WHAT DOES IT MEAN..."ANCIENT FREE & ACCEPTED MASONS"
The Builder - 1923
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.
back to top |