153 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
153 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.VII February, 1929 No.2
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THE MOTHER GRAND LODGE III
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by: Unknown
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There is a reason for everything, even for superstition, if we seek
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far enough to find it. There was a reason, both in the spirit of the
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age and the state of the Craft, for the "revival" of Masonry in 1717.
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It was a fad of the day to form all sorts of queer clubs and secret
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societies, some of them with odd, fantastic names. Our Craft was
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caught by that craze, but Masonry lived, while the rest were left in
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limbo. Why should it have been so?
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The Cathedrals had long been finished and the work of the Craft
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seemed done. The place of the Master Mason had been taken by the
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architect who, like Sir Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones was no
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longer a child of the Lodge, but a man trained in books and by
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travel. By all the rules, Masonry should have died, or else reverted
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to some kind of guild or trade union. But, it did not. Instead, men
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who were not working Masons had long been joining the Lodges, in
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quest of truth they had not found elsewhere.
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Put otherwise, why did Masonry alone of all trades live after its
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work was done, preserving not only its identity and its old emblems
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and usages, but transforming them into teachers of morality and
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charity? Of course, in the end only that lives which is in accord
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with the need of man and the nature of things; but we may go further
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and say that Masonry lived because it had never been simply an order
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of architects, but a moral and spiritual fellowship - the keeper of
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great symbols and a teacher of truths that never die.
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Having reviewed the meager record, let us examine the facts in more
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detail. The new Masonry was not merely a "revival;" it was a
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revolution. The Craft had fallen to a low estate, following the
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rebuilding of London after the Great Fire. The new Grand Lodge was
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intended to give it "a centre of union and harmony," a community of
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action, such as it had not had for years; but it did much more. It
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gave the Craft not only an old form with a new meaning, but a new
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spirit, a new force, a new direction, and sent it forward to a new
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destiny such as no one had ever dreamed of.
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More than one writer has told us that the leaders of the Masonry of
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that day were fuzzy-minded men who did not know what they were doing;
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but the results show that they were wise men. Never more so than
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when they were careful to say that what they were doing was
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"according to ancient usage," a phrase which still has magical power
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among us, because Masons love things old, tried and lovely. They
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were doing things never done before "according to ancient usage" from
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"time immemorial," and that was surely a rare feat! They made the
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past glide into the future without loss, using an ancient form to
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clothe a new spirit and purpose.
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The brethren who met in the Apple-Tree Tavern "constituted themselves
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a Grand Lodge pro tempore in Due Form and forthwith revived the
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Quarterly Communication of Officers of Lodges, called the Grand
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Lodge." The quarterly meeting was never before called a Grand Lodge,
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so far as we are aware, but it became one none the less. Under the
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guise of reviving an old usage they created a new form of
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organization - new, certainly, in its power. No wonder there was a
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great Schism later on, made, as we now know, by Lodges not
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represented at the Apple-Tree Tavern, and who denied the right of a
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few men to constitute themselves a Grand Lodge.
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What was the "Due Form" with which the new Grand Lodge was
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constituted? A postscript to the record tells us that "when the
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Grand Master is present it is a lodge in Ample Form; otherwise, only
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in Due Form." But what Ritual, if any, was used on that important
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occasion? Nobody knows; our Brethren have practiced the virtue of
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secrecy too successfully for us to penetrate the veil. Some sort of
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ceremony must have been employed, but we do not know what it was,
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unless it was that found in the "Narrative of the Freemasons Words
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and Signes" contained in the Sloan MS. The Grand Lodge itself being
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a new invention, no doubt it set about revising and elaborating such
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Ritual as existed, which developed into the Ritual as we now have it.
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Under the guise of a "revival" still further innovations were made
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when the four lodges met to elect a Grand Master and celebrate the
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Feast of St. John in the Goose and Gridiron Ale-House. The office of
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Grand Master was new, both in its creation and in its amazing power -
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a power almost absolute, including the "sole" right of appointing
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both his Wardens. There must have been murmurs against it, because
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Anderson found it necessary to say a little later that it was found
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"as necessary as formerly, according to an ancient custom." Whereas
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he was in fact attempting to justify a new fact by appeal to an old
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fiction, since no such office existed in former times.
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Old usages were in evidence, to be sure, as the observance of St.
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John's Day, the manner of voting by show of hands, the badges of
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office, the Tyled Lodge, to name no others. But if the new Grand
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Master wore an old Badge of office, he himself was a new figure in
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Masonry, invested with a new and vast power. His Badge was a large
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white apron, though hardly so large as the one we see in the Hogarth
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picture. The collar was of much the same shape as that at present in
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use, only shorter. When the color was changed to blue, and why, is
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uncertain, but probably not until 1813, when we begin to see both
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Apron and Collar edged with blue. By 1727 the officers of all lodges
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were wearing "the jewels of Masonry hanging to a White Apron." Four
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years later we find the Grand Master wearing gold jewels pendant to
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blue ribbons about the neck.
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As regards innovations, it is pointed out by Gould that the new Grand
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Lodge introduced three striking changes in English Masonry, besides
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those already named. First, it prohibited the working of "the
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Master's Part" - now, probably the Master's Degree - in private
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Lodges, as if it intended to keep the most sacred and secret part of
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the Ritual within its own control. Not unnaturally this provoked
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rebellion on the part of many, and was done away with in November
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1725. However, it was a wise thing, because, as Stuckeley said in
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his diary, under the date of January 1721, "Masonry took a run, and
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ran itself out of breath through the folly of its members." It seems
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that Masons were being made not only by Lodges, but by private
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groups.
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The second innovation named by Gould was less important, but worthy
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of mention. The new Grand Lodge arbitrarily imposed upon the English
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Craft the use of two compound words new in its vocabulary - Entered
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Apprentice and Fellow Craft. These words were known elsewhere in the
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Craft, but they were new in England. More serious, by far, was the
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article on "God and Religion" in the First Constitutions, by which
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Christianity was no longer to be the only religion recognized by
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Masonry. As Gould remarks, "the drawing of a sponge over the ancient
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Charge, 'To be True To God and Holy Church,' was doubtless looked
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upon by many Masons of those days in very much the same manner as we
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now regard the absence of any religious formulary whatever in the so-
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called Masonry of the Grand Orient of France."
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The full import of this article was not realized at first; but it was
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one factor leading to the Great Schism which divided the Craft for
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fifty years. Indeed, the "epoch of transition," as it has been
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named, from the old Masonry to the new, covered a long period, say
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from 1717 to 1738, when the second book of constitutions was issued,
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and the first Papal Bull was hurled at the Craft. It was a period of
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ups and downs, all kinds of tangles, new and vexing problems, when
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the Craft was attacked and defended by turns, with many alleged
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"exposures" as well , as we know not only from the record of the
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Craft, but from items in the papers of the time.
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The old diarist was right when he said that "Masonry took a run," and
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it did not stop until it reached the ends of the earth. Lodges
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multiplied, charity flourished, and the gentle influence of the
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Fraternity spread afar. In spite of the schism within and opposition
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without, the Craft grew almost too rapidly, and measures had to be
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taken to restrain it, least it go too fast, making members without
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making Masons. Those "Fuzzy-minded old men," as they have been
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called, knew what they were about, and while they made more than one
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sad mistake of policy, they helped forward the Brotherhood of Man.
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Even the Great Schism helped, rather than hindered, the onward march
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of Masonry.
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