In the former lectures we have declared
it to be the opinion that Masons, in the present state of
Masonry, were never a body of architects.* By the Book of Constitutions,
published by authority, we see no grand comniunication held in
form, till of very late date; neither is there any evidence therein
to contradict the positions we have laid down. The succession
therein described is by no means to be accepted and understood
in a literal sense, but as a pedigree or chronological table of
the servants of the Deity working the duties of righteousness.
(* Aliquando bonus Homertis dormitat. Our worthy brother has overlooked that proposition on which the revival of Masonry was founded, viz. That the privileges of Masonry should no longer he restricted to operative masons, but extend to men of various professions, provided they were regularly approved and initiated into the order. -EDITOR.)
We ground a judgment of the nature of our profession on our ceremonials, and flatter ourselves every Mason will be convinced that they have not any relation to building and architecture, but are emblematical, and imply moral, and spiritual, and religious tenets. It appears self-evident that the situation of the lodge and its several parts are copied after the tabernacle and temple, and are representative of the universe, implying that the universe is the temple in which the Deity is every where present; our mode of teaching the principles of our profession is derived from the Druids; our maxinis of morality from Pythagoras; our chief emblems originally from Egypt; to Basilides we owe the science of Abrax, and the characters of those emanations of the Deity which we have adopted, and which are so necessary for the maintenance of a moral society. We believe that our present ceremonies were more generally taught, and more candidates were initiated therein, on the opening of the crusades, than any other era, or on any other known occasion.
The English historians agree, that in the reign of Henry the Second, and the year 1188, at an inter-view between the Kings of England and France; attended by the prelates and nobility of both nations, the Archbishop of Tyre pronounced such a melancholy account of Saladine's successes in the Holy Land, and the miseries of the Christians in that country, that the audience was greatly affected with the relation, and the two kings agreed to convert their whole attention to the relief of those adventurers. They received the cross from the hands of the archbishop, resolving to go there in person; and their example was followed by Philip, Count of Flanders, and a great number of the prelates and nobility there present: a plenary indulgence was published in the Pope's name, for all those who would make a fair confession of their sins, and engage in the crusade: the different nations assumed crosses of a different color, and rules and orders were established for preventing right, luxury, and disorder on the enterprise.
These were the principal rules made for the regulation of the crusaders. We may conjecture, these religious campaigns being over, that men initiated in the mysteries of Masonry, and engaged and enrolled under those rules and orders which were established for the conduct of the nations in the holy war, would form themselves into lodges, and keep up their social meetings when returned home, in commemoration of their adventures and mutual good offices in Palestine, and for the propagation of that knowledge into which they had been initiated.
As a further argument that builders and architects were not the original members of our society, the Masons of the city of London obtained their incorporation and charter in the reign of King Henry the Fifth, in or about the year 1419; they taking on themselves the name of Freemasons. By their charter they are governed by a Master and two Wardens, with twenty-five assistants. Of this incorporated body, sixty-five are of the livery of London.
It has never been pretended, that the society of Free and Accepted Masons have in any manner been connected, or much less have united themselves, with the incorporated body of Masons enchartered; but, on the contrary, have kept themselves totally apart.*
(* And yet a document has been produced by Halliwell which shows that the name of Freemason was given to those who practiced the actual trade. "In the year 1506, John Hylmer and Wilson Vertue, Freemasons, were engaged to vaulte, or doo to bee vaulted with freestone, the roof of the quere of the College Roiall of our Lady and St. George, within the castell of Wyndsore, according to the roof of the body of the said College." -EDITOR)
It has been alleged, that in the reign of King Henry the Sixth, a law was enacted, setting forth, "That by the yearly congregations and confederacies made by Masons in their general assemblies, the good course and effects of the statute of laborers were openly violated and broken, and making the future holding of their chapters and congregations felony."
It is impossible that this statute should relate to any other persons, than the incorporated body of working masons; who, under an exclusive charter, by secret combinations raised the prices of their labor, and prevented craftsmen of their fraternity, not members of the charter, from exercising their trade within the limits of London; which might occasion a grievance worthy of parliamentary redress, but in what manner the statutes of laborers could be affected by the associations of our fraternity, is not in our power to comprehend. Our records give us no evidence of any such convocations, at the time mentioned.*
(* It is, however, well known that about the time when the Norman dynasty was established in this kingdom, the study of architecture, as a science, was enjoined on the bishops and other dignitaries of the church; because it was under their superintendence that ecclesiastical edifices rose in all the pride of gorgeous splendor; and the profession of Masonry was fostered and encouraged throughout Christendom. The Roman pontiffs conferred on the fraternity many valuable privileges, and induced its members to form themselves into lodges, where they practiced those peculiar ceremonies by which they not only secured to their own body the essential benefits of companionship, to the exclusion of all the world besides, but also framed their own rules, settled their own wages, and enjoyed the proud satisfaction of knowing that they contributed, by their art, in no small degree, to the dignity and security of kingdoms; while the superb structures which they raised, dazzling with every rich variety of ornamental decoration, confirmed the superiority which they assumed in the walks of genius and learning, and secured for them the distinction and respect which always attend superior talent. Indeed, the appearance of so many stately ecclesiastical edifices spread over the island in all the unparalleled magnificence of Gothic architecture, during an age of semi-barbarism, could scarcely fail to impress upon the ignorant serf, an idea that their builders were possessed of more than mortal powers. And this feeling would not be diminished by the impenetrable veil which was thrown over their transactions in tyled lodges; their habits of secrecy and taciturnity; and the profound deference which was always paid to their Opinions by the rich and powerful, both in church and state. -EDITOR)
By the charter of Masons, they assumed the title of Freemasons, being entitled to the franchises of the city of London. Why the title of Free is annexed to our society, or that of Accepted, we hope we may be allowed to conjecture, was derived from the crusades.* There the volunteers entering into that service must be freemen, born free, and Dot villains or under any vassallage; for it was not until long after the crusades, that vassallage and feudal services, together with the slavish tenures, were taken away.
(* We assign a different reason for those appellations. It is said that the masons who were selected to work at Solomon's temple, were declared free, and invested with other privileges. But the posterity of these masons being carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, when the time was expired, they were set at liberty by Cyrus, and received permission to erect a new temple out of the ruins of the old one. This is the reputed origin of the title of Freemasons. -EDITOR.)
They were entitled to the style of Accepted, under that plenary indulgence which the Pope published for all that would confess their sins, and enlist in the enterprise of the holy war; whereby they were accepted and received into the bosom of the father of the church. Some authors have presumed to tell us, that it was the original design of the Christian powers, in their enterprise in the Holy Land, to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem; but we cannot discover any good authority for this assertion.* In modern Masonry it is given as a principle, why our dedication of lodges is made to St. John, that the Masons who engaged to conquer the Holy Land chose that saint for their patron. We should be sorry to appropriate the Balsarian sect of Christians to St. John as an explanation of this principle; St. John obtains our dedication, as being the proclaimer of that salvation which was at hand by the coming of Christ; and we, as a set of religious assembling in the true faith, commemorate the proclamations of the Baptist. In the name of St. John the Evangelist, we acknowledge the testimonies which he gives, and the divine ????? which he makes manifest. But to return to the subject of the crusaders.
(* There is no good authority for this assertion. The Templars were originally established to defend the pilgrims in their passage to and from the Holy Land; during which they were subjected to insult and injury from Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics. And having erected their domicile on Mount Moriah within the precincts of the temple, they were styled Templars. -EDITOR.)
It is probable that the same enthusiastic spirit which engaged men to enter into the crusades, at the vast expense and hazard which history describes, also led them into as enormous a folly in the building of religious houses: during the reign of Henry the Second, when the English first engaged in the holy war, there were not less than one hundred and eleven abbeys, nunneries, and religious houses, founded in this kingdom; during the reign of Richard the First, eighteen; and during the reign of Henry the Third, forty; which shows the religious infatuation which had totally overrun the minds of the people in those reigns. The ecclesiastics, in imitation of the works of Solomon, might become the masters of those works, and superintend and conduct the labors of the inferior sect of haly-werk-folk;* that by acceptable hands such pious works might be conducted, and from whence the ignorant and profane might be rejected, like the Samaritans; these might assume the honorary title of Masons, which from vulgar acceptation, would naturally confound them with ordinary mechanics.
(* The rules prescribed for these haly-werk-folk clearly prove that they were both Operative and Speculative Masons. In an old MS. in the British Museum, (Harl. 1942), they are thus stated. "You shall not take any work to do at any excessive and unreasonable rates, or deceive the owner thereof; but so as he may be truly and faithfully served with his own goods. You are to honor God and his holy church and use no heresy or error, or discredit men's teaching. You are to be true to our sovereign lord the king; committing no treason; misprision of' treason, &c. No person shall be accepted a Freemason, unless he shall have a lodge of five Freemasons at least; whereof one to be Master or Warden of that limit or division wherein such lodge shall be kept; and another of the trade of Freemasonry. No person shall be accepted a Freemason, but such as are of able body, honest parentage, good reputation, and observers of the laws of the land. No person shall be accepted a Freemason, or know the secrets of the said society, until he hath first taken the oath of secrecy hereafter following: - I, A. B., do, in the presence or Almighty God, and my fellows and brethren here present, promise and declare, that I will not at any time hereafter, by any art or circumstance whatever, directly or indirectly, publish, discover, reveal, or make known, any of the secrets, privileges, or counsels of the fraternity or fellowship of Freemasonry, which at this time, or any time hereafter, shall be made known unto me. So help me God, and the holy contents of this book." This MS. is said to be a copy of one which was written in the 10th century. -EDITOR)
In the Anglo-Norman Antiquities it is said of Freemasons that they were an association of religious, who engaged in the founding and erecting of churches and religious houses in Palestine. - We have already mentioned the religious sect who were really architects and builders of churches, the haly-werk-folk, with no small degree of respect; they were a body of men subsisting before the crusades;* they were maintained by the church, under which they held lands for the service of erecting and repairing churches, and for the guarding the sepulchres of saints. It is not improbable, that when the rage of holy works, and holy wars, and the desire of Palestine, fired the minds of all Europe, but a body of those people might embark in the enterprise, and be transported thither to build churches, for the better planting or propagating the Christian doctrine, or to guard and maintain the holy sepulchre. We would be ready at all times to admit that these emigrants might possess some rules and ceremonies for initiation peculiar to themselves, so far as the bearers of burthens were admitted under Solomon in the building at Jerusalem, and that they might retain their singular maxims and principles in secrecy; and, it may also be admitted that, in honor of that gradation of Masonry and of their profession, they should claim the greatest antiquity from Solomon's, temple at least: they might even be more than a collateral branch of the Free and Accepted Masons, as we have before admitted, and be initiated in the mysteries of Masonry, their occupation being in no wise incompatible with our profession; and they might be known and distinguished by tile title of Operative Masons, as the Essenes were divided into Theoricks and Practicks. But, from the writings of the author of the Anglo-Norman Antiquities, we are convinced he was not a Free and Accepted Mason himself; and, as the secrecy of that society had attracted the attention of many, who, as their curiosity was exercised, raised conjectures on the name of Masons to discover their origin and principles, or to reconcile their own opinions; from whence nothing was more likely to strike the attention of an historian than this body of men; the haly-werk-folk, rambling in Palestine, were to his purpose.
(* "The two institutions," says Laurie, "of Templarism and Freemasonry, were intimately connected. The former took its origin from the latter, and borrowed from it, not only some of its ceremonial observances, but the leading features, and the general outline of its constitution." -EDITOR)
Were we claimants only of the title of mechanics, we might have chose as ancient and a more honorable branch of the arts and sciences; we might have substituted geometry to a more worthy duty, and have honored our Maker in some profession more expressive of our sense of his power and dignity.
Our origin in this country is thought to be from the Phoenicians, who came here with the Tyrian Hercules, and introduced the doctrines of Ham and the Amonian rites, together with the Hebrew customs* and afterwards the emigrants from the Holy Land, who taught us the rules instituted by Solomon at the temple of Jerusalem; and finally, the propagators of the Christian doctrine, who brought with them the principles of the Master's Order, and taught the converted those sacred mysteries which are typical of the Christian faith, and professional of the hope of the resurrection of the body, and the life of regeneration. Yet we fear few among us are equal to the character we have assumed. Our lodges are not now appropriated to worship and religious ceremonies; we meet as a social society, inclined to acts of benevolence, and suffer the more sacred offices to rest unperformed. Whether this neglect is to our honor, we presume not to determine, in our present state professing ourselves Free and Accepted Masons. We are totally severed from architects, and are become a set of men working in the duties of charity, good offices, and brotherly love - Christians in religion - sons of liberty and loyal subjects: we have adopted rules, orders, emblems, and symbols, which enjoin us to live a life of morality; we have furnished our lodges with those striking objects which should at once intimate to us the mightiness and wisdom of God, the instability of the affairs of man, and the various vicissitudes of human life, and have set before our eyes preceptors of moral works; and to strengthen our faith, we have enlightened our lodge with the emblem of the Trinity.
(* A full account of both may be found in the Theocratic Philosophy of Freemasonry, lecture vii. -EDITOR)
It is well known to us, that there is scarce a state in Europe in which our fraternity have not formed a body.* The wisdom of the ancients would pass abroad into many regions; and those who had assisted in the pious labors at Jerusalem would, like Pythagoras, teach the sciences and mysteries which they professed, and communicate the system to which they had been initiated: religious men would retain the doctrines and mysteries with reverence, and with caution reveal them to those they thought worthy to receive; hence the original knowledge would pass into many countries. But there is no accounting for this universality of the society upon the principles of architecture and operative masonry: the rage of church-building had not contaminated all Europe as it had England; neither are there any probable means to be deduced from architecture and the practice of builders, why in every tongue and in every kingdom the ceremonials of being made a Mason should be the same. If the honor of architecture was all that was to be regarded in the society, various would be the devices by which the members in each nation would profess it. As architecture, according to its present orders, had its progress from Egypt and Greece, some nations would have borrowed symbols and ensigns peculiar to those people; or we should have had in our ceremonies, or in our workings, some devices which might have distinguished to us the beauties, orders, ornaments, proportions, or symmetries, of some or all of the rules, modes, or orders of architecture, either from the plains of Shinar, from Egypt, Jerusalem, Tadmore, or Greece; or have retained some geometrical problems, on which the general principles of proportion in architecture were grounded or demonstrated: but, instead of that, it is well known to us that there is nothing of that kind revealed. On the contrary, our mysteries are totally abstracted from the rules of mechanics; they are relative to religion and morality, and are conducive to pious works; they are unfurnished with any type, symbol, or character, but what appertains to demonstrate the servants and devotees of the great ?es???a?e?.
(* A medal was struck, in 1835 to commemorate the third centenary of a lodge of Freemasons at Cologne; and a book was published, which records the names of nineteen European lodges, with their Masters, which in 1535 were in fraternal communication with each other. One of these lodges was in London, over which Lord Carlton presided; and another at Edinburgh, under the superintendence of John Bruce. -ED)
There is not an instance of the European states uniting in any one enterprise, save the holy war; and from thence, we most rationally must conceive, the present number of Masons, dispersed over the face of Europe, was principally derived. The Amonian rites are almost totally extinguished, religious zeal has imbrued the sword in carnage, and Europe has groaned under persecutions; the Romans extirpated the Druids, Christians have glutted their cruel hands with slaughter; bigotry and enthusiasm, in every age, have reigned in bloodshed. By the crusades, the number of our society would be greatly augmented; the occasion itself would revive the rules of Masonry, they being so well adapted to that purpose, and also professional of the Christian faith, from whence sprang the spirit of the enterprise. After these pursuits subsided, bodies of men would be found in every country from whence the levies were called; and what would preserve the society in every state, even during the persecutions of zealots, the Master Mason's Order, under its present principles, is adapted to every sect of Christians. it originated from the earliest era of Christianity, in honor to, or in confession of, the religion and faith of Christians, before the poison of sectaries was diffused over the church.
To the ancient rules, deduced from Solomon, other laws, rules, and ordinances were added, during the enterprises of the crusaders, for the prevention of riot, luxury, and disorder; and for the maintaining that necessary subordination, which the command of such armies required. Many of those rules we retain in the conduct and government of our lodge, which can in no wise be deduced from any other original.
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