Masonry and Political Legitimacy
In Mexico

by Paul Rich, MPS and Guillermo de los Reyes -
The University of the America, Puebla, Mexico

This is Part V in a Series

A general search for rituals and tradi-
tions that would validate political 
leadership characterized the nineteenth 
century and not only in Mexico. D~az 
had many contemporaries in other 
countries who with varying success 
created and employed ritual and tradi-
tion in shoring up the legitimacy of 
their rule.

This was not a phenomenon confined 
to countries that had recently become 
republics. The leaders of ancient reg-
imes were borrowing a trick or two 
from nationalist liberals. In a study of 
the late days of the Ottoman Empire, 
Selim Deringil relates how in 1905 the 
then Sultan, Abdulhamid II (r. 1876-
1909) asked for an explanation of his 
coat of arms, an understandable in-
quiry since the Ottoman heraldry per-
haps set a record for eclecticism and in-
cluded in one composite a crown, 
books, scales, arrow and quiver, in-
fantry rifle and bayonet, cannon, mod-
ern artillery, a vase of roses, and various 
banners.

One of the most notable symbols of 
the renewed emphasis on royal power 
and ceremonial in the later nineteenth 
century was heraldry. The Sublime 
State (Devlet-i Alkiyye) was symbolized 
by the coat of arms of the House of 
Osman . . . In a detailed memorandum 
the sultan was informed that the Ot-
toman coat of arms consisted of both 
old and new, Turkish and Islamic 
motifs, such as armaments and other 
symbolic objects . . . The central 
themes of design were the whole array 
of Ottoman decorations. The central 
themes of the Ottoman coat of arms re-
volved around the continuity of the old 
and new, the traditional and the mod-
ern, yet, it was an invented tradition 
stemming from the need the Ottomans 
felt to emphasize that they were a great 
power like all the others . . . Iate-
nineteenth-century Ottoman polity was 
very much a part of world trends. It 
clearly walked down a very similar path 
to, say, imperial Russia, when Abdul-
hamid II ' s contemporary, Alexander 
III, followed a very similar policy of 
using preexisting elements of sacrality 
to buttress Tsardom. In a similar vein, 
the Japanese Emperor cult, which took 
shape in approximately the same pe-
riod, focused on "elements drawn from 
the recent or the ageless past (which) 
were cast into molds which were newly 
formed in the Meijin years to suit the 
needs of the time."

Participation of Mexican political 
leaders in Freemasonry can be seen in 
the context of a renewed worldwide in-
terest in the nineteenth century in em-
powerment of political leadership 
through the use of symbolism. Manipu-
lation of the rituals of rule2 was then 
and still is vital in maintaining political 
ascendancy: "...notions of tradition, 
authenticity, and the like can help main-
tain unequal power relations between 
dominant and dominated communities 
when they become the basis of public 
policy."3 The Mexican President could 
not call upon the Church to confer 
authenticity. No cathedral coronation 
was possible, there was no prospect of 
anointing by an archbishop, and no 
chorus of ecclesiastics could be sum-
moned to provide a backdrop for his 
inauguration. 4

This surely has something to do with 
why Diaz become a Mason. Masonry
could uniquely enhance his stature, as it
has enhanced the stature of a number of 
Mexican Presidents since.
 
Mexico's political stability has rested 
on the myth that the President is all-
powerful. It is itself a powerful myth, 
believed by most Mexicans and sus-
tained by those who know it to be un-
true. Like the Divine Right of Kings 
and the infallibility of the Pope, it main-
tains the mystery of the office 5
 
What better way to maintain the mys-
tery of the Presidency than for the 
President to belong to a shadowy mys-
terious fraternity? Such membership 
appeals to the notion beloved by many 
that there is a "they" who control mat-
ters, and that "they" manipulate af-
fairs.
 
Along with this appealing mystique 
which Masonry conferred,6 the fact that 
D~az was a Catholic of sorts and a 
Freemason of sorts raises the possibility 
that he found Freemasonry to be a 
counterweight to Catholicism and thus 
a way to maintain his credentials with 
both sides in the bitter confrontations 
between church and state which were 
then, as perhaps now, so much part of 
Mexican events. Freemasonry could be 
used as a counterfoil; Carmelita, Diaz's
wife. was the in-house Catholic to 
balance the equation. 7 Freemasonry 
would provide a reassurance that ulti-
mately Diaz was a liberal, although to
many he was the ultimate pragmatist.8
 
However, although en passant, much 
more mundane and less Machiavellian 
motives also suggest themselves. D~az 
may simply have felt that with so many 
members of the American business and 
political establishment involved in 
lodges that membership gave him an 
advantage in negotiations. He could es-
tablish his bona fides by mentioning 
that he too was a brother. But the offices 
he held could have been a liability as 
well, because Mexican Freemasons had 
a number of hot disputes with Ameri-
can Masonic leaders during the time 
that D~az held Masonic office. It would 
have been almost impossible for him to 
have held the Masonic offices which he 
did without being involved with Ameri-
can Masons.9
 
That there was considerable back-and-
forth between American and Mexican 
Masonic bodies is indicated by the affil-
iations of Albert Pike, the guiding 
genius of Scottish Rite Masonry in the 
United States during the nineteenth 
century and SDvereign Grand Com-
mander of the Supreme Council for the 
Southern Jurisdiction from 1859 until 
his death in 1891. Pike achieved some 
fame for his part in the Mexican-Ameri-
can War and particularly in the battle of 
Buena Vista of 1847. However, his sub-
sequent relationships with Mexico in-
cluded acting as Grand Representative 
of the Grand Lodge of Lower California 
(Mexico) near the Grand Lodge of the 
District of Columbia, and holding 
honorary membership of the Grand 
Lodge of the Federal District of Mexico, 
the Grand Lodge of Hidalgo, the Grand 
Lodge of Jalisco, the Grand Lodge of 
Lower California, the Grand Lodge of 
Caxaca [sic.], the Grand Lodge of Ve-
racruz, Columans de Hidalgo Lodge, 
Carlos K. Ruiz Lodge of Leon, and the 
Supreme Council of MexicQ 10 That list 
of bodies indicates a considerable 
amount of Masonic activity in Mexico 
during the period.
 
An additional reason that can be sug-
gested for a Mexican politician becom-
ing a Mason may have been less ob-
vious at the time but in retrospect seems 
plausible: Masonry was a finishing 
school in oratory and leadership. There 
were no MBA courses in nineteenth-
century Mexico. A young man could 
acquire a polish and oratorical expertise 
in the lodge. There may have been a 
symbiotic relationship between the 
lodges and success in Mexican politics, 
based on the finesse and expertise that 
holding lodge office gave an aspiring 
politician a topic which awaits prosopo-
graphical investigation.
 
A still further benefit of membership 
would be the opportunity Masonry af-
forded to reward political cronies by 
honors. This of course depends on one's 
estimation of the vanity of Mexican 
politicians, of their greed for recogni-
tion, and of their desire for the baubles 
of distinction as opposed to sheer 
economic profit. An appetite for the 
glorious medals and fancy titles which 
Masonry awarded would have moti-
vated some.ll A head of state such as 
D~az is an impresario in charge of the 
distribution of such distinctions, the 
font of honors. Judging by the photo-
graphs of him, which show a chest 
plastered with medals, he was not ad-
verse to collecting such babery him-

Nor in seeking reasons why a man 
such as Diaz would seek admission to
the Masons can the simple enjoyment 
of belonging to an inner circle and par-
ticipating in its emotionally moving rites 
be discarded. After all, people enjoy the 
fellowship of a cafe and they take 
pleasure in the theater. Freemasonry 
offers similar social and dramatic at-
tractions. 13
 
On the other hand, having been criti-
cal of the motives of the Masons in 
Mexico, it is appropriate to record the 
genuine enthusiasm of Presidents such 
as Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940) should 
be kept in mind. Cardenas took advan-
tage of his early career in the Mexican 
Army to found lodges in each place 
where he was in command and to estab-
lish lodges which traveled with Mexican 
Army units. As President, "He at-
tempted to bring the concepts of 
Freemasonry to the people of rural 
areas, but most of the lodges thus estab-
lished were forced to close through the 
influence of the clergy. Cardenas 
believed that such lodges would aid in 
removing ignorance and superstition 
and lead the poorer peoples into paths 
of light and wisdom. " 14
 
That the leaders of so many Latin
American countries, countries all nomi-
nally Roman C atholic, should have 
been high-ranking Masons makes the 
question of motivation of prime impor-
tance. Freemasonry is not foreign to 
Latin America. It has been an integral 
part of the Latin political culture for 
many years. But what is this political 
culture?
 
Roland H. Ebel and Raymond Taras 
are among those who have attempted to 
define it, agreeing with the social an-
thropologist John Gillin that there are 
unique elements in Latin American 
leadership of personalism, machismo, 
dignity, familism, hierarchy, patronal-
ism, tangible materialism, transcenden-
tal values (Arielismo), emotion as the 
fufilment of self and fatalism and claim 
there is a caudillaje man.
 
Caudillaje man, as a personality type, 
has its roots in historic caudillismo but 
is perpetuated by the fact that contem-
porary political monism is inherently 
unstable and subject to disintegration, 
and caudillaje personality traits have 
particular "survival value" under such 
conditions. Thus, Latin America's 
dominant political value system the 
search for a monistic syntheses gives 
rise by its very nature to the caudillaje 
personality, particularly among the 
middle sectors which are the most 
highly activists politically. 
Summary
 
In summary, the caudillaje personality 
type is a reflection of the Machiavellian 
face of Hispanic monism. The basic 
Latin American political value system 
inherited from Hispanic Thomism re-
mains the norm. However, because 
during and after the independence 
Movement the centrifugal, localist, and 
nuclear forces became dominant, the 
once "recessive" Machiavellian traits 
producing caudillaje man became the 
dominant operative political behavior 
pattern - but usually in the name and in 
search of the bien comun. 15
 
Diaz presided over a distinct and even
ebullient period in Masonic develop-
ment in Mexico. 16 It was certainly a 
different era then when the supposedly 
Yorkist and Scottish Riters marched 
against each other in armed combat for 
control of the new republic. Despite 
continuing internal differences, the Ma-
sons of Porfirismo could invoke the 
spirit of Juarez and claim to be anointed 
guardians of democracy,l7 a status that 
successive presidents would strongly 
emphasize. This was in the face of con-
tinued Church disapproval, which saw 
the Masons (perhaps at times unfairly) 
as the embodiment of secularizing mod-
ernity, a contemporary goety, and was 
exemplified in Pope Leo XIII's bitter 
letter "Annum Ingressin Sumus" (19 
March 1902). Nevertheless " . . . it was 
not just the fanatic hatred of individual 
Freemasons and the animosity of the 
whole organization toward the Catholic 
Church. Reconciliation of the modern 
world with tradition was no longer in 
anyone's power.''l8

The ultimate significance of all of this 
to Mexico's politics remains one of the 
greatest challenges to Mexican histori-
ans. A starting point is surely the Ma-
sonic involvement of Diaz. His in-
fluence on Mexico is as ambivalent as 
that of Masonry. His lodge membership 
on the face of it surely does not support
the proposition that Masonry was the 
patron of Mexican democracy.

Whether the truth is that Mexico 
modified Masonry and created a 
genuinely local movement, or rather 
that Masonry modified Mexico and 
particularly influenced Mexican 
politics, requires further investigation. 
Mariano Cuevas has been almost alone 
among Mexican historians in the out-
wardness and boldness with which he 
has attacked Masonry as "a foreign alli-
ance, an action obviously against the 
national interest.''l9 In sum, the con-
tribution of Masonry to the civic re-
ligion of Mexico remains unassessed.

What is evident is that study of politics 
in Mexico demands increased con-
sideration of religion, symbolism and 
ritual 20 and in particular consideration 
of Masonry and of its effects.2l Freema-
sonry may have been Anglo-Saxon in 
origins, but it found a ready home in 
Mexico. It survived the overthrow of 
Diaz, despite his identification with it
and continues as a force in Mexican life.

If the view can be sustained that re-
ligion influences whether a country has 
developed as a democratic society, then 
an obvious ensuing problem is whether 
in ways Masonry was an alternative re-
ligion, a sect which leavened Mexican 
politics. Mexican Masons would vehe-
mently deny that Masonry is a religion, 
but they do claim that they have had a
positive influence on the democratic 
tradition in Mexico.
 
Leaving aside the dispute over Ma-
sonry's status as a religion22 to avoid 
controversy let us describe it as a sym-
bolic-ritualistic-philosophical move-
ment if that suits the Masons its alleged 
influence on political life would seem to 
share certain characteristics with those 
of a religion. But Catholic or Protes-
tant? Seymour Martin Lipset writes 
that:
 
Religious tradition has been a major 
differentiating factor in transformations 
to democracy. Historically, there have 
been negative relationships between 
democracy and Catholicism, Orthodox 
Christianity, Islam, and Confucianism-
conversely Protestantism and demo-
cracy have been positively inter-
linked. . . Scholars from Tocqueville' s 
time to the mid-1970s have observed 
that, among European countries and 
the overseas offspring, Protestant coun-
tries have been more likely to give rise 
to democratic regimes than Catholic 
ones .23

While ritual and symbolism differ 
from religion to religion and certainly 
differ between Protestantism and 
Catholicism, just as they differ between 
the numerous apostate rival Masonic 
factions, claims about religious in-
fluence on political development center 
not on ritual but on polity. Masonry is 
not democratic in polity. For some 
scholars there is nothing democratic 
about a Grand Master installed on the 
Throne of Solomon, an archimage 
legitimatized by ritual.

So the strength of the case often made 
by Masons for Masonry as being a 
democratic force in Mexico is not im-
mediately apparent. If Masonic asser-
tions about lodges being such a positive 
force in Mexico are to be believed, 
there needs to be much more evidence 
that either the rituals somehow pro-
duced a democratic mentality or that 
there is a civic theology which Masonry 
propagates, a fraternalist's Protestan-
tism. The political organization of Ma-
sonry cannot be cited as an exemplar 
for Mexican government far from it.

An agenda for future studies of Mexi-
can Masonry should include analysis of 
the many different rites that have 
waxed and waned, the transference of 
metaphor from the lodge to the political 
arena, and the use of multiple levels of 
analysis as far as local, state, national 
and international Masonic or~anization 
is concerned.24 This may be hoping for 
too much, since after all the academics' 
search for Zusammenghang (intercon-
nection) changes with each new inven-
tion of social science.

Perhaps Masonry did help rescue 
Mexico from provincialism and bigotry, 
and contribute to Mexico's democratic
tradition. Perhaps not. Whatever the
movement's vices and virtues, there is a
"something" to the hidden creative un-
derworld of Masonry, which seems to
meet a deep need in the Mexican per-
sonality. Shakespeare' s question in
Henry IV remains apposite: "And
what art thou, thou idol ceremony?"
What indeed.25



Endnotes

[ I ] Selim Deringil, " The Invention of Tradition as 
Public Image in the Late Ottoman Empire, 1808 
to 1908", Comparative Studies in Society and 
History, Vol.35 No.l, 6-7, 28-29.
 
[2] See Paul Rich, "The Rule of Ritual in the 
Arabian Gulf, 1858-1947", Ph.D. dissertation 
The University of Western Australia, 1989 
pub.by University Microfilms, Ann Arbor (Mi-
chigan), 1990, 7.
 
[3] Charles L.Briggs, "Metadiscursive Practices 
and Scholarly Authority in Folkloristics" Jour-
nal Of AmericanFolklore, Vol.106 No.4i2, Fall 
1993, 421. "Policymakers can shape not only the 
content of vernacular creativity, but its form and 
politics of culture as well, by imposing definitions 
of authenticity and tradition, envisioned as in-
trinsic properties of fixed, bounded objects rather 
than as dynamic zones of cultural contestation. " 
Ibid .
 
[4] "Why have all Churches and Religions com-
bined together unawares to communicate that 
which they possess through the machinery of 
ritual? Why does a prescribed form of worship 
interlink the faithful of each as in a common bond 
of spiritual life? One answer is because of the 
psychic force which is resident in collective acts. 
It is the union of spirit which appears to draw 
down sufficing grace. But the act of collective 
worship connotes much more than the form itself 
conveys. It is also a memorial of Doctrine, and 
the first implied meaning and message, which lies 
behind the Ritual Observance belongs to the 
matter of Faith. It is very often at this point that 
Ritual begins to account for itself as a Mode of 
Symbolism. The procedure embodies the Doc-
trine. But Ritual is also and perhaps more than 
all a connotation of Sacrifice. Wheresoever Sacri-
fice has prevailed in the religious world it has 
been characterised by a definite environment of 
ceremonial acts which passed as sacred. The 
faithful of the particular Observance were there-
fore bound together by the one spirit formulated 
in common worship, by the Doctrine on which it 
was based and by the virtue which hypothesis 
attached to the given act of Sacrifice. The speak-
ing language of ritual belongs hereto and arises 
also herefrom. It follows further that ritual has 
many languages, even if there is a common root 
of all . . . Those who pursue the subject in any of its 
leading directions will learn in fine that there is 
meaning in all ritual and reason at its value 
behind every procedure." Waite, 629.

 
[5] Riding, 94.
 
[6] "...the nation is endowed with functionaries 
who act as a kind of priesthood. Thus the school-
master becomes a transmitter of historical lore; 
the Royal Family have a high papal-type role; the 
military too are ritual practitioner- even sporting 
outfits play some role in transmitting national 
values and glory." Ninian Smart, "Lands of 
Hope and Glory ", Times Higher Education 
Supplement, 2 February 1990, 15.
 
[7] Roger Aubert, et al., The Church in the In-
dustrial Age, Burns & Oates, London, 1981, 
1 33.

[8] Weeks, 30.
 
[9] It is hard to think that as a Masonic leader 
however honorific his duties, Dlaz would have 
been uninformed of some of the traumatic breaks 
and reconciliations between Mexican and Amer-
ican Masonic bodies. In 1868 the SouthernJur-

isdiction of the Scottish Rite, headquartered in 
Washington, withdrew recognition of the Su-
preme Council of Mexico. James D. Carter 
History of The Supreme Council, 33  (Mother 
Council of the World) Ancient and Accepted 
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Southern Jurisdic-
tion, U .S.A. ,1861 -1891, The Supreme Council, 
33, Washington, D.C., 1967, 28. "United 
States Grand Lodges were concerned about the 
regularity of Lodges established m Mexico under 
the Supreme Council of Mexico which became 
dormant in 1871. On August 23, 1871, Pike 
issued a circular letter in which the Supreme 
Council ofthe SouthernJurisdiction vouched for 
the regularity of the Mexican Supreme Council 
and the Lodges that it had established and also 
assumed responsibility for the Mexican Lodges 
so created until the Supreme Council of Mexico 
could be reactivated. A second circular letter was 
mailed out on March 6, 1872, in which Pike 
announced the recognition of the reactivated 
Mexican Supreme Council." Carter, 66. Ap-
parently a period of normalisation ensued, be-
cause in 1882 one Grand Representative of the 
Supreme Council of Mexico was replaced by 
anotber without comment. Carter, 256. At 
another session in 1882 "A report commending 
the Supreme Coumcil of Mexico was adopted and 
it was ordered that a copy of the report be sent to 
that Supreme Council." Carter, 258.1n 1883 
Pike visited "Chihuahua" and Santa Rosalia in 
Mexico . He spoke to the lodge at Chihuahua and 
had the lodge sent a present of books inscribed by 
him. Carter, 273. In 1897 the celebration of the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of the Supreme Council 
of Mexico was recognized by sending an official 
representative. James D. CARTER, History of 
the Supreme Council, 33  (Mother Council of 
the World) Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite 
of Freemasonry Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A.
 
1891-1921, The Supreme Council, 33, Wash-
ington, D.C., 1971, 94. More disputes ensued 
but in 1901 it was minuted that "The points of 
difference between The Supreme Council and 
that of Mexico had been removed and friendly 
relations should be continued." Carter, 1891-
1921, 155, see 157. In 1909 Washington decided 
". ..that profanes included in the jurisdiction of 
The Supreme Council for the SouthernJurisdic-
tion. . . after a residence of three years (instead of 
12 months), in the Republic of Mexico," and 
after baving received the Symbolic Degrees in a 
Mexican Lodge, would be permitted to receive 
the degrees of the Rite from the Supreme Council 
of Mexico, and the same restrictions were pro-
posed for profanes from Mexico in the Southern 
Jurisdiction. On the basis of the agreements 
reached and the acceptance by the Supreme 
Council of Mexico of the change above set forth, 
Richardson was authorized to conclude a "treaty 
or agreement " for the settlement of the problems 
that had arisen." Carter, 1891-1921, 288. After 
more difficulties, in 1917, a committee was ap-
pointed to see about "resuming fraternal rela-
tions with the Supreme Council of Mexico." 
Carter, 1891-1921, 465, see 472.
 
[10] Fred W. Allsopp, Albert Pike: A Biograpby 
Kessinger, Kila(Montana), n.d. [1928], 252-56.
 
[ 11 ] " Social psycbologists and quantifier have yet 
to assess convincingly the persuasive effective-
ness of trinkets...". Robert G. Gunderson, re-
view of Roger A. Fischer's "Tippecanoe and 
Trinkets Too: The Material Culture of Ameri-
can Presidential Campaigns ",1 828- 1984, Amer-
ican Historical Review, Vol.94, No.4, October 
1989, 1193.
 
[12] Cf. illustration, Rt. Wor. Bro. His Highness 
Sir Raza Ali Khan Bahadur, Nawab of Rampur, 
President Masonic Fraternity of New Delbi, Paul 
Rich, Elixir of Empire: The English Public 
Schools, Ritualism, Freemasonry, and Imperial-
ism, 2nded., RegencyPress, London, 1993, 95.
 
[13] For that matter, most successful secret socie-
ties effect at least a superficial jolly comradely
along with a theatricality and drama which im-
presses initiates. The Mafia initiation contained 
elements which feature in the rituals of many 
more respectable secret organizations sucb as tbe 
Masons. Judge Falcone mentioned sponsorship, 
oaths, and the use of icons: "Having explained 
the commandments, and confirmed the candi-
date's desire to join the organisation, the repre-
sentative invites the candidate to choose a 
godfather from among the men of honour who 
are present. Then the swearing-in ceremony 
takes place: each man is asked which hand he 
shoots with, the index finger of that hand is 
pricked and a drop of blood taken and spread 
onto a sacred image: ohen a Virgin Mary at the 
Annunciation, whose feast is celebrated on the 
25tb of March and who is considered the patron 
saint of Cosa Nostra. The image is then set alight 
and the candidate passes it from hand to hand, 
trying not to let it go out, and solemnly swears 
never to betray the code of Cosa Nostra, and if 
he does so to burn like the image...A curious 
detail is that some families prick the finger with 
the thorn from an orange tree; other families use 
a pin, always the same one (the Riesi family 
representative had a gold pin used exclusively for 
this purpose); otbers just use any pin which 
comes to hand. " Falcone, 87.
 
[14] Denslow, IV, 378. Cardenas was initiated in 
GnosisNo.6undertheGrandLodgeofOcciden-
tal Mexicana in 1925 at the same time as General 
Eduardo Rincon Gallardo, who became Grand 
Master of the Grand Lodge of the Valley of 
Mexico and President of the Interamerican Ma-
sonic Confederation. Ibid., 392-93.
 
[15]. Roland H. Ebel and Raymond Taras, "Cul-
tural Style and International Policy-making: The 
Latin American Tradition", Chay ed., 198.
 
[16] Gould, 372-73.
 
[17] "Americans developed a set of symbols and 
holidays, as well as monuments to heroes and 
glorious accomplishments...In Mexico the Diaz 
government, seeking to enthrone itself, 
memorialized what it regarded as important 
people and important days in Mexico history. It 
began to subsidize the writing of history. Mexi-
can intellectuals joined the government in pro-
moting the hero symbols and use of festivals to 
give unity and loyalty to the regime." Weeks, 
44-45.
 
[18] Roger Aubert, et al., Tbe Church in the 
Industrial Age, Burns & Oates, London, 1981, 
24.
 
[19] Mariano Cueva, Historia de la naciun mexi-
cana, 773-92, 944-46, ctd. Weeks, 12, 165.
 
[20] "Mexico's obsession with symbols was 
quickly understood by Ronald Reagan. (Mexi-
cans still recaD that President Truman laid a 
wreath at the Monument to the Child Heroes in 
1948 on the centenary of their death resisting the 
American occupation of Mexico City, while 
President Kennedy was no less effective in win-
ning over Mexicans by kneeling before the image 
of the Virgin of Guadalupe during his visit m 
1962.)" Riding, 466.
 
[21] "But when the whole spectrum of such or-
ganisations is kept in view and when the activities 
of individual societies are studied closely, the 
importance of their non-political and mythical 
components is also very striking. The ritual and 
symbolic elements are very important, tbe wide 
and long-enduring diffusion of a masonic ele-
ment in tbese seems. . . to go far beyond the point 
at which any merely utilitarian purpose could be 
served by borrowing. The historian of modern 
politics is not always well-equipped to deal with 
such matters. A medievalist, an anthropologist
or a historian of art might sometimes be better 
able to assess tbe importance of some of the 
apparently trivial and subsidiary evidence which 
comes to light in this connection." Roberts, 12.
 
[22] Can any system of mythical thought be 
rational? See Terence M. S. Evens, "Rational-
continued on page 95

The Philalethes, August 1995


