Part 10 (1/2)

--WINWOOD READE, _The Veil of Isis_ /

CHAPTER IV

_Grand Lodge of England_

While praying in a little chapel one day, Francis of assisi was exhorted by an old Byzantine crucifix: ”Go now, and rebuildinto ruins” In sheer loyalty he had a laer way, and an artist has painted hi stones and mortar Finally there burst upon him the full import of the allocution--that he himself was to be the corner-stone of a renewed and purified Church Purse and prestige he flung to the winds, and went along the highways of U men back froladness, his life at once a poem and a power, his faith a vision of the world as love and comradeshi+p

That is a perfect parable of the history of Masonry Of old the working Masons built the great cathedrals, and we have seen theles, squares, and circles in such a h s But the real Home of the Soul cannot be built of brick and stone; it is a house not hts, hopes, prayers, dreahteous acts of devout and free er for truth, their love of God, and their loyalty to one another There ca aside their stones, became work truths for tools and dra such a te with his visions of the august allegory of the evolution of anization of the Grand Lodge of England, in 1717, was a significant and far-reaching event Not only did it divide the story of Masonry into before and after, giving a new date from which to reckon, but it was a way-mark in the intellectual and spiritual history of e, the influences surrounding it, the men who composed it, the Constitutions adopted, and its spirit and purpose, to see that it was the beginning of aof its age--as revealed, for exa religious time-tables broadened into detailed panora, the Grand Lodge--the asseainst such a background, when religion and redation, the men of that assehteousness of life[113]

Soination is needed to realize the moral declension of that tile example--in the sermon by the Bishop of Litchfield before the Society for the Reforeneracy, he said, ell nigh universal, no class being free from the infection Murders were coood aof them Immorality of every kind was so hardened as to be defended, yes, justified on principle The rich were debauched and indifferent; the poor were as miserable in their labor as they were coarse and cruel in their sport Writing in 1713, Bishop Burnet said that those who caree not to be coion seeh Wesley, then only a lad, had not yet coel Eotry, bitterness, intolerance, and interminable feud everywhere, no wonder Bishop Butler sat oppressed in his castle with hardly a hope surviving

As for Masonry, it had fallen far and fallen low betireat fire of London, in 1666, it had taken on new life and a bolder spirit, and was passing through a transition--or, rather, a transfiguration! For, e compare the Masonry of, say, 1688 with that of 1723, we discover that much more than a revival had coes_--not all of them, however, for even in earliest times some of theion alongside the same article in the _Constitutions_ of 1723, and the contrast is ae is this, that you be true to God and Holy Church and use no error or heresy”

Hear now the charge in 1723:

/ _A Mason is obliged by his Tenure, to obey the htly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist nor an irreligious Libertine But though in ancient tiion of that country or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought ion in which alltheir particular Opinions to themselves: that is, to be Good men and True, or Men of Honor and Honesty, by whatever Denouished; whereby Masonry beco true Friendshi+p a persons that must have remained at a perpetual distance_ /

If that stateh But e consider that it was set forth in 1723, ainable, it rises up as forever memorable in the history of men! The man rote that document, did we know his narateful and venerative memory of his race The temper of the tiion and in politics The alternative offered in religion was an ecclesiastical tyranny, allowing a certain liberty of belief, or a doctrinal tyranny, allowing a slight liberty of worshi+p; a sad choice in truth It is, then, to the everlasting honor of the century, that, in theextre both tyrannies and cha both liberties[115]

Ecclesiastically and doctrinally they stood in the open, while Rolican and Puritan, Calvinist and Arry e felt pent up alike by narrowness of ritual and by narrowness of creed, and they cried out for rooh differences of creed played no part in Masonry, nevertheless it held religion in high esteem, and was then, as now, the steadfast upholder of the only two articles of faith that never were invented by man--the existence of God and the ie was opened and closed with prayer to the ”Ale ofmet in memory of a brother fallen asleep, the formula was: ”He has passed over into the eternal East,”--to that region whence coion, the Masons were also non-partisan in politics: one principle being common to them all--love of country, respect for law and order, and the desire for hue was founded, and upon that basis Masonry rests today--holding that a unity of spirit is better than a uniforion in which all ma is worth a breach of charity

II

With honorable pride in this tradition of spiritual faith and intellectual freedoer to recite such facts as are known about the organization of the first Grand Lodge How es of Masons existed in London at that time is a matter of conjecture, but there must have been a number What bond, if any, united them, other than their esoteric secrets and customs, is equally unknown Nor is there any record to tell us whether all the Lodges in and about London were invited to join in the e only commence on June 24, 1723, and our only history of the events is that found in _The New Book of Constitutions_, by Dr James Anderson, in 1738 However, if not an actor in the scene, he was in a position to know the facts froe itself

His account is so brief that it e I enter'd _London_ nificently on _20 Sept 1714_ And after the Rebellion was over AD 1716, the few _Lodges_ at _London_ finding theht fit to cement under a _Grand Master_ as the Centre of Union and Hares_ 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 Grape_ Tavern in _Channel-Row, Westminster_

They and so put into the chair the _oldest Master Mason_ (now the _Master_ of a _Lodge_) they constituted thee pro Tempore in _Due Form_, and forthwith revived the Quarterly _Coes (call'd the GRAND LODGE) resolv'd to hold the _Annual_ asse themselves, till they should have the Honor of a noble Brother at their Head

Accordingly, on _St John's Baptist's_ Day, in the 3d year of King George I, AD 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 assee