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SPECULATIVE CRAFT FREEMASONRY
CHAPTER VI
Masonic essays (1998)
W.M. DON FALCONER
The origins of Speculative Craft Freemasonry can be traced directly and
indirectly to the craft practised by the operative Free Masons, who flourished
in the Middle Ages under the auspices of the guild system. The skill of the
medieval Free Masons was outstanding and they were renowned for the cathedrals
they built. Their work was the pinnacle of operative masonry, reflecting the
experience gained by masons throughout the evolution of civilisation over some
12,000 years, working in brick and stone to construct every conceivable building
from the humblest dwellings to the stateliest edifices. In the present context
Freemasonry distinguishes the purely speculative art from the practical craft
that was the province of the Free Masons. However, it should not be inferred
that there was no speculative component in the work carried out in the lodges of
operative free masons, because they had developed their own rich tradition and
ceremonials, some of which were similar in presentation to the Passion Plays of
the Middle Ages. As all medieval guilds were highly secretive in respect of the
private proceedings of their fraternities, information concerning their
ceremonials is somewhat sketchy. Because very few relevant records have survived
from before the formative days of purely speculative lodges in England, masonic
writers all too frequently have said that operative masonry had no speculative
component and therefore that speculative freemasonry could not be a derivative
of it. Having regard to the circumstances prevailing in those times, it is
remarkable that any documentary evidence has survived and been discovered!
Lodges of operative masons must have worked independently in the earliest
days, because travel was difficult and time consuming. However, some time in the
twelfth century the operative masons appear to have been organised under the
protection of the craft guilds that came into existence to watch over the
interests of skilled workers in the various trades. The guilds were known as
Fellowships or Fraternities and with the exception of the operative masons their
constituent trades worked under the provisions of relevant ordinances. Guilds
were also religious fraternities, whose members were required to attend church
frequently, if not regularly. Frith, or family peace guilds, existed in London
around the middle of the tenth century. The first merchant guild is believed to
have originated in Dover around the middle of the eleventh century, when the
weaver guilds also appear to have been formed. There is no doubt that many craft
guilds were well established in England during the reign of Henry I, by around
1135. There is evidence that annual assemblages of masons were being held from
the 1300s onwards and that they were the gatherings which Henry VI
unsuccessfully sought to prohibit by the Statutes of 1436-1437. Under the guild
system many families rose from serfdom to become employers in a few generations.
The system was highly successful until the Reformation, when Henry VIII enforced
the Act of 1547 that disendowed all religious fraternities, including the
operative masons. Henry VIII confiscated most of the guilds' possessions. His
son Edward VI seized nearly all of the remaining guild funds that had been
dedicated to religious purposes, when most guild records were destroyed to
conceal the identities of those who might otherwise have suffered persecution.
The masons appear to have been the worst affected by the confiscations of
property and funds.
As in the other craft guilds, lodges of operative masons were subject to a
strong religious influence and their ceremonials had a religious component.
Practical work and its related instruction took place in the stone yards, but
all moral and ethical instruction and matters relating to general conduct, as
well as the modes of recognition, were imparted in the ceremonial lodges held
weekly on Saturdays at high twelve. All apprentices were obligated and
indentured in the ceremonial lodges, where candidates for promotion also were
examined, tested for proficiency in the non-manual aspects of their work,
obligated and entrusted. Lodges of operative masons were unique, because the
rules and regulations for their establishment and operation were set out in
documents called "charges". The possession of an authentic copy of the "charges"
was the authority under which a lodge worked. The "charges" included a
traditional history, rules governing work practices and codes of conduct for
behaviour at church, in the home and in company. The oldest known record of the
Antient Charges of operative masonry is a document written by a priest,
comprising thirty-three vellum sheets and entitled the "Poem of the Craft of
Masonry". It is believed to have been based on a much older document and is
known as the Regius or Halliwell MS, No 23,198 in the British Museum. It was
discovered in 1839 and was thought to have been written about 1390, which was
later revised to 1410. In modern terminology it is classified as dating "from
the first quarter of the fifteenth century". The rules and regulations set out
in the Regius MS are stated to have been established at a great assemblage of
masons ordered by King Athelstan. They are arranged under fifteen "Articles" for
ye maystur mason and fifteen "Points" for felows and prentes.
Prior to the Reformation, the guilds and other religious fraternities
undoubtedly were the guardians of centuries-old traditions and esoteric
ceremonies, carefully concealed from public scrutiny. The guilds that survived
the Reformation became the Livery Companies still operating in the City of
London. Livery comes from the Anglo-French liver, meaning "handed over", derived
from the Latin liber,re meaning "to free". Among them was The Worshipful Company
of Ffree Masons of the City of London that had existed for several hundred years
before the Reformation, continued through the Reformation hidden from public
view, then resurfaced after the Reformation. Before the Reformation it was
commonly called The Fellowship of Masons, but in 1655 changed its name to The
Company of Masons. Because all of the Company's books and documents were
destroyed during the Reformation, those in existence only date from 1620.
Fortunately, various letter-books and other records of the City of London
confirm that The Company of Masons had an unbroken existence from late in the
thirteenth century until the middle of the seventeenth century.
The unbroken existence of The Company of Masons over some four hundred years
maintained the continuity of operative lodges in England, even through the
fifteenth century persecutions, which enabled their traditions and practices to
be preserved. Possibly other operative lodges also survived, though hidden from
public view. Entries in the books of The Company of Masons in 1620 and 1621 show
that the membership then included "accepted masons" and "operative masons", but
no records have been found to indicate when or why any of the masons were
"accepted". Entries in 1648 and 1650 clearly indicate that the Company had an
inner fraternity, known as the Acception, that could be entered only on being
made a freemason, but there are no details of the ceremonials associated with
admission so it is not known whether they were of an esoteric nature. It
therefore is a matter of conjecture whether the "accepted masons" were
speculative in the modern sense, but it is reasonable to assume that some
special benefit of membership was perceived. From 1663 onwards the Company
admitted to membership a number who were not craftsmen, including several women.
One woman was apprenticed as late as 1713 for the usual term of seven years.
The usages and customs of operative masons that have come down to us in
speculative craft freemasonry include various traditions concerning the
construction of the temple at Jerusalem, the symbolic use of the working tools
to impart moral instruction and the modes of recognition used in the various
grades of membership. When persons other than tradesmen were first received into
operative lodges, men of learning and public stature no doubt would have been
welcomed because of their erudition and the influence they could bring to bear
in the community for the benefit of the members. Those who had been received
into membership also would have benefited from the widening of their interests
in the new avenues of tradition and knowledge that were then available to them.
As long ago as the 1500s many Scots lodges welcomed local lairds as honorary
members. Although they would not be regarded as speculative freemasons in the
modern sense, they were the forerunners of the many who joined Scots operative
lodges when work declined. The minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh record the
attendance in 1600 of James Boswell, the Laird of Auchinleck and in 1634 they
also record that Lord Alexander, Sir Antony Alexander and Sir Alexander Strachan
were admitted as Fellows of the Craft.
In England the Civil War of 1642-1646 led to the domination of Oliver
Cromwell, which was followed by a very turbulent period until the settlement of
1689 when William of Orange and Mary acceded to the throne of England. The few
surviving records that have been discovered now show that this was the formative
period of modern speculative freemasonry in England. This is in contrast with
Scotland, where records reveal that many of the operative lodges progressively
became speculative lodges. Of particular interest during that period is the
first known initiation on English soil of someone who was not an operative
mason. It was the admission of the Right Honourable Robert Moray, General
Quartermaster of the Scots army, into the Lodge of Edinburgh at a meeting held
near Newcastle in May 1641. The lodge also has the appellation "Mary's Chapel".
Robert Moray later became Secretary of Scotland and in 1673 was buried in
Westminster Abbey under the name Murray. The earliest known record of an
Englishman initiated on English soil is of Elias Ashmole, who was made a mason
in a lodge at Warrington in Lancashire in 1646. Nothing is known of the
admissions into freemasonry of any of the members at that time, but there is
reason to believe that they included Royalists and also supporters of
Parliament. There is no record of any of the members being an operative mason,
although one may have been.
In England some operative masons, such as the members of lodges engaged on
the construction of the York Minster, could work for a lifetime on a single
project. Other lodges could work for many years on smaller cathedrals before
having to move to a new work site, often in the same district. However, there
always were small lodges that had to move frequently, as well as many itinerant
masons moving from site to site in search of work. In Scotland the whole mason
trade revolved around smaller operative lodges, of which there were many more
than in England. The territorial lodges in Scotland were organised under the
supervision of head lodges, which were not always in large towns. The
repressions of the Reformation were less severe in Scotland than in England, so
that a large number of Scots operative lodges were able to become speculative
lodges, a development that had no direct parallel in England.
Throughout the Middle Ages and thereafter until well into the eighteenth
century, travel in Britain was greatly restricted and very hazardous. Although
the more affluent residents could make journeys on horseback or by horse and
coach, ordinary persons were usually confined to travelling on foot, commonly
called going "on tramp". Robbery under arms was commonplace, so that the general
population avoided travel whenever possible, but because of their vocation the
operative masons frequently had to travel long distances in search of new work.
A unique custom in the craft was that an itinerant mason, when seeking work in
an operative lodge, had either to be given employment for an appropriate minimum
period or to be provided with sufficient sustenance to reach the next nearest
place of work. To facilitate their travel in safety, the operative masons in
those days had unobtrusive distinguishing signs enabling them to seek out
members of the craft at roadside hostelries, as well as modes of recognition
with which to establish their credentials with a prospective employer. Some
masonic researchers hold the view that the possession of masonic credentials for
safe travel was a primary objective of those who were "made" masons in the
seventeenth century. This has been called the "passport theory" for the
development of speculative craft freemasonry and might have been a contributing
factor, but it would not explain why the working tools and procedures of
operative masons were adopted as the basis of moral instruction in the
speculative art.
It is now generally accepted that modern speculative freemasonry began to
emerge in the seventeenth century, which is when operative lodges in Scotland
already were transforming into speculative lodges, when Elias Ashmole the
renowned antiquary was made a mason in England in October 1646 and when The
Company of Masons in London had been admitting non-masons to the Acception from
around 1648. Of particular interest is a note in Elias Ashmole's diary in March
1682, that records his attendance at "a lodge held at Masons Hall London". He
states that he was the "Senior Fellow among them", that six gentlemen were
admitted into the "Fellowship of Free Masons" and that afterwards they dined at
a tavern in Cheapeside "at a Noble dinner prepaired at the charge of the
New-accepted Masons". Excepting the new admissions, all but three of those
present were members of The Company of Masons, including its Master and several
who had been Master in previous years. References in various pamphlets and
periodicals between 1676 and 1710 confirm that Londoners then were more familiar
with Freemasonry than with The Company of Masons or the Acception. It is not
known how many speculative lodges had been formed in England before June 1717,
when four or possibly six among the oldest of them assembled in London and
established the first Grand Lodge, claiming jurisdiction over all lodges meeting
in London and Westminster. Its sphere of jurisdiction included at least
sixty-four lodges by 1726, when it had become known as the Grand Lodge of
England and its first two Provincial Grand Masters had been appointed. Of the
founding lodges, the Original No 1 is recorded as having been constituted in
1691, but it is believed to have had an earlier origin and that its members
almost certainly had been members of an operative lodge involved in rebuilding
St Paul's Cathedral from 1675 to 1710.
Unlike the situation in Scotland, only one lodge of operative masons in
England that is known to have become a speculative lodge is still in existence.
Originally it was located at Stalwell in County Durham and accepted a warrant
from the Grand Lodge of England in 1735. It continued to work as an operative
lodge for another twenty years before becoming speculative and moving to
Gateshead, where it still meets as the Lodge of Industry No 48. By way of
contrast another lodge of operative masons meeting at Alnwick in Northumberland,
that had been in existence long before the Grand Lodge of England was formed,
did not accept a warrant and appears to have ceased to function around 1763. Its
minutes from 1703 onwards are still in existence, together with a copy of the
Old Charges and a code of rules devised by the lodge in 1701. When Dr James
Anderson drafted the original Constitutions for the Grand Lodge of England in
1723, not more than ten copies of the Old Charges were available for his
reference, although more than a hundred have now been found and classified. The
Cooke MS is the oldest copy of the Old Charges used in the compilation of the
Constitutions. It is the second oldest known to be in existence and is in the
library of the British Museum. As its date of origin has been assessed to be
around fifty years after the Regius MS, it also was in use before the Act of
1547 that disendowed all religious fraternities. These two documents have many
similarities, although the Cooke MS was intended primarily as a history. The
third oldest copy of the Old Charges is the Grand Lodge MS No 1, dated 25
December 1583. Written after the Act of 1547, it is significant because it
reflects a distinct transition from the purely operative nature of earlier
documents to include much of a speculative nature.
In 1725 an operative lodge of great antiquity in York, then in the process of
becoming speculative, proclaimed itself a Grand Lodge. In the following year it
claimed to be the "Grand Lodge of All England" under its "undoubted right", thus
disputing the superiority of the Grand Lodge of England, although its authority
never extended beyond Yorkshire. It was dormant from 1740 to 1760, and finally
ceased to operate around 1792, but was never formally dissolved. In Ireland
there is no record of any operative lodge becoming a speculative lodge. The
earliest reference to a speculative lodge is in the opening address given in
1688 by John Jones at Trinity College in Dublin. The Dublin Weekly Journal in
June 1725 reports that six "Lodges of Gentlemen Freemasons" met and elected a
new Grand Master. This is the earliest record of the Grand Lodge of Ireland,
because all official records prior to 1760 have been lost. This contrasts with
Scotland where most operative lodges continued into the 1750s and even longer,
although by then many of them had become speculative. The Masters and Wardens of
four old lodges that were or had been operative met in Edinburgh in October 1736
and formed the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Two of those lodges and several others
joining soon after still exist and have records substantiating their continuity
from operative days. In 1752 the Grand Lodge of Antients was formed in protest
against the apathy and neglect being displayed by the Grand Lodge of England
which they dubbed "the Moderns", as well as through dissatisfaction with the
rituals being used and the ceremonials being practised. The Antients and the
Moderns finally settled their differences and their two Grand Masters signed and
sealed twenty-one Articles of Union in 1813. These were quickly ratified by the
two Grand Lodges representing 647 lodges, thus establishing the United Grand
Lodge of England. There can be no doubt that the rituals of modern speculative
freemasonry were greatly enhanced under the influence of the Grand Lodge of
Antients.
Modern freemasonry has many branches, with a multitude of complementary
degrees that are progressive along a variety of paths. The constitutions and
laws of modern Grand Lodges usually refer to their members as Antient, Free and
Accepted Masons. Most constitutions define Pure Antient Masonry as comprising
the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason, commonly
with the stipulation that it also includes either or both of the Honourable
Degree of Mark Master Mason and the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch, even
though the constituent degrees usually are not worked under the auspices of the
Grand Lodge. The traditional degrees of freemasonry include all of the foregoing
and several others that are based on the story of the construction of King
Solomon's temple at Jerusalem; its subsequent destruction when the Jews were
exiled to Babylon; and its rebuilding by Zerubbabel under the provisions of the
Decree of Cyrus. The narrative of these degrees is woven around a series of
events recorded in the Old Testament. Other important orders in modern
freemasonry are the Royal Order of Scotland, the Ancient and Accepted Rite, the
Red Cross of Constantine, the Knights Templar and the Knight Templar Priests,
which have Christian aspects, as well as several others. Of particular relevance
is "The Worshipful Society of Free Masons, Rough Masons, Wallers, Slaters,
Paviors, Plaisterers and Bricklayers", commonly called The Operatives, which was
founded in 1913 by the few remaining members of some English operative lodges
that were rapidly becoming defunct, so as to ensure that the traditions and
ceremonials of the operative masons would be perpetuated instead of being lost.
Although the catechism that every initiate in the Craft is required to learn,
defines freemasonry as a peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and
illustrated by symbols, there are many misconceptions about the purpose of
freemasonry. A significant factor contributing to this dilemma is the reversal
in the roles of two key elements in the practice of the speculative art. The
available records clearly show that the founders of Speculative Craft
Freemasonry in England regarded a lodge meeting as a forum for philosophical
discussion, wherein the members could discourse upon a wide range of relevant
topics, more or less in the fashion of meetings of the Royal Society to which
many of them belonged. Before an application for membership would be considered,
the petitioner was required to demonstrate that his interests were compatible
with those of the members. Admission into the various degrees was to ensure that
all members had a common foundation for their activities in the lodge, as well
as establishing a basis for assessing the credentials of strangers wishing to
attend meetings. This followed the precedents established in lodges of operative
masons and other trade and religious fraternities that had been in existence for
many centuries. In contrast, modern freemasonry places the greatest emphasis on
the working of the various degrees, which in the great majority of lodges is
almost to the exclusion of philosophical discussion.
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