Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction - Andreas Önnerfors 2017
The ideas of modern freemasonry: the 1723 Constitutions
Enlightenment foundations
When freemasonry entered the 18th century, a new layer of ideas was added: the brotherhood associated itself and was associated with science in general and with the new culture of Newtonian experimental science in particular. For the first time, masonic ideas were being published. During this first phase of its modern existence, there was considerable overlap between scientific culture and freemasonry. Lodges were perceived as something akin to academies, or at least they acted as such in countries that were without scientific societies. The scientific image of freemasonry gave it a central place in the Enlightenment ideas of the period. Freemasonry is saturated with key Enlightenment concepts such as progress, perfectibility, and cosmopolitanism. On an individual level, freemasonry aims to promote a morality of autonomy, responsibility for the self, and moral example. These ideas are heavily influenced by classical stoicism: attaining a strong control of the passions and a mastery of the emotions while facing personal fate and any unforeseen challenges. However, there is also an epicurean element, with the philosophical terms of ’felicity’ and ’happiness’ (derived from Greek concepts of ’Eudaimonia’) occupying a prominent place in masonic ideology and symbolism, such as the omnipresent ’Temple of Felicity’.
While these ideas primarily served to refine the individual freemason’s practice, the core masonic concept of ’charity’ could historically be read in two ways. From the start, freemasons have raised funds and sponsored medical, educational, and cultural initiatives and institutions. In one sense, masonic charity thus anticipated central aspects of the modern welfare system, without necessarily having a particular political agenda. In another sense, it is possible to detect a growing engagement with burning social issues, particularly after 1800, in connection with industrialization and the formation of mass society. In some countries, freemasonry defined itself as a socio-political force working towards the progress of society in its entirety and not as simply focused on the moral refinement of its individual members. These two different positions related to the potential societal impact of masonic ideas in society have engaged freemasonry ever since.
When modern freemasonry emerged in urban London in the late 1710s, there was an apparent need to gather, print, and edit documents from earlier periods in order to make an ideological statement. This happened in 1723 with the publication of The Constitutions of the Freemasons. Containing the History, Charges, Regulations &c. of that most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity. For the Use of the Lodges, a work of roughly 100 pages that still is considered to be the major foundational document and expression of masonic ideas (see Figure 4). Within two decades, The Constitutions had been translated into all major European languages. They were published again in 1738 as an amended second edition and have since been republished in innumerable versions over the last three centuries.
4. Frontispice of James Anderson, The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1723).
The Constitutions demonstrate in print how the transformation of the old medieval craft organization manifested itself in the new age of Enlightenment. The tension inherent in such a transformation can be problematic to interpret. The dedication to the then grand master, the Duke of Wharton, is signed by John Theophilus Desa(u)guliers. Desaguliers was an exiled French Huguenot and a disciple of Newton who made his living through popular lectures, publications, and demonstrations of experimental science. A Scottish priest, James Anderson (1679—1739), compiled and edited The Constitutions from existing sources and from his own imagination. The first part, representing almost half of the book, outlines the sacred mythology of freemasonry from the biblical age to its (then) contemporary situation. The second part is devoted to ’The Charges of a Free-mason’: rules and regulations for individual freemasons, lodges, and their mutual interrelationship. This second part—although it includes significant normative statements—is of a far more administrative and organizational character than the first, mythological part. To unlock its peculiar narrative, it is necessary to embrace the pre-modern logic of sacred history, in which facts and religious meaning are intermingled. The book concludes with a number of programmatic songs.
Against this background, it is even more thought provoking that the ideas behind one of the most significant medieval guilds, the stonemasons, were rescued at the outset of the Enlightenment and re-imagined in the new form of The Constitutions. The first part of The Constitutions cannot simply be dismissed as a product of pure imagination; rather, this heavily fictionalized account of history should be understood as fulfilling a function. By the same token, however, it is no wonder that a fictionalized autobiography of freemasonry would open the fraternity up for ridicule, distrust, speculation, and ideas of conspiracy.
The editor of The Constitutions meticulously placed freemasonry within the framework of the biblical narrative since creation. Accounts of secular history are interwoven with sacred mythology. The art of building, architecture, and geometry are all represented as exemplifying divine power and interference in human conditions exercised by the ’Great Architect of the Universe’ (GAOTU). All important buildings mentioned in the Bible or known to the editor through classical literature and existent historical remains are linked to the science of masonry. Construction and re-construction are used as powerful metaphors of civilization, not as an abstract philosophy, but as an ethics of action in the service of humanity. Geometry and architecture occupy a civilizing function as expressions of divine order, providing a potential pattern ’for all nations’ to follow and disseminate to distant cultures as far as Africa or India. A recurring idea expressed in Anderson’s historical account is the opposition of freemasonry to war and destruction, which are represented metaphorically by ’Goths and Mahometans’. Architecture is a symbol of peace, prospering as it does in conditions of peace and freedom in ’polite Nations’, especially ’when the Civil Powers, abhorring Tyranny and Slavery, gave due Scope to the bright and free Genius of their happy Subjects’.
It is striking that the biblical narrative is frequently amended with non-biblical apocryphal content, emulations, or supplements. It is unclear exactly to what extent or where in the volume Anderson as editor (and, remarkably, priest) was using old masonic manuscripts, other sources, or his own imagination. Furthermore, he blends biblical history with other mythologies and pagan religious traditions such as those of the Persian magi, Egyptian priests, and Greek schools of mystery and philosophy, such as Pythagoras and Plato. Despite this mixture of belief systems, the central leitmotif of masonic mythology is that of the Temple of Solomon: its construction, destruction, and subsequent reconstruction; and the organization of labour and personages associated with the building, such as by the master architect Hiram Abif. Anderson’s major claim is that the Romans took over freemasonry from its previous practitioners and brought it to excellence under Caesar Augustus and his peaceful reign, during which Christ was born. It is Roman architecture that Anderson presents as the model for perfect proportions. Roman skills and traditions are described as being passed on until the medieval period, when they were first revived in Gothic architecture—which Anderson stigmatizes for its ’wrong’ design.
It is only with the Renaissance and the recovery of the writings of Vitruvius on architecture that, according to Anderson, pure Augustan form and design were re-established. He frequently opposes the (revived) ancient Roman style with medieval architecture and refers to it as ’Gothic ignorance’ or ’rubbish’. When discussing medieval history, he is diligent in quoting old English sources (real and imagined) that demonstrate the historical legacy of freemasonry. Kings of Scotland and England are shown to protect and promote the craft, and the link between monarchy and masonry is reinforced by the use of the term ’royal art’ as a synonym for masonry. Scotland’s privileged position in preserving freemasonry is stressed.
Anderson’s mythological account of freemasonry establishes a grandiose genealogy throughout the entire spectrum of intellectual history, encompassing the secular, Christian, and pagan. Thus he constructs a narrative in which freemasonry is in possession of eternal ancient wisdom and uncorrupted knowledge of religion (’philosophia perennis’ or ’prisca theologia’), handed down by generations of sage men united over the centuries and millennia in a privileged chain of initiates from almost every important religious and philosophical tradition. This kind of genealogical thinking is prevalent in European historiography until well into the 18th century and was only slowly replaced by a more scientific approach to presenting the past and demonstrating the authenticity of historical sources. When discussing modern times, Anderson stresses that freemasonry is regulated by British law and thus can claim a semi-public position in British society.
Published in the new Hanoverian era, some parts of The Constitutions can almost be read as a national narrative for the then fairly recently formed United Kingdom, outlining a civilizing mission and forecasting an ideology of the Empire. It is also possible to read subtle commentaries about fundamental political values between the lines, such as the relation between the rulers and the ruled, and between freedom and the right to self-organization in what we would today call civil society. Thus, for all its sacred references, The Constitutions can clearly be placed within a liberal tradition of political thought.
Another important aspect of The Constitutions is that it was actually intended for use in the oral instruction of a newly admitted member. Whether realistic or not (given the vast number of pages), such a usage would indicate that this mythological account of the history of freemasonry should be read as a piece of rhetoric; an oration that aims to pass on a vision of the fraternity as rooted in the major intellectual traditions of humankind; a concept of identity for the new age in which it was active. The narrative character of The Constitutions is further underlined by the fact that this mythological history was turned into a lengthy song in five parts with no less than twenty-eight verses in the final part of the publication. Another song, with fewer stanzas but roughly following the same storyline, was also added. As such, The Constitutions could function as a source of inspiration for the composition of rituals. Frequent reference is made to the premise that freemasonry cannot be communicated in writing, pointing to its central dimension being performance. Finally, The Constitutions reflects on the inbuilt tension between secrecy and transparency; between internally communicated knowledge and external perceptions (from religious and political authorities).
The part entitled ’The Charges of a Free-Mason’, which follows immediately after the historical account in The Constitutions, includes six items: (1) ’Of God and religion’; (2) ’On the civil magistrate supreme and subordinate’; (3) ’Of lodges’; (4) ’Of masters, wardens, fellows and apprentices’; (5) ’Of the management of the Craft in working’; and (6) ’Of behaviour’ (sub-divided into six different situations of behaviour, when freemasons meet internally or with strangers).
Much has been written about these charges and their presumed meaning. Suffice it to say that the first two charges proclaim a quietly liberal and tolerant attitude towards religion and politics, within certain limits. A freemason has to obey the ’moral law’ and never be a ’stupid atheist’ or an ’irreligious libertine’. Instead of confessing a particular religion, freemasons are obliged to hold ’to that religion in which all men agree’ and to be ’good men and true’ and ’men of honour and honesty’. Differences are thus overcome in favour of union, ’conciliating true friendship among persons that must have remain’d at a perpetual distance’. Without denying the existence of God or relativizing religion through plain materialism, freemasons are asked to overcome the particularity of their confessions and agree to a shared moral compromise (which receives its authority from ’nature’), visible in personal qualities rather than in abstract doctrines. This compromise is intended to create a bond of union between strangers. It is obvious that freemasonry aimed to leave behind the devastating religious conflicts of the 17th century and to establish a forward-looking compromise of reconciliation, one that was potentially open to all forms of religious confession.
The second charge commits freemasons to loyalty and to staying out of ’Plots and Conspiracies against the Peace and Welfare of the Nation’ and the representatives of power. Peace is the ideal condition for freemasonry to prosper. The second part of this (second) charge has been subject to a considerable amount of debate, since it appears to require the fraternity to be tolerant of brothers who are ’Rebels against the State’. Although such behaviour is portrayed as unacceptable and wrong, rebellion alone is not seen to be adequate reason for expelling a member from the lodge. It appears that modern freemasonry aimed to strike a balance between the promotion of good governance and the right to resist unjust political rulers, as proposed by the political philosopher Locke, among others. If an individual freemason took up this latter right, it would not bring an end to his masonic membership. Taken together with subtle references elsewhere in The Constitutions, freemasonry makes a clear statement against philosophers such as Hobbes or Filmer, who argued for absolute and coercive state power derived from an indisputable divine authority. Instead, The Constitutions argues that freemasonry (possibly as representative of any community governed by a political system) will develop best within a system providing a balance between freedom of action and compliance with a given political power.
The third charge positions the lodge as being at the centre of any masonic activity. The lodge is the basic unit ’where masons assemble and work’. Rules of membership are also outlined. The fourth charge highlights meritocracy as the prime factor for promotion within freemasonry; however, ’it is impossible to describe these things [the nature of “merit”] in writing’. Rules for masonic work and conduct, clearly influenced by craft ordinances, are outlined in the fifth charge. Finally, the sixth charge with its six sub-divisions contains detailed rules of behaviour for inside and outside the lodge (in public), towards strangers, within the family and neighbourhood, and towards unknown freemasons.
The second behavioural rule is of some interest, since it exemplifies the practical implications of the first two charges on religion and politics. Quarrels about religion, nationality, or state politics are not to be brought into the lodge room since freemasons are of the ’catholick religion above-mention’d’ (note that ’catholic’ is used here to mean ’all-embracing’); and ’we are also of all nations, tongues, kindreds and languages, and are resolv’d against all Politicks’, since the latter has never been for the good of the lodge ’nor ever will’. It is said that this rule gained particular significance after the Reformation and secession from Rome. In practical terms, modern freemasonry thus opened itself up to members from different Christian creeds, as long as they subscribed to the religious ideas of the first charge and abstained from discussing religion in the lodge. Despite (or because of) this tolerance for different varieties of Christian beliefs, the Catholic Church condemned freemasonry as a heresy from 1738 onward. The exact extent of the ’Politicks’ prohibited in the second behavioural rule is not entirely clear, but the discussion of daily political events and issues was certainly prohibited. This rule is cosmopolitan in its outlook, since freemasonry unites members from all nations and cultures. This anti-political stance may also have been influenced by Epicurean philosophy: to stay outside the corrupting logics of public politics and, rather, privately ’live in the concealed’ (’lathe biosas’).