The Hiramic Legend

[Tamrin]

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LEGEND OF HIRAM ABIFF
by Conrad Hahn

(Excerpt - Linked Above)

Dr. Joseph Fort Newton, the most gifted and inspiring of Masonic writers fifty years ago, chose to believe that the tragic story of Hiram was long in the possession of operative Masons from the Middle Ages down to the dawn of Speculative Masonry in the 17th and 18th centuries. This I seriously doubt, since no mention of Hiram is to be found in any of the Old Charges and Gothic Constitutions, or in any of the remnants of old ritualistic practices to be found in the records of operative lodges which date from 100 years or more before the founding of the first Grand Lodge, which marks the beginning of the era of modern Speculative Freemasonry in 1717 . Had there been even a shred of evidence that the Hiramic legend existed in Masonry before that date, I feel sure that Dr. James Anderson would have known of it and used it in the legendary history of the Craft which he published in The Constitutions of the Freemasons in 1723.

Furthermore, modern Masonic scholars have shown rather conclusively that there was no tri-gradial system of initiation during the period of operative Masonry, that there was no third or Master Mason Degree as a rite or ceremony before the creation of the Premier Grand Lodge in 1717. The first recital of the Hiramic legend as the dramatic cornerstone of a third or Master Mason's degree appears in an expose of the ritual of Freemasonry entitled Masonry Disseeted, written by a Samuel Prichard and published in London in 1730.

Consequently, it seems a logical conclusion to assume that the Master Mason Degree, and with it, the legend of Hiram Abiff, were introduced into Freemasonry when it became a speculative, or philosophic organization.

For a credible explanation of why A 3° was dramatically enacted (but not why THE 3° was created), I recommend Masques of Solomon, by C. Bruce Hunter.

From seventeenth century northern Italy there appears to be some hints of the Hiramic Legend depicted in Raising the Master, by Il Guercino.

My conjecture is that it may have been part of the 'heretical' milieu of northern Italy, as depicted in Umberto Eco's, The Name of the Rose. At the time of the Reformation, The Piedmont Valleys of the Italian Alps were virtually the last redoubt of the Albigensians. Among whom were three major divisions: The Auditors who were sympathetic to the teachings, but only listened; the Credentes, who believed in the teachings but had yet to take the Consolamentum, which would commit them to the austerities of the Perfecti (the third division) and which was otherwise conferred as a last rite. Luther (whose seal featured a rose and cross) regarded the Waldenses' teachings as preserving the mysteries of the early church, as did Calvin and other early Protestants who found refuge among them.

[keith]

THE HIRAM LEGEND

The origin of the Hiramic Legend is a matter on which Masonic students have always disagreed and will probably continue to disagree in the future, The following facts may however be stated:

1. Freemasonry did not originate in Palestine or at King Solomon's Temple, but among the Operative Stone Masons in England in the Middle Ages.
2. The earliest written records of the Craft, the Old Charges, contain what is known as the Legend of the Craft. This however is not the Hiramic Legend but is merely a legendary history of the building industry from earliest times to the time of St Alban. It includes both historical and legendary figures, but King Solomon and his Temple are mentioned merely among other personages and buildings and are given no special prominence.
3. The FPOF which we associate with the Hiramic Legend are first found in a MS known as the Edinburgh Register House MS of 1696 - a date 21 years before the formation of the Grand Lodge of England.
4. The Hiramic story as we know it appears in print for the first time in Prichard's "Masonry Dissected" of 1730, one of the most famous Exposures, and that in which the division of Freemasonry into three Degrees appears for the first time.
5. As late as 1726 there appears in the Graham MS, an alternative Legend, that of the Sons of Noah, as an explanation of the FPOF, suggesting that the Hiramic Legend had not been finalised by that date.
6. Bro. Rev. Morris Rosenbaum has suggested the theory that the apparent contradiction in the Scripture passages referring to Hiram might be reconciled by assuming that two Hirams, father and son, were employed in the erection of King Solomon's Temple. Hiram in the Book of Kings being a son of the Hiram in the Book of Chronicles.
7. MW Bro. SC Bingham, sometime Secretary and Editor of the Masters' and Past Masters' Lodge No. 130 favoured the theory that the Hiramic Legend arose from the Legend of Maitre Jacques, a legend of the French Compagnonage, under which three groups af Craftsmen existed in France, not only in mediaeval times but up to the present.
The Three groups of Fraternities comprised:
(i) The Sons of Solomon, at first confined to Stonemasons but latterly joined by Locksmiths and Joiners;
(ii) The Sons of Maitre Jacques, with the same class of members extended to all Crafts;
(iii) The Sons of Soubise, comprising the trades of Carpenters, Tylers and Plasterers.

We have no definite information as to why the Hiramic Legend was adopted for the Third Degree and can only deduce an explanation from the known facts.
1. The first difficulty is that the Brethren concerned are long since dead and have left no written records, or at any rate, none have survived which give us any indication of their reasons for adopting the Legend.
2. As Bro. Douglas Knoop, the well-known English Masonic Historian pointed out, the origin of the Third Degree cannot be dated even approximately.
3. We do not know when the Hiramic Legend was introduced and therefore we cannot study the historical background of the period - because we do not know what period is concerned.
4. It seems probable, in accordance with what is known of the evolution of Masonic Ritual, that the Hiramic Legend was not adopted at any definite date, but evolved gradually over a long period.
5. It is generally accepted that the Craft had a Legend of some kind, at any rate as early as the latter part of the 17th Century but what it was is not known.
6. The Legend in its present form deals with Biblical and historical characters but mentions events found neither in the Bible nor in history.
7. It is definitely legend, but what finer Legend could we have than one which teaches the lessons of resurrection and Immortality and of Fidelity even unto death?

I found this in the Transactions of the Masters' and Past Masters' Lodge No. 130

[siontific]

keith, I find it odd that you firstly state how Masonic students have and always will disagree and yet then go on to "state the facts."
The first of your "facts" is only conjecture. How do you know Freemasonry originated with the Operative Stone Masons in England? If you research around the internet there are many different arguments for the origins of Freemasonry, going all the way back to the Egyptians. More recently, in time, one argument states that the Comacines provided the knowledge and ritual, not least because the skills were not present in this country to carry out the detailed stone work. That makes local "masons" only cowans or rough stone workers.
I enjoy reading different arguments but I don't think you should present them as facts unless you can state your source.

[Tamrin]

In the context of the Hiramic Legend, the Early Masonic Catechisms show only two rudimentary degrees and there is no such legend mentioned until the 1720s.

[keith]

What is not certain is the WAY in which Freemasonry developed from or through the Operative Craft. Bro Harry Carr has one theory, Bro. John Hamill has another for example.

[Tamrin]

THE HIRAMIC LEGEND

Possible Origin of Hiramic Myth

BY Bro. Alex Horne, vol. lxxiii (1961), pp. 118-20

(Excerpt)

The central core of Bro. Meekren's thesis is that no one "is fully equipped to discuss the origins of Masonic ritual who has not a comprehensive knowledge of the facts collected under the heads of anthropology and folk-lore", and the essential difference between his modus operandi and the one we have been accustomed to pursue is very well expressed in the following sentences of his: "The historian," says Bro. Meekren, "may be likened to the lawyer who presents his case in court. The anthropological student is like the detective who proceeds on clues and odds and ends of information, however come by." He might have added that the latter method of procedure may not even result in producing any evidence that would be admissible in a court of law, and might fail of impressing the jury to the point of bringing in a favourable verdict, and yet could actually be nearer the truth of the matter, whatever that truth might be.

In a series of articles on "The Hiramic Legend and the Medieval Stage" in The Builder for 1926, Bro. Ernest E. Thiemeyer finds himself in virtually the same camp as Bro. Meekren, as far as this question of methodology is concerned. If any correct conclusions as to the origin and growth of the Hiramic Legend are to be reached, he says, "the present line of research must be abandoned and the field of ethnography investigated". "Ethnography" may not be precisely synonymous with "anthropology", but it is clear from a reading of Bro. Thiemeyer's articles that his approach to the problem is precisely the same as Bro. Meekren's. Thiemeyer makes a serious attempt at interpreting the Hiramic Myth as a genuine relic of primitive mythology and folk-lore, after the manner of Frazer's The Golden Bough and works of that character and comes to the conclusion that our Myth is a genuine survival of primitive group-thinking that had finally become incorporated into a Masonic ritual at some time or period so far undetermined.

[Tamrin]

The Murdered Mason Theme Explored
in Legend, Literature and Freemasonry

by Ian Robertson, U.K., 27 May 2007, International Conference on the History of Freemasonry

[Abstract]

Current evidence shows that the Hiramic legend in Freemasonry only appeared some time after the formation of the first Grand Lodge in England in the early 18th century. Speculations as to what earlier influences may have been have been the stuff of debate in Masonic circles and elsewhere over the years.

This lecture will examine a number of tales relating to the legends of apprentices and master masons who were, according to their various traditions, murdered during the construction of the holy edifices that they were building. The stories to be examined all predate the Freemasonic legend of the third degree, and therefore, may provide the basis.

Many books on Freemasonry have made references to Rosslyn Chapel's famous legend associated with its Apprentice pillar. Coil's Masonic Encyclopaedia, King Solomon's Temple in the Masonic Tradition by A. Horne and Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry are just three. Some authors have directly suggested that the Rosslyn legend is the source of the Hiramic legend without examining other texts.

The lecture will therefore explore the theme further, but without limiting the influences to Rosslyn's legend. During the middle ages, many other buildings had similar legends associated with them. Lincoln Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, Rouen Cathedral and Melrose Abbey are specific examples, and there are others. Literary sources from the middle-ages will also be cited in an effort to offer students a range of alternative sources that early Freemasonry may have drawn from. By investigating the content of these various sources we will begin to discover any similarities that do exist.

The lecture, in conclusion, will place the Hiramic legend within a context that, it is hoped, will stimulate further investigation by students into what is a hugely significant theme within Masonic ceremonial and historically a pivotal development in the annals of Freemasonry.

[Tamrin]

The Evolution of the Hiramic Legend in England and France

by Joannes A.M. Snoek

[www.scottishrite.org – Abridged Excerpt – Linked Above]

From the information I have presented so far,we may draw several conclusions.

• In the first place it has become apparent that not only the ritual of the Ecossais Anglois, but also that of the Rit Ecossais Ancien et Accepté, though available only in French, are in fact rituals belonging to the English tradition...
  
• A second conclusion may be that with the Graham Manuscript of 1726, Prichard’s Masonry Dissected of 1730, the Rite Ancien de Bouillon of about 1740 and the ritual of Ecossais Anglois of c. 1745–50 or slightly later,we have four quite different English versions of the Hiramic Legend, demonstrating how much experimentation there was with its form, not only before, but also after the publication of Masonry Dissected...
  
• That brings us to a third conclusion, namely that the English and the French developments of the Hiramic Legend seem to be mainly independent...
  
• With that, however, we come at the point of certain elements that were transferred from one tradition to the other...
  
• Finally,we may conclude a few things about the four “Grand Rituals.” As we have seen, the Hiramic Legend of the Rite Ecossais Rectifié and of the Rite Moderne are classical representatives of the French tradition, whereas those of the Rit Ecossais Ancien et Accepté and of the Emulation Ritual stand for the English one...