Secular British Masonic Rituals?

Róbert I. Péter

Visiting Scholar, The Florida State University, 2005

University of Szeged, Hungary

F

or many scholars, the term British Enlightenment, using John Pocock’s

words, “does not ring quite true.”

1

He also claims that “the historiogra-

phy of enlightenment in England remains that of a black hole.”

2

As Stephen

Hawking recently announced that black holes are not completely black since

the information swallowed by them could be recovered, Roy Porter, similarly

proved, once and for all, that there was indeed a British Enlightenment in his

The Creation of the Modern World.

3

As Hawking has revolutionised theoretical

physics with this statement, echoing the opinion of critics, so has Porter the

scholarship of the Enlightenment. In the introduction of his seminal work,

Porter stresses the wide-ranging character of the movement and argues that

there never was a monolithic ‘Enlightenment project’. Although Porter

emphasised the centrality of religion in the eighteenth century, his study

focuses on the heritage of those progressive intellectuals, whom with their lib-

eral, secular and rationalist ideas, laid down the foundations of our modern

world. His chapter titles such as the ‘Rationalising religion’ and ‘Secularising’

well illustrate his main focus. Though Porter highlighted the complexities and

contradictions of the liberal minds, he paid less attention to those tendencies

and figures of the era that openly ran counter to the general tenets of the

Enlightenment. For instance, Methodists, Hutchinsonians and the circle of

William Law, though in different ways, rejected the basic assumptions of ratio-

nalist thought and freethinking. By defending and proclaiming the mysteries

of orthodox Christianity by relying on the authority of Scriptures rather than

the faculty of reason alone, they detested the so-called natural religion of the

deists. The guardians of orthodox Christianity upholding faith against individ-

ual rationalism, deism and atheism could be seen as the representatives of the

1 J. G. A. Pocock, “Post-Puritan England and the Problem of Enlightenment,” in Culture and Politics from

Puritanism to the Enlightenment, ed. P. Zagorin (Berkeley, 1980), 91.
2 J. G. A. Pocock, “Clergy and Commerce: The Conservative Enlightenment in England,” in L’età dei

Lumi. Studi storici sul Settecento europeo in onore di Franco Venturi, ed. G. Crocker et al. (Naples, 1985), 528.
3 Roy Porter, The Creation of the Modern World. The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment (London, 2000).

[Consortium on Revolutionary Europe: Selected Papers, 2005, 13-24 ]

©2005 by The Consortium on Revolutionary Europe. 0092-2574/73-15970

All Rights Reserved.

Counter-Enlightenment in Britain.

4

Of course, the ideology of Freemasonry, which began to crystallise in

the eighteenth century, was also not devoid of the aforementioned tensions

caused by the conflict between the Enlightenment and Counter-

Enlightenment. Though Roy Porter had not done research on the Craft, his

one-sentence reference to the fraternity excellently illuminates the problems

discussed in my paper: “masonry was also riddled with typically British ideo-

logical tensions, combining deference to hierarchy with a measure of egalitar-

ianism, acceptance of distinction with social exclusivity and commitment to

rationality with a taste of mysteries and ritual.”

5

However, to my contention,

previous scholarship on British Freemasonry has overemphasised the

Newtonian, deistic and secular aspects of masonic ideology at the expense of

mythic, hermetic, protoromantic, and above all religious dimensions, which

distinguish masonic lodges from other clubs and fraternities of the British

Enlightenment.

6

To illustrate my point, I would like to refer to the findings of

Margaret Jacob. In her The Radical Enlightenment, Jacob argues that freemasons

not only refused to accept Christian doctrine, but reject the most basic

assumptions of Christian metaphysics.

7

This argument is furthered in her

often-quoted work entitled Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in

Eighteenth-Century Europe in which the author insistently labels the fraternity

“secular… as distinct from religious.”

8

By failing to test this thesis in the light

4 The term Counter-Enlightenment was popularized by Isaiah Berlin in the early 1970s. I. Berlin, “The

Counter-Enlightenment” in Against the Current. Essays in the History of Ideas, ed. I. Berlin (London, 1979),

1-24. The research on the British and Irish aspects of the Counter-Enlightenment only accelerated in

the late 1990’s by such scholars as Cadoc Leighton, Brian Young, David Berman and Patricia O’Riordan.

Cf. C. D. A. Leighton, “Hutchinsonianism: a Counter-Enlightenment Reform Movement,” Journal of

Religious History 23 (1999): 168-184; Ibid., “The Non-Jurors and the Counter-Enlightenment: Some

Illustration,” Journal of Religious History 22.3 (1998): 270-286; Ibid., “William Law, Behmenism and

Counter-Enlightenment,” Harvard Theological Review 91,3 (1998): 301-320; B. W. Young, Religion and

Enlightenment in 18th century England (Oxford, 1998); David Berman and Patricia O’Riordan, The Irish

Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment (London, 2002). J. G.A. Pocock, “Enlightenment and Counter-

Enlightenment, Revolution and Counter-revolution: A Eurosceptical enquiry,” History of Political Thought

20,1 (1999): 125-39. As for the Counter-Enlightenment in France, see D. M. McMaholm, Enemies of the

Enlightenment. The French Counter-Enlightenment and the Making of Modernity (Oxford, 2001); G. Garrard,

Rousseau’s Counter-Enlightenment: A Republican Critique of the Enlightenment (New York, 2003); C. O. Blum

ed., Critics of the Enlightenment: Reading in the French Counter-revolutionary Tradition (Wilmington, 2004).
5 Porter, The Creation of the Modern World, 38.
6 See. e.g. Paul K. Monod, Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788 (Cambridge, 1989), 300-305;

Stephen Bullock, “Initiating the Enlightenment? Recent Scholarship on European Freemasonry,”

[review essay] Eighteenth-Century Life 20, 1 (1996): 88.
7 Margaret Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons, and Republicans (London: 1981), 23.
8 Margaret Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in XVIII. Century Europe (Oxford, 1991),

7, 22, 51. This thesis is also repeated in several publications of Margaret Jacob: “Exits from the

Enlightenment: Masonic Routes,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 33,2 (2000), 251. “Freemasonry and the

Utopian Impulse,” in Millenarianism and Messianism in English Literature and Thought, 1650-1800, ed. R. H.

Popkin (Leiden, 1988), 127-133, 148.

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Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850

of the rituals, she partially ignores the analysis of what she promised in the

introduction, that is, how masonic ideology was lived out in several lodges.

9

Thus, echoing Jacob, several scholars, both masonic and non-mason-

ic, argue that British Freemasonry was secular and deistic in the eighteenth

century.

10

However, the evidence presented in this paper will challenge these

interpretations. The close examination of several unpublished and, for the

non-masonic academia, little-known masonic primary sources will show that,

in many ways, British Freemasonry preserved its distinctive religious nature in

the age of Enlightenment. The paper will examine how the previously

Christian principles of the fraternity, reflected both in the ancient constitu-

tions and rituals of the order, were `modernized` shortly after the genesis of

modern freemasonry as an organization in 1717. We shall see that the attitude

of the modernizers of masonic ideology to the Enlightenment is ambiva-

lent—although they managed to revolutionize masonic tenets of the “illiter-

ate past,” but the rituals performed by the enlightened freemasons preserved

their religious nature. Although, in my view, British masonic practice reflect-

ed, in Ninian Smart`s phrase, almost all the seven dimensions of a religion,

this paper is only confined to the investigation of the basic masonic rituals.

11

Due to lack of space, it cannot even touch upon the religiosity of the so-called

higher degrees, which would reinforce our argumentation. For the above rea-

son, we also have to ignore how the debate on religion caused dissension

among masonic lodges and even Grand Lodges or contributed to the appear-

ance of new degrees.

12

First, let us consider some facts concerning the history of British

Freemasonry, which are necessary in order to follow my line of argumenta-

tion. We are aware that Freemasonry, in its modern form, started in seven-

teenth–century Scotland and England.

13

The first initiations that we know of

took place in the 1640s. By the unification of four lodges, the Grand Lodge

was officially established in 1717. The following year, the Grand Master

9 Critics such as G. C. Gibbs, Geoffrey Holmes have pointed out other shortcomings of Jacob’s thesis.

See e.g. G. C. Gibbs, “The Radical Enlightenment,” British Journal for the Study of Science 17 (1984): 67-81.

Geoffrey Holmes, “Science, Reason and the Religion in the Age of Newton,” British Journal for the Study

of Science 11 (1978): 164-171.
10 E.g. Marie Mulvey Roberts, “Burns and the Masonic Enlightenment,” in Aberdeen and the Enlightenment,

eds. Jennifer Carter and M. Pittock (Aberdeen: 1987), 331-332.

11 Ninian Smart, The Dimensions of the Sacred: an anatomy of the world’s beliefs (London, 1997).
12 The latter issue was discussed in Róbert Péter, “Religious Rivalries in British Freemasonry,” British

Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Conference, St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford, 3-5 January, 2003.

13 For excellent introductory works to masonic history see David Stevenson, The Origin of Freemasonry:

Scotland’s Century 1590-1710 (Cambridge, 1988); John Hamill, The History of English Freemasonry (London,

1994).

15

Part I: 18th Century

George Payne requested that the brethren were to collect any manuscripts of

the operative masons. Accordingly, in 1721 James Anderson, a Scottish

Presbyterian minister in London, was ordered to digest manuscripts that had

been collected, traditionally known as the Old Charges, into a new and better

method. This he did, and subsequently his work was published in 1723 under

the title of the Constitutions of Free-masons.

14

Before we examine how it revolu-

tionised masonic ideology, I should briefly discuss the religious nature of the

aforementioned Old Charges as well as contents of the pre-1723 masonic cat-

echisms. The latter were primarily question and answer sessions, which intend-

ed to instruct the candidate in the essentials of a degree.

15

Analysis of the Old Charges clearly shows that, almost without excep-

tion their contents were positively Christian. Today approximately 120 manu-

scripts are known to exist, and they date from c. 1425 to the 1720s, and con-

tain many references to Christ, the Holy Church and the Saints, especially St.

John the Evangelist and St. John the Baptist. Apart from the Regius MS. of

c.1425 all of the Charges begin with an invocation to the Trinity.

16

The

Christian affiliation of these documents is natural if we consider that the

masons, for whom they were written, were employed by the established

Christian church of the land where they worked. Accordingly, the first Charge

required the masons to be faithful to God and the “holy chyrche.”

17

In addition to these Old Charges, there are several extant manuscripts

of the earliest known catechisms and rituals that date from 1696 and pre-date

the Grand Lodge era. In accordance with these early catechisms contain sev-

eral explicit Christian elements. For instance, the Dumfries No. 4. MS (1710)

also starts with an invocation to the Trinity:

The almighty father of holiness the wisdom of the glorious

jesus through the grace of the holy ghost these being three

persons in one godhead Qm we implore to be with us at the

beginning & give us grace so to govern our selves hear in this

mortal life towards him that we may come to his kingdome

that shal never have end Amen

18

14 James Anderson, The Constitutions of Free-Masons. Containing the History, the Charges, Regulations, &c. of

that most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity. For the Use of the Lodges (London, 1723).British Library

(hereafter BL)

15 Several eighteenth-century catechisms are reprinted in G. P. Jones and Douglas Hamer eds., The Early

Masonic Catechisms (London: 1963) and A. C. F. Jackson. English Masonic Exposures, 1760-69 (London,

1986).

16 The first Old Charges MSS are reprinted in Douglas Knoop, G. P. Jones, and Douglas Hamer (trans.

and ed.) The Two Earliest Masonic MSS.: the Regius ms. (B.M. Bibl. reg. 17 AI) the Cooke ms. (B.M. Add. ms.

23198) (Manchester, 1938).
17 For instance, the Cooke MS of c. 1430 [II. 833-6] says of the mason that “hit behoveth hym fyrst prin-

cypally to [loue] god and holy chyrche & alle halowis” Knoop et al. The Two Earliest MSS..., 121.

16

Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850

In almost every catechism one can observe references to St. John.

They also state that the direction of the lodge is given as “East-west”, which

is explained in the Sloane MS. of 1700, as representing the position of “all

holly Temples.”

19

There is a question about the height of the lodge in this cat-

echism, to which the candidate was to reply that “without foots yards or

Inches it reaches to heaven.”

20

Several catechisms also tell us that the secret

oaths were taken on the Bible, which the candidate had to kiss at the end of

the ceremony.

21

Furthermore, the meaning of the temple is described in a spiritual

fashion in the question and answer session of the aforementioned Dumfries

No. 4 MS of 1710.

22

This interpretation was, of course, not a novelty since it

was common in the Middle Ages, manifested in several stained-glasses, tapes-

tries and carvings. Originally it can be dated back to Venerable Bede`s (672-

735) De Templo Salamonis. The allegorical explanation of the temple was also

popular in the seventeenth century when freemasonry in its modern sense

began to take shape. For instance, Francis Bacon in his New Atlantis calls his

House of Wisdom, which was founded to interpret nature and produce the

“Great and Marvellous Works for the Benefit of Men”, as “Salomons

House.”

23

Consequently, some enthusiastic masonic “researchers” go as far as

to say that Bacon was actually the founder of modern freemasonry. A more

relevant example for our concern is John Bunyan’s Solomon’s Temple Spiritualised

(1688), which provided a detailed symbolic description of the Temple.

24

One

can observe that this Puritan classic, published several times during the eigh-

teenth century, has several similarities with the aforementioned Dumfries No. 4

MS ritual.

25

For our purpose, it is important to investigate it in more detail.

In Bunyan’s work there are seventy chapters, each of which is dedicat-

18 Reproduced in Knoop et al. The Early Masonic Catechisms, 52
19 Reproduced in Knoop et al. The Early Masonic Catechisms, 48.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.., 49.
22 See also Alex Horne, King Solomon’s temple in the Masonic tradition (London, 1972).
23 Francis Bacon, New Atlantis a work unfinished (London, 1658?), ii [To the Reader].
24 For further parallels see also Samuel Lee (1625-1691), Orbis miraculum, or, The Temple of Solomon, pour-

trayed by Scripture-light wherein all its famous buildings, the pompous worship of the Jewes, with its attending rites and

ceremonies, the several officers employed in that work, with their ample revenues, and the spiritual mysteries of the Gospel

railed under all, are treated of at large (London, 1659). Albert Mackey notes in his Encyclopedia that in 1803

a freemason called Christopher Kelly plagiarized Lee`s work and published it under the title of Solomon’s

Temple spiritualized; setting forth the Divine Mysteries of the Temple, with an account of its Destruction in Dublin.
25 The popularity of Bunyan’s work is indicated by the fact that eight editions appeared between its first

publication in 1688 and 1727.

17

Part I: 18th Century

ed to describe particular aspects of Solomon’s temple with numerous biblical

references. In the Dumfries MS there are thirteen questions concerning the

temple, which, inter alia, discusses the mystery of the altar, the ark of

covenant, the golden candlesticks and door. In fact, out of these thirteen

headings, eight cover exactly the same themes in Solomon’s Temple Spiritualised as

well. Although, Bunyan’s exegesis is, due to its genre, more elaborate, but in

terms of their theological approach, they show similarities, especially their

christocentric outlook. Despite the resemblance, I am not suggesting that

there was a direct borrowing from Bunyan’s work in masonic rituals.

We are not aware of how widespread this theological symbolism relat-

ing to Solomon’s Temple was in masonic circles of the early eighteenth cen-

tury but, observing the scriptural contents of the other rituals of the era, it

may be argued that the mystical explanation was in harmony with several other

catechisms.

Thus, it can be concluded that these masonic documents of the first

two decades of the eighteenth century reflected the theological minimalism of

latitudinarian Christianity. In a footnote it may be noted that although the lat-

itude-men such as John Tillotson and Simon Patrick were genuinely Church

of England men, the early lodges, welcomed Anglicans as well as many dis-

senters including James Anderson and John Desaguliers (a French Huguenot

turned to an Anglican clergyman), the prime movers of modern freemasonry.

In what follows we shall examine how the newly founded organization

modified the religious tenets of the fraternity in its Constitutions. For, despite

Anderson’s obvious utilization of the Old Charges during the compilation of

his work there is a notable shift in temper between the principles of the tra-

ditional Old Charges and their modernized version. So let us first briefly dis-

cuss the new religious worldview implied in Anderson’s Constitutions.

The fundamental change was evident in a novel religious orientation

apparent in the whole Constitution, especially its First Charge Concerning God and

Religion, which is one of the most debated masonic passages by masons and

non-masons alike. However, by focusing on the meanings of its phrases, most

commentators fail to pay due attention to its broader historical and textual

context. The revolutionary change already can be detected at the beginning of

the work. Unlike the still circulating Old Charges, apart from two parentheti-

cal remarks in its first section, namely, the legendary history, there were no

statements of specifically Christian principles.

26

Moreover, no mention was

made of the Christian essentials of the first catechisms, either. However, one

can observe the first use of the expression the “Great Architect of the

Universe”, which, in this context, may refer to the watch-making god of the

26 Writing about the Assyrian Empire Anderson notes that “holy Branch of SHEM (of whom, as con-

cerning the Flesh, CHRIST came) not be unskillful in the learned Arts of Assyria.” Then, in referring to

Augustus Caesar, adds “in whose Reign was born God’s M

ESSIAH

, the great Architect of the Church.”

Anderson, The Constitutions, 7, 24-25. In a scholarly writing on Anderson Professor David Stevenson also

addresses this problem: David Stevenson, “James Anderson (1679-1739): Man and Mason,” in

Freemasonry on Both Sides of the Atlantic. Essays Concerning the Craft in the British Isles, Europe, the United States,

and Mexico, eds. R. W. Weisberger, W. McLeod, S. B. Morris (Boulder, 2002), 193-242.

18

Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850

deists.

27

Somewhat paradoxically, the Charge called Concerning God and Religion

does not make any reference to God or any religious tenet. According to this

charge, prior to the eighteenth century Freemasonry was confined to coun-

tries, which were Christian and the mason was “charged to every country to

be of the religion of that country.” So the expression refers to various branch-

es of Christian countries where the operative masons worked. However, after

1723 it was “thought more expedient only to oblige them to that Religion in

which all Men agree.”

28

Anderson explains this phrase immediately by the

expression “good Men and true, or Men of Honour and Honesty, by whatev-

er Denominations or Persuasions they may be distinguish’d.” The wording of

this Charge implies that the basic religious requirements of Freemasonry are

so reduced that its words such as moral law, good, true, honour, honesty are

basically concerned with ethics. So the First Charge set up “the Moral L

AW

”

rather than Christian faith as primary principle. Anderson probably phrased

this charge in this manner so that religious controversy should be avoided

among freemasons, the desire of which was a dominant theme of eighteenth

century religious thought.

This was far from being a new idea at the first half of the eighteenth

century. The phraseology of Anderson’s Constitutions manifests the tolerant

rhetoric of the British Enlightenment. For the latitudinarian Bishop Benjamin

Hoadly, the peace of Christ is built upon toleration. He claimed that “no

earthly body, no earthly church, should have the right to determine what a per-

son should or should not believe.”

29

For the advocates of deism, religion was

regarded as an essentially rational and moral entity. As the essence of religious

truth, deists elevated a simple religion of nature, which was fundamentally

moral and reasonable in character. The first historian of deism, John Leland,

regarded Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648) as “the most eminent of the

deistical writers” who “seems to be one of the first that formed Deism into a

System, and asserted the sufficiency, universality, and absolute perfection of

natural religion.” In his De Veritate (1624), Cherbury reduced this universal

religion to five articles, which are the following: 1. That there is one supreme

God. 2. That he is chiefly to be worshipped. 3. That piety and virtue is the

principal part of his worship. 4. That we must repent our sins, and if we do

so God will pardon them. 5. That there are rewards from good men, and pun-

27 Anderson, The Constitutions, 1.
28 The word `now` in the expression “ ’tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them” also sug-

gests a deliberate shift at that time of Anderson in the declared religious tenets of British freemasons.

29 Quoted in Maximillian E. Novak, ”Defoe, the Occult, and the Deist Offensive during the reign of

George I,” in Deism, Masonry and the Enlightenment: essays honoring Alfred Owen Aldridge, ed. J.A. Leo Lemay

(Newark, 1987), 95.

19

Part I: 18th Century

ishment for bad men in a future state. Leland, commenting on these articles,

literally uses the same phrases as Anderson:

This universal religion which all men agree in, his Lordship

[Cherbury] represents to be the only religion of which there

can be any certainty, and he endeavours to shew the great

advantages that would arise from men’s embracing this reli-

gion, and this only. One of the reasons he offers to recom-

mend it is this, that the catholic or universal religion answers

the ultimate design of the holy scriptures.

30

Anderson, in the sixth charge, also spoke about the same “Catholick

religion above-mention`d [in the First Charge].”

31

Furthermore, in a sermon

preached before freemasons in 1747, John Price explained the “Religion in

which all men agree” in accordance with the five articles of Lord Cherbury

when he said: “a Belief of God, and his Providence; a God, who, by virtue of

his Justice, will reward, and punish Men according to their Behaviour.”

32

Yet

several masonic antiquarians deny it, there is no doubt that Anderson’s First

Charge clearly expresses the deistic principles of natural religion.

The deists did not only try to formulate the principles of a universal

but launched an attack on the basic teachings of Christianity. For instance,

John Toland, states in his Christianity not Mysterious (1696) that “reason is the

only Foundation of all Certitude… there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to

reason, nor above it; and that no Christian Doctrine can be properly call’d a

Mystery.”

33

Consequently, he deemed that the belief that religion contains

mysteries “is the undoubted source of all the Absurdities that were seriously

vented among Christians.” For Toland, anything mysterious about Christianity

must be discarded. Such assertion is far from the worldview of masonic ritu-

30 John Leland, A view of the principal deistical writers that have appeared in England in the last and present centu-

ry; with observations upon them, and some account of the answers that have been published against them. In several let-

ters to a friend (London, 1754), 6 [BL].

31 In the same year of the publication of the Constitution, he preached a sermon before his own congre-

gation, the dedication of which also explains his own understanding of “Catholick” religion:

had a reli-

gion, “the Religion we profess … is the best that ever was, or will or can be … for it is the Law of

Nature, which is the Law of God, for God is Nature. It is to love God above all things, and our

Neighbor as our self; this is the true, primitive, Catholic and universal Religion, agreed to be so in all

times, and confirmed by our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.” Quoted in Stevenson, James Anderson, 223.

Apart from the concluding reference to Christ, his statement is in harmony with the spirit if the First

Charge.

32 John Price, The advantages of unity considered. In a sermon preach’d before the Antient, and Honourable Society

of Free and Accepted Masons, in the parish-church of St. John Baptist, in the City of Bristol, on Monday, the 28th of

December, 1747 (Bristol, 1748?), 7 [BL].

20

Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850

als – especially the so-called higher degrees – which proclaimed “mysteries”,

as both freemasons and non-masons of the era stated. The above observation

anticipates the inconsistency between Anderson’s Constitutions and several rit-

uals of the period, which I will analyse soon in detail.

Although Anderson provided a radically new interpretation of ancient

masonic principles, but it is crucial to recognise that, unlike the deists of his

time, he did not attack any fundamental doctrines of Christianity such as the

divinity and resurrection of Jesus or the authority of Scriptures. Similarly to

the deists, he only elevated natural religion as the essence of religious truth but

did not go as far as to demolish Christian tenets. That is how in the same year

of Anderson’s writing the Constitution a deist, in a debate with a sceptic, could

state that “we Deists profess to own some Principles in common with the

Christians about Natural Religion”

34

Anderson had to remain silent on the

aforementioned debated theological issues so that masonic lodges could pro-

vide a haven for men of whatever denominations or persuasions they may be

distinguished. Thus, Anderson’s work can be regarded as the secularised form

of the Christian Old Charges rather than a manifesto of radical deism. In that

sense Stevenson rightly points out that the “move was not towards being Deist,

but to being inclusive.”

35

Partially due to the reaction against the modernization of masonic ide-

ology and practice of the first half of the century, a new rival Grand Lodge

was established by some Irish Catholics in London in 1751, which somewhat

paradoxically called itself the “Grand Lodge of Ancients”, while branding the

Premier Grand Lodge the “Modern Grand Lodge.” An important difference

between the two Grand Lodges was the position of the so-called higher

degrees, which were coming into favour, the Royal Arch degree in particular.

The ‘Ancients’ regarded the Royal Arch as “the Root, Heart, and Marrow of

Free-masonry”

36

but their ‘Modern’ counterparts tended to set their faith

against it. The ‘Ancients’ also criticised the ‘Moderns’ for omitting prayers and

esoteric bits from the rituals as well as for neglecting Saints’ days, particularly

the feast of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, the two patron

saints of Freemasonry. The constitutions of the ‘Ancients’ known as Ahiman

Rezon fully substantiate the fact that Christianity was still maintained. The first

33 John Toland, Christianity not Mysterious: A treatise shewing that there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to reason

nor above it, and that no Christian doctrine can be properly called a mystery (London, 1696), 6 [Bodleian Library].

34 Francis Gastrell, The principles of deism truly represented, and set in a clear light. In two dialogues between a

sceptick and a deist. The first concerning the christian revelation: the second concerning natural religion (London, 1722),

36 [BL].
35 Stevenson, ”James Anderson...,” 239.
36 Laurence Dermott, Ahiman Rezon or, A help to a brother; shewing the excellency of secrecy ... The ancient man-

ner of constituting new lodges ... Also the old and new regulations ... To which is added, the greatest collection of masons

songs ... Together with Solomon’s temple an oratorio ... (London, 1756), 47 [Bodleian Library].

21

Part I: 18th Century

edition of Ahiman Rezon (1756) was the work of an Irishman called Laurence

Dermott. He declared that “A M

ASON

is … to believe firmly in the true

Worship of the eternal God, as well as in all those sacred Records which the

Dignitaries and the Fathers of Church have compiled.”

37

For the above rea-

sons Dermott accused the ‘Moderns’ of abbreviating and de-Christianizing

the traditional rituals during the reign of George I, and criticised the “irreli-

gious Paths of unhappy Libertine… the arrogant Professors of Atheism and

Deism.”

38

For instance, the rituals of the Ancients contained the following

prayer, headed as “The Ancient Mason’s Prayer”, which, according to a foot-

note in the ritual, the Moderns made no use of:

Brethren, let us pray. O Lord God, thou great and universal

Mason of the World, and the first Builder of Man, as it were

a Temple; be with us, O Lord, as thou hast promised, when

two or three are gathered in thy Name, thou wilt be in the

Midst of them; be with us, O Lord, and bless all our

Undertakings, and grant that this our Friends, may become a

faithful Brother. Let Grace and Peace be multiplied unto him,

through the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ: And grant,

O Lord, as he putteth forth in His Hand to thy holy Word, that

he may also put forth his hand to serve a Brother, but not to

hurt himself or his Family; that whereby may be given to us

great and precious Promises, that by this we may be Partakers

of thy divine Nature, having escaped the Corruption that is in

the World, through Lust. — O Lord God, add to our Faith,

Virtue, and to Virtue, Knowledge; and to Knowledge

Temperance; and to Temperance Prudence, and to Prudence

Patience; and to Patience Godliness, and to Godliness

Brotherly Love; and to Brotherly Love, Charity: And grant, O

Lord, that Masonry may be blest throughout the World, and

thy Peace be upon us, O Lord; and grant that we may be all

united as one, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and

reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.

39

It is clear that Ancients appeared to be more pious who intended to

preserve the old Christian edifices of the fraternity. The reason for this main-

37 Dermott, Ahiman Rezon, 14-15. It interesting to observe the parallels with the First Charges of

Anderson’s constitutions, however, Dermott actually repeats literally the modified version of the Charge

concerning God and religion as it was published in 1738 on pages 25-26. It may be noted that all sub-

sequent editions of Ahiman Rezon (1764, 1783, 1787, 1803) follow this with slight punctuation modifi-

cations.
38 Ibid.

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Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850

ly lies in the different religious background of the two rivalling masonic bod-

ies—most of the Ancients were Irish Catholics, whereas Moderns were pri-

marily Whig-leaning Protestant dissenters and Anglicans.

The Sheffield ritual of the Royal Arch, as it was practised in the mid-

1780, has an almost identical lecture on the “Mystical Knowledge of the

Temple” with the earlier examined Dumfries MS of 1710, which suggests a

common origin. Here again every facet in Solomon’s Temple symbolizes a

fundamental doctrine about Jesus Christ. Thus it is clear from the above

examples that one cannot speak about the “conspicuous absence of Jesus

Christ in the Masonic rituals and vision”, as Guy Beck recently claimed in an

analysis of the religious symbol of Solomon’s Temple in Freemasonry.

40

The probability that mystical interpretation of the temple in freema-

sonry is related to Bunyan’s work becomes higher, if we consider in 1756 that

the author of the Ancients’ constitution encourages freemasons to read

Solomon’s Temple Spiritualised and Milton’s Paradise Lost, in which they can find

certain masonic themes more elaborated. Moreover, in the same year the fron-

tispiece of the ninth edition of Bunyan’s work portrayed unmistakable mason-

ic emblems.

41

The examination of eighteenth-century British rituals, especially the

ones beyond the Craft degrees, undoubtedly reveals that many of them were

firmly embedded in a Christian context. The rich Biblical allusions as well as

the references to orthodox Christian doctrines of these rituals can be regard-

ed as signs of a Counter-Enlightenment tendency in British masonic ideology

as a protest against the rationalizing of masonic practice. It can be observed

that their language is more mystical and religious than that of the pre-1723 rit-

uals. That is why I think we can postulate a Christianising tendency in the reli-

gious development of freemasonry along with the de-Christianization

process.

42

All the above-presented evidence have questioned the easy categoriza-

tion of masonic ideology that historians have long taken for granted and

showed that eighteenth-century British Freemasonry cannot be considered as

either entirely secular or, as for the content of masonic rituals, religiously uni-

39 The footnote also adds that in some Lodges the Ancients omit it, though but in very few.” G******,

J***. Mahhabone: Or, the Grand Lodge Door Open’d. Wherein Is Discovered the Whole Secrets of Free-Masonry, Both

Ancient and Modern. ... The Second Edition, with Additions, (London, 1766), 35-36 [Bodleian Library]. The

same prayer is literally repeated in another Ancient ritual: V-n, W- O-, The Three Distinct Knocks; or the door

of the most antient free-masonary, opening to all men, neither naked nor cloath’d,... being an universal description of all

its branches (Dublin, 1785 (?) [1760]), 18 [Bodleian Library].
40 Guy L. Beck, ”Celestial Lodge Above: The Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem as a Religious Symbol

in Freemasonry,” Nova Religio 4,1 (2000): 44.
41 John Bunyan, Solomon’s temple spiritualiz’d... (London, 1756).

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Part I: 18th Century

versal or non-sectarian as certain prominent freemasons had propagated from

the eighteenth century onwards. Hence, the case of Freemasonry provides an

excellent illustration of the fact that that the phenomena of the

Enlightenment cannot be explained away satisfactorily with the dichotomies

of secular versus religious and Christian versus deist.

The fascination of freemasons with the “mysteries” of their rituals

indicates that in the so-called “Age of Reason” many still yearned for elements

of mystery, ritual secrecy and the quest for hidden truth, which might help

lead the Enlightenment into Romanticism. This sort of Freemasonry

appealed to the anti-Newtonian pre-romantic poets such as Christopher

Smart and William Blake, who detested the natural religion of the deists. So it

may be said that the Age of Reason coincided with the Age of Religion.

There is no doubt that research on Freemasonry has a lot to offer to

ongoing scholarly debates, e.g. the secularization thesis. However, future

scholarship on these issues would be much more fruitful and accepted more

widely in academe if at least the early ritual archives in the Library of the

United Grand Lodge of England ceased to be black holes for non-masonic

scholars with serious academic interests. Indeed, the information swallowed

in them should be integrated in eighteenth century studies.

42 Recent scholarship by Janet Burke illuminated a similar tendency in French women’s rituals of the

eighteenth and nineteenth century. Although this move to a more religious ritual setting occurred in a

totally different cultural and socio-political context, it is interesting to observe an akin phenomenon on

the other side of the Channel: A certain religious orthodoxy also insinuated itself into the women’s rit-

uals, some of it left over from the eighteenth century, but much of it new. In one 1807 ritual book, a

candidate had to confirm her duty to her religion as well as the state and morality. In the third degree

ritual, where before the Revolution the candidate had learned most fully the concepts of the

Enlightenment, the change in emphasis seemed to be a religious one. The secret sign meant “everything

which catches our eyes should make us admire the grandeur of God,” whereas in the eighteenth centu-

ry the sign was the ladder of Jacob, which represented “the different virtues that all good women

Masons must possess.” The nineteenth-century sacrifice of Abraham represented “obedience and res-

ignation to the will of God,” whereas in the eighteenth century it meant “that a good Mason must sac-

rifice what he holds most dear when wisdom demands it.” The birds on the third floor of Noah’s ark

taught nineteenth-century Masons that “we must raise our thoughts constantly to the Supreme Being.”

The birds in the eighteenth century had nothing to say.” M. Janet Burke, “Enlightenment: Women

Freemasons after the revolution, “ Eighteenth Century Studies, 33, 2(2000):257.

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