Rough Mason, Mason, Freemason, Accepted Mason

Rough Mason, Mason, Freemason, Accepted Mason

Oscar Patterson III

Hamilton Books

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ISBN: 978-0-7618-6960-3 (pbk : alk. paper)—ISBN: 978-0-7618-6961-0 (electronic)

Cover Art: The Building of a Palace by Piero di Cosimo (1462-1522) is an allegory of the art of building that was created between 1515 and 1520. It was commissioned by the Arte dei Maestri di Pietre e di Legname (Masters of Stone and Wood) in Florence and owned by the Medici family. It is considered by scholars to be an accurate representation of the construction of an idealized Renaissance palace. It is now on exhibit in the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida.

™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

In Memory of James S. Davis

Comrade in Arms, Americal Division, Vietnam

Worshipful Master, Ashlar Lodge No. 98 2013

Mentor

Friend

Brother

Acknowledgments

This manuscript began several years ago as I undertook to research the history of Freemasonry. There is in existence in the modern world such an organization, but where and when did began and how it came into its present form are open to question. Libraries are replete with books that attempt to explain the organization. But as I read, I became disenchanted with what I found. This fueled my quest. There had to be more to the story than the myths and fables that were and are so prevalent.

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to Robert P. Harry, Jr., Past Grand Master of Masons of Florida for reading the manuscript and providing critical editing and suggestions. Most Worshipful Harry has been my mentor and guide throughout my Masonic life and I am so very grateful to have him leading my steps and being my friend.

Edward R. Suart, Past District Deputy Grand Master and Historian at Ashlar Lodge No. 98 in St. Augustine provided me with many valuable manuscripts and articles. He reviewed the text in-depth and made essential comments and grammatical corrections.

David Pierucci has sat on my left as Secretary and, more importantly, has been a good friend and Masonic Mentor. His input is invaluable and sincerely appreciated. He is also a member of Hope Lodge 2813 in Savanna La Mar, Jamaica and graciously introduced me to his Jamaican Brothers and the English Constitution Freemasonry. He read the manuscript while sitting at his mountain-top retreat in that tropical nation.

To my Brothers throughout Masonry, especially those at Ashlar Lodge No. 98, I offer my deepest appreciation. You took me in; made me part of your Great Fraternity; and encouraged me to achieve far beyond what I thought possible when I began my Masonic journey. You also encouraged my Masonic research and writing by obtaining copies of my book Interpreting Masonic Ritual and reading my articles published in various Masonic journals. To you I offer my deepest gratitude. You encouraged me to seek further knowledge and to share what I had learned.

Above all, to my wife, Julie, my soul-mate and best friend—and too often a Masonic Widow —I offer my sincerest appreciation for your support and encouragement. If not for a visit you made in, I may never have sought the privileges of Freemasonry. Your tour of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania’s magnificent building led you to return with me in tow. You then encouraged me to seek membership and have supported me whole-heartedly as I moved through the chairs, served as a District Committeeman and State Chairman, and sat in the East. You attended one installation on our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and graciously allowed me to miss your birthday another year to accept an Honorary Membership. You have ridden with me at the county fair and been at my side for installations and banquets. To you goes my eternal love and affection. Forever and always.

Introduction

Every person, organization, government, and nation had a beginning. Freemasonry is no different. Yet no organization comes to be as it is in a vacuum. History is a massive web of interrelated events and an understanding of the fact requires some level of mastery of research methodology and specialized knowledge.

Historians are part of a guild as surely as were ancient masons. Both groups focused their attention on creating strong foundations and preparing others to follow in their lead. There is in history no isolated, single, true tradition. History is collaboration as surely as is that of the construction of any magnificent edifice and involves discourse as well as the exchange of ideas. History also requires constant reassessment and it is anti-historical to be overly obsessed with a single point of view of the past.

The study of history is about getting the story relatively straight. Theories abound, but they must be tested and retested as new evidence is discovered and old evidence disproved. Essential to an understanding of history is context. It is inescapable that history happens within the context of a given time, set of attitudes, perspectives, and laws. To overlook this is to subvert the outcome of any historical analysis.

To understand the history of a group or organization requires thinking about the time and placed of origination as well as the people involved. Just as we have cultural awareness, we so too should have historical awareness. A principal venue for the historical record is the law. And while culture, those phenomena that seem to hold us together, may give us clues to understand history, it is through the political expression of the law that the official record survives. The law is the essence which provides continuity and predictability.

Throughout man’s time on earth, fabulists and myth-makers provided their accounts of history in a quest to provide points of origin for then existing practices and privileges. What they did was, for them, historical, cultural, and political. Their work was often heavily influenced and highly constrained by sovereign powers which included church and state as well as available resources.

The study of history is also the study of literature. It is a matter of fixing the texts in their historical context and coming to grasp with the diversity as well as the polarity of meanings and readings. History does not yet provide a unified or general theory of the past. It is too full of complexity and permutations. To come to an understanding of the past, it is necessary for the historian to become familiar with his predecessors as well as his contemporaries, and to take into consideration those who live through and wrote about each age: what motivated them and what their audience took both to and from these histories as well what those audiences expected of the histories being produced.

Finally, a historian should endeavor to come to grasps with the nature of human variation which produces in its wake widely divergent interpretations of any given set of facts. This is essential to understanding the legitimate intent and designated meaning of the author.

Chapter 1

Making a Mason

Medieval Masons.

Freemasonry is a Moral Order, instituted by virtuous men, with the praise-worthy design of recalling to our remembrance the most social pleasures founded on Liberality, Brotherly Love and Charity. It is a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. Truth is its center—the point whence its radii diverge—pointing out to its disciples a correct knowledge of the Great Architect of the Universe and the moral laws which He has ordained for their government.

—National Masonic Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, 1843

Freemasonry is the oldest still-functioning Fraternity in the western world. Its principle tenets are brotherly love, relief, and truth, and all Freemasons are governed by fortitude, prudence, temperance, and justice. Freemasons place their trust in Deity and endeavor to do unto their neighbors as their neighbors should do unto them. They are quiet and peaceful citizens, true to their country and just to their government. They do not engage in political disputes as an organization and are accepting of all religions that profess a belief in a Supreme Being. While it is possible to trace Freemasonry’s existence in some form since the sixteenth century, more solid documentation is available for the period after the early eighteenth century and the founding of The Grand Lodge of England.

In the United States, regular Freemasonry is organized by jurisdiction with each state hosting a Grand Lodge. There is no central authority for Freemasonry in the United States. Outside the United States, in England, for example, Freemasonry is organized under a national Grand Lodge which issues warrants or charters for the formation of Lodges within its jurisdiction. Freemasonry in the United States is considered to be a direct descendant of the Grand Lodge of England and still follows many of the practices of that institution.

Medieval Mason

That some form of organized masonry began with the masoun or rough mason of medieval Europe who progressed through the ranks of layers, pavers, and masons to become freemasons is well documented in the records of the operative guilds. Guilds were, essentially, trade unions that protected the rights of labored as they ensured the quality of the finished product. They also served to provide essential education for future generations and to protect the trade secrets of the craft. One of the most important of these secrets was methods of recognition. In this pre-literate age, those methods included manual signs, grips, and the exchange of specific passwords or shibboleths. The nature of the masonic trade—the erection of large stone structures— necessarily required a certain degree of movement among highly skilled workers. The signs, grips, and words were tests of a mason’s qualifications as well as his introduction to others of the same trade. Prior to being accepted into a lodge where he was unknown and being allowed to function as a full mason or freemason, and to ensure that he was worthy and well qualified (that he could create a sustainable arch, for example) it was necessary that he be tested. This was generally done by the use of the secrets as noted—signs, grips, and words—that were received mouth to ear upon the successful completion of a period of apprentice and an examination or presentation of a finished piece of work to an examining committee. The original testing and qualification was time-consuming and expensive.

In the operative trade or guild, it was often the custom for the master or foreman to remove the central post supporting the frame for the arch. If it collapsed, it collapsed on him. This rather drastic approach to quality control ensured that the master or foreman properly instructed apprentices and fellows of the craft, and that they properly supervised the labor of their workers. To qualify as a fellow of the craft it was essential that an apprentice mason prove that he possessed the skills and knowledge essential to successful building construction. This required a young man to enter the trade at age eleven or twelve as an apprentice and work under the direct supervision of a master for seven or more years. At the conclusion of the well-supervised and arduous seven years of labor, the apprentice presented a final piece of work to be evaluated by the master. The movie The Red Violin suggests the outcome of this form of evaluation of workmanship. If found worthy the apprentice was advanced to the rank of fellow of the craft where he generally remained for the rest of his working life.

This system of training, evaluation, and advancement is not that unusual today. For example, United Scenic Artists, a modern labor union which is an autonomous local of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, utilizes a similar system. After being trained and engaged in the profession for some period (training may come through a university degree), the candidate applies for recognition. He or she is assigned a take-home project followed by a written examination, personal interview, and portfolio review of previous work. The candidate is then required to execute an on-site practical project for evaluation by a panel of judges. For those with significant prior experience—three years or more of satisfactory practice in the trade often under the supervision a guild member—a take-home project, portfolio review, interview, and examination of samples of previous work without the practical examination suffice to demonstrate proficiency.

Nor is a form of apprenticeship and evaluation restricted just to unions. Parachute riggers in the United States military work under the direct supervision of senior Noncommissioned Officers. During training, riggers are required to jump with a parachute they packed and continue to do so on a regular basis upon successful completion of the school and assignment as a rigger with an airborne unit. In a similar fashion, aircraft mechanics often participate in a check ride before certifying the craft airworthy. And in very public demonstration of an engineer’s faith in her and her husband’s work, Emily Warren Roebling, wife of Washington Roebling and his successor as field engineer on the Brooklyn Bridge, hitched a team of horses to a wagon and with a rooster as a passenger became the first person to traverse the full length of that famous bridge.

The men who erected the great cathedrals of Europe and other impressive structures were skilled craftsmen much valued for their knowledge and dedication to their craft. They were masons. But some were freer than others. The use of the term free in freemason has often been interpreted to mean free of obligation to church or secular authority and thus free to roam at will, to be true traveling men. While this did become the case in the mid-seventeenth century and continued into the nineteenth century[1] , all masons of the eleventh through fifteenth centuries were as subject to government (crown) and church authority as any other freeman. The original use of the term free associated with mason resulting in freemason was used to identify those skilled artisans who could work in free stone creating the beautiful carvings and other ornaments found in medieval architecture, especially gothic.[2] The term freemason thus differentiated those highly skilled, highly paid craftsmen who most often worked at a piece rate from rough masons such as layers, pavers and hewers who received a daily wage (see Chapter III for a more complete outline). Freemasons also tended to be independent masters or contractors with their own apprentices who demanded and received a high level of respect while enjoying a significant amount of authority and the right to independently negotiate for their services.

All masons, however, found it necessary to band together because of the very nature of their craft. A cursory survey of any great cathedral reflects the conditions necessary for their erection and supports the contention that, unlike other craftsmen such as metal smiths, saddlers, or goldsmiths, masons could not easily acquire positions, perform work, or complete a finished work in his chosen materials alone. A large-scale, coordinated, well-funded effort was necessary to quarry, cut, finish, deliver, and erect the thousands of stones used in any given project. Early masons were very similar to modern construction workers: a wage-earner paid according to a time or piece rate. And he did not work in isolation any more than do members of a twenty-first century construction crew; but rather as part of a larger force directed by a master, overseer, clerk, or foreman and often under the watchful eye of a master of the work or architect appointed by crown or ecclesiastical authorities. Within this system fathers taught their sons and uncles their nephews without formal indentures, but this produced insufficient numbers of skilled workmen. A system of formal apprenticeship was thus necessary and became common among all craft guilds in order to train and certify the work of skilled craftsmen.

Life-spans during those centuries coupled with difficulties in traveling great distances and the length of time required to complete massive construction projects such as a cathedral or castle meant that most medieval masons ended their careers in the very lodges built in the quarries or at the construction sites where they first began work at age eleven or twelve. In addition, medieval building records—and there are a number extant—indicate that the clear majority of masons never exceeded the journeyman status or fellow of the craft. They were neither masters nor contractors which further restricted their traveling. The existing records further indicate that those designated as master masons were most often supervisors or contractors who performed as much as administrators as they did as operative workmen. During this ancient period, men who were not operative masons—real masons—were an integral part of the craft structure and served as haulers, clerks, stewards, and, even, contractors.

The antiquity of the masons' organizations in England has generated much speculation and mythology. It is obvious from the remnants of Roman structures still dotting the English countryside that there was some form of masonic trade prior to the sixth century. There is no evidence, though, among the existing Roman archives of an organized masons’ guild in England at that time. Roman building projects, Hadrian’s Wall, for example, were under the auspices of the Roman military not civilian contractors. In the historical record, the first reference to anything masonic is found in Bede's The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation and Lives of Saints and Bishops. Bede writes that in the year 675 Bishop Benedict crossed into Gaul and carried back with him some masons to build a church in the Roman style and that he also brought from Gaul makers of glass which was at that time an unknown skill in Britain. This was done, and they came, and not only finished the work required, but taught the English nation their handicraft.[3] Yet earlier in the same text, for the year 619, Bede writes that a great fire consumed the city of London and that The church of the Four Crowned Martyrs was in the place where the fire raged.[4] The four crowned Martyrs were the patron saints of Roman masons[5] which suggested to some scholars that while mason/soldiers may have remained in Britain after the Roman withdrawal, none were left by the year 675.

The Four Crowned Martyrs or Sancti Quatuor Coronati refers to nine men identified by the Catholic Church as martyrs. They are divided into two groups: Severus (or Secundius), Severian(us), Carpophorus (or Carpoforus), and Victorinus (or Victorius, Vittorinus): and Claudius, Castorius, Symphorian (Simpronian), Nicostratus, and Simplicius. The Golden Legend recounts that they were not actually known at the time of their death but were learned thorough the Lord’s revelation after many years had passed.[6] The four in group one, all of whom were soldiers or military clerks, were executed at the order of the Emperor Diocletian for refusing to sacrifice to Aesculapius, the Roman god of medicine. According to the legend, they were buried in the cemetery of Santi Marcellinoe Pietro e Laterano by Pope Miltiades and St. Sebastian. Of greater interest to ancient operative masons (and to Freemasons) is group two.

Tradition teaches that these five were sculptors or freemasons who refused to make a statue of Emperor Diocletian and to offer sacrifice to other Roman Gods. The Emperor ordered them sealed in lead coffins and tossed into the sea from a cliff in Pannonia. The Catholic Encyclopedia reports that they were condemned to death as Christians . . . towards the end of 305.[7] They were venerated as saints early in English Christian history when Augustine of Canterbury coming to the island from a monastery near the basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome arriving in Kent in 597 and their relics came to England in 601. This reference in The Catholic Encyclopedia may be construed to support Bede’s reference to a church dedicated to the masonic martyrs prior to the reintroduction of masons into Britain in 675. The connection with sculpture or stone work linked the martyrs to the guild in England, Germany, and Italy. A sculpture created by Nanni di Banco located in Orsanmichele near Florence depicts the martyrs and was commissioned by the guild of stone and woodworkers of which he was a member.

Outside Bede, there is no reference to masons or to any guild in the other great chronicles to include The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, The Croyland Chronicle, or The Doomsday Book. The existing evidence suggests stone buildings were rarely built prior to the twelfth century and that organized masonry arose in England only after the Norman Conquest when kings, nobles, and churchmen from William I onward, erected buildings such as Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and other royal edifices. The account books for the reign of Henry III (1216-1307) as well as those of Edward I (1272-1307) and Edward III (1327- 1377) indicate a strong royal passion for building and the development of an organization of masons to perform the labor.

Given the nature of the masonic lodges necessary for the erection of these magnificent edifices, it was inevitable that customs would be established to govern the relationship between the employer and the employee. Similarly, these organizations facilitated the administrative functions necessary to house, feed, pay, and supervise the workmen as well as to make available to them a ready supply of useable materials and suitable working tools.

The Regis Manuscript, a long poem in Old English, dated to about 1390, and the Cooke Manuscript, a prose or ledger-type document also in Old English dated to about 1410, list the articles and points developed within the medieval craft to regulate its practices. Both documents in their entirety as well as The Graham Manuscript and Schaw Statutes are in Chapter IV. The articles in these documents are directed chiefly to the masters—the person or craftsman in charge—noting that they should be loyal to their lord—the person paying the bills; not waste his goods by giving more pay to any man than he deserved; taking and training apprentices only as needed (and keeping them in training for at least seven years); dismissing insufficiently skilled workers; and not supplanting another because no man can so well finish a piece of work as he that began it.[8]

The points are directed to the laborers or fellows. They were to love God and regard their fellows as brethren; to keep their secrets; to tell it to no man wheresoever you go, the counsel of the hall, and even of bower, keep it well to great honor, lest it would turn thyself to shame, and bring the craft into great shame;[9] to take his pay meekly and to avoid quarreling; to keep the seventh commandment thou shalt not steal; and, if a warden, to be a true and fair mediator between his master and his fellows. The mason also pledged himself to keep the mysteries of the craft which included such arcane knowledge as how to create a true square within a square; how to build an arch that would support substantial weight; how to create a design using nothing more than a string and several stakes or points; and how to orient a building correctly. In the modern world, many masonic mysteries are now taught in high school plane and solid geometry, algebra, and drafting.

By the middle of the fifteenth century, the London Company or guild had established its ordinances which were revised in 1481, 1521, and subsequent years, remaining in force until the early nineteenth century when the government had so fully taken over the duties and responsibilities of the guild that they were, effectively, put out of business. This same pattern of shift from guild control to government control may be noted throughout England and Scotland as well as in Europe and was not restricted to masons (see Chapter III).

Operative to Speculative

By the end of the sixteenth century, political and religious events, began to erode the influence of the guilds and the very reason for their existence, but they did not disappear. Instead, they reinvented themselves—some suggest that they returned to their roots—and became [again?] social organizations that brought together like-minded men in pursuit of fellowship, enlightenment, and social standing. While it is most difficult to locate the exact beginnings of speculative masonry—modern Freemasonry—this much can be documented. Elias Ashmole wrote in his diary in October 1646 that I was made a free-mason at Warrington in Lancashire.[10] The earliest record of the initiation of a non-operative mason is found in the minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh at Mary's Chapel dated July 1634 when Lord Alexander and his brother, Anthony, were admitted. This Lodge is still in existence today. The oldest existing records of any Masonic Lodge date to January 1599 and are from Lodge Aitchison’s Haven in East Lothian, Scotland. That Lodge closed in 1852. Minutes dating to July 1599 from the Lodge of Mary’s Chapel, noted above, still exist, as well. There are no equally ancient records from English Lodges. But from the early medieval period, there had been throughout England and Scotland associations of stonemasons, and by the late 1500s there were at least thirteen of what appear to be speculative Lodges in Scotland from Edinburgh to Perth. It will not be until the early eighteenth century, however, that any type of institutional structure appears. This move toward national unity through the grand lodge system originated in England between 1717 and 1723. It was copied in Ireland (1725) and Scotland (1736).

In 1686, Dr. Robert Plot would write that it was the custom to admit men into the Society of Freemasons throughout the nation, especially in Staffordshire. He also informs us that this Lodge consisted of at least five members of The Ancients of the Order and that a Fellow of the Society was called an accepted mason.[11] Other early freemasons included Rundle Holme, made a Freemason in Chester in 1666 along with twenty-six other Brethren, and the Lodge roll of the Old Lodge at York for the years 1712-1730 still exists.

How to Make a Mason

Elias Ashmole was born in 1617. He studied and worked at Oxford University, probably in the library. He was admitted to the Middle Temple (the bar) in London in 1657, but having married a rich widow, he does not seem to have practiced law at any length. On 16 October 1646, he wrote in his diary: "4:30 p.m., I was made a free-mason at Warrington in Lancashire