Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction - Andreas Önnerfors 2017
Further reading
General reading
Titles listed here have been used throughout this book and have not necessarily been referenced explicitly within the text. For readers who want to explore the topics addressed in this book in greater depth, the following titles can be recommended:
Henrik Bogdan and Jan A.M. Snoek (eds), Handbook of Freemasonry (Brill, 2014).
Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire (ed.), Dictionnaire de la franc-maçonnerie (Armand Colin, 2014).
Róbert Péter (ed.), British Freemasonry 1717—1813 (Routledge, 2016). A five-volume source collection with rare documents together with commentaries and introductions.
Pierre Mollier, Sylvie Bourel, and Laurent Portes, La Franc-maçonnerie (BNF, 2016). The catalogue of an exhibition organized at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 2016.
Charles Porset and Cécile Révauger (eds), Le Monde maçonnique des Lumières, Europe Amériques Colonies (Champion, 2013). A three-volume biographical dictionary of 18th- and early-19th-century freemasons in Europe and the Americas with contributions from 150 authors.
Three academic journals are published in the field: IF—Zeitschrift für Internationale Freimaurerforschung (German and English, Studienverlag, hardback, since 1998); JRFF—Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism (English and French, Equinox, hardback and electronic, since 2010); and REHMLAC—Revista de Estudios Históricos de la Masonería Latinoamericana et Caribeña (Spanish, French, English, Universidad de Costa Rica, open access, since 2009).
The most comprehensive collection of masonic scholarship is gathered in the volumes of the UGLE research lodge ’Quatuor Coronati No. 2076’ published annually since 1886, in Acta Quatuor Coronatorum, see <quatuorcoronati.com>.
Chris Hodapp, author of Freemasonry for Dummies (first published in 2005), runs a blog which provides updated and reliable information about the contemporary world of and debate on freemasonry, see <freemasonryfordummies.com>.
Films
The Scottish Key (2009), a historical documentary by Belgian director Tristan Bourlard investigating the origins of freemasonry. A number of scholars in the field are interviewed.
Terra Masonica (2016), a documentary by Belgian director Tristan Bourlard devoted to mirroring the diversity of contemporary freemasonry across the globe, see <terramasonica.com>.
Museums, archives, and libraries
Most grand lodges host impressive museum, archive, and library collections, and offer visits, arrange special exhibitions, and give guided tours. Their websites facilitate any search for information and display a large number of digitized materials. European institutions are members of the organization AMMLA (<www.ammla.org>); the sister organization in Northern America is called MLMA (<www.masoniclibraries.org>).
The following institutions are particularly recommended for a visit:
Alexandria, VA (USA): George Washington Masonic Memorial, 101 Callahan Drive, Alexandria, Virginia 22301 <https://gwmemorial.org>.
Bayreuth (Germany): Deutsches Freimaurer Museum, Im Hofgarten 1, 95444 Bayreuth, <http://www.freimaurermuseum.de>.
Lexington, MA (USA): Scottish Rite Museum and Library, 33 Marrett Road, Lexington, MA 02421, <http://www.srmml.org>.
London (UK): The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ, <http://freemasonry.london.museum>.
Paris (FR): Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie, 16 Rue de Cadet, 75009 Paris, <http://www.godf.org/museefm/infos.htm>.
Washington, DC (USA): House of the Temple, 1733 16th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009—3103, <https://scottishrite.org/headquarters/museums/>.
Chapter 1: Two approaches to freemasonry
All references to Tolstoy’s War and Peace are taken from the searchable open access edition on the website of Project Gutenberg: <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2600/2600-h/2600-h.htm>.
Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood: The Secret World of the Freemasons (Granada, 1983).
Martin Short, Inside the Brotherhood: Further Secrets of the Freemasons (Grafton, 1989).
Home Affairs Committee Third Report, ’Freemasonry in the Police and the Judiciary’, 19 March 1997, available at: <www.parliament.uk>.
Home Affairs Committee Second Report, ’Freemasonry in Public Life’, 19 May 1999, available at: <www.parliament.uk>.
Chapter 2: Three centuries of freemasonry
Andreas Önnerfors and Róbert Péter (eds), Researching British Freemasonry 1717—2017 (CRFF, 2010).
Andreas Önnerfors and Dorothe Sommer (eds), Freemasonry and Fraternalism in the Middle East (CRFF, 2008).
Dorothe Sommer, Freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire: A History of the Fraternity and Its Influence in Syria and the Levant (I.B. Tauris, 2015).
Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, The Politics of Sociability: Freemasonry and German Civil Society 1840—1918 (The University of Michigan Press, 2007).
Jessica Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire: Freemasons and British Imperialism, 1717—1927 (The University of North Carolina Press, 2013).
Yves Hivert-Messeca, L’Europe sous l’acacia. Histoire des franc européennes du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours (Dervy, 2013—16). A three-volume history of freemasonry in Europe.
One of the rare sociological and contemporary accounts is J. Scott Kenney, Brought to Light: Contemporary Freemasonry, Meaning and Society (Wilfried Lauder University Press, 2016) and is also a major reference for the understanding of ritual for contemporary members of freemasonry.
Chapter 3: Historical legacies
John Walker, ’ “From the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant to Freemasonry and the Priory of Sion”: An Introduction to the After-history of the Templars’, in P. Edbury (ed.), The Military Orders, volume 5 (Farnham, 2012).
Georges Lamoine, ’The Chevalier de Ramsay’s Oration 1736—37’, Ars Quatuor Coronatum, volume 114 (Quatuor Coronati, 2001). This is the first full-text English translation of the influential ’Discours’.
Alain Bernheim, Ramsay et ses deux discours (Editions Télètes, 2011) is the most authoritative edition of Ramsay’s ’Discours’ in French.
Templiers et francs-maçons—de la légende à l’histoire (Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie, 2016).
’Le surréalisme et le mythe templier’, special issue of La Vertèbre et le Rossignol, volume 3 (2015).
Chapter 4: Enlightenment foundations
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 (London, 1723).
Georg Simmel (1906), ’The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies’, American Journal of Sociology 11(4): 441-98.
Chapter 5: From darkness to light
Henrik Bogdan, Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation (State University of New York Press, 2007).
Kristiane Hasselmann, ’Die Rituale der Freimaurer. Zur Konstitution eines bürgerlichen Habitus im England des 18. Jahrhunderts’ (unpublished manuscript, 2009).
Samuel Prichard, Masonry Dissected (London, 1730).
Abbé Perau, L’Ordre des Franc-Maçons trahi et le secret des Mopses revelée (Amsterdam, 1745).
Jan Snoek (2003), ’The Evolution of the Hiramic Legend in England and France’, Heredom 11: 11—53.
Johann Martin Bernigeroth, Les coutumes des Francs-Macons (Leipzig, 1745). The first visual exposure of freemasonry in seven engravings.
The Royal Arch degree is referenced from the website of Stichting Argus in the Netherlands, see <stichtingargus.nl>, which has digitized a vast amount of rituals in freemasonry and other fraternal orders and societies.
The Scottish master degree is referenced from the project on the recently decoded ’Copiale’-manuscript, which contains the exposure of masonic degrees, see <http://stp.lingfil.uu.se/~bea/copiale/>.
Charles William Heckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries (London, 1875).
Chapter 6: Organizational culture
Margaret C. Jacob, The Origins of Freemasonry—Facts and Fictions (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).
Lane’s masonic records, see <hrionline.ac.uk/lane/> (University of Sheffield).
Chapter 7: Brotherhood challenged
Alexandra Heidle and Jan A.M. Snoek (eds), Women’s Agency and Rituals in Mixed and Female Masonic Orders (Brill, 2008). Quotes from the female adoption ritual are taken from the English translation of a Swedish manuscript published in full-text in this volume.
Marie-Cécile Révauger and Jaques Lemaire (eds) (2011-12), Les Femmes et la franc-maçonnerie, des Lumières à nos jours, I. XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, La Pensée et les hommes, 55(82—3): 191-8.
Máire Fedelma Cross (ed.), Gender and Fraternal Orders in Europe, 1300—2000 (Palgrave, 2010).
Janet Burke and Margaret C. Jacob, Les Premières francs-maçonnes au siècle des Lumières (PUB, 2010).
Chapter 8: Perceptions, prejudices, and persecutions
J.M. Roberts, The Mythology of the Secret Societies (Watkins, 2008).
Claus Oberhauser, Die veschwörungstheoretische Trias: Barruel—Robison—Starck (StudienVerlag, 2013).
Andreas Önnerfors, ’The Earliest Account of Swedish Freemasonry? Relation apologique (1738) revisited’, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, volume 124 (Quatuor Coronati, 2014).