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Can you give us an explanation of the words,
"Ancient Free
and Accepted Masons," which appears to be the
official
name of our Grand Lodge? The Secretary of our local lodge
tells me that about one-half of the Grand Lodges in the
country have the same title, but that the others have it
shortened to "Free and Accepted Masons". I know
that there
have been many explanations of these words taken
separately in back numbers of THE BUILDER, but I should
like to see them treated together. - D. L. H., Iowa.
The word "Mason" has been defined in many
fanciful ways,
as when one writer derives it from a Greek word meaning
"in
the midst of heaven," and another finds in it an
ancient
Egyptian expression meaning "children of the
sun"; but it is
almost certain that the term came into existence during
the
Middle Ages to signify a man engaged in the occupation of
building. Originally it had merely this trade
significance; it
was only after Masonry became a secret society that it
took
on a wider significance. Of course there were builders
long
before the Middle Ages, but they went by other names, just
as today we often speak of them as "architects,"
a term that
came into use in the time of Queen Elizabeth.
Builders of the Middle Ages, like all other workmen, were
organized into societies, somewhat similar to, but by no
means to be identified with, our trade unions, which were
known as guilds. These guilds were permitted to make their
own rules, and they were given a monopoly of the work done
inside their own territory. The builder guilds were
usually
more important than others, because their work was more
difficult and required a high degree of skill and
intelligence;
such of them as had in hand the erection of the great
cathedrals possessed among their membership the
outstanding geniuses of the times, and wrought such works
as to this day remain our wonder and despair.
The art of building was, according to the customs of the
time,
held as a trade secret, therefore the young men entering a
guild of builders were solemnly obligated to divulge no
secrets of the craft. Inasmuch as the work was difficult
these
young men were given a long course of education under the
direction of a Master Mason, in which, so it is believed.
the
tools and processes of building were used symbolically and
in order to impress certain truths on the mind of the
member.
In this way, and because the builders were in close touch
with the church which employed systems of symbolism as
today we use books (the people could not read, but they
could understand pictures), the builder guilds came in
time to
accumulate a great wealth of symbolic teaching and an
elaborate ritual. In the eighteenth century this
symbolical
element completely displaced the original craft of actual
building, and Masonry became "speculative," as
we know it
now, so that we are Masons only in a symbolical sense.
We are called Masons therefore because we are members
of an organization that harks back to the time when
builders
and architects were bound together in closely guarded
guilds. But why are we called "Free" Masons ?
This is a
more difficult question to answer, as all our Masonic
scholars
have discovered, for in spite of a great amount of careful
research, they have never vet agreed among themselves as
to how the question should be answered. We have records
of the word as having been used six hundred years ago, but
it is evident that even then "freemason" was a
term of long
standing, so that its origin fades away into the dimness
of a
very remote past.
One of the commonest theories is that the freemason was
originally the mason who worked in "free stone,"
that is,
stone ready to be hewn and shaped for the building in
contrast to the stone lying unmined. Such a mason was
superior in skill to the quarrymen who dug the stone from
the
quarry, and this is in harmony with the fact that in early
days
freemasons were deemed a superior kind of workmen and
received higher wages than "the rough masons";
but it does
not explain why carpenters, tailors and other workmen were
also called "free".
Another common theory has it that the early Masons came
to be called "free" because they were exempted
from many
of the tiresome duties that hemmed in the laborer of the
Middle Ages, and enjoyed liberties such as the right to
travel
about (forbidden to most workmen of that period) and
exemption from military service, etc. It is held by some
writers that the early Popes granted bulls to Masons that
freed them from church restrictions, but no amount of
search
in all the libraries of Europe, or in the records of the
Roman
Church (that church did not issue bulls against
Freemasonry
until 1738 and afterwards). has ever succeeded in
unearthing a single such bull or any record thereof.
There are other theories. One has it that a Mason was free
when out of the bonds of apprenticeship and ready to enjoy
the full privileges of membership in his guild. Another,
that
there were grades of workmen inside building guilds and
only the highest type were permitted all such privileges,
and
that these were called "free" in contrast to
their less
advanced brethren.
One of the most acceptable of all these theories is that
so
brilliantly advanced by G. W. Speth in the past century,
in
which that learned brother held that in the Middle Ages
there
were two types of builders' guilds, those that were
stationary
in each town and those that were employed in the
cathedrals
and were therefore permitted to move about from place to
place, or wherever cathedrals might be in course of
construction. Inasmuch as cathedrals represented the
highwater mark of skill and learning in that day such
workmen were very superior to those that were employed on
the humbler structures in the community, such as
dwellings,
warehouses, docks, roads, etc., so that Freemasonry
descended from the aristocracy of medieval labor.
I have myself never been able to make up my mind as
between these various theories, except that it appears to
me
that Speth's is the most plausible. It may be that several
of
them are true at one and the same time; such a thing would
not be impossible, because Freemasonry developed over a
large stretch of territory and through a long period of
time.
There is no doubt that in some cases this word has its
face
meaning and serves to remind us that our Craft is very
old.
The first Grand Lodge of Speculative Masons was
established in London in 1717, but Masonry, even of the
Speculative variety was very old by that date. Boswell was
accepted into the Craft in 1600, Moray in 1641 and Ashmole
in 1646. Our oldest manuscript, usually dated at about
1390,
looks backward to times long anterior to itself. There is
no
telling how old Masonry is; perhaps they are not so far
wrong
after all who date it in antiquity. In any event it is
"ancient,"
and has every right to the use of that word.
But in the majority of cases this word doubtless refers to
the
Grand Lodge that came to be organized in England shortly
after 1750. When the first Grand Lodge (that of 1717) was
formed it was planned that it should have jurisdiction
only
over a few lodges in London, but as these lodges increased
in number it extended its territory to include the county,
and
later on to include the whole country. A large number of
lodges remained independent - they were often called St.
John's lodges - many in the north of England, and others
in
Scotland and Ireland. As time went on there grew up a
feeling among the brethren of several of these independent
lodges that the new Grand Lodge was becoming guilty of
making innovations in the body of Masonry, therefore,
after a
deal of agitation had been made, a rival Grand Lodge was
formed, and because its older sister Grand Lodge had made
changes they dubbed it "Modern," and because
they
themselves claimed to preserve the work according to its
original form, they called themselves "Ancient."
This Ancient
Grand Lodge was fortunate in securing as its Grand
Secretary Laurence Dermott, who had such a genius for
organizing that in the course of time this newer lodge
began
to overshadow the older. The rivalry, often bitter enough
to
be described as a feud, lasted until 1813, when the first
step
toward a union was effected; out of this effort at
reconciliation there came at last "The United Grand
Lodge of
England." Meanwhile the Ancients had chartered a
great
many lodges in the colonies of America, and these, a large
number of them,. carried on the name long after American
lodges had severed all relations with the Grand Lodges
across the sea. In this wise the word "Ancient"
came into
general use, and remains today imbedded in the official
titles
of about half the Grand Lodges in this land.
Much mystery still hangs about the word
"Accepted," but in a
general way we may feel pretty safe in thinking that it
refers
to the fact that after the ancient builders' guilds began
to
break up and to lose their monopoly of the trade, they
began
to "accept" into their membership men who had no
intention
of engaging in actual building, but who sought membership
for social purposes, or in order to have the advantage of
the
rich symbolism, the ritual and the philosophy of the
Order.
The first man thus admitted of whom we have a record is
Boswell, who was made a Mason in 1600, as already noted,
but it is fairly certain that others had been similarly
accepted
long before. Indeed, there is good reason to believe that
non-operatives had been taken into membership from the
very earliest times, and it is possible that the word was
also
applied to those members that devoted themselves to
superintending and planning, but not to physical work.
Throughout the seventeenth century the number of accepted
increased until by the beginning of the eighteenth century
many lodges were almost wholly made up of such members,
and in 1717 the whole Craft was transformed into. a
speculative science, though it is true that many operative
lodges remained in existence, and some are still
functioning
and claiming for themselves the ancient lineage.
We shall have to wait with patience until all problems
concerning these various words are cleared up, but
meanwhile we can use them with a satisfactory degree of
certainty as connecting us historically with a process of
growth and development that began far back in the Middle
Ages, or earlier, and has continued until now. Verily it
has
been a history filled with wonders, and even now there are
few who have a full appreciation of the height and depth
and
length and breadth and exceeding riches of Freemasonry.
Freemasonry is an establishment founded on the benevolent
intention of extending and conferring mutual happiness
upon the
best and truest principles of moral life and social
virtue. - CALCOTT.
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