Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction - Andreas Önnerfors 2017
Philanthropy, charity, and cosmopolitanism
Enlightenment foundations
Although The Constitutions clearly place freemasonry within a distinctly British tradition, its general character is described as universal and inclusive, particularly in the ’Charges’. Not only is freemasonry linked to all major intellectual traditions of antiquity, but it claims that the ’religion in which all men agree’ can be embraced by everyone, regardless of nationality or confession. Freemasonry promotes peace and opposes war. In Ramsay’s ’Discours’, this position is taken even further: he states that political rulers are incapable of establishing lasting institutions for the benefit of humankind as a whole. Not even the revered legislators of antiquity were able to create durable establishments, no matter how intelligent their laws may have been. They were incapable of expanding over all countries and making a lasting impact throughout the ages. Taken in perspective, Ramsay says, their laws were little more than military violence and the dominance of one people over another, and—since they were not based on general philanthropy—were never universal and did not conform to the taste, genius, or interest of all nations. Badly understood love of one’s own country destroys one’s love for humanity in general. Based on history, political rulers with a view for the particular interests of their nation have not been able to exercise good governance.
A failed state engages in military aggression, the violent expansion of its territory, hegemony, and exaggerated patriotism. Each nation has its own qualities, however:
men are not to be essentially distinguished by the difference of tongues which they speak, of clothes which they wear, of countries which they inhabit, nor of dignities with which they are ornamented: the whole world is no other than one great republic, of which each nation is a family, and each individual a child.
In this view, there are only three levels of political relation, in principle: the individual, as a member of its national family; the family, as a branch of the world republic; and the world republic itself. Ramsay goes on to state that it was to revive and reanimate these maxims (borrowed from nature as representing a normative authority) that freemasonry was established. Equipped with this cosmopolitan ethos, the interest of the fraternity could be expanded to the entire human race; all nations could then increase their knowledge, creating a world without jealousy and discord, with individuals neither forgetting nor remembering too intensely the place where they were born. Ramsay’s links between the chivalric orders and freemasonry were not only intended to induce a medieval legacy. He claims that the crusaders aimed to unite in one fraternity the subjects of all nations and thus create a ’spiritual nation’ where a new people would be created, ’cemented by virtue and science’. For Ramsay, the ultimate manifestation of such a union is the publication of a universal dictionary of all liberal arts and useful sciences, so that ’the lights of all nations will be united in a single work’.
Ramsay’s ideas on world citizenship can be interpreted as follows: in his view, the concord between human beings is rooted in the natural state of humanity. When political leadership interfered in this state of nature by means of aggressive and coercive expansion, the true unanimity of humans was lost. By embracing a morality that can be experienced by everybody, today’s freemasons aim at a revival of the true state of nature, and work with the same ambitions as their ancestors to create a new people engaging with universal solidarity in an imagined community of a world republic. The roots of this universal solidarity are not only found in a common spiritual/mythical past, but also in the intellectual challenges of the future: to collect, augment, and disseminate knowledge for the benefit of humankind as a whole.
It may be important to note that this part of Ramsay’s ’Discours’ was printed in masonic periodicals, first in the USA in 1788 and then in London in 1795 (and again in 1797—8), under the headings ’The influence of free masonry upon society’ and ’Social influence of Freemasonry’. In the 1780s, a masonic journal in Vienna had already made calls for the adoption of cosmopolitan values as representing a moral duty for every freemason. Ramsay stated that the legislators of the past had failed in their efforts since they had been unable to expand philanthropy to all of humankind. This perspective of freemasonry has carried implications for the position of charity as one of the major elements of masonic thought (and of the ethics of action) ever since. In freemasonry, charity is seen as an almost foundational raison d’être and has been invoked as a proof of the movement’s innocence when faced with the suspicions of outsiders. Since its inception, freemasonry has been involved in fundraising for charitable purposes in education, medical care, and culture.
One element of masonic charity is internal solidarity; drawing on medieval guild ordinances, modern freemasonry preserved the principle of self-help in times of illness and distress. This principle has contributed to the persistent perceptions of outsiders that freemasons favour each other in their activities outside of the lodge as well as within it. External masonic charity largely falls into two categories: reactive and proactive. Reactive charity simply aims to relieve a pressing need in the short term (as a Christian duty), whereas proactive charity anticipates and seeks to avoid future misfortune in the long term (an enlightened concept of self-mastery as represented by French thinker and possible freemason Condorcet, for example).
A majority of masonic charity initiatives in the 18th century were of the latter character. Freemasons raised funds to establish orphanages, schools, and hospitals, and promoted the use of inoculation against smallpox. For all its chivalric imagination during the 18th century, the Strict Observance attempted to create a pan-European pension fund for its members and engaged in a number of economic ventures to create financial security (including colonial and industrial projects). The stranded economic plans of the Strict Observance were among the main reasons for its failure. At the turn of the 19th century, many philanthropic freemasons engaged in the establishment of banks and insurance companies, and in reforming school education. With growing industrialization and the emergence of mass society, masonic charity assumed another character. Some grand lodges called for the direct involvement of freemasonry in social issues, while others retained the more private philanthropic approach of the previous century. These different views on societal commitment created and perpetuated a dividing line between different forms of freemasonry that has lasted to the current day.