Athelstan, an early mason- or just coincidence

[Azaziel]

This from another forum

As early as the late 1300's, we have the legend of the English King Athelstan (an English King from 924 to 939 CE) sponsoring the noble guild of masonry - - as put into writing in the Regius Poem (c. 1390's). I have placed an excerpt of the Regius Poem at the bottom of the post.

I also include the relevant prose text from the Cooke MSS (c. 1450), and a fair translation into "modern" English (written in 1890).

But I am curious as to why there is so little mincing about regarding the King's name "Athel-stan". Based on Germanic and Indo-European cognates, the name literally means "Noble Stone".... or even "Noble Stone-er".

Was King Athelstan referenced in the ancient manuscripts because it made for excellent word play? Or did the writers even realize that it meant "Noble Stone"? If the writers knew, you would think there would be more of a discussion to consider that.

Perhaps the Cooke MSS is the first Masonic document to employ the actual phrase "Speculative" masonry. The modern translation interprets this to mean a reference to theoretical masonry - or shall we say "Architecture". The word "Architect" itself derives from the Greek for, more or less, "Master" (Arch) "Builder" (Tektoi).

If we find any merit in this legendary association of King Athelstan with our craft, could it be he was influenced by an active school of builders in England as old as the time of Alcuin (b. 740's d. 804 CE) before the reign of Athelstan? Or perhaps the "school" in question was a "speculative" and "religious" school?

One of Alcuin's brightest students was Rabanus Maurus Magnentius, also known as Hrabanus Maur, also known as Raban Maar. (Googling this monk's name is an absolute nightmare!) What is interesting is that this name "Maar" seems to be an obvious cognate for the German "Maurer", which literally means "mason" ("Maur" is the word for "wall"). The name "Maur" was given to Rabanus by his Master Alcuin.

Rabanus, who traveled once to Palestine but eventually settled at the Monastery of Fulda, composed visual poems using symbols, which included geometric figures like triangles and circles to convey truth visually as well as by the written words:

www.concerttee.com/posters/posters.php?item=5188441

www.saddoboxing.com/Boxing-Posters/26513.html

He taught the priests and brothers under his care to wear leather underwear that, interestingly enough, took the form of what we would describe today as Masonic aprons (he used Augustine's term "campestre" - and men who wore this leather cloth were sometimes called Campestrati).

In fact, these instructions have been interpreted in modern scholarship as symbolic of keeping the secrets of the divine from being wasted on those who have not become worthy of such "knowledge". See Prof. Lynda Coon's writings, especially "Priestly Bodies: Gender and Hrabanus Maurus's Expositiones in Leviticum" (International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan, May 2001).

St. Augustine wrote of these leather campestre as being adopted for the sake of the religious meaning - they referred to man's attempt to restore innocence after discovering they were naked. This Biblical reference indeed makes the Masonic apron the most ancient of all man-made contrivances to be an emblem of restored innocence and purity.

Taking Alcuin's interest in the "seven liberal arts", Rabanus expanded these disciplines into more robust studies, including math and geometry:

"Thus," says Rabanus, "six is a perfect number, for did not God make the world in six days?" And yet he audaciously observes: "We are not able to say that the number six is perfect because God accomplished his work of creation in six days, but that he accomplished the work in six days because six is the perfect number."

Rabanus writes further: "...it is needful, if any would arrive at the knowledge of the Holy Scripture, that he should study this art [mathematics] intently, so that when he has learned it he may the easier understand the mystical numbers in the sacred books."
(Page 143 in Andrew Fleming's book: Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools).

It is hard to find a monastic instruction more "alchemical" or more "Masonic"!

Just to show how much progress Rabanus makes from his Master Alcuin teachings, we read (page 143-144):

"Alcuin would have commended heartily this exposition of arithmetic in general. Yet in two respects it departs from Alcuin, for Plato is quoted "as of great authority," though with some reserve, and a "perfect number" is represented as something regulative of the activity of God himself. Thus already in the barren field of arithmetic... the shoots of speculation were beginning to spring up."

Fleming offers this final thought for those of us who especially love Geometry:

"The account of geometry indicates that Rabanus had been reading ... the Latin translation by Chalcidius of the Timaeus of Plato. 'The philosophers,' he says, 'testify in their writings that Jupiter geometrizes.' He [Rabanus] prudently remarks that, 'if this saying is to be applied wisely to God, the omnipotent Creator, it may perhaps be congruent with truth; for geometry, if we may be allowed to say so, has a holy divinity of its own, inasmuch as it imposes its various forms and models on creation, and maintains it in existence up to the present day.'"

And even Solomonic content of latter-day Freemasonry is not missed:
"'The course of the stars... are cited as examples of the sancta divinitas of geometry.... A consideration which makes [geometry] acceptable to a Christian is ... it was used in building the tabernacle and the temple, in constructing which there was evident need of "of the measurement of the line, the circle, the sphere, the hemisphere, and also of the quadrangle.' Lastly [he writes], 'an acquaintance with all geometrical figures is of help towards spiritual discernment.'" (pp 144-145)

So, was Rabanus a "Freemason"? I would say not as we would understand the term Freemason. But he may well be the "wellspring" of many Masonic ideas, that trickled down to the Saxons and Frisians of Britain before there was even a French language.

The Latin phrase "Liberales Artes" is actually a reference to "Noble Arts" (Liberales = Noble). And in Old German and Frisian, the term "Free" (also "Frei") can also mean "Noble".

The idea that the wellspring of Freemasonry as we know it might have been a religious brother part of Alcuin's elite community, who marveled in sacred math, symbolism and in the waring of an "apron of purity" should not be terribly surprising. And the derivation of Athelstan's name, which I would have originally thought was purely coincidental, may have a not-so-coincidental relationship to the tiny Saxon-Latin community that studied either "Noble Stone" or "Noble Masonry".... or as we might later term: "frei-maconry".

Comments or objections encouraged!

S&F,

Bro. George Brooks
Star Lodge, #78
Largo, Florida
From the East (of Kuwait :-)

EXCERPTS BELOW -------

REGIUS MSS
www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/regius.html

This craft came into England, as I you say, In time of good King Athelstane's day; He made then both hall and even bower, And high temples of great honour....

This good lord loved this craft full well, And purposed to strengthen it every del, (part) For divers faults that in the craft he found; He sent about into the land After all the masons of the craft, To come to him full even straghfte, (straight) For to amend these defaults all By good counsel, if it might fall.

An assembly then he could let make
Of divers lords in their state,
Dukes, earls, and barons also,
Knights, squires and many mo, (more)
And the great burgesses of that city,
They were there all in their degree;
There were there each one algate, (always)
To ordain for these masons' estate,
There they sought by their wit, How
they might govern it; Fifteen articles
they there sought, And fifteen points
there they wrought, Here begins the first article....
[end of excerpt]

COOKE MSS
www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/cooke.html

And after that was a worthy king
in England that was called
Athelstan, and his young-
est son loved well the
science of geometry... wherefore he
drew him to council and learned [the]
practice of that science to his speculative,
for of speculative he was a master,
and he loved well masonry and masons.

And he became a mason him-
self, and he gave them charges
and names as it is now used in England,
and in other countries. And he ordained
that they should have reasonable pay and
purchased a free patent of the king that
they should make [an] assembly when they
saw a reasonable time and come together
to their councillors of which charges,
manners, and assembly, as it is written
and taught in the book of our charges..."
[end of excerpt]

Bro. G.W. Speth translates the Cooke MSS into "modern" English:
www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/aqc/cooke.html

"And after that there was a worthy king in England, called Athelstan, and his youngest son loved well the science of Geometry; and he know well, as well as the masons themselves, that their handicraft was the practice of the science of Geometry.

Therefore he drew to their councils (or took counsel, or lessons, of them) and learned the practical part of that science in addition to his theoretical (or book) knowledge. For of the speculative part he was a master. And he loved well masonry and masons.

And he became a mason himself. And he give them charges and usages such as are now customary in England and in other countries.

And he ordained that they should have reasonable pay. And he purchased a free patent of the king that they might hold an assembly at what time they thought reasonable and come together to consult. Of the which charges, usages and assembly it is written and taught in our Book of Charges...."
[end of excerpt]

[Tamrin]

Thanks Terry

Once pointed out, Athelstan = "Noble Stone" seems obvious.

Similarly, Azeb, the name given to The Queen of Sheba in the Tigray Province of Ethiopia, = "Strong Stone" (elsewhere in Ethiopia she is commonly called Makeda = "Truth Enlightens").

As for the leather undergarments / aprons, this may be part of an attempt to perpetuate or recreate the mysteries of primitive Christianity, practiced in the early church and practiced or sought by the pre-Reformation protestants (Cathars, etc.). Thus, we read of the Essenes (of which Jesus was rightly or wrongly thought to be a member):

Who were the Essenes?

[Excerpt - Article at essortment.com - Linked Above]

How did someone become an Essene? A man who wanted to join the order had to give them everything he owned. He had to make a promise, called a “terrible oath”, in which he swore to be loyal to the brethren and keep the doctrines of the order secret. Excommunication was the punishment for breaking the oath. The novice Essene was given three articles: a pickax, an apron, and a white garment. Everything else in the order was common property. After one year of probation, during which he was carefully observed, he could be promoted to the next level. Another two years of successful tests would entitle the successful candidate to full membership in the Essene brotherhood. At this point he would be permitted to join other members for the common meals.

[Azaziel]

I found this interesting, by same Bro as first post

In Bro. Trevor Jenkins' article, "The Roots of Freemasonry"

www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/jenkinsroots.html

tells us about an operative institution uniquely found in the British isles: the Culdee monks!

"One body of monks who interested themselves in the doings of the masons were the Culdees. Prior to the [800's CE] the Culdees were originally of the Celtic doctrine, but were later forced to conform to the usages of the Roman Church and consequently the order died out in England around the [1300's CE]."

"At their peak the Culdees were most prominent in Scotland where they had monasteries in St. Andrews, Dunkeld and Lochleven. They had members also in Ireland, but it is the body which established itself at York which most concerns us."

"These particular members of the order certainly interested themselves a great deal with the masons who were engaged in the building of the first Minster at York, of which they were in charge in the days of King Athelstan.... [but] there is no conclusive evidence of any official organizing of the craft at this time, and this legend may be pure myth."

"The Culdees were at York for several hundred years, certainly up to the year 1200, and it seems probable that from close contact with the monks, the masons would have been taught to look upon their skills as a gift from God, and therefore their everyday tools and implements could be even have considered as guides to faith."

There are many elements of this part of Jenkins' article which should fascinate us:
1) A monastic center of influence especially strong in Britain (ranging from York to Scotland);
2) A spiritually-oriented masonic group that felt the brunt of religious oppression at some point in their career, in addition to what external causes may have precipitated their final disappearance;
3) A plausible explanation for the preservation of the York legends, if not the "invention" of the legend. We can find a strong motive in the Culdees a desire to mark their activities in York as important to the craft.
4) A possible explanation for a wider dissemination of their "noble" ("Frei") interpretation as their order evaporated into the wider British society.

Can any brother cite good sources for further investigation into the Culdee brotherhood?

S&F,

Bro. George Brooks
Star Lodge, #78
Largo, Florida

[Tamrin]

From a group styling itself, The Ancient Order of the Culdees of Iona, is an article (linked): "Culdees and Freemasons". The legend of their association with the Craft may serve as a narrative link between that of St. Alban and that of King Athelstan.