus the
Great.
When the Roman general Pompey occupied Phoenicia in 64 CE, an
immense podium with an area of about 17,000 square metres was
nearing completion at Baalbek. The Temple of Jupiter was located on
the podium and had then been under construction for about four
years. The main structure was completed in about 70 CE, but
embellishments continued for at least another sixty years. The
sandstone foundation courses were laid with the largest stones ever
used in masonry construction. They were perfectly fitted without
mortar and were as large as 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 brought
from Aswan in upper Egypt and had shafts 2 metres in diameter and
16.6 metres high, each 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. When the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to
be the religion of the Roman Empire in 313 a Christian church was
built in the township, but when the Emperor Julian “the Apostate”
came to power it was destroyed in 361. When Theodosius became
Emperor in the East in 379, he destroyed the altar of sacrifice and
the observation tower in the Great Court of the Temple of Jupiter
and replaced them with a Christian Basilica 63 metres by 36 metres
in area, raised on a podium 2 metres high. Subsequently, when Syria
became an Arab state in 637, 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. To
this day the Arabs know the precinct as the Kala’a, meaning a
fortress.
The culminating 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 construction, but there were several hundred and 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. In England the operative
freemasons or Guild Masons were organised with royal approval from
at least as early as the Annual Assemblage of 926, which is reputed
to have been 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 working methods used by the operative masons were woven into
simple dramas that were enacted to illustrate moral principles.
These dramas were adapted by Dr James Anderson and others and
incorporated in the speculative rituals still used in masonic
lodges.
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’s Kentish wife
had converted him to Christianity, she previously having been
converted to Christianity by the Roman mission led by St Augustine,
who arrived in Kent in 597. The Venerable Bede (c.673-735), who
lived in the Jarrow monastery on Tyneside from 682 until his death,
records in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People 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, which was commenced
by Archbishop Albert in about 767. After this church had been
ruined, when the city was laid waste during the troubles that
followed the Norman Conquest, the first Norman Archbishop, Thomas de
Bayeux, began rebuilding it in about 1080. Archbishop Roger de
Pont-l’Evêque rebuilt the choir about a century later.
The present York Minster replaced the last church progressively
and in distinct stages. The first work was the addition of the south
transept, which was commenced in 1220, followed by the addition of
the north transept, which 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, which was begun in 1400 and completed in 1423,
followed by the erection of the western towers 62 metres high, which
were begun in 1433 and completed in 1474, after construction had
been in progress for more than 250 years. The choir was badly
damaged by fire in 1829 and the nave also was damaged by fire in
1840. When the present York Minster had been in continuous use for
almost 500 years, investigations revealed that the central tower and
west end 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
also 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 intimate association between freemasonry and
religion. The Cathedral of the Notre-Dame in Paris probably is the
best-known example of this style. It was begun in 1163 and completed
when the western towers were erected in about 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, it
is the world famous Chartres Cathedral that experts consider 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 a small church of
unknown age was on the site, but by 1020 it had been replaced by a
cathedral almost as large as the present one. It 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 the entire first cathedral except the present
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 members of the four
speculative lodges in London, who joined to form the first Grand
Lodge of England in 1717, invented speculative freemasonry. 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. The extensive
association of the Knights Templar with the operative masons does
not appear to account for the emergence of modern speculative
freemasonry, but it undoubtedly influenced the speculative aspects
of operative freemasonry. It is surprising that those proponents,
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 various 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 brutal and
untimely death of the principal architect during the construction of
King Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem. Although this legend is not
recounted 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
this context, the name of the central figure in the Hiramic legend
is not always the same in different versions of the Traditional
Histories of English operative masons, nor indeed is the Hiramic
legend the only one that is used. Christopher Knight and Robert
Lomas, in their stimulating book entitled The Hiram Key, describe
extensive investigations they have carried out from which they
conclude that the Hiramic legend originally referred to the murder
of a Theban pharaoh, Seqenenre Tao, in about 1600 BCE. They also
suggest an interesting Egyptian derivation of the substitute words
used by a Master Mason. Though at first sight improbable, there are
many equally obscure derivations of words now in common use in the
English language.
It is clear from the Cooke MS of about 1410, that by then the
events concerning the construction of the temple and the involvement
of its principal architect were already 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, which had prevailed for about two
centuries prior to the formation of the first Grand Lodge, the
Hiramic legend probably would not have been included in the rituals
and the degrees almost certainly would have had a strong Christian
emphasis, based on events taken from the New Testament. The orders
of masonry 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. It is believed that some members of
the lodges forming the first Grand Lodge were Rosicrucians, who
would have exerted a strong Christian influence on modern
speculative development, but there is no evidence of a direct
derivation from the Rosicrucian movement.
The weight of evidence supports the view that the ceremonials of
modern speculative freemasonry were derived indirectly from the
ceremonials of English operative lodges, through speculative lodges
that probably had some operative masons as members. It is
significant that these events in England were taking place at about
the same time as many Scottish operative lodges were making a direct
transition to speculative lodges. The early stages of the
development of operative masonry in England and Scotland were
similar. However, in Scotland the lodges were smaller and more
dispersed, while much of the work they carried out was under
contract instead of by direct labour. In London the Fellowship of
Masons, probably established in about 1356, had an inner conclave
known as the Acception. From the 1620s its members included
operative masons and also many who were not tradesmen. The
conditions prevailing during the Reformation made it necessary to
maintain the utmost secrecy within fraternities, which explains the
dearth of records in England and is the reason why it is much more
difficult to establish the emergence of speculative freemasonry in
England than it is in Scotland.
In 1441 King James II appointed Sir William St Clair (now
Sinclair), who was 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. The St Clair Charters of 1601 and 1628
were issued with the express permission of William Schaw and signed
by representatives of many widely dispersed lodges, confirming 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 that
non-masons were being admitted as members. In 1736 four old Scottish
operative lodges associated in the formation of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland. Thirty-three lodges met later in 1736 and elected William
St Clair, the Laird of Roslin, as the first Grand Master Mason of
Scotland. All of those lodges were or had been operative lodges.
This was significantly different from the situation prevailing when
four speculative lodges formed the first Grand Lodge in England,
when few if any of the members had been operative masons.
It would be appropriate now to consider the “de-Christianising of
the Craft” that masonic authors often mention. Any Christian
influence stemmed from the fact that, when purely speculative
freemasonry was being organized under the first Grand Lodge,
Christianity was the only religion recognised in England. For
centuries in England and Europe, it had been the custom of the old
crafts and guilds, including the masons, to have their own 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 in early Christian times became St John the
Baptist’s day. The masons also held a festival on the winter
solstice, December 27, which was another day of heathen rejoicing
that became St John the Evangelist’s day. Although other saints were
held in high regard by freemasons, including the Quatuor Coronati or
Four Crowned Martyrs, nevertheless 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 freemasonry the officers of lodges were
installed every six months, usually on the festival days of the two
Saints John. Nowadays the masonic festivals are usually held
annually, for example on St George’s Day in England, on St Patrick’s
Day in Ireland and on St Andrew’s Day in Scotland.
Some authors have expressed the opinion that, prior to the
Constitutions of 1723, all masons were expected to be Christians,
but it is not known whether there is any firm basis for that
opinion. There is no record of Jesus Christ being referred to in any
of the Craft rituals, 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 28:16 and
the use of the tau cross as “a sign of the righteous on the
foreheads of the Lord’s people”, from Ezekiel 9:4, have also been
questioned 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 among other things, 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,
after which any Christian overtones that might have appeared in the
craft rituals were progressively eliminated. These superficial
changes reflected a desire for freemasonry to be open to all men
believing in God irrespective of their creed. The Duke of Sussex who
was a Hebrew scholar, a member of Jewish learned societies and also
a supporter of Christian Emancipation, resolutely fostered Jewish
membership.
There is strong evidence of an association between the Knights
Templar and freemasonry in Scotland, 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. Of these 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, which were established
in France in 1118 or earlier, became known as the Knights Templar.
An occurrence that is significant in the history of the Knights
Templar is the fact that their first Grand Master, Hugues de Payen,
was married to Catherine de St Clair. She was 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. The French historian Gaetan Delaforge
made a special study of the Knights Templar. He 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, in the
area of the Temple at Jerusalem, which he used as his headquarters.
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 known to be in existence. Lieutenant
Charles Wilson in 1895 led a contingent of Royal Engineers from
Britain to explore and map the passages and chambers under the ruins
of the Temple. Lieutenant Wilson states in his book, The Excavation
of Jerusalem, that many discarded relics of the Templars were found
underground and that many of the passages and chambers were vaulted
with keystone arches. The 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 freemasons and also
engaged locals to work with them constructing a wide range of
castles, hospitals and ecclesiastical buildings in the Holy Land
over about 150 years. The Templar freemasons must have acquired a
sound knowledge of the customs and traditions of the local
freemasons, whose direct lineage extended back through the
Phoenicians to the Sumerians and the Egyptians, which might account
for the Egyptian derivation of the substitute words suggested by
Knight and Lomas. The Templar castle constructed in about 1217 at
Athlit 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 the gallows square of a
Master Mason 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. After intensive interrogation, torture and
trial by the Inquisition, the Grand Master Jacques de Molay was
roasted to death over a slow fire in March 1314.
Meanwhile many of the Knights Templar had escaped to Scotland and
are reported to have provided the force of horsemen that swung the
battle in favour of Robert Bruce at Bannockburn on 24 June 1314.
Robert 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 when
supporting King Alfonso XI in his campaign against the Moors at
Granada, but Sir William Keith, whose arm was broken in battle,
brought the casket back to Scotland. Bruce’s heart was buried under
the east window of the chancel in Melrose Abbey. This close
association that the Lairds of Roslin had with the Knights Templar
and masonic tradition culminated in the decision made by a later Sir
William St Clair to build a large collegiate church. Although the
foundations were laid in 1446 and Rosslyn Chapel was completed in
the 1480s, the main church was never built. The chapel is a
remarkable structure, having a foundation plan similar to the temple
at Jerusalem and external rows of spires that appear to have been
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
referred to 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 could 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. As the ancient Celtic priests of
Germany, Gaul and Britain, the Druids, are not known to have had any
association with operative freemasonry, their supposed direct
influence is conjectural. Nor do 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 operative freemasonry, but
their influence was more tangible, because they lived in sturdy and
well constructed stone buildings. 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, Flavius Josephus (c.37-100), records in War
that Menahem told the young Herod he would become king, so that
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. This was more acceptable to Herod than the
proposals for the priesthood set out in the Temple Scroll prepared
by the Palestine Essenes when Herod announced around 21 BCE that he
would rebuild the temple. The decision of Herod to train 1,000
priests as masons probably was in deference to Menahem’s influence.
The preparation and obligation of candidates at Qumran and the
degrees and allegorical instruction that they received, are detailed
in the Manual of Discipline, the scroll called Community Rule. They
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 their masons to Britain. During the reign of Emperor Henry III
(1039-56), a Pope is said to have issued a diploma to an Italian
group, the Travelling Architects, to build churches all over Europe.
In Italy the Comacine Masters and in Germany the Steinmetzen, or
stonecutters, also are supposed to have been established by Papal
Bulls, although none of the relevant documents has been found. The
stonemasons of France received their code and privileges from
Charles Martel in 1260 and he appears in the Ancient Charges used in
England, which suggests a positive connection. This is supported by
the code of masons issued in France in 1407 and also used by the
later Compagnonnage of journeyman masons, which are very similar to
their English counterparts.
RETROSPECT
The foregoing historical outline traces the continuing and
unbroken line of support that operative freemasonry has provided to
religious establishments down through the ages, from ancient Egypt
and the Near East, thence into the Classical Era of the eastern
Mediterranean and culminating in the great period of cathedral
building in Europe and Britain. From this outline it is quite
evident that operative masonry has played a key role in the support
of religion for almost 12,000 years. Whilst these regions and
periods of Masonic activity were chosen to illustrate the direct and
vital contributions made by operative freemasonry to the religious
establishments, it should not be assumed that they provide the only
connection. Indeed the input of operative freemasonry to religion
can be demonstrated in all ages and in all places in the world when
and where some form of civilization has been established. For
example, consider also the remarkable stone circles and burial sites
of ancient Britain, most of them as old as the pyramids of Egypt;
the diversity and splendour of Hindu temples in India, South East
Asia and Indonesia; the Incan temples in South America; and the
Mayan temples in Central America. All of these works illustrate a
similar dedication of operative freemasons in support of religious
ideals. Relevant aspects of this extended spectrum of influence are
discussed in other chapters.
Reverting to the present theme, it can be seen that in every age
operative freemasons have utilised the experience gained in previous
ages, built on that experience and passed their extended knowledge
on to their successors. The intimate association that operative
freemasons had with the priesthoods from ancient times until the
Classical era, then with the ecclesiastical fraternity throughout
the Medieval and Renaissance periods, had a powerful influence on
the freemasons’ lives, moulding their beliefs and instilling in them
what now constitute the true principles of freemasonry. An
inevitable consequence of this continuing process is the development
of a system of moral teaching and its associated rituals, which are
now used in speculative craft freemasonry. They would have been
acquired progressively, developed further in successive ages and
passed on to succeeding generations, even as language itself has
evolved through successive eras.
A comprehensive outline of the evolution of freemasonry, which
illustrates its close relationship with the ancient mysteries and
also with modern religions, is given by John Yarker in The Arcane
Schools - A Review of their Origin and Antiquity, with a General
History of Freemasonry and its Relation to the Theosophic,
Scientific and Philosophic Mysteries, which was published by William
Tate of Belfast in 1909. A modern book of interest that complements
many of the features covered in The Arcane Schools, is one by Don
Bradley entitled Freemasonry in the Twenty-first Century. It sets
out to give a sincere inquirer a more comprehensive understanding of
the teachings that are hidden in freemasonry and is well worth
reading.
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