THE BUILDER NOVEMBER 1917
THE BUILDER

EVOLUTION OF THE OPERATIVE INTO THE SPECULATIVE CRAFT

BY BRO. WM. F. KUHN, P. G. M., MISSOURI

(DELIVERED AT THE BI-CENTENNIAL OBSERVANCE OF THE GRAND LODGE OF
MISSOURI)

The formation of the Grand Lodge of England, on St. John's Day in
June, 1717, is the base point on which the Masonic surveyor places
his compass; from which he obtains his level, and lays his chains
to plat the field of Masonic History. It is the observation point
on which the Masonic Historian stands, as he looks backward into
the mists of uncertainties and speculation, and on which he looks
forward through two hundred years of recorded growth and
achievements. This basic point lies just this side of tradition and
uncertainty.

The Freemasonry of today is not that of 1717; neither was the
Freemasonry of 1717 that of the traditional past; but through it
all there runs a life that has pushed itself upward and forward
from an undifferentiated mass into a differentiated, definite
unity, unto a reality possessed of a personality, with unlimited
potentialities. Whatever may have been its origin, wherever it may
have arisen, is secondary to the great fact, that Freemasonry is
here, and is a living thing, throbbing and pulsating with
inestimable efficacy. In its successive growth, it was never a
revival, but always an evolution.

To the question, Whence came Freemasonry ? there have been many
answers. Some are purely fantastic, others clearly absurd, while
many show deep research and study. But even here, there is
necessarily an element of conjecture, and until more reliable data
are found, this uncertainty will remain. The history and origin of
Freemasonry must be traced by certain fundamentals peculiar to it.
These lie in its special symbolism, its laws and its ethical and
religious conceptions. In this research, the Masonic student should
be warned against two classes of blind guides: the wild-eyed
Masonic archaeologist, and the fantastic Masonic symbologist. There
is no limit in time or space for either of them, when vagary and
fancy seizes the reins and drives them on in a furious pace. In
studying the origin of Freemasonry, we must make the distinction
between a mere secret society and a brotherhood. A secret society
is the outgrowth of primitive minds and primitive conditions. A
brotherhood is the product of culture and enlightenment. A secret
society hedges itself about in a cloak of mystery, superstition and
curiosity. A brotherhood has no secrets or mysteries, but bears
within it a common bond of mutual helpfulness and a stimulus to
investigation in the broad field of intellectual, moral-and
spiritual development.

I admit that to some Freemasons, or rather to some men who are
members of a Masonic Lodge, Freemasonry is a mere secret society,
but let us make the clear distinction that Freemasonry is not such,
but that it is a Brotherhood, without mystery, whose germ has
clearly and persistently been pushing upward to a greater and
fuller recognition of what Life means in all its relations. While
Freemasonry has in it the obsolete parts of a secret society,
indices of its evolution, yet these rudimentary remnants do not
make or constitute Freemasonry.

The Masonic student who would trace Freemasonry to some mere secret
society has plenty of fantastic material. It is an historical fact,
that secret societies have always existed in great multiplicity
among the most primitive people and savages. It appears as an
aboriginal instinct. These secret societies seem to have a common
origin in the "Men's House" of the aborigines. In these men's
houses gradually arose certain secret ceremonies, even degrees,
typifying Youth, Manhood, and Old Age, often attended with
barbarous rites of torture and mutilation. In some of the African,
Australian and Hebrides Societies the candidate received a "New
Name," and he was taught an esoteric speech. In some a hideous
representation of death and the resurrection was presented, even
some modern paraphernalia was used, such as masks, "Bull-roarers"
and other devices and equipments to impress the candidate with the
important lessons. In passing, I might add that the "Bull-roarers"
was an instrument capable of making a prodigious noise. The only
counterpart to a Bull-roarer in Freemasonry today, is the Jubulum
found in some Masonic Lodges.

The following taken from "Primitive Secret Societies"--Webster, is
illuminating: "The process which converts puberty institutions into
secret societies of peoples more advanced in culture, seems, in
general, to be that of the gradual shrinkage of the earliest and
democratic organizations, consisting of all the members of the
tribe. The outcome of this process, on the one hand, is a
limitation of the membership of the organization to those who are
able to satisfy the necessary entrance requirements, and, on the
other hand, the establishment of a fraternity so formed of various
degrees through which the candidate may pass in succession. With
the fuller development of secret society characteristics, these
degrees became more numerous, and passage through them more costly.
The members of the higher degrees forming an inner circle of picked
initiates. These control the organization in their own interests.
The best examples of this practice are to be sought in the
Australian and African Tribes." It will not require a wide stretch
of the imagination to find some analogy of thought between
primitive minds and some modern thinkers and their methods.

Some form of secret and magical societies have always existed among
the aborigines of all countries. The snake dance of the Hopi Tribe
is a part of one of these ceremonies. Their existence with their
secret signs has caused some writers to imagine that Freemasonry
existed among the American Indians and among the several tribes of
the Philippines. 


The Mysteries of the classic period of Greece and Rome are to some
extent kindred to the secret societies of the aborigines. The
Mysteries of Eleusis, of Dionysus, of Mithra, of Osiris, of
Demeter, etc., embodied more culture and philosophy and some of the
best and greatest minds of that or any other age were members
thereof. Yet all these Mysteries were hedged about with certain
profound secrets and occultism known and communicated to the adept
only. The central idea of all of them was the presentation in a
dramatic, allegorical ceremony, life, death and immortality. This
ceremony was mongtheistic in its elaboration and strongly
approached the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the
Brotherhood of Man. The effect and influence of these Mysteries
upon the minds of men would have been greater and more beneficent,
if these societies had not labored under the delusion that symbol
and allegory were means to conceal rather than to reveal. These
Mysteries never arose above the mental conception found in mere
occult secret societies. The advent of Christianity into Greece and
Rome wrote "Finis" after the history of the Mysteries.

If Freemasonry contained no more than wonderful secrets, symbols,
allegories, signs, words and degrees, the Masonic Archaeologist
would have little trouble in tracing its ancestry to the secret
societies of the aborigines of Australia, Fiji Islanders, to the
North American Indian or to the Great Mysteries. Symbols and
symbolism are as old as man. It is the primeval, yet universal
language of the world. Symbols and symbolism are not peculiar to
any nation, peoples, secret societies or brotherhoods, whether
primitive, medieval or modern. Symbols and symbolism are not bound
down by fast rules and regulations, hence a man with a symbol can
have the extreme satisfaction, that as a free moral agent, he can
see in it, and through it, more things in Heaven and earth than are
dreamed by common mortals. Some of the most amusing stunts on the
Masonic vaudeville stage are performed by the Freemason with a
symbol.

The point, the circle, line, plummet, square, level, trowel, and
hammer; these implements of theoretical and practical architecture
have always been a fruitful source of symbolism. The implement and
its symbolism have been a matter of evolution. The cave man, as he
slowly evolved to a higher stage of intelligence, began to use some
crude implements in the erection of his simple house of stone. A
piece of flint or a stick may have served as a trowel to fill the
crevices of his house with mud. This simple instrument evolved into
the modern trowel of the operative Mason of today. The shape of the
modern trowel is based purely on its practicability, and not on any
supposed geometrical law. The maul, possibly the oldest operative
instrument, has become a hammer or a gavel. The plummet, level, and
square are incident to the development of  architecture and other
geometrical sciences. It does not follow, that because certain
operatives used these instruments, that they were Freemasons. The
discovery of these instruments in old ruins, or pictures there of
cut or painted on old monuments, walls, or obelisks, do not prove
anything as to the history of Freemasonry. Because a Freemason has
a thigh bone, does not prove that an Egyptian mummy was a
Freemason, because a thigh bone was discovered in him. It is
related that a Freemason, with a Moslem pin on the lapel of his
coat and a combination watch charm of the double eagle, cross and
crown, dangling from his vest, accidentally happened on some
Egyptologists, as they uncovered the grave of a man of the late
stone age; in the grave were the remains of the man, food and other
things usually found in such tombs, also a stone hammer with a
wooden handle attached by withes; when the Freemason saw the hammer
he exclaimed: "Eureka, this man was a Freemason and the Master of
his Lodge, because here is his gavel." This incident may not be
true, but it is in keeping with some of the eloquence dispensed
from Masonic platform and Masonic papers about "The great antiquity
of our great and magnificent Order."

The symbolism based on the implements of the operative, is equally
ancient and runs through the literature of the greatest teachers of
ancient and modern times. The Bible is rich in such symbolism. The
Prophet Amos said: "I will set a plumb line in the midst of my
people Israel." In Proverbs we find: "When he set the compass on
the face of the deep I was there." Ezekiel in prophetic vision saw
a "City four square." In Second Kings, it is recorded that Jehovah
"Will stretch over Jerusalem a line of Samaria, and the plummet of
the House of Ahab." St. Peter said: "Ye also are living stones." In
the prophesies of Isaiah we find: "Judgment also will I lay to the
line and righteousness to the plummet," and Zachariah said: "For
they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hands of
Zerubbabel." These are only a few quotations. There are many other
examples of beautiful and impressive symbols used by the Old and
New Testament writers. This geometrical and architectural symbolism
runs through all literature, ancient and modern, secular and
religious. Imagery, symbols, allegory, and trope are the beauty and
sublimity of Biblical literature. The purpose and use of symbolism
among all great religious teachers was to make clear, to elucidate,
to make plain, but never to hide or conceal great truths and
precepts. Christ was prolific in the use of symbols, especially in
allegorical form. His parables and allegories are remarkable for
their pertinence and graphic in their power to present moral and
religious truths with clearness and comprehension. He never used
them to cast a metaphysical fog over his listeners.

This extensive use of symbolism in literature does not make it
Masonic, neither must we in our zeal claim that because Amos,
Isaiah, Zachariah and St. Peter used the symbolism found in our
ritual of today, they must have been Freemasons. Symbolism based on
the tool of the operative or on geometrical figures does not prove,
in itself, Masonic descent, any more than secret words, signs and
grips prove Masonic genealogy.

If secret societies had existed from primitive ages and symbolism
is coextensive and coequal with human thought, where lies the
genesis of Freemasonry? The answer to this question has been the
subject of much controversy and research. The most satisfactory
answers can be found in Vols. 1, 2 and 3 of Mackey's History,
Gould's History, but especially in that little incomparable book,
"The Builders," by Reverend Joseph F. Newton.

Certain analogies exist between secret societies, brotherhoods,
cults, and mysteries, and even with the Church. These analogies do
not prove a common origin, but they establish the fact that men,
psychologically, think alike. There may be shades of difference,
but on all great issues and truths, these opinions blend into a
composite whole. Gregariousness is an instinct common to man and
animals. We love companionship. We love kindred spirits, and in it
lies the secret of brotherhood. Gregariousness with a fondness for
the mysterious, coupled with a little leaven of superstition, is
the father of the secret societies and the Mysteries. It may be
stated as axiomatic, that the more primitive the intellectual and
moral development of man, the more do secret signs, words, grips,
and awe-inspiring mysteries appeal to him. It is for this reason
that only certain phases of Freemasonry appeal to certain members.
It is stating a Scriptural truism to say, that as a Freemason
thinks in his heart, and is able to comprehend in his mind, so is
Freemasonry to him.

The symbolism, the laws, and the lofty ethical and religious
principles, found in Freemasonry, point indubitably to an origin in
a cultured religious society of Cathedral Builders in England.
There is no evidence that such a society of builders existed in
England prior to the Norman Conquest, in the eleventh century.
There were builders who wrought in stone and timber prior to this
time, but these Gilds or Societies did not specialize in the
building of churches or cathedrals. In a classical article on
architecture in the Encyclopedia Britannica, the following
pertinent statement occurs: "The existing Roman remains show that
there was quite enough architecture and decorative art introduced
into England by the Romans to have formed a school of Masonic
sculptors and builders, if the civilization of the people had been
sufficient to make them desire it. Such a School can hardly be said
to have been formed, if we look at the few and comparatively rude
remains of buildings certainly erected before the Norman Conquest."
The same authority further states that: "When Roman Architecture
ceased, for nearly seven hundred years, nearly every building was
ecclesiastical." The study of architecture clearly established the
fact that no school of Masonic architecture existed prior to the
eleventh century; after that, until near the end of the seventeenth
century, such a school flourished, as indicated by the large number
of ecclesiastical structures erected. It must also be remembered
that the oldest document in reference to Freemasonry is the
Halliwell Poem, dated sometime in the fourteenth century. It is
evident, without going into detail, that a fraternity of Cathedral
Builders came into existence with Gothic architecture from the
eleventh to the twelfth century. The membership was made up of
skilled workmen, not only in the practical, but in the theoretical
art of architecture, and all its cognate sciences. Whence came the
men who formed such a fraternity may find its solution in the
existence of former societies like the Roman Collegia and the
Comacine Masters.

The fraternity of Cathedral Builders was a fraternity erected,
possibly, on the remains of former similar organizations, and this
new fraternity was the beginning of Freemasonry of today. But what
of the assembly of Masons held in York in 926? So far as this
assembly relates to Freemasonry, it is a myth. But while the
holding of such an assembly is only legendary, it can not be said
that no such an assembly was ever held. I am inclined to believe
that such an assembly was held, but it was of the "Rough stone
Masons" and in no sense an assembly of the Cathedral or
Ecclesiastical Builders.

Intellectually, in as far as it refers to the Fellows of the Craft
and the Masters of this Fraternity of Cathedral Builders, they were
of an advanced type. The culture and enlightenment of the age found
expression in these Cathedrals. Their wondrous beauty, symmetry,
harmony, ornamentation and color bear witness of the skill,
intelligence and scientific attainments of the members. Such work
can not come from the illiterate or unskilled, but from minds
trained in the sciences of architecture, sculpture and art. Gothic
Architecture (sometimes called Christian Architecture) brought into
use the highest skill in the practical and theoretical science of
building. The key note of the artisan was "Stability, Utility,
Beauty." It can be readily seen why Euclid, the great geometrician,
figured so prominently in the old manuscripts, and it has also
appeared a mystery why Pythagoras was dragged, as if by the ears,
into modern Freemasonry, and Euclid and Archimedes, the two great
prominent thinkers in practical and theoretical geometry, have been
excluded. Intellectually, the Freemason of the Cathedral Builders
was an adept in the sciences.

The Rules and Regulations, by which the Craft was governed, might
be said to be an application of the Golden Rule. The ethics of
these rules and regulations stand undimmed in the centuries, and
may be summed up in this: That it is the duty of a Freemason "To do
justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly before God." It has been
well said: "If as an ethic of life, these laws seem simple and
rudimentary, they are none the less fundamental, and they remain to
this day the only gate and way by which those must enter who would
go up to the House of the Lord." To be convinced of this statement,
read these Rules and Regulations as found in the old Manuscripts;
they are individual to Freemasonry.

Freemasonry stands preeminent in its moral and religious teachings.
It stands alone among secular institutions in the purity and
exalted spirit in its religious conceptions. If there is any
evidence, above all others, that connects Freemasonry with the
Cathedral Builders, it is this golden thread of ethics and
religion. Architecture is but the expression of religion in its
highest development and it has been well said: "Architecture has
had its origin in religious feeling and emotions, that its noblest
monuments among the Pagan nations of antiquity, were the temples to
their gods, as well as those of the Christian nations." A prominent
writer on architecture says: "With the Christian faith there rose
those forms of beauty unknown to the Pagan, which culminated in the
glories of Lincoln and Canterbury." The spirit of the First Crusade
is manifest in this new architecture and finds expression in the
religious tenets of the members. Their creed was Christian and
Trinitarian. In nearly all of the sixty or more copies of the "Old
Charges" the following formula of belief, or slight modification
thereof, is set forth: "In the name of the Great and Holy God, the
Wisdom of the Son and the goodness of the Holy Ghost, three persons
in One, be with us now and ever. Amen." This invocation was always
given in their Lodges and also read to the neophyte. This
Trinitarian Creed was peculiar to the Cathedral Builders and
remains so even under the formation of the Grand Lodge in 1717,
until the adoption of "The Old Charges of the Free and Accepted
Masons" in 1723. Upon the adoption of these Old Charges of Free and
Accepted Masons, the formula became purely Deistic; that a Mason
"Will never be a stupid Atheist," and it was "Thought more
expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men
agree" viz., a belief in God, the Great Architect of the Universe.
The peculiar symbolism, the lofty ethical rules and regulations,
and the profound and advanced religious conceptions of Freemasons
can find no other origin than that in the Society of the Cathedral
Builders of the 12th Century.

If such is the origin of Freemasonry, the question arises: why
should an operative Craft become a speculative Craft? In the middle
ages, the clergy, or ecclesiastics, were the repositories of
learning. It is not, therefore, strange for them to associate
themselves with a society of such technical skill and erudition in
the theoretical sciences. The study of geometry in its wide,
practical and almost unlimited field, in so many Arts, would
naturally appeal to them, so that this speculative Mason was,
doubtless, a member in its earliest history. The two oldest
Manuscripts intimate this fact, so that we are not wide of the mark
in believing that speculative Masons were members in the earliest
history of this Fraternity of Cathedral Builders and their numbers
continued to increase year by year. Proof of this is found in
abundance in Lodge minutes. Noblemen, students, scholars sought
entrance, not because of any special symbolism or mysteries, but
because of an opportunity for a wider and more general education
and to pursue the fascinating study of the "noblest of sciences."
Cook's manuscript indicates the educational and moral purposes of
the fraternity. The writer thereof says: "And, moreover, He, (God),
hath given to man wit and knowledge of divers things and
handicraft, by which he may labor in this world in order to
therewith get our livelihood, and fashion many objects pleasant in
the sight of God, to our own ease and profit. To rehearse all these
matters here were too long in the writing or telling; I will
therefore refrain, but nevertheless tell you some: for instance,
how and in what the science of geometry was first invented and who
were the founders both thereof and of several other crafts as is
declared in the Bible and other histories. You must know that there
are seven liberal sciences from which seven all other sciences and
crafts in the world have sprung; but especially geometry, the first
cause of all other sciences, whatsoever they be; the seven sciences
are Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialetic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and
Astronomy."

It will be noted that this quotation from the second oldest
Manuscript, shows unmistakably that one of the great ends of the
fraternity was the diffusion of practical knowledge and its
curriculum of studies compares well with the schools of today.
Technical skill and study were paramount to any and all symbolism.
There is no evidence that symbolism attracted the speculative Mason
into this fraternity, or that there existed within it a school of
symbology, neither did its simple ceremonies attempt to elucidate
any Secret Doctrine or waste its time on the mystical numbers of
Pythagoras. Whatever secrets were communicated were purely
technical and trade secrets, and possibly a word and sign whereby
the members might make themselves known to each other. The
fraternity of Cathedral Builders was a professional and trade
society--symbolism, if any, was incidental. I do not wish to be
understood that these beautiful cathedrals were built in a
haphazard way without any attention to the ideas to be conveyed in
their symbolic and geometrical structure. The cross as represented
by the transept, the nave, and the chancel; the pointed arch based
on the equilateral triangle, every column, chapiters, entablature,
arches, towers, sculpture and decorations; the whole cathedral was
a symbolic expression of the religious faith of the builders. No
structure ever erected before or since, showed such a wealth and
beauty of symbols. But this symbolism was an open and manifest
expression. It was a secret revealed to the world in stone. In all
the symbolism of the cathedrals, there was no primitive conception
of the aborigines, no transcendental moonshine or metaphysical
mist. Numbers had no mystical meaning, except in so far as they
were the practical application of the science of numbers to
proportion in structure. The ancient interpretation of symbols was
lost in the new and higher conception, and theorizing gave way to
utility and beauty.

With the decline of architecture, the transition of the operative
into speculative craft was easy, yet gradual, as evidenced in the
"Old Charges of Free and Accepted Masons" adopted six years after
the formation of the Grand Lodge. These so-called Old Charges apply
more to an operative organization than to a speculative, but it
will be observed in paragraph four provision is made for the
holding of official station by the non-operative. It reads: "Who is
also to be noble born, or a gentleman of the best fashion, or some
eminent scholar, or some curious architect, or other artists,
descendant of honest parents and who is of singular great merit in
the opinion of the Lodge." The entrance of John T. Desaguliers,
LLD., into Freemasonry, 1719, and of James Anderson, D. D., at
about the same period, was the pivotal point which gradually
completed the transition. Dr. Desaguliers, above all others, is the
great figure who changed the operative into the speculative, but it
will be observed in paragraph four associations with the scientific
and philosophical schools, he was preeminently qualified for this
work. While such of the symbolism of Freemasonry was introduced at
a later period, yet the sublime symbolism of Freemasonry is the
product of this clergyman's son. In 1723 Freemasonry stood at the
dawn of a new age with great opportunities and potentialities in
her grasp. Although conceived and born in a fraternity of Christian
architects and scholars, retransformed into a new life by two
Christian clergymen, it laid aside its special creed and dogma for
the promulgation of the great and fundamental creed: The Fatherhood
of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

In conclusion I would restate that Freemasonry is a Brotherhood and
not a secret society; the secret signs, grips and steps in its
ceremonies today are remnants of its evolution. These remnants are
a hindrance to the full glory of Freemasonry, in that they create
curiosity for the aborigines of the twentieth century and a veil of
mystery for the illiterate and self-seeking. Signs, grips and steps
are nothing, and ritualism is only secondary to the all-embracing
spirit of Freemasonry, --Brotherhood.

