Note: The following material is a scanned-in research resource; it is NOT intended as an exact reproduction of the original volume. Due to computer display variances, page numbers are approximate. Scanned at Phoenixmasonry by Ralph Omholt, PM - June 2007.
The History Of Freemasonry
By
Albert G. Mackey 33°
VOLUME FOUR
PART 2. - HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
CHAPTER PAGE
[Original Volumes / This Copy]
29. - Organization of the Grand Lodge of England ......................... 877 / 7
30. - Was the Organization of the Grand Lodge
in 1717 a Revival? ………………………………………….... 890 / 20
31. - The Early Years of Speculative Freemasonry in England .... 903 / 31
32. - The Early Ritual of Speculative Freemasonry ………............. 926 / 52
33. - The One Degree of Operative Freemasons ……….................. 946 / 75
34. - Invention of the Fellow Craft's Degree .................................... 957 / 87
35. - Non-existence of a Master Mason's Degree
Among the Operative Freemasons ....................................... 964 / 95
36. - The Invention of the Third or Master Mason's Degree ….... 975 / 107
Fac-simile Reprint of the Charges of a Freemason, from original Edition of the "Book of Constitutions," A.D. 1723 ............ 994 / 130
37. - The Death of Operative and the Birth of
Speculative Freemasonry ................................................. 1003 / 150
38. - Introduction of Speculative Freemasonry into France ..... 1017 / 165
39. - The Grand Lodge of All England, or the
Grand Lodge of York ……………………………………… 1043 / 195
40. - Organization of the Grand Lodge of Scotland ................... 1079 / 231
41. - The Atholl Grand Lodge, or the Grand Lodge of England
According to the Old Institutions .................................... 1104 / 254
42. - The Grand Lodge of England, South of the Trent;
or the Schism of the Lodge of Antiquity ......................... 1135 / 284
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME FOUR
PAGE
Albert Pike ………………………………………………………….. 888 / 14
Faith, Hope, and Charity ………………………………………….. 904 / 40
The Funeral Procession …………………………………………... 936 / 54
William Preston …………………………………………………….. 968 / 109
Cologne Cathedral ……………………………………….………. 1000 / 145
Banner of the Knights Templar …………………………………. 1032 / 182
Benjamin Franklin ………………………………………………… 1064 / 216
Plate of Symbols ………………………………………..………… 1096 / 246
Jacob's Dream ………………………………………..…………… 1128 / 276
CHAPTER XXIX
ORGANIZATION OF THE GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND
WE have now reached the most interesting portion of the history of Freemasonry. We are getting away from the regions of legend and tradition, and are passing into the realm of authentic records. And though at this early period there is a sparseness of these records, and sometimes a doubtfulness about their meaning, which will occasionally compel us to build our hypothesis on the foundation of plausible conjecture and reasoning, still, to whatever conclusions we may come, they will, of course, be more satisfactory to the mind than if they were wrought out of mere mythical and traditionary narratives.
It has already been shown that the Guild or Fraternity of Freemasons from the earliest period of its history had admitted into its connection persons of rank and influence who were not workmen of the Craft.
In this usage it followed the example of the Roman Colleges of Artificers, whose patrons were selected to secure to the corporations a protection often needed, from the oppressive interference of the government.
Thus, when after the decadence of the Roman Empire, architecture, which had fallen into decline, began to revive, the Masons were employed in the construction of religious edifices, the dignitaries of the Church naturally became closely connected with the workmen, while many of the monks were operative masons. Bishops and abbots superintended the buildings, and were thus closely connected with the Guild.
This usage was continued even after the Freemasons had withdrawn from all ecclesiastical dependence, and up to the 18th century non‑operatives were admitted into full membership of the Fraternity, under the appellation of Gentlemen or Theoretic Masons, or as Honorary Members. The title of Speculative Freemasons was a word of later coinage, though it is met with, apparently with the same meaning, in one of the oldest Records, the Cooke MS. But this is a solitary instance, and the word never came into general use until some time after the organization of the Grand Lodge in 1717.
It is here used for the sake of convenience, in reference to the early period, but without any intention to intimate that it was then familiar to the Craft. The fact existed, however, though the special word was apparently wanting.
The natural result of this commingling of Operative and Speculative Masons in the same Fraternity, was to beget a spirit of rivalry between the two classes. This eventually culminated in the dissolution of the Guild of Operative Freemasons as distinguished from the Rough Masons or Rough Layers, and the establishment on its ruin of the Society of Speculative Freemasons, which at London, in the year 1717, assumed the title of "The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons."
We are without any authentic narrative of the rise and progress of the contentions between the rival classes in England, because in that country the records of the Operative Lodges before the close of the 17th century have been lost. But the sister kingdom of Scotland has been more fortunate. There the minutes of the Lodges of Edinburgh and Kilwinning exhibit abundant evidence of the struggle for pre‑eminence which terminated in the year 1736 in the establishment of the speculative "Grand Lodge of Scotland."
As the subject‑matter to be treated in this chapter is the history of the establishment at London, in the year 1717, of the Grand Lodge of England, it will be proper as a preliminary step that some notice should be taken of the condition of Freemasonry during the first decade of the 18th century in the south of England.
The lodges then existing in the kingdom consisted, it is supposed, both of Operative and non‑Operative members. We have positive evidence of this in some instances, and especially as respects the lodges in London.
Preston gives the following account of the condition of the institution in the beginning of the 18th century:
"During the Reign of Queen Anne, masonry made no considerable progress. Sir Christopher Wren's age and infirmities drawing off his attention from the duties of his office (that of Grand Master), the lodges decreased, and the annual festivals were entirely neglected. The old Lodge of St. Paul and a few others continued to meet regularly, but consisted of few members." (1)
Anderson, upon whose authority Preston had made this statement, says that "in the South the lodges were more and more disused, partly by the neglect of the Masters and Wardens and partly by not having a noble Grand Master at London, and the annual Assembly was not duly attended." (2)
As the statement so often made by Anderson and other writers of his school, that there was, anterior to the seventeenth year of the 18th century, an annual Assembly of the Craft in England over which a Grand Master presided, has been proved to be apocryphal, we must attribute the decline of Operative Freemasonry to other causes than those assigned by Dr. Anderson.
I have heretofore attempted to show that the decline in the spirit of Operative Freemasonry was to be attributed to the decadence of Gothic Architecture. By this the Freemasons were reduced to a lower level than they had ever before occupied, and were brought much nearer to the "Rough Masons" than was pleasing to their pride of "cunning." They thus lost the pre‑eminence in the Craft which they had so long held on account of their acknowledged genius and the skill which in past times they had exhibited in the art of building.
But whatever may have been the cause, the fact is indisputable that at the beginning of the 18th century the Freemasons had lost much of their high standing as practical architects and had greatly diminished in numbers.
In the year 1716 there were but four lodges of Operative Masons in the city of London. The minutes of these lodges are not extant, and we have no authentic means of knowing what was their precise condition.
But we do know that among their members were many gentlemen of education who were not Operative Masons, but belonged to the class of Theoretic or Speculative Freemasons, which, as I have previously said, it had long been the custom of the Operative Freemasons to admit into their Fraternity.
Preston, in his Illustrations of Masonry, in a passage already
(1) "Illustrations of Masonry," Jones's edit., 1821, p. 189. a (2) "Constitutions," edit. 1738, p. 108.
cited, speaking of the decline of the lodges in the first decade of the 18th century, makes this statement:
"To increase their numbers, a proposition was made, and afterwards agreed to, that the privileges of Masonry should no longer be restricted to Operative Masons, but extend to men of various professions, provided they were regularly approved and initiated into the Order."
For this statement he gives no authority. Anderson, who was contemporary with the period of time when this regulation is said to have been adopted, makes no allusion to it, and Preston himself says on a preceding page that "at a general assembly and feast of the Masons in 1697 many noble and eminent brethren were present, and among the rest, Charles, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, who was at that time Master of the lodge at Chichester." (1)
The statement appears, therefore, to be apochryphal. Such a proposition would certainly have been wholly superfluous, as there is abundant evidence that in England in the 17th century "men of various professions" had been "regularly approved and initiated into the Order."
Elias Ashmole, the Antiquary, states in his Diary that he and Colonel Mainwaring were initiated in a lodge at Warrington in 1646, and he records the admission of several other non‑Operatives in 1682 at a lodge held in London.
Dr. Plott, in his Natural History of Staffiordshire, printed in 1686, states that "persons of the most eminent quality did not disdain to be of the Fellowship."
In the first and second decades of the 18th century Operative Freemasonry appears, judging from extant records, to have been in the following condition:
In the northern counties there were several lodges of Operative Freemasons, which had a permanent character, having rules for their government, and holding meetings at which new members were admitted.
Thus Preston speaks of a lodge which was at Chichester in 1697, of which the Duke of Richmond and Lennox was Master; there was a lodge at Alnwick in Northumberland, whose records from
(1) "Illustrations of Masonry," p. 189, Jones's edit.
1701 are extant; (1) and there was at least one lodge, if not more, in the city of York whose preserved minutes begin on March 19, 1712. (2) we have every reason to suppose that similar lodges were to be found in other parts of the kingdom, though the minutes of their transactions have unfortunately been lost.
In London there were four operative lodges. These were the lodges which in 1717 united in the formation of the Speculative Grand Lodge of England, an act that has improperly been called the "Revival."
All the lodges mentioned consisted of two classes of members, namely, those who were Operative Freemasons and who worked in the mystery of the Craft, and those who were non‑Operative, or, as they were sometimes called, Gentlemen Freemasons.
The ceremony of admission or initiation was at this time of a very simple and unpretentious character. There was but one form common to the three ranks of Apprentices, Fellows, and Masters, and the division into degrees, as that word is now understood, was utterly unknown. (3)
From the close of the 17th century the Operative lodges were gradually losing their prestige. They were no longer, as Lord Lindsay has denominated their predecessors of the Middle Ages, "parliaments of genius;" their architectural skill had decayed; their geometrical secrets were lost; and the distinction which had once been so proudly maintained between the Freemasons and the "rough layers" was being rapidly obliterated.
Meantime the men of science and culture who had been admitted into their ranks, thought that they saw in the principle of brotherhood which was still preserved, and in the symbolic teachings which were not yet altogether lost, a foundation for another association, in which the fraternal spirit should remain as the bond of union, and the doctrines of symbolism, hitherto practically applied to the art of architecture, should be in future directed to the illustration of the science of morality.
(1) Bro. Hughan has published excerpts from the minutes. See Mackey's "National Freemason," vol iii., p. 233. (2) See Hughan's History of Freemasonry in York, in his " Masonic Sketches and Reprints," p. 55. See also an article by him in the Voice of Masonry, vol. xiii., p. 571 . (3) This subject will be fully discussed in a future chapter on the history of the origin of the three Craft degrees, and the statement here made will be satisfactorily substantiated.
Long afterward the successors of these founders of Speculative Freemasonry defined it to be "a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols."
Feeling that there was no congenial companionship between themselves and the uncultured men who composed the Operative element of the Association, the gentlemen of education and refinement who constituted the Theoretic element or the Honorary membership of the four lodges then existing in the city of London, resolved to change the character of these lodges, and to withdraw them entirely from any connection with Operative or Practical Masonry.
It was in this way that Speculative Freemasonry found its origin in the desire of a few speculative thinkers who desired, for the gratification of their own taste, to transmute what in the language of the times would have been called a club of workmen into a club of moralists.
The events connected with this transmutation are fully recorded by Dr. Anderson, in the second edition of the Constitutions, and as this is really the official account of the transaction, it is better to give it in the very language of that account, than to offer any version of it.
The history of the formation of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of England, is given in the following words by Dr. Anderson, who is said to have been one of the actors in the event:
" King George I. entered London most magnificently on 20 Sept., 1714, and after the rebellion was over, A.D. 1716, the few lodges at London, finding themselves neglected by Sir Christopher Wren, thought fit to cement under a Grand Master as the centre of union and harmony, viz., the lodges that met.
"1, At the 'Goose and Gridiron Ale‑house' in St. Paul's Churchyard.
"2. At the 'Crown Ale‑house' in Parker's Lane near Drury Lane.
"3. At the ' Apple Tree Tavern ' in Charles Street, Covent Garden.
"4. At the 'Rummer and Grapes Tavern' in Channel Row, Westminster.
"They and some old brothers met at the said Apple Tree, and having put into the chair the oldest Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge) they constituted themselves a Grand Lodge, pro tempore, in Due Form, and forthwith revived the Quarterly Communication of the Officers of Lodges (called the Grand Lodge) resolved to hold the Annual Feast and then to choose a Grand Master from among themselves, till they should have the honor of a noble brother at their head.
"Accordingly
On St. John Baptist's day, in the 3d year of King George I., A.D. 1717, the Assembly and Feast of the Free and Accepted Masons was held at the foresaid ' Goose and Gridiron Ale‑house.'
"Before dinner, the oldest Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge) in the Chair, proposed a list of proper candidates, and the brethren by a majority of hands elected
"Mr. Anthony Sayer, Gentleman, Grand Master of Masons,
Capt. Joseph Elliott Mr. Jacob Lamball, Carpenter Grand Wardens,
who being forthwith invested with the badges of office and power by the said oldest Master, and installed, was duly congratulated by the Assembly who paid him the homage.
"Sayer, Grand Master, commanded the Masters and Wardens of Lodges to meet the Grand Officers every quarter in communication at the place appointed in his summons sent by the Tyler." (1)
Such is the account of the transmutation of the four Operative to four Speculative lodges, given by Dr. Anderson, who is believed, with George Payne, Esq., and Dr. Desaguliers, to have been principally instrumental in effecting the transmutation.
Meager as are the details of so important an event which Anderson, as a contemporary actor, might easily have made more copious, they suggest several important points for our consideration.
We see that the change to be effected by the establishment of the Speculative Grand Lodge was not too hastily accomplished.
The first meeting in which it was resolved to organize a Grand Lodge took place some months before the actual organization occurred.
Anderson says that the four lodges met in 1716 and "revived the Quarterly Communication of the officers of lodges."
Preston says that they met in February, 1717, and that at this
(1) "Constitutions," 1738 edition. pp. 109, 110.
meeting "it was resolved to revive the Quarterly Communications of the Fraternity."
This is a more accurate statement than that of Anderson. The meeting in February, 1717, was merely preliminary. A resolution was adopted, or perhaps more correctly speaking, an agreement was entered into, to organize a Grand Lodge. But this agreement was not carried into execution until four months afterward. There could have been no Grand Lodge without a Grand Master, and the Grand Master was not elected until the 24th of June following. The apparent disagreement of the dates assigned to the preparatory meeting, Anderson saying it was in 1716, and Preston that it was in February, 1717, is easily reconciled.
Anderson in his narrative used the Old Style, in which the year began on March 25th, consequently February would fall in 1716. Preston used the New Style, which begins the year on January 1st, and thereby February fell in 1717. The actual period of time referred to by both authors is really the same.
In an anonymous work (1) published in 1764 it is said that six lodges were engaged in the organization of the Grand Lodge, but as the two additional lodges are not identified, it is better to reject the statement as untruthful, and to abide by the authority of Anderson, who, as Bro. Hughan says, "clearly wrote at a time when many personally knew as to the facts narrated and whose Book of Constitutions was really the official statement issued by the Grand Lodge."
The fact that four lodges were engaged in the act of transmuting Operative into Speculative Freemasonry by organizing a Grand Lodge, while admitted as an historical fact by Lawrence Dermott, is used by him as an objection to the legality of the organization.
"To form," he says, "what Masons mean by a Grand Lodge, there must have been the Masters and Wardens of five regular lodges that is to say, five Masters and ten Wardens, making the numbs of installed officers fifteen." (2)
But although Dermott very confidently asserts that this "is well known to every man conversant with the ancient laws, usages, customs, and ceremonies of Master Masons," (3) there can be no doubt that this point of law so dogmatically proclaimed was the
(1) "The Complete Freemason, or Multa Paucis, for Lovers of Secrets." (2) "Ahiman Rezon " p. 13. (3) Ibid., p. 14
pure invention of Dermott's brain, and is entitled to no weight whatever.
As the Grand Lodge which was established in 1717 was the first one ever known, it was impossible that there could be any "ancient laws" to regulate its organization.
It is noteworthy that each of these premier lodges met at a tavern or ale‑ house. During the last century Freemasons' lodges in England almost universally had their lodge‑rooms in the upper part of taverns. The custom was also adopted in this country, and all the early lodges in America were held in the upper rooms of buildings occupied as taverns.
The custom of meeting in taverns was one that was not confined to the Masonic Brotherhood. The early part of the 18th century was, in London, as we have already seen, the era of clubs. These societies, established some for literary, some for social, and some for political purposes, always held their meetings in taverns. " Will's Coffee House " is made memorable in the numbers of the Spectator as the rendezvous of the wits of that day.
It will also be noticed that these four lodges were without names, such as are now borne by lodges, but that they were designated by the signs of the taverns in which they held their meetings. Half a century elapsed before the lodges in England began to assume distinctive names. The first lodge to do so was Friendship Lodge No. 3, which is so styled in Cole's List of Lodges for 1767.
No difficulty or confusion, however, arose from this custom of designating lodges by the signs of the taverns in which they held their meetings, for it seldom happened that more than one lodge ever met at any tavern. "The practice," says Gould, "of any one tavern being common as a place of meeting, to two or more lodges, seems to have been almost unknown in the last century." (1)
Two of the four taverns in which these four original lodges were held, and two of the lodges themselves, namely, the "Apple Tree," where the design of separating the Speculative from the Operative element was inaugurated, and the "Goose and Gridiron," where that design was consummated by the organization of the new Grand Lodge, particularly claim our attention.
(1) "The Four Old Lodges," by Robert Freke Gould, p. 13.
But it will be more convenient while engaged on this subject to trace the fate and fortune of the whole four.
In this investigation I have been greatly aided by the laborious and accurate treatise of Bro. Robert Freke Gould, of London, on the Four Old Lodges. After his exhaustive analysis there is but little chance of unearthing any new discoveries, though I have been able to add from other sources a few interesting facts.
The lodge first named on Anderson's list met at the "Goose and Gridiron Ale‑house," and it was there that, on the 24th of June, 1717, the Grand Lodge of England was established. Elmes says that "Sir Christopher Wren was Master of St. Paul's Lodge, which during the building of the Cathedral of St. Paul's, met at the 'Goose and Gridiron' in St. Paul's Churchyard, and is now the Lodge of Antiquity, acting by immemorial prescription; and he regularly presided at its meetings for upward of eighteen years." (1)
Dr. Oliver says that Dr. Desaguliers, who may be properly reputed as the principal founder of modern Speculative Freemasonry, was initiated into the ceremonies of the Operative system, such as they were, in the lodge that met at the "Goose and Gridiron," and the date assigned for his admission is the year 1712.
Larwood and Hotten in their History of Sign Boards, copying from a paper of the Tatler, say that the Tavern was originally a Music house, with the sign of the "Mitre." When it ceased to be a Music house the succeeding landlord chose for his sign a goose stroking the bars of a gridiron with his foot in ridicule of the "Swan and Harp," which was a common sign for the early music houses. (2) I doubt the truth of this origin, and think it more likely that the "Swan and Harp" degenerated into the "Goose and Gridiron" by the same process of blundenng, so common in the history of signs which corrupted "God encompasseth us" into the "Goat and Compasses" or the "Belle Sauvage" into the "Bell and Savage."
In the list of lodges for 1725 to 1730 contained in the Minute Book of the Grand Lodge of England, Lodge No. 1 is still recorded as holding its meetings at the "Goose and Gridiron," whence, however, it not very long after removed, for in the next list, from 1730 to 1732, it is recorded as being held at the "King's Arms," in St. Paul's Churchyard.
(1) Elmes's "Sir Christopher Wren and his Times," quoted in the Keystone (2) "History of Sign Boards," p. 445.
The "King's Arms" continued to be its place of meeting (except a short time in 1735, when it met at the "Paul's Head," Ludgate Street) until 1768, when it removed to the "Mitre." Eight years before, it assumed the name of the "West India and American Lodge." In 1770 it became the "Lodge of Antiquity." Of this lodge the distinguished Masonic writer, William Preston, was a member. In 1779 it temporarily seceded from the Grand Lodge, and formed a schismatic Grand Lodge. The history of this schism will be the subject of a future chapter.
At the union of the two Grand Lodges of "Moderns" and "Ancients," it lost its number "One" in drawing lots and became number's Two," which number it still retains, though it is always recognized as the "premier lodge of England," and therefore of the world.
The "Goose and Gridiron Tavern" continued to be the place of meeting of the Grand Lodge until 1721, when in consequence of the need of more room from the increase of lodges the annual feast was held at Stationers' Hall. (1) The Grand Lodge never returned to the "Goose and Gridiron." It afterward held its quarterly communications at various taverns, and the annual assembly and feast always at some one of the Halls of the different Livery Companies of London. This migratory system prevailed until the Freemasons were able to erect a Hall of their own.
The second lodge which engaged in 1717 in the organization of the Grand Lodge, met at the "Crown Ale‑house" in Parker's Lanes near Drury Lane. According to Bro. Gould, it removed about 1723 to the "Queen's Head," Turnstile, Holborn; to the "Green Lettuce," Brownlow Street, in 1725; (2) thence to the "Rose and Rummer" in 1728, and to the "Rose and Buffer" in 1729. In 1730 it met at the "Bull and Gate," Holborn, and appearing for the last time in the list for 1736, was struck off the roll in 1740.
But it had ceased to exist before that year, for Anderson, in the list published by him in 1738, says: "The Crown in Parker's Lane, the other of the four old Lodges, is now extinct." (3)
The third lodge engaged in the Grand Lodge organization was that which met at the "Apple Tree Tavern " in 1717. It was there
(1) Anderson's "Constitutions," 2d edit., p. 112. (2) Gould's "Four Old Lodges," p. 6. (3) Anderson's " Constitutions," 2d edit., p. 185.
that in February of that year the Freemasons who were preparing to sever the connection between the Operative and Theoretic Masons, took the preliminary steps toward effecting that design. From the "Apple Tree" it removed about 1723 to the Queen's Head," Knave's Acre; thence in 1740 to the George and Dragon," Portland Street, Oxford Market; thence in 1744 to the "Swan" in the same region. In the lists from 1768 to 1793 it is described as the Lodge of Fortitude. After various other migrations, it amalgamated, in 1818, with the Old Cumberland Lodge, and is now the Fortitude and Old Cumberland Lodge No. 12 on the roll of the United Grand Lodge of England. (1)
Of this third or "Apple Tree" Lodge, Anthony Sayer, the first Grand Master of England, was a member, and most probably was in 1717 or had been previously the Master. In 1723 he is recorded as the Senior Warden of the Lodge, which is certainly an evidence of his Masonic zeal.
The last of the four old Lodges which constituted the Grand Lodge met in 1717 at the "Rummer and Grapes Tavern," Westminster. It moved thence to the "Horn Tavern," Westminster, in 1723. It seemed to be blessed with a spirit of permanency which did not appertain to the three other lodges, for it remained at the "Horn" for forty‑three years, not migrating until 1767, when it went to the "Fleece," Tothill Street, Westminster. The year after it assumed the name of the Old Horn Lodge. In 1774 it united with and adopted the name of the Somerset House Lodge, and met at first at the "Adelphi" and afterward until 1815 at "Freemasons' Tavern." In 1828 it absorbed the Royal Inverness Lodge, and is now registered on the roll of the United Grand Lodge of England as the Royal Somerset House and Inverness Lodge No. 4. (2)
George Payne, who was twice Grand Master, in 1718 and in 1720, had been Master of the original Rummer and Grapes Lodge. He must have been so before his first election as Grand Master in 1718, and he is recorded in the first edition of Anderson as having been its Master again in 1723. At one time the lodge received an important benefit from this circumstance, as is shown by the following record taken by Entick from the Minutes of the Grand Lodge.
(1) Gould, "Four Old Lodges,"p.7. (2) lbid
In 1747 the lodge, whose number had been changed to No. 2, was erased from the Books of Lodges for not obeying an order of the Quarterly Communication. But in 1753, the members having petitioned the Grand Lodge for restoration, Entick says in his edition of the Constitutions that "after a long debate, it was ordered that in respect to Brother Payne, late Grand Master, the Lodge No. 2 lately held at the 'Horn' in Palace Yard, Westminster, should be restored and have its former rank and place in the list of lodges."
Payne, who was a scholar, had done much for the advancement of Speculative Freemasonry, and the Grand Lodge by this act paid a fitting homage to his character and showed itself not unmindful of his services to the Fraternity.
Such are the facts, well authenticated by unquestioned historical authorities, which are connected with the establishment of the first Grand Lodge of Speculative Freemasons, not only in England, but in the world. Seeing that nothing analogous has been anywhere found in the records of Masonry, irrespective of its unauthenticated legends and traditions, it is proper, before proceeding to inquire snto the condition of the Grand Lodge immediately subsequent to its organization at the "Goose and Gridiron Tavern," that the much discussed question, whether this organization was the invention of an entirely new system or only the revival of an old, and for a short time discontinued, one should be fairly considered.
To this important subject our attention will be directed in the following chapter.
P. 889
CHAPTER XXX
WAS THE ORGANIZATION OF THE GRAND LODGE IN 17I7 A REVIVAL?
It has been the practice of at Masonic writers from the earliest period of its literature to a very recent day, to designate the transaction which resulted in the organization of the Grand Lodge of England in the year 1717 as the "Revival of Freemasonry."
Anderson, writing in 1723, in the first edition of the Constitutions, says that "the freeborn British nation had revived the drooping Lodges of London," and in the year 1738, in the second edition of the same work, he asserts that the old Brothers who met at the "Apple Tree Tavern" "forthwith revived the Quarterly Communication of the Officers of Lodges, called the Grand Lodge."
This statement has been repeated by Preston, Calcott, Oliver, and all the older Masonic authors who have written upon the subject, until it has become an almost universal belief among the larger portion of the Fraternity that from some unknown or indefinite era until the second decade of the 18th century the Grand Lodge had been in a state of profound slumber, and that the Quarterly Communications, once so common, had long been discontinued, through the inertness and indifference of the Craft, while the lodges were drooping like sickly plants.
But in the year 1717, owing to the successful efforts of a few learned scholars, such as Desaguliers, Anderson, and Payne, the Grand Lodge had been awakened from its sleep of years, the Quarterly Communications had been renewed as of old, and the lodges had sprung into fresh and vigorous existence. Such was for a long time and indeed still is, to a diminished extent, the orthodox Masonic creed respecting the Revival of Freemasonry in the 18th century.
But this creed, popular as it is, has within a few years past been ruthlessly attacked by some of our more advanced thinkers, who are skeptical where to doubt is wise, and who are not prepared to aces cept legends as facts, nor to confound trading with history.
And now it is argued that before the year 1717 there never was a Grand Lodge in England, and, of course, there could have been no Quarterly Communications. Therefore, as there had not been a previous life, there could have been no revival, but that the Grand Lodge established in June, 1717, was a new invention, and the introduction of a system or plan of Freemasonry never before heard of or seen.
Which of these two hypotheses is the correct one, or whether there is not a mezzo termine ‑ a middle point or just mean between the two ‑ are questions well worthy of examination.
Let us first inquire what was the character of the four Lodges, and indeed of all the lodges in England which were in existence at the time of the so‑ called "Revival," or had existed at any previous time. What was the authority under which they acted, what was their character, and how was this character affected by the establishment of a new Grand Lodge ?
As to the authority under which the four old lodges, as well as all others that existed in England, acted, it must be admitted that they derived that authority from no power outside of themselves "The authority," says Bro. Hughan, "by which they worked prior to the advent of the Grand Lodge was their own. We know of no other prior to that period for England." (1)
Preston admits that previous to the year 1717 "a sufficient number of Masons met together within a certain district, with the consent of the sheriff or chief magistrate of the place, were empowered to make Masons and practice the rites of Masonry without Warrant of Constitution.'' (2)
Bro. Hughan substantially repeats this statement in the follow ing language:
"A body of Masons in any district or town appear usually to have congregated and formed lodges, and they had the 'Ancient Charges' or Rolls to guide them as to the rules and regulations for Masons generally. There were no Grand Masters or Grand Lodges before 1716‑17, and so there were no authorities excepting such as the annual assemblies and the 'Old Charges' furnished in England."
(1) See Voice of Masonry, vol. xiii., p. 571. (2) Preston's "Illustrations," p. 191, note.
He admits that "there were laws for the government of the lodges apparently, though unwritten, which were duly observed by the brotherhood."
This view is confirmed, impliedly, at least, by all the Old Constitutions in manuscript, from the most ancient to the most recent. In none of these (and the last of them has a date which is only three years prior to the so‑ called " Revival") do we find any reference whatever to a Grand Lodge or to a Grand Master. ldut they repeatedly speak of lodges in which Masons were to be " accepted," and the counsels of which were to be kept secret by the Fellows.
The only allusion made to the manner of organizing a lodge is contained in the Harleian MS., which prescribes that it must consist of not less than five Freemasons, one of whom must be a master or warden of the limit or division wherein the lodge is held.
From this regulation we are authorized, I think, to conclude, that in 1670, which is the date of the Harleian MS., nothing more was necessary in forming a lodge in which "to make Masons or practice the rites of Masonry," as Preston gives the phrase, than that a requisite number should be present, with a Master or Warden working in that locality.
Now the Master, as the word is here used, meant a Freemason of the highest rank, who was engaged in building with workmen under him, and a Warden was one who having passed out of his apprenticeship, had become a Fellow and was invested with an authority over the other Fellows, inferior only to that of the Master. The word and the office are recognized in the early English Charters as pertaining to the ancient guilds. Thus the Charters granted in 1354 by Edward III. gave the London Companies the privilege to elect annually for their government "a certain number of Wardens." In 1377 an oath was prescribed called the "Oath of the Wardens of the Crafts," which contained these words: "Ye shall swere that ye shall wele and treuly oversee the Craft of ____ whereof ye be chosen Wardeyns for the year." In the reign of Elizabeth the presiding officer began to be called the Master, and in the reign of James I., between 1603 and 1625, the guilds were generally governed by a Master and Wardens. The government of lodges by a Master and Wardens must have been introduced into the guilds of Masons in the 17th century, and this is rendered probable by the fact that in the Harleian MS. just quoted, and whose coniectural date is 1670, it is provided "that for the future the sayd Society, Company and Fraternity of Free Masons shall be regulated and governed by One Master & Assembly & Wardens as the said Company shall think to choose, at every yearely General Assembly."
A similar officer in the Sullen or Lodges of the old German Freemasons was called the Parlirer.
We arrive, then, at the conclusion that in the 17th century, while there were permanent lodges in various places which were presided over by a Master and Wardens, any five Freemasons might open a temporary or "occasional" lodge for the admission of members of the Craft, provided one of these five was either the Master or a Warden of a permanent lodge in the neighborhood.
I know of no other way of reasonably interpreting the 26th article contained in the Harleian Constitutions.
But nowhere, in any of the Old Constitutions, before or after the Harleian, even as late as 1714, which is the date of the Papworth MS., do we find the slightest allusion to any exterior authority which was required to constitute either permanent or temporary lodges.
The statement of Preston is thus fully sustained by the concurrent testimony of the old manuscripts. Therefore, when Anderson in his first edition gives the form of constituting a new lodge and says that it is "according to the ancient usages of Masonry," (1) he indulges in a rhetorical flourish that has no foundation in truth. There is no evidence of the slightest historical value that any such usage existed before the second decade of the 18th century.
But immediately after what is called the Revival the system of forming lodges which had been practiced was entirely changed. Preston says that among a variety of regulations which were proposed and agreed to at the meeting in 1717, was the following:
"That the privilege of assembling as Masons, which had been hitherto unlimited, should be vested in certain lodges or assemblies of Masons convened in certain places; and that every lodge to be hereafter convened, except the four old lodges at this time existing, should be legally authorized to act by a warrant from the Grand Master for the time being granted to certain individuals by petition, with the consent and approbation of the Grand Lodge in communication;
(1) Anderson's "Constitutions," 1st edition, p. 71.
and that without such warrant no lodge should be hereafter deemed regular or constitutional." (1)
We have this regulation on the evidence of Preston alone, for according to the unfortunate usage of our early Masonic writers, he cites no authority. It is not mentioned by Anderson, and the preserved minutes of the Grand Lodge of England extend no farther than the 25th of November, 1723.
Still, as Preston gives it within quotation marks, and as it bears internal evidence in its phraseology of having been a formal regulation adopted at or very near the period to which Preston assigns it, we may accept it as authentic and suppose that he had access to sources of information no longer extant. As the Grand Lodge was organized in 1717 in the rooms of the lodge of which Preston afterward became a member, it is very possible that that lodge may have had in its possession the full records of that meeting, which were in existence when Preston wrote, but have since been lost. (2)
At all events the "General Regulations," compiled by Grand Master Payne in 1720, and approved the next year by the Grand Lodge, contain a similar provision in the following words:
"If any set or number of Masons shall take upon themselves to form a lodge without the Grand Master's warrant, the regular lodges are not to countenance them, nor own them as fair Brethren and duly formed, nor approve of their acts and deeds; but must treat them as rebels, until they humble themselves, as the Grand Master shall, in his prudence, direct; and until he approve of them by his warrant." (3)
If we compare the usage by which lodges were brought into existence under the wholly Operative rules, and that adopted by the Speculative Freemasons after the organization of the Grand Lodge in 1717, we will very clearly see that there was here no revival of an old system which had fallen into decay and disuse, but the invention of one that was entirely new and never before heard of.
The next point to be examined in discussing the question whether
(1) Preston, "Illustrations," p. 191. (2) Findel ("History," p. 140), says the regulation was adopted at a later period, in 1723 This he had no right to do. Preston is our only authority for the regulation, and his statement must be taken without qualification or wholly rejected. Findel was probably led into his error by seeing the General Regulation above quoted, which was very similar This was published in 1723, but it had been adopted by the Grand Lodge in 1721. (3) "General Regulations," art. viii. Anderson, 1st edition, p. 60.
or not the transactions of 1717 constituted a Revival will be the character of the lodges before and after those transactions as compared with each other.
During the 17th century, to go no farther back, and up to the second decade of the 18th, all the lodges of Freemasons in England were Operative lodges, that is to say, the larger portion of their members were working Masons, engaged in building according to certain principles of architecture with which they alone were acquainted.
They had admitted among their members persons of rank or learning who were not Operative Masons or builders by profession, but all their laws and regulations were applicable to a society of mechanics or workingmen.
There are no minutes in England, as there are in Scotland, of lodges prior to the beginning of the 18th century. They have all been lost, and the only one remaining is that of the Alnwick Lodge, the records of which begin in the year 1701.
But the "Old Charges" contained in the manuscript Constitutions which extend from 1390 to 1714, of which more than twenty have been preserved, supply us (especially the later ones of the 17th century) with the regulations by which the Craft was governed during the ante‑revival period.
It is unnecessary to quote in extenso any one of these Old Constitutions. It is sufficient to say that they bear the strongest internal evidence that they were compiled for the use of purely Operative Masons.
They were wholly inapplicable to any merely moral or speculative association. Excepting those clauses which directed how the craftsmen were to conduct themselves both in the lodge and out of it, so that the reputation of the Brotherhood should not be injured, they were mainly engaged in prescribing how the Masons should labor in their art of building, so that the employer might be "truly served." The same regulations would be just as applicable, mutatis mutandis, to a Guild of Carpenters, of Smiths, or any other mechanical trade, as to one of Masons.
But while these lodges were wholly Operative in their character and design, there is abundant evidence, as I have heretofore shown, that they admitted into their companionship persons who were not Masons by profession. The article in the Harleian Constitutions, to which reference has just been made, while stating that a lodge called to make a Mason must consist of five Free Masons, adds that one of them at least shall be "of the trade of Free Masonry." The other four, of course, might be non‑ operatives, that is to say, persons of rank, wealth, or learning who were sometimes called Theoretic and sometimes Gentlemen Masons.
But in the laws enacted for the government of the Craft, no exceptional provision was made in them, by which any difference was created in the privileges of the two classes.
The admission of these Theoretic Masons into the Fraternity did not, therefore, in the slightest degree affect the Operative character of the Craft, except in so far as that the friendly collision with men of education must have given to the less educated members a portion of refinement that could not fail to elevate them above the other Craft Guilds.
Yet so intimate was the connection between these Operative Freemasons and their successors, the Speculatives, that the code of laws prepared in 1721 by Anderson at the direction of the Grand Lodge, and published in 1723, under the title of The Charges of a Free‑Mason, for the use of the Lodges in London, was a transcript with no important variations from these Old Constitutions, or as Anderson calls them, the "Old Gothic Constitutions."
As these "Charges" have now been accepted by the modern Fraternity of English‑speaking Freemasons as the basis of what are called the Landmarks of the Order, to make them of any use it has been found absolutely necessary to give them a symbolic or figurative sense.
Thus, "to work," which in the Operative Constitution signifies "to build," is interpreted in the Speculative system as meaning "to confer degrees;" the clause which prescribes that "all the tools used in working shall be approved by the Grand Lodge" is interpreted as denoting that the ritual, ceremonies, and by‑laws of every lodge must be subjected to the supervision of the Grand Lodge. Thus every regulation which clearly referred to a fraternity of builders has, in the course of the modifications which were necessary to render it applicable to a moral association, been made to adopt a figurative sense.
Yet the significant fact that while in the government of Speculative Freemasonry the spirit and meaning of these "Old Charges" have been entirely altered, the words have been carefully retained is an important and irrefutable proof that the Speculative system is the direct successor of the Operative.
So when the Theoretic or Gentleman Masons had, in the close of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, acquired such a preponderance in numbers and in influence in the London lodges that they were able so to affect the character of those lodges as to divert them from the practice of an Operative art to the pursuit of a Speculative science, such change could not be called a Revival, if we respected the meaning of that word. Nothing of the kind had been known before; and when the members of the lodges ceased to pay any attention to the craft or mystery of practical stonemasonry, and resolved to treat it thenceforth in a purely symbolic sense, this act could be deemed nothing else but a new departure in the career of Freemasonry.
The ship was still there, but the object of the voyage had been changed.
Again: we find a third change in the character of the Masonic society when we compare the general government of the Craft as it appears before and after the year 1717.
This change is particularly striking in respect to the way in which the Craft were ruled in their Operative days, compared with the system which was adopted by the Speculative Freemasons.
It has already been said that prior to the year 1717, there never were Grand Masters or a Grand Lodge except such as were mythically constructed by the romantic genius of Dr. Anderson.
The only historical records that we have of the condition of Freemasonry in England and of the usages of the Craft during the three centuries which preceded the 18th, are to be found in the old manuscript Constitutions.
A thoroughly careful examination of these documents will show that neither in the Legend of the Craft, which constitutes the introductory portion of each Constitution, nor in the "Charges" which follow, is there the slightest allusion, either in direct language or by implication, to the office of Grand Master or to the body now called a Grand Lodge.
But it can not be denied that there was an annual convocation of the Craft, which was called sometimes the "Congregations" sometimes the "Assembly," and sometimes the "General Assembly." We must accept this as an historical fact, or we must repudiate all the manuscript Constitutions from the 14th to the 18th century. In all of them there is an unmistakable allusion to this annual convocation of the Craft, and regulations are made concerning attendance on it.
Thus the Halliwell MS. says that "every Master who is a Mason must be present at the general congregation if he is duly informed where the assembly is to be holden; and to that assembly he must go unless he have a reasonable excuse."
The precise words of this most ancient of all the Old Masonic Constitutions, dating, as it does, not later than toward the close of the 14th century, are as follows:
That every mayster, that ys a mason, Must ben at the generate congregracyon, So that he hyt reasonably y‑tolde Where that the semble' schal be holde; And to that semble' he must nede gon, But he have a resonabul skwsacyon.
The Cooke MS., which is about a century later, has a similar provision. This manuscript is important, inasmuch as it describes the character of the Assembly and defines the purposes for which it was to be convoked.
It states that the Assembly, or, as it is there called, the Congregation, shall assemble once a year, or at least once in three years, for the examination of Master Masons, to see that they possessed sufficient skill and knowledge in their art.
An important admission in this manuscript is that the regulation for the government of this Assembly "is written and taught in our book of charges."
All the subsequent Constitutions make a similar statement in words that do not substantially vary.
The Harleian MS., whose date is about the last quarter of the 17th century, says that Euclid gave the admonition that the Masons were to assemble once a year to take counsel how the Craft could best work so as to serve their Lord and Master for his profit and their credit, and to correct such as had offended. And in another MS., much earlier than the Harleian, it is said that the Freemasons should attend the Assembly, and if any had trespassed against the Craft, he should there abide the award of the Masters and Fellows.
This Assembly met that statutes or regulations might be enacted for the government of the Craft, and that controversies between the craftsmen might be determined.
It was both a legislative and a judicial body, and in these respects resembled the Grand Lodge of the present day, but in no other way was there any similitude between the two.
Now, leaving out of the question the legendary parts which ascribe the origin of this annual assembly to Euclid or Athelstan or Prince Edwin, which, of course, are of no historical authority, it is impossible to believe that all these Constitutions should speak of the existence of such an Assembly at the time of writing, and lay down a regulation in the most positive terms, that every Mason should attend it, if the whole were a mere figment of the imagination.
We can account for the mythical character of a legend, but we cannot for the mythical character of a law which has been enacted at a specified time for the government of an association, which law continues to be repeated in all the copies of the statutes written or published for more than three centuries continuously.
In the establishment of a Grand Lodge with quarterly meetings and an annual one in which a Grand Master and other Grand Ofiicers were elected for the following year, we find no analogy to anything that had existed previous to the year 1717. We cannot, therefore, in these points call the organization which took place in. that year a "Revival." It was, rather, a radical change in the construction of the system.
Another change, and a very important one, too, which occurred a short time after the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717, was that which had reference to the ritual or forms of initiation. During the purely Operative period of Freemasonry it is now well known that there was but one esoteric system of admission to the brotherhood of the Craft. This we also know was common to the three classes of Masters, Fellows, and Apprentices. There was, in fact, if we may use the technical language of modern Freemasonry, but one degree practiced by the Operative Craft.
When the Theoretic members of the London lodges dissociated from the Operatives in the year 1717 and formed the Speculative system, they, of course, at first accepted the old method of admission. But in the course of two or three vears they adopted another system and fabricated what are now called the three degrees of ancient Craft Masonry, each one of which was exclusively appropriated as a form of initiation to one of the three classes and to that one only. What had formerly been a division of the Fraternity into three classes or ranks became now a division into three degrees. (1)
This was a most important change, and as nothing of the kind was known to the Craft in the years prior to the establishment of the Grand Lodge, it certainly can not be considered a correct use of the word to call an entire change of a system and the adoption of a new one a revival of the old.
Bro. W.P. Buchan, in numerous articles published in the London Freemason, about 1870, attacked what has been called the Revival theory with much vigor but with exaggerated views. He contends that "our system of degrees, words, grips, signs, etc., was not in existence until about A.D. 1717, and he attributes the present system to the inventive genius of Anderson and Desaguliers. Hence he contends that modern Freemasonry was simply a reconstruction of an ancient society, viz., of some old Pagan philosophy. This he more fully explains in these words:
"Before the 18th century we had a renaissance of Pagan architecture; then to follow suit in the 18th century we had a renaissance in a new dress of Pagan mysticism; but for neither are we indebted to the Operative Masons, although the Operative Masons were made use of in both cases." (2)
There is in this statement a mixture of truth and error. It is undoubtedly true that the three degrees into which the system is now divided were unknown to the Freemasons of the 17th century, and that they were an invention of those scholars who organized the Grand Lodge of Speculative Freemasonry, mainly of Dr. Desaguliers, assisted perhaps by Anderson and Payne. But there were signs of recognition, methods of government, legends, and some form, though a simple one of initiation, which were in existence prior to the 18th century, which formed the kernel of the more elaborate system of the modern Freemasons.
Bro. Hughan calls attention to the fact, if there were need of
(1) it is not necessary to enter at this time into an examination and defense of this hypothesis, as the history of the fabrication of the three degrees will be made the subject of a future chapter. (2) London Freemason, September 29, 1871.
