MASONIC RESEARCH
Bro. Wallace McLeod is a member and Past Master of Mizpah Lodge #572,
Toronto, Canada, and a member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge #2076, London, England,
he is the Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of
Ontario.
This 9- 99 STB was taken from the report of the Grand Historian, (Bro.
McLeod). given to his Grand Lodge in July 1999.
Early attempts at Masonic research are traced and many familiar names of
Masonic scholars who should be forever in our memory are mentioned. Those
interested in Masonic research may contact MSA for our list "Masonic Research
Lodges (U.S.)" -Editor
The Craft clearly has a number of different functions. It confers degrees. It
conciliates friendship. It induces the habit of virtue. It ministers to the
relief of want and sorrow. It encourages its members to make a daily advancement
in Masonic knowledge.
I shall talk briefly about the last of these objectives, Masonic education.
In the course of my remarks, I propose to pay tribute to a number of educators
of the past and present, and mention some of the most important educational
publications.
Research Bodies in England. There are Masonic research
bodies that are not directly administered by Grand Lodges, but which can provide
educational opportunities for our members. They are of two types: regularly
warranted research lodges, and independent research societies.
Perhaps the earliest organization devoted to Masonic research was the Masonic
Archaeological Institute, in London. The records are casual and sporadic, but
evidently it was operating by June 1871, and its members included Charles Warren
(1840-1927), who later, as Chief Commissioner of Police, would lead the
investigation into the murders committed by Jack the Ripper in 1888. The
Institute ceased to operate in 1873.
It seems that Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, London, is the oldest
research lodge that is still active. Its warrant is dated November 28, 1884, and
its Transactions have been published every year since then. The charter
members included the great Sir Charles Warren, whom we just mentioned. The
membership is limited to forty at any one time, a number that has never been
reached in 115 years. In fact, from the time of its foundation up to 1997, it
has had only 179 members. They have included such great scholars as Robert Freke
Gould (who lived 1836-1915), the founder of the "authentic" school of Masonic
research; Bernard Jones (1879-1965), the author of the indispensable
Freemason's Guide and Compendium (1950); Douglas Knoop (1883-1948), who
collaborated with G. P. Jones and Douglas Hamer to put together The Early
Masonic Catechisms (1953); Herbert Poole (1885-1951), who produced the
revised edition of Gould's History of Freemasonry (195 1); Fred L. Pick
(1898-1966), the co-author (with G. Norman Knight) of The
Pocket History of Freemasonry (1953); Harry Carr (1900-1983), who visited
Canada a number of times on lecture tours, and who wrote The Freemason at
Work (1976). And the current members include such scholars as John M.
Hamill and Robert A. Gilbert, the editors of the magnificent volume,
Freemasonry: A Celebration of the Craft (1992).
As well, a few Canadians have been admitted as full members of the lodge,
including our own John Ross Robertson (1841-1918), the author of History of
Freemasonry in Canada (1900); Robert J. Meekren (1876-1963), the editor of
The Builder magazine of the National Masonic Research Society of Iowa
from 1925 to 1930; A. J. B. Milborne (1888-1976), who wrote Freemasonry in
the Province of Quebec (1960); and Gerard Brett (1915-1968), Director of
the Royal Ontario Museum, 1947-1955. (But of course any Mason can join the
Correspondence Circle of Quatuor Coronati Lodge; the address is The Secretary,
Q.C.C.C. Ltd., 60 Great Queen Street, London WC211 5BA, England). Since 1924,
the lodge has sponsored the Prestonian Lectures, the only lectures that are
given with the authority of the United Grand Lodge of England. These have been
collected and published in four volumes so far. And every year since 1971 the
lodge has offered the Norman B. Spencer Prize for the best essay submitted by a
new scholar. Following the example of Quatuor Coronati, other research lodges
were founded in Britain.
And more recently, late last year, the Canonbury Masonic Research Centre was
established in London, "to provide support and to encourage research into the
full spectrum of academic inquiry into Freemasonry," The Trustees include the
Assistant Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England (Marquess of
Northampton), and the Grand Secretary (James Daniel). The Centre has a website
at http://www.canonbury.ac.uk/.
The Antipodes. With regard to research lodges in Australia
and New Zealand, one should consult Tony Pope's paper, "On Australasian Lodges
of Research," in Masonic Challenges: The Transactions of the (Melbourne)
Lodge of Research, No. 218, for 1991. The first real research lodge down
under, St. Alban, No. 38, in Adelaide, South Australia, was founded in December,
1889. It continues to thrive., but has not acted as a research lodge for fifty
years. The oldest such body that has functioned continuously in that capacity is
the Lodge of Research, No. 218, in Melbourne, Victoria, which was formed in
1911. In New Zealand apparently the oldest one is the Masters and Past Masters
Lodge, No. 130, in Christchurch, which was warranted in 1902. There are over
twenty research lodges in Australia and New Zealand that are still active. And
that, to an outsider, seems like a very creditable number.
United States of America. North America was apparently much
slower to recognize the value of such organizations. Actually, the earliest one
seems to be the National Masonic Research Society, which was founded in Iowa in
1915; it published the superb magazine The Builder from 1915 to 1930.
The first actual research lodge in North America was apparently the North
Carolina Lodge of Research, which was founded in 1931. It published a splendid
set of transactions, called Nocalore, but ceased working in 1954. In
its wake, a number of others were founded, one of the earliest being the
American Lodge of Research in New York, likewise dating from 1931. This lodge
confers the honorary title of Fellow upon notable Masonic scholars, and one of
those so recognized was the famous Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius (1865-1957),
who wrote the beautiful Masonic Ritual Music (Opus 113).
There are of course many other research groups. Actually, according to the
latest revision of Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia (1996), in 1990 there
were nearly fifty active research lodges in the United States. Many of them
welcome subscribers from other jurisdictions, publish their transactions, and
make books available to their members.
Canada. Our I country has not had very many such
organizations. In 1915 a Lodge of Research was founded in Nova Scotia, with
Reginald V. Harris as its leader and secretary; he later served as Grand Master
(1932-1935) and then Grand Secretary (1945-1958) of -his Grand Lodge, and was
given the honorary rank of Past Grand Master in Ontario (1938). He was co-author
(with Ronald S. Longley) of A Short History of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia
(1966). His research lodge kept working for at least ten years. The
oldest surviving body of this sort is the Toronto Society for Masonic
Research, which was founded in 1921,and which is still going strong, though with
afairly low profile.
The Canadian Masonic Research Association held its first meeting on May 9,
1950. Over the next quarter century, its members presented 116 papers, the last
one being in May, 1976. (In 1986 these were collected and reprinted, in dime
volumes, by the Heritage Lodge, under the direction of R. W. Bro. C. E. Balfour
LeGresley). The Association included a number of notable Freemasons. We might
mention Joseph R. Smallwood (1900-1991), who in 1949 was the Father of
Confederation for Newfoundland. But as well there were a number of serious
research scholars who belonged. The ones who delivered the greatest number of
papers were Reginald V. Harris (who lived 1881-1968), the historian of Nova
Scotia; A. J. B. Milborne, the historian of Quebec, whom we mentioned as a full
member of Quatuor Coronati; and our own two brethren, John E. Taylor
(1901-1984), recipient of the William Mercer Wilson Medal in 1977; and J.
Lawrence Runnalls (1901-1994), who in 1975 was made an Honorary Past Grand
Senior Warden for his work as editor of the Grand Lodge Bulletin,
1964--1975.
Very soon after the demise of the Canadian Masonic Research Association, the
first research lodge in Ontario was formed. The Heritage Lodge, No. 730, was
instituted on September 21, 1977, with V. W. Bro. (as he was then) Jacob Pos as
the Master, and has been doing productive work ever since. Its main activity has
been in the presentation of research papers at its regular meetings; more than
eighty of these have appeared in the Annual Proceedings over the years.
But as well it has engaged in a number of cognate projects: restoring the old
Lodge Building in Black Creek Pioneer Village, near Toronto, and organizing a
team of Masonic volunteers to serve as guides and interpreters; holding the
annual Heritage Lodge Banquet; assisting in the restoration of noteworthy old
Masonic gravestones (such as the William Mercer Wilson Monument at Simcoe, and
"The Unknown Brother" at Jordan Station); and many others. Altogether, a record
to be proud of! On the Internet, the Heritage Lodge has an excellent website at
http://www.grandlodge.on.ca/heritage.htm.
Philallethes Society. Of the various research bodies in the
United States, the oldest one that is still working is the Philalethes Society.
Its history was outlined in Seekers of Truth (1988), a book written by
Allen E. Roberts to mark its sixtieth anniversary.
The Society was founded on October 1, 1928, by six men, in order to keep free
thinkers in Masonry from being muzzled by those "dressed in a little brief
authority." It is explicitly intended "for Masons who seek light or have light
to impart." The name is a Greek word that means "Lover of Truth."
Over the years the Society increased its profile. in 1931 it decided to
recognize certain Brethren by naming them Fellows of the Philalethes Society ;
the number of Fellows was set at forty. Over the years a total of 187 brethren
have been honoured with this title. They include such people as Rudyard Kipling
(who lived 1865-1936), who wrote a number of Masonic stories and poems; Carl H.
Claudy (1879-1957), the author of The Master's Book (1935); Henry
Wilson Coil (1885-1974), who compiled Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia
(1961; revised 1996); Alphonse Cerza (1905-1987), who wrote Anti-Masonry
(1962); Dwight L. Smith (1909-1993), the author of Whither are we
Traveling? (1962); Allen E. Roberts (1917-1997), who was probably "the most
prolific author, perhaps in all of Masonic history," and whose books include
Key to Freemasonry's Growth (1969); John J. Robinson (1925-1993), who wrote
A Pilgrim's Path (1993); and Jerry Marsengill (1930-1991), the superb
editor of several major Masonic magazines.
As well, a few Canadians have been honoured as Fellows of the Philalethes
Society. They include Robert J. Meekren and Reginald V. Harris, whom we have
already mentioned; Nathaniel W. J. Hayden (1871-1950), the first Librarian of
our Grand Lodge Library, 1934-1949; and Charles E. Holmes (1880-1959), who
became the first editor of the Montreal magazine, Masonic Light, in
September, 1947.
The Philalethes magazine began publication in March, 1946. The first
fifty years of the magazine are now available on a CD-ROM, which is very useful
for purposes of research or reading In February, 1956, the Society began to help
sponsor a Workshop, as part of the meetings of the Allied Masonic Bodies in
Washington. And that same year the first Certificate of Literature was awarded,
for the best article published in the magazine. In 1980 the Society began to
hold an "Annual Assembly and Feast" (a memorable phrase borrowed from Anderson's
Constitutions of 1738). In 1981, for the first time, a Philalethes
Lecturer was named, to present a talk at the Assembly and Feast. Since 1986 the
Society has held a Semi-Annual meeting every year, in different cities. The
Society has about forty-five local chapters, located in a number of countries In
1992, to keep abreast of electronic communication, a dispensation was issued to
Cornerstone Computer Chapter of the Philalethes Society, and the Chapter was
granted a Charter in February 1993. The Society's website (now located at the
address http://freemasonry.org/psoc/) was opened at the end of June, 1995, and
has been very successful.
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