THE BUILDER AUGUST 1917

ST. JOHN'S DAY IN HARVEST: 1717
BY BRO. SILAS H. SHEPHERD, WISCONSIN


It is a custom to celebrate the anniversary of certain events which
have, to a great extent, produced results of lasting good. If we
were to celebrate the anniversary of all the great events in the
history of the world we would have occasion to celebrate early
every day of the year; but we limit these celebrations to those
nearest our interests.

In Freemasonry, St. John's days are, by our customs and usages, set
apart as days on which "festival communications" may be held. St.
John the Baptist's Day, 1917, is the 200th anniversary of the
formation of the Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Lodge from which
every regular Grand Lodge either directly or indirectly derives its
authority, and we may well celebrate the 200th anniversary with
appropriate allusion to the events which then transpired and the
conditions which then prevailed.

It would be most welcome knowledge to every Masonic student to know
just what transpired at the so-called "revival" 200 years ago. We
are, however, seriously handicapped in our studies of that
important event by having no contemporaneous record of it. The
record we depend upon is contained in the second edition of
Anderson's "Book of Constitutions" (1738) and reads as follows:

"King George I. enter'd London most magnificently on 20 Sept. 1714.
And after the Rebellion was over A. D. 1716, the few Lodges at
London finding themselves neglected by Sir Christopher Wren,
thought fit to cement under a Grand Master as the Centre of Union
and Harmony, viz., the Lodges that met,

"1. At the Goose and Gridiron Ale house in St. Paul's Church-Yard.

"2. At the Crown Ale-house in Parker's-Lane near Drury-Lane.

"3. At the Apple-Tree Tavern in Charles-street, Covent-Garden.

"4. At the Rummer and Grapes Tavern in Channel-Row, Westminster.

"They and some old Brothers met at the said Apple-Tree Tavern, and
having put into the Chair the oldest Master Mason (now the Master
of a lodge) they constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro Tempore
in Due Form, and forthwith revived the Quarterly Communication of
the Officers of Lodges (call'd the Grand Lodge) resolv'd to hold
the Annual Assembly and Feast, and then to chuse a Grand Master
from among themselves, till they should have the Honor of a Noble
Brother at their Head.

"Accordingly, on St. John's Baptist's Day, in the 3rd year of King
George I., A.D. 1717, the Assembly and Feast of the Free and
accepted Masons was held at the foresaid Goose and Gridiron
Ale-house.

"Before Dinner, the oldest Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge)
in the Chair, proposed a List of proper Candidates; and the
Brethren by a Majority of Hands elected Mr. Anthony Sayer,
Gentleman, Grand Master of Masons (Mr. Jacob Lamball, Carpenter,
Capt. Joseph Elliot, Grand Wardens) who being forthwith invested
with the Badges of Office and Power by the said oldest Master, and
install'd, was duly congratulated by the Assembly who pay'd him the
Homage.

"Sayer, Grand Master, commanded the Masters and Wardens of Lodges
to meet the Grand Officers every Quarter in Communication, at the
Place that he should appoint in his Summons sent by the Tyler."

Among the regulations which were adopted at this meeting the most
important was, "That the privilege of assembling as Masons, which
had been hitherto unlimited, should be vested in certain Lodges or
Assemblies of Masons convened in certain places; and that every
Lodge to be hereafter convened, except the four old Lodges at that
time existing, should be legally authorized to act by a warrant
from the Grand Master for the time being, granted to certain
individuals by petition, with the consent and approbation of the
Grand Lodge in communication; and that without such warrant no
Lodge should be hereafter deemed regular or constitutional." This
regulation may be considered as the most far-reaching in its
effects of any rule that has ever been made by Masons for their
government; it is the foundation of OUI present jurisprudence in
regard to regularity. It is also of historical importance, as it
states that the privilege of assembling had been "hitherto
unlimited."

Three years after the formation of the Grand Lodge, in 1720, Grand
Master Payne compiled the "General Regulations," the 39th of which
contained the following: "Every Grand Lodge has an inherent Power
and Authority to make new Regulations or to alter these, for the
real Benefit of this ancient Fraternity: Provided always that the
old Land Marks be carefully preserv'd." This regulation clearly
shows a spirit of conformity to a basic law of an ancient
Fraternity.

The organization of the Grand Lodge in 1717 was called a "revival"
by the writers of the 18th and some of the writers of the 19th
century, and implicit faith was placed on the statement that Sir
Christopher Wren was Grand Master of a Grand Lodge that existed
prior to 1717 and that he had neglected the fraternity; but there
is no evidence that Wren was even a Mason and therefore none that
he was Grand Master and there is great probability that he was not.
The "formation" or "organization" of the Grand Lodge of England
seems to be a more definite and appropriate expression of what
actually happened; for we are told by Anderson that they
"constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro Tempore in due form" as
their first act.


This formation or organization of the premier Grand Lodge has been
termed a "gigantic blunder" by a deep thinker and learned student
of Masonic fundamentals. He believes that the principle of
co-operation was subordinate to an "organization." We are sometimes
in doubt as to where the happy medium lies, and are inclined to
believe we have it in the Freemasonry of today. We know its
weakness and its limitations, but they are the weakness and the
limitations of the individual and not the Fraternity. Its
principles are basically sound and if perverted it is mainly due to
two causes, viz: the Masonic politician and the careless
investigating committee. Organization is a necessity and where men
are associated with each other it is necessary that they give up a
certain amount of personal freedom for the greater and more
glorious liberty of all. We do not wish to infringe on freedom of
thought. The Freemason is, first of all, an intelligent, free moral
agent, and, so far as his Freemasonry applies to the building of
his own "Temple of Character," he is free to interpret its laws,
rules and regulations for himself; but when he associates with
others in the work of teaching the neophyte and in the general
labors of the Lodge he is subject to self imposed restrictions
which he voluntarily assumes.

From an historical standpoint the year 1717 is the most important
in Masonry. It is the date which divides the laws of Masonry into
the ancient customs and usages and the modern regulations, laws and
edicts; it also in a great measure divides the known from the
unknown, for previous to the formation of the Grand Lodge in 1717
we had but few authentic facts on which we can rely. Brother G. W.
Speth, in his splendid "Masonic Curriculum" describes the need of
a chart for the use of the Masonic navigator on the sea of Masonic
history, and, after giving his opinion of the value of Gould's
"History of Freemasonry" as such a chart, says:

"We rise from the perusal of this book with one fact tolerably well
impressed upon our minds, viz., that in the middle of our ocean
lies an island, A. D. 1717, the period at which our Craft underwent
a reorganization of some sort; and we are conscious that between
this island and our own shores lies a tract which is fairly well
mapped out, but that beyond it extends a waste with scarcely a
sounding more than approximately indicated, stretching away into
the distant past. Our first effort must be to gain a clear insight
into this past: we shall not altogether succeed, and we shall
possibly never even approach the shore at the other side, although
we may be able to fill up many blanks, to discover solid ground
here and there, mark the probable flow of the current and take some
additional soundings."

Brother R.F. Gould in his masterly essay on "Masonic Symbolism"
says: "I conceive that there is ground for reasonable conjecture,
whether the Symbolism of Masonry, to a considerable portion of
which, even at this day, no meaning can be assigned which is
entirely satisfactory to an intelligent mind, must not have
culminated before the very earliest dawn of its recorded history.'
Also that it underwent a gradual process of decay, which was
arrested but only at the point we now have it, by passing into the
control of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717." Symbolic and
traditional knowledge was of great importance to the ancient world
and it has been handed down through the centuries, a priceless gift
of the past to the present. Many of the most important truths of
philosophy survived the dark ages through hermetic, Rosicrucian and
Masonic sources; but with the invention of printing and later the
popular thought which came with the Reformation, men no longer
relied to such an extent on symbols and allegory; printed history
replaced oral traditions and the methods of the ancient form of
instruction were replaced by ones more adaptable to the conditions
of the progressive age which was born with the invention of
printing and gradually developed a spirit of moral, political and
spiritual freedom which found its most pronounced expression in the
English Revolution of 1688. Taine says,* "With the constitution of
1688 a new spirit appears in England. Slowly, gradually, the moral
revolution accompanies the social: man changes with the state, in
the same sense and for the same causes; character moulds itself to
the situation; and little by little, in manners and in literature,
we see spring up a serious, reflective, moral spirit, capable of
discipline and independence which can alone maintain and give
effect to a constitution." Although the reaction of the rule of the
sober, long-faced, never-laughing puritan was carried to the
opposite extreme and vices seemed to be the most prominent trait of
the Englishman of the Revolution and the decades that followed it,
there was an inner consciousness of moral responsibility which was
so well expressed in the writings of Addison, DeFoe, Pope, Berkeley
and others and which eventually found expression in their act as
well as their thoughts. Protestant thought was not new thought, but
an expression in different form of the Wisdom of the ages.
Restraint of action and liberty of thought are the cornerstones of
civilization. Freemasonry has been laying these cornerstones in
every age and in many lands from time immemorial. The Charge in the
1723 "Book of Constitutions" concerning God and Religion could not
have been written until the world was ready to receive it. It was
taught by Masonic symbol and allegory from time immemorial, but in
1723 it was given to the world as one of the fundamental principles
of the Fraternity.

It is my humble opinion that the fundamental principles of
Freemasonry have come down to us from a very remote antiquity and
have been taught by symbolical, allegorical and at times perhaps by
hermetical methods and that we as individual craftsmen are most of
us, as yet, only entered apprentices in the full comprehension of
Freemasonry and that the Craft in 1717 needed an adjustment to meet
the changed condition which society had undergone.

That this organization of 1717 was not perfect and that its efforts
to unite men of every country, sect and opinion were sometimes
fruitless is evidenced by the schisms that have since become a part
of Masonic history. These weaknesses are not, however, the weakness
of Freemasonry, but the failure of its votaries to apply themselves
with freedom, fervency and zeal to the task of subduing their
passions and the duty of improving themselves in Masonic knowledge.

The Mason who has studied the events bearing on the formation of
the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 knows that its foundation was
laid in the basic principle of the "Fatherhood of God and the
Brotherhood of Man" and he will endeavor to prove to the profane
world through his own actions that the Freemason is a builder--a
Builder of Character.

*Taine's History of English Literature, Chapter 3.
REFERENCES--Hist. of Eng. (Macaulay); Real Hist. of the
Rosicrucians (Waite); Hist. of Freemasonry (Gould); Arcane Schools
(Yarker); Collected Essays (Gould); Preston's Illustrations; Hist.
of Eng. Literature (Taine); Historical Notes on Freemasonry
(Baxter); A Masonic Curriculum (Speth); Philosophy of Religion and
History (Fairburn).

