Showing posts with label #sourcebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #sourcebook. Show all posts

Friday 2 August 2013

A Beginner's Guide to Freemasonry by Wor. Bro. Dennis Stocks, Barron Barnett Lodge





Mirrored from: http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/freemasonry/freemasonry.html


A Beginner's Guide to Freemasonry
by Wor. Bro. Dennis Stocks, Barron Barnett Lodge.



While there is general consensus that Freemasonry originated in the British Isles, the exact line of descent (direct or indirect) from the Operative stone masons remains an oft posed question. Although the "Direct" argument has the most supporting evidence, the problem of a final resolution of this question remains complicated by the dearth of primary material.

The occupation of "stone mason" began in the British Isles about the beginning of the eleventh century and received great stimulus after the Norman Conquest. The occupation was broadly divided into two strands -- the Hewers, who worked in the quarries rough shaping the stones and the Layers (or Setters) who worked on the building site(s).

Until the Elizabethan era they were engaged almost entirely on cathedrals, churches, abbeys and castles which often took an inordinate time to complete. While each building site was under the direction of a Master Builder or Master Mason, as with most members of a recognised craft, the stone masons were also organised under the protection of craft guilds which had arisen as guardians of the interests of the skilled workers -- a kind of medieval unions. But, importantly, the guilds also required their members to regularly (if not frequently) attend church.

Frith, or family peace guilds, existed in London about the middle of the tenth century, while the first merchant guild is believed to have originated in Dover about the middle of the eleventh century. Although weaver guilds also appear to have also originated about the same time, there is not doubt that the Craft guilds in Britain were well established by the reign of Henry I (around 1135).

On each construction site was erected a small, dedicated building called a "lodge" which served as a repository for their working tools and as a meeting place and school room for apprentice stone masons. Not only practical instructions were imparted to the apprentices, but evidence suggests moral and ethical teachings, modes of recognition and all matters relating to general conduct were imparted in the ceremonies lodge meetings held on Saturdays at high twelve. All apprentices were obligated and indentured in the ceremonies lodges and candidates for promotion were likewise examined, tested for proficiency, obligated and entrusted in these lodges.

Most members of the craft guilds could readily find employment at all levels in the society from the large projects to cottage industries. But major construction programs were expensive and rare. As each phase of the building was concluded or local requirements for their labour exhausted, some stone masons may have been forced to leave and travel to a new building site to find continued employment. Their trade and skills could be confirmed by certain signs, tokens and words which would serve as introductions and certification in this largely illiterate society.

In the earliest days, many of the established lodges must have worked independently since travel was difficult, dangerous and time-consuming. Nevertheless there is evidence that annual assemblages were probably taking place in the 1300's. It was these gatherings that Henry VI in 1436-1437 sought to prohibit by Royal Statute.

Under the Guild system, many families rose from serfdom to become successful employers in a few generations and the system was highly successful until the Reformation. At this time, Henry VIII confiscated most of the Guilds' possessions and his son, Edward VI, in 1547, confiscated nearly all the remaining Guild funds that had been dedicated for religious purposes. The Guilds that survived developed into the Liveried Companies as we find in the City of London today.

The records suggest that the stone masons were probably the worst affected by these travails and many of their records were destroyed.

The direct case argues that, in the seventeenth century, lodges of stone masons which controlled their trade began accepting men who were not stonemasons -- non Operatives -- and called them "accepted" masons. Over the subsequent years, the numbers of accepted masons grew and transformed the Operative lodges into Speculative lodges. The evidence in support of this comes primarily from Scotland where the minute books of Scottish operative lodges shows that from 1599 onwards in addition to the management of the masons' trade, some form of ritual work was being undertaken.

We must be careful to distinguish between Operatives' ritual (their body of stone masons' customs, craft lore and professional 'secrets') and non-operative ceremony which contains a nucleus of catechisms and esoteric teachings. Our earliest evidence as to the contents of the non-operative, Craft ritual is from a series of Scottish Masonic aide-memoirs compiled c.1696-c.1714 which show ceremonies as practiced at that time. They depict a rite of two degrees -- Entered Apprentice and Master or Fellow Craft -- each containing an obligation, 'secrets' and a series of questions and answers. The texts contain nothing that might be described as "Speculative" masonry and on these documents alone there is no grounds to infer that the same ceremonies were practiced in England.

If you accept the present-day sense of the adjective "Speculative" as applied to the Craft, it is highly improbable that such a definition would/could apply to the seventeenth century lodges in either Scotland or England.

So, while the Direct case relies of the Scottish evidence, there is not extant record of the form or nature of the rituals worked in the transitional operative-to-speculative lodges. Without the details of the rituals, the accepted masons in Scotland may not have had any links with Speculative freemasonry and it may be they may simply have been honorary members or patrons of the operative lodges.

Lodge minutes of Aitcheison's Haven shows non-operative admissions in 1672, 1677 and 1693 and the membership roles at Aberdeen in 1670 shows ten operative and thirty-nine non-operatives drawn from the nobility, gentry, professional men, merchants and tradesmen. Yet the lodge continued to conduct itself as an operative lodge.

While the purely operative antecedents of the Scottish lodges made them reluctant to change to non-operative workings, seventeenth century minute books of Scottish operative lodges increasingly show the admission of Accepted Masons and, by the eighteenth century, they had in fact lost most of their Operative functions.

So you can perceive of a three-stage development: Operative Lodges to Transitional Lodges to Speculative Lodges.

But this appears confined to Scotland.

In England it is as if Freemasonry sprang into existence fully formed without a trail and development period. A kind of Speculative spontaneous generation.

The earliest operative lodge in England whose records survive is the Lodge at Alnwick in Northumberland. The records show a code of operative and "moral" regulations drawn up in 1701 and so far as can be ascertained, all members listed as being admitted at this time were operative masons. Surviving minutes of another operative lodge at Swalwell in Durham are sufficiently similar to confirm that these lodges are representative of their time -- purely operative lodges with no non-operative members.

This is not to say that operative lodges did not exist before that time. The existence of semi-permanent groups of stone masons forming themselves into lodges in England before the seventeenth century is, however, purely speculative (no pun intended), for there is no evidence by which we could prove that they existed. The Reformation, when Henry VIII confiscated most of the guilds' property and his son, Edward VI, in 1547, took possession of nearly all the remaining guild funds, virtually destroyed the stone masons who were perhaps the hardest hit by these confiscations of property. Henry VI in 1436-1437 had sought to prohibit the annual assemblages of the guilds. So the guilds, and by extension the masons' lodges, had a history of opposition to their existence in England.

Yet in 1646, Elias Ashmole was made a Free Mason in a lodge specially convened for that purpose. Ashmole, in his account of the ceremony, recorded the names of those present and none were operative masons or had any connection with the craft of stonemasonry. Other seventeenth century evidence from England shows similar events -- the lack of operative lodges and the making of Free masons by other Free Masons with no operative connections.

Supporters of the direct argument will dismiss the lack of Scottish-equivalent evidence in England by claiming that it must have been destroyed. Certainly this was a time of great upheaval. However, their claim that close ties with Scotland and England making the English experience in the development of Accepted Lodges from Operative ones parallel that in Scotland, ignores the very real differences in political, religious, legal and social development between the two countries. Indeed, for much of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Scotland had closer links with France than with its southern neighbour.

Supporters of the Indirect case have approached the problem from a different viewpoint but not asking HOW or WHEN, but WHY Freemasonry should have developed in the first place. Why should non-operatives wish to become Accepted Masons? Why should they turn the trade orientated organisations into a Speculative Art?

By studying primary material some interesting insights become apparent.

The REGIUS MS of c.1390 has a purely operative content. By 1583, the GRAND LODGE #1 MS contains much that is of no relevance to Operative Masonry but highly relevant to Free Masonry. These documents are, respectively, the oldest and third oldest version of the "Old Charges".

The historical period of the GRAND LODGE #1 MS was one of political and religious intolerance in England leading to the Civil War. It is argued that the Society of Freemasons was founded by men of peace who wished to end the religious and political strife of their day. To achieve this, they founded a brotherhood in which religious and political dissent had no part, belief in God was tantamount, and members were dedicated to brotherly love (tolerance), relief and truth. Thus men of differing views could meet in harmony.

It was common practice at that time to teach and pass on philosophical ideas by means of symbolism and allegory. As the primary aim was to "build" a better man/nation in a better world, the form of the old operative building lodges was adopted with the working tools as symbols on which to moralise. What better allegory could there be than the construction of an actual building? In spite of high levels of illiteracy, the great majority of men were familiar with the Bible -- the central source of allegory -- and the only building mentioned in the King James version is that of King Solomon's Temple (although there are conflicting descriptions between Kings and Chronicles).

Harkening back to Ashmole, you will note that, at the time of his initiation (1646) the English Civil War was at its height. Ashmole was a Royalist who had been captured by parliamentarians and was on parole at the house of his father-in-law (a leading Parliamentary supporter in England's north-west). Importantly, the lodge that convened to initiate Ashmole was a mixed group of Royalists and Parliamentarians.

In time, the English Speculatives never doubted that their craft had descended by some torturous and probably untraceable route from the medieval stone masons' operative lodges. Nor did it concern them that men of all races, creeds and walks of life met together in their Speculative Lodges. However undemocratic the external English society might be, within the Lodge, all men were equal.

Yet the egalitarian nature of the English Freemasons did not extend to the Continent. The absolute monarchy and lack of democratic institutions in France and else where on the Continent ensured Freemasonry was effectively the province of the nobles and professional classes.

Freemasonry was seen as an extension to their other social activities or as a path to esoteric knowledge. The three Craft degrees with their unassuming ceremonies and direct moral message were too simple and too dull. Membership had to be justified by showing there were other, more elaborate purposes and a more illustrious origin than could be found in a "mere" reconstructed building guild.


On 21 March 1737, Andrew Michael Ramsay presented an address to the Grand Lodge in Paris in his capacity as Official Orator, As a result, the history of the Craft took a new direction.

On the whole, Ramsay's speech was unexceptional, but he began to emphasise the hypothetical and fanciful origins of Craft as an order founded in antiquity and revived in the Holy Land during the Crusades.

The idea of a medieval chivalric antecedent for Freemasonry struck a receptive chord and within a decade a host of new rites and degrees based on the ideals of chivalry and contemporary notions of knightly practices had sprung up in Germany and France.



It must be emphasised that Ramsay himself did not found any of the additional degrees and he made no reference to, for example, the Knights Templar. But the notion of a Masonic descent from the Templars became firmly embedded in the romantic mind of continental masonry.

Outside the lodge room we hear many and varied statements as to what Freemasonry is all about. Whilst most of the assertions contain an element of truth, they all too frequently assign excessive importance to a subsidiary aspect of our Craft, to the extent that the true purpose of Freemasonry is obscured.

What then IS Freemasonry? The speculative free masons who drafted our first ritual in the 1700's said that freemasonry was a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. This IS what true Freemasonry always has been and always will be.

There is a wealth of information regarding Freemasonry on the WWW. Check it out, you may be surprised and certainly enlightened!



Friday 26 July 2013

Sourcebook: Known Savile Associates and Alleged Connections



An ongoing reference listing, arranged by organisation and affiliation.

Inclusion upon this list does not, and should not, imply guilt, criminality, prior knowledge, deceit or malice of afterthought.

Instead, it is intended to provide food for thought, and grounds for further research.

If you know of any not included below, please add to the comments section and I will incorporate them in regular updates.

Primary sources cited where applicable.

Serial or Ongoing Murder Series:

"Bible John"





1968-1969 
Glasgow Barrowlands Dancehall



Other Persons of Interest:










"The Yorkshire Ripper(s)"





1975?-1981?
Leeds, Bradford and West Yorkshire and environs

Other Persons of Interest:



The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great 
(Latin: Ordo Sancti Gregorii Magni, Italian: Ordine di San Gregorio Magno):

Knight/Dame Grand Cross of the First Class

Sir George Bowyer, 6th Baronet, Knight Grand Cross.

Charles, Count of Limburg Stirum, Knight Grand Cross.

Abdón Cifuentes Knight Grand Cross of the First Class

João Carlos Saldanha de Oliveira Daun, 1st Duke of Saldanha, Knight Grand Cross of the First Class

Rodrigo Augusto da Silva, Knight Grand Cross of the First Class

George Forbes, 7th Earl of Granard, Knight Grand Cross.

Frank Hanna III, American entrepreneur and philanthropist

Riccardo Muti, 2012, conductor, Knight Grand Cross of the First Class

Thomas Stonor, 7th Lord Camoys, 2006, Knight Grand Cross, Lord Chamberlain

Otto von Habsburg, Knight Grand Cross, Archduke Otto of Austria was the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary.

Charles von Hügel, Knight Grand Cross


Knight/Dame Commander with Star

Arthur Calwell, Australian cabinet minister and former Labor Party leader

G. K. Chesterton, British essayist, poet, novelist, and historian

Dolores Hope, philanthropist and entertainer (Dame Commander of St. Gregory with Star)

Francis Martin O'Donnell, 2007, Ambassador and Knight of Malta, previously in UN service for 32 years

Gilbert Levine, 2005, American conductor

Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis, 2008, Dame Commander with Star

Wilfred Von der Ahe, 1998, Knight Commander with Star, founder of Vons supermarket chain

Albert Gubay, 2011, Knight Commander with Star, founder of Kwik Save supermarket chain


Knight/Dame Commander

Carol Benesch, Silesian and Romanian architect, KCSG

Patrick Burns, 1914, Canadian rancher, meat magnate, and senator

Matt Busby, CBE, manager of Manchester United

Roy E. Disney, 1998

Bob Hope, 1998, American entertainer (convert to Catholicism)

John Hume, 2012, Irish politician and co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize

Maurice Gerard Moynihan, 1959, Secretary of the Government of the Irish Free State and Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland

Charles Poletti, 1945, Governor of New York, Army officer in charge of post World War II civil affairs in Italy

John J. Raskob, financial executive and businessman (DuPont, General Motors); built the Empire State Building

Paul Salamunovich, 1969, American choral conductor and expert on Gregorian chant.

Roger Wagner, American choral conductor

Mordecai Waxman, 1998, Prominent rabbi in the Conservative movement

Knight/Dame

Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus

Walter Annenberg, created TV Guide

Július Binder, 2004, civil engineer and member of Slovak parliament

Thomas Bodkin, lawyer, art historian, art collector and curator

Joanna Bogle, 2013, British journalist and author

Angelo Branca, 1977, Canadian judge

Frank Carson, noted Irish comedian and philanthropist

Henry Cooper, 1978, British boxer.

John A. Creighton, 1898, businessman and philanthropist in Omaha.

John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute

Leo Crowley, 1929 director U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Isidore Dockweiler, 1924 - Philanthropist and statesman

W. Patrick Donlin, American judge and Supreme Advocate of the Knights of Columbus
Hermanegild Marcos Antonio Drago, Pakistani physician

John W. Gallivan, publisher of The Salt Lake Tribune

Hector P. Garcia, Mexican-American civil rights leader

Henryk Górecki, Polish composer

Myles Keogh, 1861, Irish papal soldier - served in Italy and the United States

Leon Klenicki, 2007, American rabbi who advocated interfaith relations

Kenneth Langone, American investment banker

Dorothy Leavey, American philanthropist

Ricardo Montalbán, 1998, Mexican-born American-based actor and philanthropist

Colin Mawby, 2006, English chorale conductor and composer

Adolfo Müller-Ury, 1923, Swiss-born American portrait painter

Rupert Murdoch, 1998

Alfred O'Rahilly, 1954, Irish academic and author

Frank Patterson, 1984, noted Irish tenor

Dr. Manuel de la Pila Iglesias (1932), a Puerto Rican physician

Gil J. Puyat, Senate President of the Philippines, Educator, Businessman, Philanthropist.

Joseph Ryelandt, Belgian composer

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 2006, American, founder of the Special Olympics

Michael Somare, 1992, Papua New Guinean, first prime minister of Papua New Guinea



The Athenæum Club

The Earl of Aberdeen

Augustus Agar, naval hero

Matthew Arnold

H.H. Asquith

Baroness Hale of Richmond, barrister, academic, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Andrew Geddes Bain geologist, road engineer, palaeontologist and explorer

Owen Barfield (1898–1997) philosopher, poet, etymologist, and solicitor

J. M. Barrie

Louis Lucien Bonaparte, linguist

Virginia Bottomley, Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, politician and headhunter

L.J.F. Brimble, botanist and editor of Nature magazine

James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce (1838–1922), jurist, historian and politician

Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet

William Burges (1827–1881), architect and designer

Lord (Alec) Broers

Oscar Browning politician, historian (1837–1923)

Thomas Campbell (poet)

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (author)

Winston Churchill

John Duke Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge (1820–1894)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Joseph Conrad

Lord Curzon, MP, Viceroy of India, and British Foreign Secretary

Charles Darwin

Charles Dickens

Isaac D'Israeli

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) composer, Master of the King's Musick

T. S. Eliot poet

Michael Faraday

John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

Sir William Galloway (1840–1927) mining engineer, Professor of Mining at University College of Wales

Victoria Glendinning

Alec Guinness

Henry Hallam historian, Commissioner of Stamps (1826)

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), novelist

Leonard Horner (1785-1864), President of the Geological Society, Warden of the University of London, Factory Inspector

Cardinal Basil Hume

Roy Jenkins Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary

Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874–1938), Tutor of the Last Emperor of China

Charles Kemble

Rudyard Kipling, poet laureate

H. F. B. Lynch, traveller and businessman

Walter de la Mare (1873–1956)

Lord Robert Montagu (1825–1902)

Thomas Moore (poet)

Geographical Society.
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871), President of the Geological Society and the Royal 

George Nugent-Grenville, 2nd Baron Nugent (1789–1850)

Lord Palmerston

Harry St John Philby archaeologist and Arabist

Michael Polanyi

Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Neurologist & neuroscientist

Cecil Rhodes

Emile Victor Rieu

Sir Jimmy Savile, OBE
Procurer of Children for the Rulling Class

Sir Walter Scott, writer

Idries Shah, author on Sufism (1924–1996)

Tahir Shah, author

Richard 'Conversation' Sharp, critic, merchant and politician

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)

Walter Starkie

James Joseph Sylvester, Mathematician

Sir Jethro Teall, geologist and petrologist

William Makepeace Thackeray author

Arnold J. Toynbee historian

Professor Rick Trainor, Principal of King's College London

Anthony Trollope, author

J.M.W. Turner, painter

Anthony Blunt, Keeper of the Queen's Pictures, The Fifth Man

Sir Barnes Wallis, engineer (1887–1979)

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852)

W. B. Yeats poet

Eric Millar, historian of illuminated manuscripts

Alexander Burnes, explorer in the Great Game





John Lydon was often way ahead of the curve...