speculative craft freemasonry
CHAPTER V
part I - the heritage of freemasonry
THE SQUARE AND COMPASSES
W.
M. Don Falconer PM, PDGDC
It is now generally
accepted that speculative craft freemasonry
began to emerge in the seventeenth century.
Speculative craft
freemasonry
is a descendant, directly and indirectly, of the Guild masonry of
the Middle Ages. The skill of the medieval operative freemasons was outstanding,
reflecting the experience gained throughout the evolution of civilisation over
some 12,000 years, using brick and stone to construct every conceivable building
from the humblest dwellings to the stateliest edifices. The medieval freemasons
were renowned for the cathedrals they built and their work was the pinnacle of
operative freemasonry. The expression craft freemasonry is used to
distinguish purely speculative freemasonry from the practical craft of
operative freemasonry, but it should not be inferred that there was no
speculative component in the work carried out in medieval operative lodges. They
had developed their own rich tradition and ceremonials, some very similar in
presentation to the Passion Plays of the Middle Ages. As the
medieval guilds were highly secretive concerning their private proceedings,
information about their ceremonials is sketchy. Very few relevant records have
survived from Guild masonry in England. This fact has often led
masonic writers to infer that operative freemasonry had no speculative component
and therefore that speculative freemasonry could not have derived from it.
Having regard to the circumstances prevailing in those times, it is remarkable
that any documentary evidence has survived and been discovered!
Lodges of operative
masons must have worked independently in the earliest days, because travel was
difficult and time consuming. However, some time in the twelfth century the
operative masons in England appear to have been organised under the protection
of craft guilds that came into existence to watch over the interests of skilled
workers in the various trades. The guilds were known as Fellowships
or Fraternities and with the exception of the operative masons
their constituent trades worked under the provisions of relevant ordinances.
Craft guilds were also religious fraternities, whose members were required to
attend church frequently, if not regularly. Frith, or family peace
guilds, existed in London around the middle of the tenth century. The first
merchant guild is believed to have originated in Dover around the middle of the
eleventh century, when the weaver guilds also appear to have been formed. There
is no doubt that many craft guilds were well established in England during the
reign of Henry I, by around 1135. There is evidence that annual assemblages of
masons were being held from the 1300s onwards and that they were the gatherings
that Henry VI unsuccessfully sought to prohibit by the Statutes of 1436-1437.
Under the guild system many families rose from serfdom to become employers in a
few generations. The system was highly successful until the Reformation, when
Henry VIII enforced the Act of 1547. It disendowed all religious fraternities,
including lodges of operative masons. Henry VIII confiscated most of the guilds’
possessions and his son Edward VI seized nearly all of the remaining guild funds
that had been dedicated to religious purposes. It was then that most guild
records were destroyed to conceal the identities of members of the guilds who
might otherwise have suffered persecution. The operative masons appear to have
been the worst affected by the confiscations of property and funds.
As in the other craft
guilds, lodges of operative masons were subject to a strong religious influence
and their ceremonials had a significant religious component. Practical work and
its related instruction took place in the stone yards, but all moral and ethical
instruction and matters relating to general conduct, as well as the modes of
recognition, were imparted in the ceremonial lodges held weekly on Saturdays
commencing at noon. All apprentices were obligated and indentured in the
ceremonial lodges, where candidates for promotion also were examined, tested for
proficiency in the non-manual aspects of their work, obligated and entrusted.
Lodges of operative masons were unique, because the rules and regulations for
their establishment and operation were set out in documents called the Old
Charges. The possession of an authentic copy of the Old Charges
was the authority under which a lodge worked. The Old Charges
included a traditional history, rules governing work practices and codes of
conduct for behaviour at church, in the home and in company. The oldest known
record of the Old Charges is a document written by a priest,
comprising thirty-three vellum sheets and entitled the Poem of the Craft
of Masonry, believed to have been based on a much older document. It is
known as the Regius MS or Halliwell MS and is
Document No 23,198 in the British Museum. It was discovered in 1839 and was
thought to have been written about 1390, which was later revised to 1410. In
modern terminology it is classified as dating from the first quarter of the
fifteenth century. The rules and regulations set out in the Regius MS
are stated to have been established at a great assemblage of masons ordered by
King Athelstan. They are arranged under fifteen Articles for ye maystur
mason and fifteen Points for felows and prentes.
Prior to the
Reformation, the guilds and other religious fraternities undoubtedly were the
guardians of centuries-old traditions and esoteric ceremonies, carefully
concealed from public scrutiny. Guilds that survived the Reformation became
Livery Companies, some of which still operate in the City of London.
Livery comes from the Anglo-French liveré meaning
handed over, derived from the Latin liberäre meaning
to free. The Worshipful Company of Ffree Masons of the City of
London was one guild that survived. It had existed for several hundred
years before the Reformation, continued through the Reformation hidden from
public view, then resurfaced after the Reformation. It was commonly known as
The Fellowship of Masons but in 1655, long after the Reformation, it
changed its name to The Company of Masons. Because all of the
Company’s books and documents were destroyed during the Reformation, those in
existence only date from 1620. Fortunately a collection of letter-books and
various other records of the City of London during the period of the Reformation
are in existence, which confirm that The Company of Masons existed
without a break from late in the thirteenth century until the middle of the
seventeenth century. During the reconstruction of London after the Great
Fire in 1666, the Company was in serious decline. The last great work in
which it was involved was Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece, St Paul’s
Cathedral reconstructed from 1675 to 1707, when eighty percent of the masons had
to come from the country.
The unbroken existence
of The Company of Masons over some four hundred years maintained
the continuity of operative lodges in England, even through the fifteenth
century persecutions, which enabled their traditions and practices to be
preserved. Possibly other operative lodges also survived, though hidden from
public view. Entries in the books of The Company of Masons in 1620
and 1621 show that the membership then included “accepted masons”
as well as “operative masons”, but no records have been found to
indicate when or why any of the masons were “accepted”. Entries in
1648 and 1650 clearly indicate that the Company had an inner
fraternity, known as the Acception, that could be entered only on
being made a freemason, but as there are no details of the ceremonials
associated with admission it is not known whether they were of an esoteric
nature. It is a matter of conjecture whether the “accepted masons”
were speculative in the modern sense, but it is reasonable to assume that some
special benefit of membership was perceived. From 1663 onwards the Company
admitted to membership a number of people who were not craftsmen, including
several women. In 1713, six years after St Paul’s Cathedral was completed, a
woman was apprenticed for the usual term of seven years.
The usages and customs
of operative masons that have come down to us in speculative craft freemasonry
include various traditions concerning the construction of the temple at
Jerusalem, the symbolic use of the working tools to impart moral instruction and
the modes of recognition used in the various grades of membership. When persons
other than tradesmen were first received into operative lodges, they were men of
learning and public stature who undoubtedly would have been welcomed because of
their erudition and the influence they could bring to bear in the community for
the benefit of the members. Those who had been received into membership also
would have benefited from the widening of their interests in the new avenues of
tradition and knowledge that were then available to them. As long ago as the
1500s many Scots lodges welcomed local lairds as honorary members. Although they
would not be regarded as speculative freemasons in the modern sense, they were
the forerunners of the many who joined Scottish operative lodges when work was
declining. The Lodge of Edinburgh minutes in 1600 record that James Boswell, the
Laird of Auchinleck, was in attendance and the minutes of 1634 record the
admissions of Lord Alexander, Sir Antony Alexander and Sir Alexander Strachan as
Fellows of the Craft. Those wishing to pursue these aspects in more detail would
find The Pocket History of Freemasonry by Fred L. Peck and
G. Norman Knight, revised by Frederick Smyth and the Freemasons’ Guide and
Compendium by Bernard E. Jones of considerable interest.
In England the Civil War
of 1642-1646 led to the domination of Oliver Cromwell, which was followed by a
very turbulent period until the settlement reached in 1689 when William of
Orange and Mary acceded to the throne of England. The few surviving records that
have been discovered now show that this was the formative period of modern
speculative freemasonry in England. This is in contrast with Scotland, where
records reveal that many of the operative lodges progressively became
speculative lodges. A significant event during that period is the first known
initiation on English soil of someone who was not an operative mason. He was the
Right Honourable Robert Moray, General Quartermaster of the Scots army, who was
admitted into the Lodge of Edinburgh at a meeting held near Newcastle in May
1641. This lodge was also known as “Mary’s Chapel”. Robert Moray
later became Secretary of Scotland and in 1673 was buried in Westminster Abbey
under the name Murray. The earliest known record of an Englishman initiated as a
speculative freemason on English soil is of Elias Ashmole, the renowned
antiquary, who was made a mason in a lodge at Warrington in Lancashire in
October 1646. Nothing is known about the admissions into freemasonry of any of
the other members of the lodge at that time, but there is reason to believe that
they included Royalists as well as supporters of Parliament. There is no record
of any of the members being an operative mason, although one may have been.
In England some
operative masons, such as the members of lodges engaged on the construction of
the York Minster, could work for a lifetime on a single project. Other lodges
could work for many years on smaller cathedrals before having to move to a new
work site, often in the same district. However, there always were small lodges
that had to move frequently, as well as many itinerant masons moving from site
to site in search of work. In Scotland the whole mason trade revolved around
smaller operative lodges, of which there were many more than in England. The
territorial lodges in Scotland were organised under the supervision of head
lodges, which were not always in large towns. The repressions of the Reformation
were much less severe in Scotland than in England, so that many of the Scottish
operative lodges were able to become speculative lodges, a development that had
no direct parallel in England.
Throughout the Middle
Ages and afterwards until well into the eighteenth century, travel in Britain
was greatly restricted and very hazardous. Although the more affluent residents
could make journeys on horseback or by horse and coach, ordinary persons were
usually confined to travelling on foot, commonly called going “on tramp”.
Robbery under arms was commonplace, so that the general population avoided
travel whenever possible. However, because of their vocation, operative masons
often had to travel long distances in search of new work. A unique custom in the
craft was that an itinerant mason, when seeking work in an operative lodge, had
either to be given employment for an appropriate minimum period or to be
provided with sufficient sustenance to reach the next nearest place of work. To
facilitate their travel in safety, the operative masons in those days had
unobtrusive distinguishing signs enabling them to seek out members of the craft
at roadside hostelries, as well as modes of recognition with which to establish
their credentials with a prospective employer. Some masonic researchers hold the
view that the possession of masonic credentials for safe travel was a primary
objective of those who were “made” masons in the seventeenth
century, calling it the “passport theory” for the development of
speculative craft freemasonry. While this might have been a contributing factor
in the development, it would not explain why the working tools and procedures of
operative masons were adopted as the basis of moral instruction in speculative
craft freemasonry.
It is now generally
accepted that speculative craft freemasonry began to emerge in the seventeenth
century. This is when many operative lodges in Scotland already were
transforming into speculative lodges, when Elias Ashmole was made a mason in
England and when The Company of Masons in London had been
admitting persons other than masons to the Acception from about 1648. Of
particular interest is a note in Elias Ashmole’s diary in March 1682, recording
his attendance at “a lodge held at Masons Hall London”. He states
that he was the “Senior Fellow among them”, that six gentlemen
were admitted into the “Fellowship of Free Masons” and that
afterwards they dined at a tavern in Cheapeside “at a Noble dinner
prepaired at the charge of the New-accepted Masons”. Excepting the new
admissions, all but three of those present were members of The Company of
Masons, including its Master and several who had been Master in previous
years. References in various pamphlets and periodicals between 1676 and 1710
confirm that Londoners then were more familiar with Freemasonry
than with The Company of Masons or the Acception. It
is not known how many speculative lodges had been formed in England before June
1717, when four or possibly six among the oldest of them assembled in London and
established the first Grand Lodge, claiming jurisdiction over all
lodges meeting in London and Westminster. Its sphere of jurisdiction included at
least sixty-four lodges by 1726, when it had become known as the Grand
Lodge of England and its first two Provincial Grand Masters had been
appointed. Of the founding lodges, it is recorded that the Original No 1
was constituted in 1691, but it is believed to have had an earlier origin and
that its members almost certainly had been members of an operative lodge
involved in the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral from 1675 to 1710.
Unlike the situation in
Scotland, only one lodge of operative masons in England that is known to have
become a speculative lodge is still in existence. Originally it was located at
Stalwell in County Durham and accepted a warrant from the Grand Lodge of
England in 1735. It continued to work as an operative lodge for another
twenty years before becoming speculative and moving to Gateshead, where it still
meets as the Lodge of Industry No 48. By way of contrast another lodge of
operative masons meeting at Alnwick in Northumberland, that had been in
existence long before the Grand Lodge of England was formed, did
not accept a warrant and appears to have ceased to function in about 1763. Its
minutes from 1703 onwards are still in existence, together with a copy of the
Old Charges and a code of rules devised by the lodge in 1701. It is
of note that when Dr James Anderson drafted the original Constitutions
for the Grand Lodge of England in 1723, not more than ten copies
of the Old Charges were available for his reference, although more
than a hundred have now been found and classified. The Cooke MS
was the oldest copy of the Old Charges used when compiling the
Constitutions. It is the second oldest known to be in existence and
is held in the library of the British Museum. As its date of origin has been
assessed to be around fifty years after the Regius MS, it also was
in use before the Act of 1547 that disendowed all religious fraternities. These
two documents have many similarities, although the Cooke MS was
intended primarily as a history. The third oldest copy of the Old Charges
is known as the Grand Lodge MS No 1, dated 25 December 1583.
Having been written after the Act of 1547, it is significant because it reflects
a distinct transition from the purely operative nature of earlier documents and
includes much that is of a speculative nature.
In 1725 an operative
lodge of great antiquity in York, then in the process of becoming speculative,
proclaimed itself to be a Grand Lodge. In the following year it
also claimed to be the “Grand Lodge of All England”, because of
its “undoubted right”, disputing the superiority of the
Grand Lodge of England, even though its authority never extended beyond
Yorkshire. This operative lodge was dormant from 1740 to 1760 and finally ceased
to operate in about 1792, although it was never formally dissolved. In Ireland
there is no record of any operative lodge becoming a speculative lodge. The
earliest reference to a speculative lodge is in the opening address given in
1688 by John Jones at Trinity College in Dublin. Of interest is The Dublin
Weekly Journal report in June 1725 that six “Lodges of Gentlemen
Freemasons” met and elected a new Grand Master. This is the earliest
reference to the Grand Lodge of Ireland, because all official
records prior to 1760 have been lost. This contrasts with Scotland where most
operative lodges continued into the 1750s and even longer, although by then many
of them had become speculative. The Masters and Wardens of four old lodges that
were or had been operative met in Edinburgh in October 1736 and formed the
Grand Lodge of Scotland. Two of those lodges and several others
joining soon after still exist and have records substantiating their continuity
from operative days. The “Grand Lodge of Antients” was formed in
England in 1752, to protest against the apathy and neglect being displayed by
the Grand Lodge of England, which they dubbed “the Moderns”, as
well as expressing dissatisfaction with the rituals being used and the
ceremonials being practised. The Antients and the Moderns
finally settled their differences when their two Grand Masters signed and sealed
twenty-one Articles of Union in 1813. These were quickly ratified by the two
Grand Lodges representing 647 lodges, thus establishing the
United Grand Lodge of England which continues in existence. The
Grand Lodge of Antients undoubtedly had a substantial influence on the
rituals used in modern speculative freemasonry.
Modern freemasonry has
many branches, with a multitude of complementary degrees that are progressive
along a variety of paths. The constitutions and laws of modern Grand Lodges
usually refer to their members as Antient, Free and Accepted Masons.
Most constitutions define Pure Antient Masonry as the three
degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason, but frequently
also include either or both of the Honourable Degree of Mark Master Mason and
the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch, even though these latter degrees
usually are not worked under the auspices of the Grand Lodge. The traditional
degrees of freemasonry include all of the foregoing and several others that are
based on the story of the construction of King Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem,
its subsequent destruction when the Jews were exiled to Babylon and its
rebuilding by Zerubbabel under the provisions of the Decree of Cyrus. The
narratives of the traditional degrees are woven around a series of events
recorded in the Old Testament. Other important orders in modern freemasonry are
the Royal Order of Scotland, the Ancient and Accepted Rite, the Red Cross of
Constantine, the Knights Templar and the Knight Templar Priests, all of which
have Christian aspects, as well as others such as the Allied Masonic Degrees. Of
particular relevance is “The Worshipful Society of Free Masons, Rough
Masons, Wallers, Slaters, Paviors, Plaisterers and Bricklayers”.
Commonly referred to as The Operatives, this Society was founded
in 1913 by the few remaining members of some English operative lodges that were
rapidly becoming defunct, so as to ensure that the traditions and ceremonials of
the operative masons would be perpetuated, because they were in imminent danger
of being lost.
The catechism that every
initiate in speculative craft freemasonry is required to learn defines
freemasonry as a peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated
by symbols, but there are many misconceptions about the purpose of freemasonry.
A significant factor contributing to this dilemma is the reversal in the roles
of two key elements in the practice of the speculative freemasonry. The
available records clearly show that the founders of speculative craft
freemasonry in England regarded a lodge meeting primarily as a forum for
philosophical communion in search of spiritual elevation, wherein the members
could discourse upon a wide range of relevant topics, more or less in the
fashion of meetings of the Royal Society to which many of them
belonged. Before an application for membership would be considered, the
petitioner was required to demonstrate that his interests were compatible with
those of the members. Admission into the various degrees was to ensure that all
members had a common foundation for their activities in the lodge, as well as
establishing a basis for assessing the credentials of strangers wishing to
attend meetings. This followed the precedents established in lodges of operative
masons and other trade and religious fraternities that had been in existence for
many centuries. In contrast, most modern lodges place the greatest emphasis on
the working of the various degrees, almost to the exclusion of philosophical
discussion on the underlying teachings incorporated in the rituals of those
degrees. There can be no doubt that this approach has contributed significantly
to the continuing decline in membership.
It would be difficult to
find a more comprehensive and enlightening discourse on the purpose of
freemasonry than that expounded in The Spirit of Masonry by Foster
Bailey, of which the following are some relevant excerpts:
“Masonry might
first of all be regarded as a school of ethical training. It is, however, much
more than that. Every Mason is supposed to be ‘of good report and well
recommended’. He enters Masonry in order ‘to learn to subdue his passions’ and
to ‘improve himself in Masonry’. . . . . .”
“Masonry is also a
training school in cooperative and fraternal work. It implies therefore the
submergence of all personal and consequently temperamental attitudes in the good
of the Craft. . . . . .”
“From another angle
we might look upon speculative Masonry as embodying symbolically the drama of
human evolution and as picturing for us the steps by which man reaches the goal
of his liberation. The progress made by the candidate as he enters the Temple
for the first time and passes from one degree to another, can be studied as a
dramatic representation of the search for light and for the Word of God which
characterises every soul. Masonry portrays the eternal quest. In total
ignorance, blind and defenceless, man enters into the Temple of Life.
Progressively he arrives at greater light and knowledge; he becomes worthy of
receiving a reward and later can attain to an increase in wages. Still later he
comes to a realisation of those hidden indications which warrant his pushing
forward in search of the Lost Word which can only be sought by a Master Mason.
Steadily he goes forward using all the light available, travelling from the West
to the East by way of the North. In spite of the difficulties and dangers
encountered, he achieves increased knowledge and begins to ‘perfect himself in
Masonry’.”
“It might in
conclusion be pointed out that (in this process of revealing the hidden and
secret) certain undesirable aspects of the Masonic work and organisation must
inevitably disappear. The appetite of curiosity seekers, the private political
machinations of certain Masonic groups and the purely social and commercial
incentives which govern much of the Masonic policies in many lands must end.
They only besmirch the fair name of a deeply spiritual organisation. The mystery
of spirit, the mystery of light, the mystery of our relation to God and to each
other, the mystery of our search for truth and divine experience and the mystery
of immortality and resurrection must emerge in their true place . . . . . .”
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