The Masons Marks within Seaton Collegiate Church
Seton Collegiate Church is situated in a small secluded walled park off the A198 a few miles east of Edinburgh. It is a real pleasure to find such ‘hidden gems’ which, in their own way can rival Rosslyn Chapel (more correctly ‘Church’) for their history, interest and mystery. They are not so ‘in your face’ as is Rosslyn and, therefore, these ‘gems’ take a little more work to appreciate. Such work can lead to a deeper understanding of Scottish history and culture and in so doing one can put Rosslyn Chapel, and other collegiate churches, into historical perspective.
Collegiate Churches were established for a number of reasons, for instance:
As centres of learning (especially law)
As places for the study of Theology
As establishments given over to prayers for the souls of members of a particular family in perpetuity
Freemasonry's History of Racism
Klan and Black Legion meetings were usually held inside Masonic Temples and Halls in the Midwest during the 1930's. The Klan recruited almost exclusively from within Masonic ranks and often the membership of both organizations was indistinguishable. All of the Leadership of the old and new Klan were high degree Freemasons. The Ku Klux Klan was in fact a Masonic movement.
The Brotherhood and Racism
An organization dedicated to brotherhood, Masonry ironically remains a bulwark of racial segregation in the United States. By 1987, decades after most American institutions had accepted racial integration, only four of the forty-nine Grand Lodges could count even one black member in their jurisdictions. As the author of a recent scholarly study of black Freemasonry observes, "The legitimation of social intermingling between black and white Masons has remained anathema in mainstream Freemasonry."' (Handbook of Secret Organizations by Whalen)
A lodge within the British military forces initiated Prince Hall with fourteen free black men in 1775 after the men had been rebuffed in their attempt to join St. John's lodge in Boston. Eventually the black Masons received a charter from the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England for African Lodge No. 459 (1784). Regular Masonry has continued to deny recognition to Prince Hall lodges, and individual lodges have barred black candidates by the simple method of the black cube.
Except for one curious exception, Alpha Lodge No. 1 16 in New Jersey, and a handful of blacks reported to be initiated by lodges in New York and Massachusetts, regular Freemasonry remains ninety-nine and forty-four hundredths percent white. A Prince Hall Mason may not visit a white lodge, nor a white Mason visit a Prince Hall lodge, without risking Masonic punishment. Albert Pike, no friend of blacks, admitted in 1875 "Prince Hall lodge was as regular a lodge as any lodge created by competent authority. It had a perfect right to establish other lodges and make itself a Mother Lodge."
When the Grand Lodge of New Jersey accepted several blacks into membership, other Grand Lodges decried the action and some severed fraternal relations with New Jersey. Mississippi was one. The Grand Master of that state wrote in 1908 "Masonry never contemplated that her privileges should be extended to a race, totally, morally and intellectually incapacitated to discharge the obligations which they assume or have conferred upon them in a Masonic lodge. It is no answer that there are exceptions to this general character of the race. We legislate for the race and not for the exceptions. We hold that affiliation with negroes is contrary to the teachings of Masonry, and is dangerous to the interest of the Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons."
The Prince Hall lodges include a number of distinguished gentlemen on their rosters such as Supreme Court Justice Marshall, Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles, Dr. Benjamin Hooks of the NAACP, Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta, and Mayor Coleman Young of Detroit. Of course, none of these black Masons would be allowed to visit a white Masonic lodge.
Whether Masonry influenced Southern mores or was simply influenced itself is hard to determine. Even during the civil-rights battles of the 1960s, knowledgeable blacks discovered that many of the leaders of the segregationist movement, such as Governors George Wallace of Alabama, Orval Faubus of Arkansas, and Ross Barnett of Mississippi, were also active Masons.
The Brotherhood and RacismThe book "Christianity and American Freemasonry" by William J. Whalen (Our Sunday Visitor:1987, pgs 23-25) discusses the racism of Freemasonry at some length;
An organization dedicated to brotherhood, Masonry ironically remains a bulwark of racial segregation in the United States. By 1987, decades after most American institutions had accepted racial integration, only four of the forty-nine Grand Lodges could count even one black member in their jurisdictions. As the author of a recent scholarly study of black Freemasonry observes, "The legitimation of social intermingling between black and white Masons has remained anathema in mainstream Freemasonry."' (Handbook of Secret Organizations by Whalen)
A lodge within the British military forces initiated Prince Hall with fourteen free black men in 1775 after the men had been rebuffed in their attempt to join St. John's lodge in Boston. Eventually the black Masons received a charter from the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England for African Lodge No. 459 (1784). Regular Masonry has continued to deny recognition to Prince Hall lodges, and individual lodges have barred black candidates by the simple method of the black cube.
Except for one curious exception, Alpha Lodge No. 1 16 in New Jersey, and a handful of blacks reported to be initiated by lodges in New York and Massachusetts, regular Freemasonry remains ninety-nine and forty-four hundredths percent white. A Prince Hall Mason may not visit a white lodge, nor a white Mason visit a Prince Hall lodge, without risking Masonic punishment. Albert Pike, no friend of blacks, admitted in 1875 "Prince Hall lodge was as regular a lodge as any lodge created by competent authority. It had a perfect right to establish other lodges and make itself a Mother Lodge."
When the Grand Lodge of New Jersey accepted several blacks into membership, other Grand Lodges decried the action and some severed fraternal relations with New Jersey. Mississippi was one. The Grand Master of that state wrote in 1908 "Masonry never contemplated that her privileges should be extended to a race, totally, morally and intellectually incapacitated to discharge the obligations which they assume or have conferred upon them in a Masonic lodge. It is no answer that there are exceptions to this general character of the race. We legislate for the race and not for the exceptions. We hold that affiliation with negroes is contrary to the teachings of Masonry, and is dangerous to the interest of the Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons."
The Prince Hall lodges include a number of distinguished gentlemen on their rosters such as Supreme Court Justice Marshall, Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles, Dr. Benjamin Hooks of the NAACP, Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta, and Mayor Coleman Young of Detroit. Of course, none of these black Masons would be allowed to visit a white Masonic lodge.
Whether Masonry influenced Southern mores or was simply influenced itself is hard to determine. Even during the civil-rights battles of the 1960s, knowledgeable blacks discovered that many of the leaders of the segregationist movement, such as Governors George Wallace of Alabama, Orval Faubus of Arkansas, and Ross Barnett of Mississippi, were also active Masons.
The Freemasons in America
With all of the controversy surrounding the Freemasons in Europe, it was no surprise that they would want to seek out friendlier shores. In the 1700s, the Freemasons came to America with other colonists and set up lodges in Boston and Philadelphia (although they remained under the control of an English Provincial Grand Master).
In 1731, Benjamin Franklin joined the Philadelphia lodge, and he became its Master three years later. George Washington was initiated as a Freemason in 1752.
As the fledgling nation was preparing to throw off the shackles of British rule, the Freemasons were reportedly stirring the fire of revolt. A story exists that Freemasons were among the dozens of men who, dressed as Native Americans, boarded three British ships in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773 and dumped hundreds of crates of tea into the water, setting off the American Revolution. Whether Freemasons actually were involved in the Boston Tea Party is a matter of some speculation, but there is no doubt that they were among the signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
As the fledgling nation was preparing to throw off the shackles of British rule, the Freemasons were reportedly stirring the fire of revolt. A story exists that Freemasons were among the dozens of men who, dressed as Native Americans, boarded three British ships in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773 and dumped hundreds of crates of tea into the water, setting off the American Revolution. Whether Freemasons actually were involved in the Boston Tea Party is a matter of some speculation, but there is no doubt that they were among the signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
The Boston Tea Party
After the Revolution, the American Freemason lodges broke from their British forebears and reorganized under state Grand Lodges. Although these lodges were never centralized under any formal authority, they recognized each other as mutual fraternities. Two different forms of Masonry came to exist in America—the Scottish Rite (following English traditions), and the York Rite (following French traditions).
At the turn of the 20th century, the Freemasons were 860,000 members strong. By the 1930s, there were more than two million Masons in the United States, and their numbers continued to grow.
People of all religions are free to join the Freemasons, and religion is never overtly discussed during meetings. However, every member must profess a belief in a universal Supreme Being, whom the Freemasons refer to as the "Great Architect of the Universe." As is the case with most religions, Masons are expected to be morally upright individuals. Members swear oaths to the Book of the Sacred Law, which, depending on the Lodge, can be the Jewish Old Testament, the Christian New Testament or even the Islamic Koran.
The History of Grand Lodge
The Origins - the Premier Grand Lodge - expansion overseas
Freemasonry in England - The origins of Freemasonry are the subject of great debate. That there is a connection with the operative stonemasons who built the great medieval cathedrals and castles is generally accepted by Masonic historians – but whether that connection was direct or indirect is the subject of speculation.
The first record of the ‘making’ of an English Freemason is Elias Ashmole, the antiquarian and herald, whose collections formed the basis of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
He recorded in his diary that a lodge met at his father-in-law’s house in Warrington, Cheshire on 16 October 1646 to make him a Mason. None of those involved was a stonemason. In the later 1600s there is further evidence for the existence of Freemasonry as a separate organisation unrelated to groups controlling the stonemason’s craft.
Organised Freemasonry became established on 24 June 1717 when four London lodges came together at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House, St Paul’s Churchyard, formed themselves into a Grand Lodge and elected Anthony Sayer, Gentleman, as their Grand Master – the first Grand Lodge in the world. Initially the Grand Lodge was simply an annual feast for lodges in London but in 1721 John, Duke of Montagu, was elected Grand Master and the Grand Lodge met in ‘quarterly communication’ and began to establish itself as a regulatory body, attracting to it lodges meeting outside London.
In 1723 the first rulebook – the Constitutions of Masonry – was published and William Cowper, Clerk of the Parliaments, was appointed Secretary to the Grand Lodge to keep minutes of its meetings. By 1730 the Grand Lodge had over 100 lodges in England and Wales under its control and had begun to spread Freemasonry abroad, warranting lodges to meet in Madrid and Calcutta. For historical reasons separate Grand Lodges were formed in Ireland (1725) and Scotland (1736).
Freemasonry in England - The origins of Freemasonry are the subject of great debate. That there is a connection with the operative stonemasons who built the great medieval cathedrals and castles is generally accepted by Masonic historians – but whether that connection was direct or indirect is the subject of speculation.The first record of the ‘making’ of an English Freemason is Elias Ashmole, the antiquarian and herald, whose collections formed the basis of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
He recorded in his diary that a lodge met at his father-in-law’s house in Warrington, Cheshire on 16 October 1646 to make him a Mason. None of those involved was a stonemason. In the later 1600s there is further evidence for the existence of Freemasonry as a separate organisation unrelated to groups controlling the stonemason’s craft.
Organised Freemasonry became established on 24 June 1717 when four London lodges came together at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House, St Paul’s Churchyard, formed themselves into a Grand Lodge and elected Anthony Sayer, Gentleman, as their Grand Master – the first Grand Lodge in the world. Initially the Grand Lodge was simply an annual feast for lodges in London but in 1721 John, Duke of Montagu, was elected Grand Master and the Grand Lodge met in ‘quarterly communication’ and began to establish itself as a regulatory body, attracting to it lodges meeting outside London.
In 1723 the first rulebook – the Constitutions of Masonry – was published and William Cowper, Clerk of the Parliaments, was appointed Secretary to the Grand Lodge to keep minutes of its meetings. By 1730 the Grand Lodge had over 100 lodges in England and Wales under its control and had begun to spread Freemasonry abroad, warranting lodges to meet in Madrid and Calcutta. For historical reasons separate Grand Lodges were formed in Ireland (1725) and Scotland (1736). Between them the ‘home’ Grand Lodges took Freemasonry around the globe. From the 1730s lodges were set up in Europe, the West Indies, North America and India. In the later 18th and the 19th centuries British Freemasonry was taken to the Mid and Far East, Australasia, Africa and South America, mirroring the development of the British Empire.
When those areas eventually achieved nation status many of the lodges formed independent local Grand Lodges, but other lodges decided to remain with their parent Grand Lodge – resulting in the United Grand Lodge of England still having some 750 lodges overseas, principally in Commonwealth countries. The premier Grand Lodge of England continued developing in the 1730s and 1740s without any opposition.
There had been considerable public interest – meetings were advertised and reported on in the growing number of local newspapers – more especially in what the ceremonies of Freemasonry were. Enterprising journalists and pamphleteers were not slow to produce ‘exposures’ of what they believed were the ‘secrets’ of Freemasonry. Publicity increased interest and a growing number of aristocrats, landed gentry and professional men began to seek admission.
In 1737 the first Royal Freemason was made - Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, son of King George II.
What is Freemasonry?
Introduction
This article is intended to give an initial answer to the questions: who are the Freemasons, and what is Freemasonry?
First, it's important to qualify these answers with the proviso that they apply to English Freemasonry, under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE). Where appropriate comparisons are made with practices common in Freemasonry outside UGLE.
This article is intended to give an initial answer to the questions: who are the Freemasons, and what is Freemasonry?
First, it's important to qualify these answers with the proviso that they apply to English Freemasonry, under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE). Where appropriate comparisons are made with practices common in Freemasonry outside UGLE.
