THE AMERICAN FREEMASON
NOVEMBER 1913


CONTRIBUTORY STREAMS OF MASONIC HISTORY


As intimated in this department last month, Masonic history has suffered
from the prepossessions, almost as much as from the credulities, of those
who have attempted its exposition.  "The Origin of Freemasonry" has for
several generations been a favourite subject with Craft writers. If all such
works and theories could be brought together, it would be found that very
little "in heaven above or the earth beneath" had been overlooked by the
seekers after Masonic sources.  Imagination, highly developed and actively
working, would seem to be the essential qualification for construction of
Masonic history.  With this equipment, and some faculty of word-building,
brothers have really surmounted the obstacles so fatal to the progress of
men not likewise gifted. Some of us, getting into the obscure ways, choked
with sapless traditions, have no recourse but to plod on painfully, hoping
to come upon the faint but positive traces of a former travel.  The fellow
who flies clear of earth goes smoothly, though perhaps too high and too
swiftly to make his observations worth while.  He comes back from an
enjoyable excursion over the No-Man's-Land of a shadowy past with a map
like to those of the ancient geographers, in which the unknown countries
of the world were those most boldly charted.  And it would seem, to carry
this figure still further, that it has all been ballooning rather than areoplaning
or going in a dirigible, for every one has taken flight in a direction fixed by
caprice of the moment's wind.  Duration of the voyaging and place of
landing have depended upon erratic currents, against the force of which no
guiding apparatus has been provided.  Yet every one of these venturesome
voyagers has returned to the common starting-point confident that he,
alone of all the searchers, has pursued a proper course and that it has
been happily reserved to him to sight the sources of the Masonic stream
in some far-off place of mystery.

Right here I want to impress upon the real student, the inquiring brother or
that one who would have any surety for his faith, that he must preserve a
sceptical attitude toward all these varying claims.  It is delightful, and for the
moment plausible, perhaps, to hear some Grand Lodge orator or other like
picturer of words narrate the wonderful "history" of the Masonic fraternity. 
What a superb panorama he unrolls, and how vivid and seemingly
convincing are its colorings! Even the prehistoric scenes and figures are
laid on the canvas with no hesitant hand, nor is there doubt at any point
but that Freemasonry, even as we now know it, is truly represented - for is
not the label and running legend uniform throughout! Listening to all this,
one not of himself informed, may go away with a vast "knowledge of things
that ain't so." He is convinced, beyond power of after shaking, that Masonry
is unique among all human institutions, in that it has resisted every
disintegrating and modifying influence of the centuries. The path of the
fraternity through time, as thus blazed by the kindly explorers, is very plain
and easy to be followed as the king's highway.  Solomon's Temple is but
a station on the journey for the more ambitious of those willing to
personally conduct you to the place of beginnings.  The zig-zagging route
followed is not noticed as you listen to the fascinating story of your guide.
From medieval England to Druidical Britain, thence to Greece and Rome,
and through Egypt of the furthest antiquity to the very cradle of the Aryan
race - such a trip might give pause to any other than the old-school
Masonic historian, or rather romancer.  But to find in all these lands and
times the same persistent institution; to discover an undying fraternity
among men of the most widely separated races; to come upon its traces
in the sacred books of all religions, and finally to enter with the same
passwords and signs the primal Lodge in Paradise--these arc feats of which
no others have been capable.

I am not discrediting all that sincere and learned brothers of the uncritical
time just closed have asserted.  Nor would I deny the value of much that
they have painfully  gathered and preserved for our use and information. 
But I would emphasize this fact: that no man has yet nor will one in the
future, put his finger on any time recorded in the tablets of history, nor
point to any place in the ancient chartings of humanity, and be able to say
with truth that then and there Freemasonry had its birth.

As matter of literal fact, familiar to almost every reader, Freemasonry, as we
know it and understand its meaning, dates no further back than June 24,
1717.  On that date the Grand Lodge of England was constituted, and from 
that body all the real Masonry of the world has derived being.  There is not
much chance for a romancer with such plain matter-of-fact statements.  Yet
the story is not all told with this, nor do we begin with such writing at the
very beginning of the book.  The Lodges that met together on the day
named and organized the Grand Lodge of England had a prior existence. 
From the references to the literature of the seventeenth century, given
before in this department, it is found that Freemasonry not only existed
previous to Grand Lodges, but that it was so well known that allusions to
it could be made without explanatory words.  It had then peculiar features,
many of which it has retained to the present time, and these were
recognized by the people at large readily.  This proves that the fraternity
was accounted for more than many or any of the other associations, social
and benevolent, of that time.  It is not difficult, beyond that period again, to
catch glimpses of the Operative Society of Freemasons as it had existence
in England.  But we can not say that such association of workmen was
more than appears; they possessed certain building secrets, gained in the
generations of experiment and experience, and they were held most closely
as against those who were not members of their organization.  They were
no more than trade unionists, with form of government and methods like
the other guilds.  But as we go back of the time of the Reformation we find
a distinctive building society, different from the Guild Masons.  These were
a superior body of artisans, taking employment only on the great churches
and cathedrals that stand yet as monuments to their wonderful skill.  Such
men were not bound by the petty rules of the city gilds, nor were they
answerable to other than the officers of their own Lodges.  They were at the
call of the church, "free to travel in foreign countries, to work and receive
Master's wages." So far we have proceeded with confidence, and can find
firm support for every step.  But just beyond such point history ends and
romance begins.  In a future paper for this department the old documents
of the Craft, that have survived the accidents and decay of years, will be
taken up, and such light as they may be able to give will be used.

It is at the point just indicated that many or most of our brothers diverge
from the way of sane going.  So far their search has not necessitated any
frequent digressions.  The tale of the organization has been comparatively
simple, and they are not prepared for any complexity of search.  So each
one settles in advance what he expects to find, and in the darkness gathers
whatever comes to hand, satisfied it is exactly what he most desires. 
Hence the confusion that exists, to the utter bewilderment of the student.

First fault is to be found with those and even of the newer and critical
school, that they have, in the purely historical period, confined their studies
and their inquiries to the Operative society.  They are led to do this by the
name which has persisted to the Speculative institution.  At the best there
was from this source supplied no more than the body of Freemasonry; the
life and soul has not been accounted for.  Truth is that the modern
fraternity, dating it from the late seventeenth century, is a composite.  Many
lines of thought have converged and coalesced to the present content of
the Craft.  How otherwise shall it be accounted for that men of varying
capacities and intuitions and appreciations can find in Masonry that which
directly appeals to them.  And not otherwise than by holding to this fact
can we hope to solve the puzzles that meet us just beyond the period of
Operative activities.  To remedy the first fault specified we must cast over
a wider field of inquiry within the strictly historic period.  What was the
English free-thought movement, or English Deism,  if you choose, and had
this any influence on Freemasonry at the critical moment of change from
scattered Lodges to a coherent and subordinated system? Was there also
a political influence, a new and broader impulse, that likewise entered into
the meaning and make-up of the transformed association? During the two
centuries since have the ebb and flow of great tides in the seas of thought
and action had effect, changing the organization? Until these questions,
and others like them, can be answered clearly and in strict accordance with
the facts, we can not hope to understand the meaning nor to grasp the
potentialities of modern Masonry.  Nor, unless such point of view is gained,
may we even guess as to the future course of the society, nor be able to
judge of its probable strength in any day of trial.

Freemasonry is not an organization which has come down to the present
from any far antiquity.  It had no part in the building of King Solomon's
Temple.  Most of the things we have treasured to our hearts as showing the
antiquity of the institution are mere matters of rhetoric put into the ritual,
and in very recent times.  Freemasonry is not even the lineal descendant
of the great cults and mysterious sects of the distant past, as so many
allege. But Freemasonry is the last of a once widely spread family, and it 
has inherited collaterally from many branches.  From one to another
association of men torches have been handed on, failing and flashing up
anew as one has served its purpose and the other has speeded on in the
newness of time.

Continuing this paper we hope to show some of the principal streams
running through the centuries, which have united to form the broad current
of Freemasonry.  Entering the treasure-house of the Craft we may perhaps
be able to identify a few of the precious things that are of our heritages
from the past.  By holding in mind the fact that we owe being and place as
a society to many ancestors, the resultant ideas gained are likely to be
broader and of greater worth.  It may be necessary in our conclusions to
go counter to the set opinions of many who have been accounted of
authority.  The continuation of this paper will take up the task of tracing the
contributory streams as carefully as may be.

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