Post by Tamrin on Feb 20, 2010 20:58:25 GMT 10
"The Operative Connection"
[Excerpt - Paper by Christopher Haffner, Regularity of Origin, AQC #96, pp.111/139]
[Excerpt - Paper by Christopher Haffner, Regularity of Origin, AQC #96, pp.111/139]
[The operative connection] ... is the only way that masons can call themselves such for without this link with operative Masonry lodges are merely convivial or at best, ethical societies, with no right to the term ‘Masonry’. Masons may as well be named after one of the other factors which are alleged to have influenced the ritual such as Cabbalism, Rosicrucianism, alchemy, astrology, Jacobitism and even, in the Far East, triadism.
Tracing this factor in Scotland is easy. No one doubts that the old lodges of Scotland were operative lodges of stonemasons which gradually transformed themselves into the speculative lodges of today. Some indeed remained operative within the speculative system for many years, as for example St. John’s Operative Lodge No. 92 of Banff (Napier, Short History, pp. 85-6).
In Ireland there are somewhat greater problems if such continuity is to be proved. A classic early record of speculative Masonry in Ireland says that a lodge was set up in 1688 ‘after the example of the fraternity of freemasons in and about Trinity College’ (Lepper & Crossle, History of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, p. 37). However there is no record of the foundation of the Grand Lodge itself. The first record is of a procession followed by an election and banquet in 1725 and this shows that by then there were ‘Six Lodges of Gentlemen freemasons, who are under the jurisdiction of the Grand Master’.
In England four speculative lodges of probably recent origin banded together in 1717 to found a Grand Lodge. The oldest may date from 1680 and may have had connections with the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral (Adams, Our Oldest Lodge, p. 317). It had an operative mason as its Master in 1721 but there all connection with the operatives ceased. However the lodge at Swalwell in Northumberland should not be forgotten. It was a purely operative lodge and is thought eventually to have become the speculative Lodge of Industry No. 48 of Gateshead.
Three proofs of an actual or intentional connection with operative origins on the part of English Masonry must now be considered. First is the visit of Dr. Desaguliers to Edinburgh in 1721 which proves that the operatives of Scotland recognized a speculative from England:
Examples could be multiplied at length. Our claim to be ‘regular’ or real masons lies in our connection with our operative past. For this it is necessary for each Grand Lodge to be able to prove succession back to one of the original Grand Lodges of the British Isles.
Tracing this factor in Scotland is easy. No one doubts that the old lodges of Scotland were operative lodges of stonemasons which gradually transformed themselves into the speculative lodges of today. Some indeed remained operative within the speculative system for many years, as for example St. John’s Operative Lodge No. 92 of Banff (Napier, Short History, pp. 85-6).
In Ireland there are somewhat greater problems if such continuity is to be proved. A classic early record of speculative Masonry in Ireland says that a lodge was set up in 1688 ‘after the example of the fraternity of freemasons in and about Trinity College’ (Lepper & Crossle, History of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, p. 37). However there is no record of the foundation of the Grand Lodge itself. The first record is of a procession followed by an election and banquet in 1725 and this shows that by then there were ‘Six Lodges of Gentlemen freemasons, who are under the jurisdiction of the Grand Master’.
In England four speculative lodges of probably recent origin banded together in 1717 to found a Grand Lodge. The oldest may date from 1680 and may have had connections with the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral (Adams, Our Oldest Lodge, p. 317). It had an operative mason as its Master in 1721 but there all connection with the operatives ceased. However the lodge at Swalwell in Northumberland should not be forgotten. It was a purely operative lodge and is thought eventually to have become the speculative Lodge of Industry No. 48 of Gateshead.
Three proofs of an actual or intentional connection with operative origins on the part of English Masonry must now be considered. First is the visit of Dr. Desaguliers to Edinburgh in 1721 which proves that the operatives of Scotland recognized a speculative from England:
Att Maries Chapell the 24 August 1721... The which day Doctor John Theophilus Des-Anguliers... late General Grand Master of the Mason lodges in England being in town and desirous to have a conference with the Deacon, Warden, and Master Masons of Edinr, which was accordingly granted, and finding him duly qualified in all parts of masonry, they received him as a Brother into their Societie.Secondly, the earliest records already seem to indicate an intention to continue the operative Craft. In his 1723 Constitutions, Anderson shows his intention to relate operative and speculative Masonry, whilst in ‘Concerning God and Religion’ he is prepared to adopt what is ‘now thought more expedient’ and he is still operative in character when he refers to:
The master, knowing himself to be able of Cunning, shall undertake the Lord’s work as reasonably as possible, and truly dispend his goods as if they were his own; not to give more Wages to any Brother or apprentice than he really may deserve.Thirdly, to show that this transition was recognized on the operative side as well, there is the example of the stone found in the foundations of the Bank of England when it was demolished in 1930. This bears the inscription:
Both the Master and the Masons... shall be faithful to the Lord, and honestly finish their Work, whether Task or Journey; nor put the Work to Task that hath been accustom’d to Journey.
Mr. Thomas Dunn... Mr. John Townsend } MasonsAnthony, 6th Viscount Montague, was Grand Master in 1732. Poole, in his edition of Gould’s The History of Freemasonry (Vol. II, p. 189) writes: ‘we have here evidence of the tacit recognition, for which we have no known parallel of the “continuity” of descent from Operative to Speculative Masonry, the significant [sic] of which, especially in London, would be difficult to overestimate.’
Anno Masonry 5732
Ld. Montacute G. Master
Examples could be multiplied at length. Our claim to be ‘regular’ or real masons lies in our connection with our operative past. For this it is necessary for each Grand Lodge to be able to prove succession back to one of the original Grand Lodges of the British Isles.
pp. 113 & 115
