Origins of the Freemasons

All right. So this evening, we’re going to, uh I’ll do my best, I should say to uh touch up on the history of Freemasonry. Um I want to give you uh kind of my history and disclaimer here as well. So I should say just so, you

Understand, for the purposes of disclosure. And so, you know, where I’m coming from that I am a Mason. Uh And I’m an active one, a member of several lodges here in the Dallas Metroplex, a member of one of the lodges in Oklahoma as well. Uh and

Especially an active Scottish, right Mason, um in both the organization in Dallas and the one in Guthrie Oklahoma. Uh And I’m a York Wright Mason and many other sort of Masonic organizations as well. But my principal responsibility tends toward uh the responsibility of education uh within the, the

Masonic fraternity. My chief personal historic interest is actually the history and development and evolution of the Masonic degrees themselves and the symbolism and how that evolved and where it came from and, and how it was interpreted in various ways. That’s my specialty. Um But tonight, we’re

Gonna, we’re gonna approach just the general history of freemasonry. And that’s a bit, you know, that’s a very deep rabbit hole and, and really the best I can do is sort of trace the outline of the hole because I know I’ve got some

Of you in this room that have already jumped in the hole and I’ve got some of you that have never seen the white rabbit yet. And I’ll do my best, I promise. And, and, and we’ve got time for questions and answers. So I’m happy to go

As deep as you want. Uh, by the time we get there and I will do my best to answer what I can. And if I don’t know the answer, I promise, you’ll be, you’ll be the first to hear it from me. Um, now I recognize the more conspiracy minded of

You too. Uh, may see this, the fact that I’m a mason as a way to dismiss everything and that I’m gonna say tonight. Um, I’m gonna address intentionally some of the more well known controversies and conspiracies. Uh, but again, if you want to address that in the questions and answers, I’m, I’ll, I’ll,

I’ll do my best. I promise. I’ve been studying the history and symbolism of freemasonry for about 20 years a little longer. And I’ve been a mason for probably 11 or 12 years. So I started, well before I decided to join the fraternity

And my interest in this subject was part of the reason I joined. Uh at some point, you have to kind of get some experiential uh knowledge of the subject. Uh because you exhaust what you can find in, in books. And my main function in education,

A lot of what I do uh for other Masons is to correct some of their uh misconceptions about the history of their own fraternity. Uh So, uh because it can be really hard to separate fact from legend, uh and myth when it comes to

Freemasonry. And that’s true, even if you’re a mason. So again, uh I’ll do my best for what really is a vast, vast subject. The other thing I want to emphasize before I begin is that no one speaks officially on behalf of Freemasonry, uh

As a whole, least of all me. Uh You know, you will talk as we go tonight a little bit about why such a thing would even be impossible. Uh But, but this evening, you’re gonna, regardless get my perspective and mine is not the only one,

Of course, much of what I discussed tonight is gonna be history that’s documented and I have a very rigid uh and conservative approach to the way I understand history. So my, my hope is that the source material and the information that you get tonight you’ll find to be uh accurate and,

And as transparent as possible and where there is speculation or just opinion, I’ll, I’ll make that clear as well. So before we set out on this subject. I’ve got to, I’ve got to deal with the question of what is Freemasonry because if you watch the History Channel, uh, or the Discovery

Channel or you read some of the books that are out there, it’s, it’d be very difficult to understand the answer to that question. What is Freemasonry in a lot of ways modern freemasonry functions like any other civic or social organization. It’s a fraternity. So it has social aspects where

You get to know uh people from all different walks of life, different backgrounds and you can establish friendships that are lasting and meaningful. You see, you see, you meet people from other countries, people of different faiths, different socioeconomic background grounds, different levels of education uh and interests. You meet uh people

From other generations who are both older and younger than you. And it’s a way of learning about uh uh a great deal about uh life through the experiences that are shared by others. Now, Freemasonry is United for at least a few common purposes

And I’ll get to three of those key ones in a minute. Um But it’s also a charitable organization has many charitable purposes. Um Most of you will be familiar uh with that, probably most likely through bodies like the Scottish, right? Who run the, the Scottish Right Hospital for Children here in Dallas,

Uh the shrine, for example, all of whom are masons, the Shriners uh run a number of children’s hospitals uh uh all over uh the place uh and burn centers and so on. And so Masons uh do invest a lot of time and energy and effort in supporting

Charitable works. However, one thing that distinguishes Freemasonry from other civic organizations, besides its age, its antiquity, uh so to speak, uh are what’s known as its degrees and the degrees of masonry would be best to be thought of as uh uh plays or dramas or ceremonies that

Provide a candidate or a new member, an initiative experience. Now, what’s an initiative experience? And what’s the role of initiation? Now, we have some of these uh uh initiations in our culture today, some formal, some informal uh for example, acceptance uh to a group, you

Might, you might have some sort of ceremony that recognizes that someone has become a member of any organization, civic or otherwise, there may be a recognition of a milestone uh like a graduation ceremony. When we recognize that all the students that are walking that stage have gone through all

Of the work necessary to earn their diploma or to get their college degrees or their graduate degrees, it might be you have an experience that marks some sort of beginning of a journey uh or undertaking. Um you know, that journey maybe involve personal growth or self knowledge or self improvement.

Some of the informal ones would be like when you get your first car, maybe when you take your first drink, you know, that’s not the best uh sort of ethical example perhaps, or the best example of adulthood. Uh But yet we kind of take that as an

Informal initia experience, an informal milestone that marks where we are in life. In part. This is based upon the idea in masonry, uh that we make the world a better place by making ourselves better people. So the function of initiation in masonry is to offer you an opportunity uh for further self

Knowledge and self improvement. This is tied explicitly to the ethic of human progress that arose to prominence, particularly in Europe in the 17 hundreds. During the age of an enlightenment. During the age of enlightenment, it was understood for the first time that humanity as a whole through its own

Acquisition of knowledge and understanding and insight and experience could improve. That conditions of life could be made better that there were better forms of government, you know, better ways of, of working uh as communities uh and and better ways of treating our fellow men. So the

Experience of masonry is really centered around these degrees and in particular, uh every mason uh goes through three of them now who are freemasons. Well, we have a few requirements to become a mason and that goes well back into history, but they’re very simple. One, very important one is that you have

To seek to be a mason of your own free will. No one is ever gonna invite you. We don’t do that. Uh No one’s gonna ask you to join. No one’s gonna pressure you to join for any reason you’ve got to, for whatever your own personal

Reason, actually ask to become one. And the second one and this is key is you must be able to express some sort of belief and deity that means you have to have a spiritual viewpoint. And we don’t ask any other questions. We don’t ask you

To define that. We don’t ask you to clarify. And there’s no tests of even what you mean by that. That’s largely because sectarian and partisan religious and political discussion are not allowed within Masonic lodges or during their meetings for the simple reason that it’s divisive and the general ethic

Of freemasonry uh is, is, is unity, is to avoid that divisiveness and to see what we accomplished together because it rises from a period of time in Europe when for hundreds of years, people had been killing each other over religious and political differences to express this.

I’ll give you a quote from Anderson’s constitutions of 17 23. Now, this is Reverend James Anderson. He was a minister of the Church of Scotland. He was born in Aberdeen uh in 16 80. And we’ll get into the Grand Lodge Histories here in a little bit. But in 17 21 he’s commissioned

By the Grand Lodge of England or it was Grand Lodge of London at the time to write a History of the Freemasons. And that was to include a kind of a rough guideline or set of rules uh of conduct and how to conduct business. Uh as Masons, the

17 23 edition Anderson says this a Mason is obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law. And if he rightly understands the art, he will never be a stupid atheist, nor an irreligious libertine. But though in ancient times, Masons were charged in every country to be of the religion of that

Country or nation, whatever it was s now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men agree their particular opinions to themselves. That is to be good men and true men of honor and of honesty. So here in 17 23 you see that ethic of our religious differences

Are set aside and in 17 23 in Europe, England or otherwise, I promise you that is a radical idea. Now I mentioned some of the, the uniting purposes among masons. And I wanna give you a taste of some of the language that a New Mason hears. Uh when

He becomes an apprentice in a lodge for the first time, there’s three principal tenants associated with masonry, their brotherly love relief, uh and truth. And I’ll give you some of the inner apprentice Masons lecture by the exercise of brotherly love. We are taught to regard the whole human

Species as one family, the high and low, the rich and poor who is created by one almighty parent and inhabitants of the same planet are to aid, support and protect each other. On this principle, masonry unites men of every country’s second opinion and conciliates true friendship among those who might

Otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance. So this teaching in the lecture is a basis for tolerance for patience, for understanding in terms of relief by relief. Masons mean charity. The lecture says to relieve the distress is a duty incumbent upon all men, but particularly on Masons

Who are linked together by an indissoluble chain of sincere affection to soothe the unhappy, to sympathize with their misfortunes, to compassionate their miseries and to restore peace to their troubled minds is the grand aim we have in view. So it’s worthwhile for you and I to join or unite in

Trying to help our fellow man because we can accomplish more together than we can alone. It teaches humility, compassion and it teaches that we have the power to improve the world around us. It’s optimistic and truth. The apprentice lecture says truth is a divine attribute and the foundation of every

Virtue to be good and true is the first lesson we are taught in masonry. On this theme we contemplate and by its dictates, endeavor to regulate our conduct. Hence, while influenced by this principle hypocrisy and deceit are unknown among us, sincerity and plain dealing distinguish us and the heart

And tongue join in promoting each other’s welfare and rejoicing in each other’s prosperity. So we have integrity. We have uh the importance of the intellect and reason. This part of the lecture suggests that we truly reflect upon our actions and explore the core values and

Beliefs we have and then follow those with sincerity and authenticity, plain dealing. I I mean, I still give those words uh to a brand new entered apprentices and lodges around the city today. Um Another good question to answer before we dive into history is why all the symbolism, you see all of the,

All of the old drawings and, and uh and these peculiar symbols and odd things that are associated with masonry. And the interesting thing is the use of these symbols is far older than really the, the idea that Masons would be obsessed with secrecy about it. The question is why does Freemasonry use

Symbols? This is an example actually of an entered apprentice tracing board. So this is an old uh English style uh board that would go with uh the uh the entered apprentice lecture. The, the lecture that the brand new apprentice would receive. The reason symbols are useful to masonry is because

They’re dynamic. Uh Their meaning and application grows and unfolds uh with the person who’s studying and reflecting upon them. Uh I had an early reference at the beginning to Alice and the rabbit hole uh for example, those of you who had the opportunity to read the book, say Alice’s adventures

In Wonderland, for example, or through the looking glass as a child and appreciated the story for the fantasy and for the strangeness of it and then turn around as adults, perhaps as parents, you know, either reading that book to your Children or experiencing it as your Children read it again

Or reading it as again as adult boy, There’s a whole lot more meaning in that story. Now with a little bit of experience and understanding and knowledge in life, then there was, then it then was there when you’re eight or nine or 10 or 11 and

So on. Symbols do that, you know, given time and application, a symbol just means more to you later in life than the first time you encounter it. And that means it continues to teach you long after you first heard about it. If masonry just used words, then there would be no opportunity for

Improvement uh or progress, no new discovery. And all of those ideas are central to the enlightenment ethic. I mentioned earlier, symbols speak to us differently. You know, we you might think in words but you dream in images. Uh there’s a depth to them that requires introspection and thought when

Uh you know, when you recall a fictional book, like a, you know, Alice in Wonderland or another one, when you recall the book, do you think of the words that were read or do you think of the story uh in the images in your mind when you

Read it? And we know that symbols teach very powerfully because we see them in all kinds of traditions where parables and fables, even our fairy tales and epic adventures are used to impart instruction that’s useful for life. So having set a framework, so you understand where I’m coming from and what

I’m talking about, uh what Freemasonry is, uh we can start to deal with history, where does Freemasonry come from? Now? I need to say first that even Freemasons can’t put together a complete definitive history uh of the tradition. And there’s a lot of utter nonsense uh out there among Masons and, and

Non Masons. And part of the challenge is that historical evidence uh makes it clear that Freemasonry grew and evolved organically over several centuries. There was no one vision, no one purpose, no one author or leader, uh or creator. There’s no group setting a specific agenda. Now, at times

Throughout history, there have been individuals or groups who have tried to exert influence on Masonic lodges, those have invariably failed. We’ll talk about a couple tonight, but more significantly, uh to an extent, Freemasonry has always been changing. It’s always been become something a little

Different with each generation than it was before. So it’s simply just not controlled, grows organically. Nonetheless, there are all kinds of speculations about the origin of masonry. A lot of things are thrown out about the Knights Templar, uh Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Pythagorus, uh or Euclid, some of the ancient philosophers, uh

Solomon, uh for example, uh Druid, Samaria, Persia, India. There are all kinds of theories. I’ve read lots about all of them and I’ve heard them for, for two decades. I’ve had well intended Masons in all seriousness. Tell me that it

Goes back to the time of Abraham or it goes, or Adam was the first free mason. I’ve heard that. Um But you ultimately have to unwind freemasonry itself as a tradition and as an institution, you have to unwind the ideas and symbols which

Are far older than Freemasonry in many cases from the actual group of men that called themselves Freemasons in the institution that resulted, those two things are not the same thing. Now, the best evidence we have the best case I can offer you uh suggests that it pretty much begins in the form

We have it in the middle ages uh with the guilds that we’re practicing actual stone masonry. This, this brings up the subject of both guilds and con fraternities. This is an engraving by the way from uh in France in a monastery kind of

Depicting the a stonemason at work there with a chisel uh and a gavel. Now, what’s a con fraternity? Uh These primarily exist from about the 13th century, especially in Europe. We’re talking about the middle ages here. They’re usually Christian and authorized by the church. Of course, in this

Time, that, that means the Roman Catholic church and they’re lay membership. So they’re not priests, they’re not monks, they’re not necessarily educated, they’re lay members from the communities themselves. These are voluntary organizations, they promote perhaps special works uh and charity. They assist with burials or the ex you know,

Assist families with expenses in the time of death. And we’re talking about a period of time where there is often a lot of death between epidemics and fires uh and violence. And they’re also responsible for organizing, preparing fest uh festivities associated with the holy days and the feast

Days within the church calendar. And that might involve putting on plays or mystery plays or, or, or shows or entertainment uh as well as providing uh and preparing, you know, food and the sorts of things like that. And time proves that these con fraternities are far better at handling this than, than

Government uh especially at this time. And in terms of structure, con fraternities had rules that would govern their membership who was able to join and how they would join. And then what was the conduct expected of the member of the con fraternity? Guilds? Very similar in structure. But guilds

Are groups of artisans or merchants. They’re not necessarily um strictly uh organized around a community of people who are religiously pious though lay community members. Uh The guilds are groups of artisans and merchants and they’re organized to control uh the practice of their particular craft in their particular town or region. And

They’re usually authorized under the local uh regional government authority, the magistrate uh or the mayor. And occasionally we’ll mention a couple of times, the king uh or the monarchy. Now, the guilds had local officers, leaders and representatives from within the trade. And they also existed

In great numbers from the early 13th century, but especially uh in the 14th century and like con fraternities, guilds had rules of conduct, you know, who could be a member, how would they join? How would they learn the trade come in, be an apprentice, learn what they needed to know so they could

Work well and safely and be responsible on the job and then how you would certify the fact that they had accomplished that and then the conduct that was expected of them uh to be a good upright and moral representative of their trade of their craft. Excuse me, and the guilds would settle

Disputes. They would organize training and the and apprenticeships as I’d mentioned. And they also did charitable works and very frequently were responsible for taking care of the members of their trade when they were in distress. And that extends then to the community. And you see guilds also responsible for larger charitable works uh

Within their communities outside of just the members of the trade. Now, in terms of operative or practical Stone Masons. Masons who are working on stone because I don’t do that. Masons who work on stone. We have a number of documents we call the old charges. The oldest one is, is the Holywell

Manuscript or sometimes it’s called the Regus poem. The latest dating for that would be probably the early 15th century. So the early 14 hundreds, it’s a manuscript that’s written as a poem. It’s Middle English, It’s a little bit of a challenge

To read if you’re not used to that. And it talks about this legendary history of Freemasonry and the organization of the craft. And it includes rules of conduct and expectations and so on. And it was probably written down about this time to magnify the reputation and legitimacy of the stone mason

Trade as something unique and special. This is about the time that Stonemason’s lodges throughout Europe are seeking legitimacy and recognition and warrants or charters from the monarchy, which is higher than higher up the totem pole than a lot of guilds and trades and merchant trade, uh merchant

Guilds are able to accomplish and the history that’s, that’s presented in this case is legendary. Uh you know, it’s an oral tradition and it, there’s no, there’s no supporting evidence in terms of history for it, but it’s a fascinating read. But what’s important is even though we’re

Talking about the early 14th century, there’s language in that document that’s still present in Masonic ceremony and lecture even today. Now at this time that you had operative or masons working on stone uh guilds, there were two very clear degrees that had practical purposes. You would

Be brought in as an apprentice. Your name would be entered into the role of the guild. I would call you an entered apprentice once your name was on that log and then you would study usually for a period of time, around seven years, you would learn

The trade. You would be partnered with a journeyman or a fellow of the craft, a fellow craft uh or even the master of the lodge to learn the trade. And then your work might be examined. You would perhaps prove yourself proficient as

A stone mason and then you would, you would be made a fellow of the craft. The modern word for that is fellow craft and that marks you as someone who’s fully qualified to work as a stone mason. And it’s common for these trades. This is

Especially true with masonry, but it’s not just true with stone masonry. You have working tools associated with your craft. Masons have squares and levels and plums and gavels and chisels and setting malls and towels and all kinds of tools they use. And as an apprentice, you would learn

How to use those in an operative sense. But we know from the old charges in the 15th 16th centuries that the Stone Masons guilds and some of the other trades we know were doing this too, were also imparting moral instruction along with the

Tangible instruction of how to use a tool. You know, a level tells you if a stone is level that’s really important. If it’s the first stone laid in the foundation of a building or a cornerstone, if that one’s not level, the whole building is

Gonna be off. Right. So that level is really important. So we see in the 16th and 17th century that stone masons start to say things like, well, you know that level uh that’s an emblem of uprightness of conduct. You need to be as

Upright in your life as that stone is. And that level is the guide that’s gonna teach you how to do that. And so you start to see this merging of the idea that the mason himself while he’s learning to work on stone is starting to work

On himself as, as a stone for the purpose of creating a building. Now, I’ve used the word operative several times. I’m gonna use a couple more accepted and speculative masonry. Up to this point, everything we’re dealing with our masons, middle ages, early renaissance who are actually practicing stone masonry. They’re building things. We

Have two words that show up in the 16 hundreds. The first is the word accepted and an accepted mason. Uh And we can’t say for sure why it started to happen. We can speculate but an accepted mason was a mason who did not work on

Stone and would never work on stone in a practical sense, but was going to be made a mason, made a apprentice and fellow craft of a lodge perhaps initially as an honor, probably early on. This was a lot, perhaps architects. We think some lodges in uh Scotland and England would have invited

Patrons or aristocracy to become accepted Masons within their lodges to share a little bit of their tradition. Again, furthering the idea that stone masons as a trade are special among all the other trade guilds. We have a couple of significant ones that pop up a lot in Masonic history. Uh

Robert More was an accepted mason. Uh He was initiated May 20th 16 41. That’s tomorrow. Um Several 100 years ago in London by a group of Scottish Masons uh from Edinburgh and Robert Moray was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was a natural philosophy. He was an early scientist, a

Rationalist, a kind of a critical thinker, very intelligent man. Elias Ash is another one. He’s well known as the first English speculative mason. Uh because Robert Moray was from Scotland, Elias Ash, June 16 46 he was brought into a lodge, he was made an apprentice and fellow craft.

On the same night, he was also a founder of the Royal society, a natural philosopher and well known as an alchemist mentioned a couple of times in Harry Potter. You know, uh as well as Nicholas Flamel. But these are early accepted Masons Masons

Who were never gonna work on stone. The other word that comes up is speculative, speculative, as opposed to operative operative stone, masonry, working physically on rocks, stones, buildings and speculative is to speculate about other interpretations and meanings and applications of the lessons and the teachings and the working tools of

Masonry. And again, we can’t say for certain, and there probably wasn’t one consistent reason and it certainly wasn’t in an organized fashion where these accepted masons started to come in. But we know that they were kind of universally speculative. The accepted masons who came in because they weren’t

Gonna learn, the practical instruction were most interested in the speculative interpretation of the working tools and the symbols of these lodges. And by June 24th in 17 17, at the Goose and Gridiron Tavern in Saint Paul’s Churchyard, we have four lodges in London that get together

And declare themselves a grand lodge and they elect Anthony Sayer as their first grandmaster. As far as we can tell, the real purpose of the grand lodge was to organize festivities to have a feast day on Saint John’s day, a big party. And the responsibility of the grandmaster was to make

Sure that that happened and that it and that it went down. Well, now it’s not clear at first that there’s any attempt by these lodges declaring themselves to be a grand lodge that uh there’s no attempt to govern or organize Freemasonry at large. Now, there was already a presence of elder older and

Larger lodges, uh issuing charters and organizing lodges in their area. The big one that you’ll stumble on, uh, in Masonic history is Kill winning. We now call that kill winning number nothing. Uh because it says Elite, it’s, it’s zero because it’s earlier than the first. Uh But it’s a Scottish

Lodge and English Masons aren’t really thrilled with the idea that Scottish masonry is much older, but it is kill winning number nothing is at least as old as 15 98. And they have consistent continuous written minutes back to 16 42. And they were chartering other lodges as early as 16 77 they issued

A charter for, for a new lodge called Lodge Canongate Killing. Now, the Grand Lodge of London established in 17 17 begins to assert some organizational authority, charters other lodges in the area of London and around England, we have a similar formation of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. In 17 25 the English

Speaking lodges in France very early on because they Englishman, you know, abroad in France. Uh, they established a lodge 17 21 in Dunkirk. Uh There’s a French lodge meeting in London in 17 23. The master there is, uh, Jean Deer. We’ll

Mention him again in a minute. And the Grand Lodge of France is established for the first time in 17 28 with the grand master, William Wharton, who’s the first Duke of Warden and in England and France. At this time, you really start to see higher

Levels of the aristocracy, start to assume prominent and leadership positions. Uh in Freemasonry. The other trend is you see a lot of scientists and natural philosophers and free thinkers. You see the Grand Lodge of Scotland pops up in 17 36 the Grand Lodge of London uh becomes the Grand Lodge of

England in 17 38. So ambition growing a little bit for them. But in 17 51 you have, what’s a group that styles itself, the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons. It’s established by about 80 Irish Masons in London who are unhappy with the authority that the Grand Lodge

Of England is trying to assert over lodges uh in England. These are Irishmen and there’s a lot of nationalism and a lot of sort of prejudice against Scottish and Irish and some crowds of England at this time. And so they were probably disgruntled for any number of reasons. Most of them, if not

All were operative stonemasons from Ireland, and they style themselves as the ancients grand launch of masonry. In other words, we’re the real old one and those guys, those start ups in 17 17, they call them the moderns. Now, there really is no secession, there’s no schism. Uh There were

Principally, as I said, Irish Masons. But nonetheless, the, the disparity of the organization of the craft in England is a bit confused at the time because out of aggression and competition, the Ancients and the modern start chartering and organizing lodges in and around England, they

Ultimately reconcile on December 27th at Saint John, the other Saint John’s Day in 18 13 after several years of negotiation. So that’s where grand lodges start to pop up. And all of these grand lodges outside of Scotland and the initial ancients lodge in Ireland, everything else we see in

England and France, London at this time, these are speculative, accepted masons not necessary. And the new lodges created may have no operative masons at all. Now, what really distinguishes the new lodges that are being created in the mid 17 hundreds by these grand lodges is the third degree, the

Master’s degree. Before this, I mentioned apprentice and fellow craft. Right before the 17 twenties, there’s really only one reference to master in a Masonic context and that was the leader of the lodge. Uh or perhaps someone who had demonstrated a real mastery over uh their craft. Their work

Was really good. By the 17 twenties, we start to see this thing called the master’s degree. And the master’s degree is different from the other two because it presents this very uniquely Masonic legend that’s connected uh with the construction of King Solomon’s temple. And before this time,

That story appears nowhere and it’s a mystery play. It’s an allegory, not a history. There’s a Trinity college manuscript in 17 11 maybe could be later. And it suggests the idea of this story of the master’s degree with totally different characters actually has nothing to do with Solomon. It’s about

Noah and his three sons, but it’s just a little snippet and we can’t be sure about the dating, but we know that we have the Grand Manu Grand manuscript in 17 26. And that’s the first indication of anything that looks similar to the story

Of the master’s degree uh as it’s given today, not much detail at all, just the skeleton of the story really, but at least the characters are right and the general tone of what’s going on, you can tell that that’s actually a master’s degree. One year later in 17 27 we have the Wilkinson

Manuscript that contains an apparent reference uh to a very simple version of the same story. So 17 26 17 27 we see not just that the master’s degree exists but that it’s spreading now with the master’s degree for speculative masons. This results in a three degree system of learning and growth.

And it’s loosely uh resonant with the idea of youth manhood and age, a degree that imparts a uh talks about a period of time in which you’re a novice uh needing to learn and just absorb and be open uh uh to the things that, you know, you

Don’t know. And a fellow craft degree that’s all about activity and adulthood and coming into fruition and, and really being uh uh active in the world and trying to apply some of the things you learned as an apprentice, you’re starting to build the building, not just shape the stone. And in the

Master’s degree emphasizes mortality and the importance of, of spending your life happily and well. And that by the time you get to old age, if you make it there, you wanna enjoy the fact that you had a good life and that it was

Worth living. And here. And now if you’re not quite yet to old age, realizing that today could be your last so live today as if it is. These are the key lessons that you see early on, uh, in these degree systems. Now again, the originator of the

Master’s degree, like so much of the rest of this is completely unknown. There’s always been plenty of speculation. I’ve heard speculation about Elias Ash being an author. There’s no evidence for that. I’ve heard Isaac Newton tossed out. There’s no evidence. Uh, he was a

Freemason boy. It would be great if he was Masons would love to know that, but there’s no evidence for it. Francis Bacon. Same thing, boy, it’s a good fit. Uh, it seems like something he would write, but there’s no proof at all for it. Jean

Deer, I mentioned earlier. He was that master of the French lodge operating in London. He was a deputy grandmaster very early on in the grand lodge of England. And grandmaster is a very influential mason and an intelligent man. That case is

Not a slam dunk, but it’s the best I’ve ever heard. So maybe. But the thing to keep in mind is that the master’s degree and its legend are very simple in the beginning and the evolution and growth of that, the change of it is organic,

Just like the change in growth of masonry. And by the way, the operative lodges were slow to adopt it, we see it takes about a century for the Scottish lodges to start to work the master’s degree. So this is appears to be a distinctly uh

English phenomenon. Uh They’re just an old engraving of Solomon’s Temple. There, you see a master a symbol. It was actually created by Jeremy Lad Cross here in the United States uh in the early 18 hundreds. But it’s a symbol associated uh with the master’s degree uh depiction of a broken column,

Um three steps and that’s, that figure is time uh time with the side uh standing at her back and she’s in mourning. So with that, let’s get a bit into uh freemasonry in the United States again, a really vast subject. This is the

Painting by Alan Cox who was a muralist. This is a laying of the cornerstone. That’s a ceremony we still do. Uh One just took place in Frisco uh a week or two ago. Uh This is laying the cornerstone of the United States Capitol. That’s a

Ceremony in which President uh uh George Washington uh was effectively the, the master of the lodge uh performing that cornerstone leveling. Now, the first Masonic lodge operating in the United States were definitely Scottish and the Grand Lodge of Scotland has plenty of, of, of proof to that

Effect. But they were operative lodges. There’s no evidence that they initiated any Americans. And when the building was done because they were building cathedrals and, and public buildings and things uh because we needed that in the colonies, then they went back home. And uh there’s Jonathan

Belcher is a figure who was born in Boston in 16 81. He’s initiated as a mason while traveling in Europe in 17 04. And he comes back to Boston in 17 05. He’s usually given credit as being the first real American uh Free Mason. The

First documented lodge building. Uh lodge meeting takes place at King’s Chapel in Boston in 17 20. Documented means there’s either an announcement in a local paper or there’s a minute book that explains what happened there or somebody writes in a journal that they were at lodge. So it’s

Documented history. 17 20 in Boston, the first constituted lodge that receives a charter is in Boston, Massachusetts. Uh and that’s a Saint John’s Lodge which is meeting at the Bunch of Grapes tavern. And it’s constituted in July 30th 17 33. But we know it was operating before that and it’s chartered

By uh at least ostensibly the Provincial Grand Lodge of New England. And that’s a warrant uh or patent that’s given to a fellow by the name of Henry Price uh at the time by the Grand Lodge of London. But while we know that was charted in

17 33 there’s no written records of that lodge. It has no minutes, no no indication of what they were up to until 17 51 in Massachusetts. But that lodge and the provincial Grand Lodge of New England ultimately finds its way into becoming the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Now I mentioned

The first constituted lodge, the first documented lodge meeting. The earliest minute book is from the reign lodge number three. The date of that is June 24th, 17 31. That’s two years earlier than this lodge was constituted in Massachusetts. Now, the Ton Tavern is in Philadelphia.

Anyone associated with the Marine Corps will know that’s one of the legendary birthplaces associated with the Cop Benjamin Franklin mentions this lodge in a, in a record of September 9th, 17 31 and he mentions several other lodges operating at the same time. So we know that there were there were

Activities going on uh apart from this, but this is what’s documented. This lodge becomes associated with what’s known as the Cox, Provincial Grand Lodge. There’s a warrant again from the Grand Lodge of London giving to given to Daniel Cox, that’s effective from the 24th of June as Saint John’s day

17, 31. And it’s effective for two years and probably the province had the authority to elect a new Provincial Grand Master. At the end of that two year term. This cox Provincial Grand Lodge ultimately becomes the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Now, let me say there is tremendous controversy over

Who’s really first, who’s the most legitimate, what was on those warrants when they were really effective and whose territory was who’s, you know, who did Pennsylvania belong to and so on. And the truth is I have very good friends who are Masons in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. And if I say

Anything beyond that, I’m gonna get in trouble. So I’ll leave it with you and simply say history is unsettled as to who really has the claim of primacy in the US in terms of organized Grand lodges. Now, most of this activity, these are moderns, the

Ancients are still doing their thing. Uh Ultimately, in 17 51 in England, and they ultimately do charter some lodges over here. But this comes after the establishment of these early Grand lodges in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. So these are the moderns, the ones coming out of London that

Are speculative Masons. Let’s fast forward a bit. Give you a little snippet of the Grand Lodge of Texas. Mhm. Now, the main thing to take away from this is the nature of history and development of the United States, uh, is such that each state has its own Masonic jurisdiction. We don’t have

A grand lodge of the United States. Uh We have a grand lodge for Texas. Grand lodges represent the leadership of Masonic lodges within their jurisdiction and there’s no higher organizational authority. Grand lodge. Texas doesn’t report to anybody uh in terms of masonry. But it, you know,

There’s a loose system of recognition where grand lodges agree. Yes, you’re legitimate. You’re doing real masonry. We agree with the way you’re doing things. And so we recognize you and our members can visit each other and so on, that’s recognition. The Grand Lodge of Texas, as I said, leads the

Masonic lodges in Texas and in February 11th of 18 28 Stephen F Austin, you recognize that name calls a meeting of masons because he is one at San Felipe de Austin to draft a petition uh for a lodge to the York Grand Lodge of Mexico. We’re still

Part of Mexico at this time. That petition is never answered. In October 18 28 the Mexican uh uh government makes freemasonry illegal. And so that effort is abandoned. Now, there’s a Masonic meeting later in Texas March 18 35. The legend

Is, it’s near an oak tree that’s a picture of it. Um may have been in a little grove of peach and Laurel, but it’s near the town of Brazoria. And it’s ostensibly for the purpose of establishing a Grand Lodge of Texas. They want to create the

Grand lodge in 18 35 and a guy by the name of Anson Jones might have heard of him. He, he led the effort. He’s kind of the appointed the leader. They get dispensation in a charter from the Grand Lodge of Louisiana to establish Holland Lodge number

36 under the jurisdiction of Louisiana. Today we call it Holland Lodge. Number one. That charter was given to Anson Jones just before the battle of San Jacinto. Of course, he’s the last president of the Republic of Texas. By 18 37. There are two other lodges chartered by Louisiana in Texas, one in

Nacogdoches, uh and the other in Saint Augustine. And these lodges uh combined with Harlem met in Houston to establish a grand lodge for what is now the Republic of Texas on the 20th of December 18 37 Sam Houston, who was the president of the Republic of Texas at this time, presided over uh

That meeting in the city of Houston and they elected Anson Jones as the first grandmaster for the grand lodge of Texas. They agreed that they would meet a few months later, April 16th of 18 38. They do that and they establish their independence as the Grand Lodge of Texas. And those three lodges

Become Holland Lodge number one. My lodge number two and mcfarland lodge number three. So masonry enters uh Texas. Now, everything I’ve discussed to this point has, has been what, what masons refer to as the blue lodge, these Masonic lodges that confer the first three degrees, apprentice, fellow

Craft and master. And while all of these grand lodges are being established and the three degrees are being proliferated into the United States, into these grand lodge systems and elsewhere, there’s something really interesting happening in France. This map shows a few of the key locations. Uh

Paris me uh bordeaux, especially Lyon uh Strasbourg and Metz. What’s happening is the, the story of the master’s degree is incomplete and there’s a couple of different ways to address that the masons uh in England. Uh and some of the, and the masons in the United States for the most part, they complete

Or expand on the story by making the master’s degree more complex. The French Masons create new degrees. So they supplement the story. Their master’s degree is quite simple or incomplete and they add degrees to further elaborate on the story. And that expands because there’s a lot of

Interest in free thought uh in liberty and equality and progressive ideas that are happening in France because we’re leading up to the French revolution. American revolution hasn’t quite happened yet. But those philosophical ideas are gestating, especially in France. And so we see those ideas incorporated into Masonic teaching and symbolism in those

Lodges in these various locations. And what springs up in the growth of all of these degrees originally to complete or add material to the story of the master’s degree. They really branch out and become something altogether different. You see the rise of new rights and systems of degrees and

They’re really uh connecting with the age of enlightenment with the enlightenment ideal and these rights in France, these degrees, they become known as the or the high degrees. They particularly attract the interest of French free thinkers, both religious and political, they’re natural scientists, they’re scholars, they’re philosophers and this

Is the origin of that mantra of French Masonic Lodges, liberty, equality fraternity that we hear again when the French revolution comes around. Now, the vast majority of these rights and groups ceased to exist almost as soon as they began. But some of the degrees survive. And we have modern

Organizations in masonry that have inherited some of those. But it should be said these organizations are completely separate in terms of leadership and structure from the grand lodges and the lodges conferring those three degrees that I’ve mentioned up to this point. One example, I’ll mention again

In a bit and we’ll elaborate on is the Scottish, right? And I mentioned that and I’m gonna get in more detail because most of you will have heard this idea of a 32nd degree mason, a 33rd degree Mason those are Scottish, right? Uh degrees.

So those are Masons who decided to join the Scottish, right? And receive those degrees. And they’ve, they’ve, they’ve gone on in that system that’s not connected with the grand lodges and the three degree lodges, the, the Blue Lodges, as we call them that I mentioned at this point. Another example

Is the York, right, uh which has a Royal Arch tradition probably began, looks like history says it started in the United States uh in 17 fifties. Um and then grafted onto that were additional sets of degrees, a couple of them were side degrees that originally belonged to the Scottish, right? And

Then they within the York, right? At the end, there’s a series of val orders uh like the order of Malta and the order of the temple, which is where you get Knights templars associated uh with masonry in terms of guys who have the

Swords and the hats and so on and, and wear that sword of regalia uh in masonry. That’s the York, right? And then there’s Shriners and so on. There’s, there’s a lot of organizations that are connected with masonry simply because in order to join those organizations, you have to be

A master mason, you have to have gone through the three degrees. So now let’s dig a little bit into the Scottish, right? Specifically, now you have all of these rights and systems in France that I mentioned that are kind of bubbling and proliferating and, and evolving and changing. Uh

In France in 17 43 we have the grand lodge, they officially disparage. They complain about guys claiming to be Scott’s Masters. They call him Echo uh Masters because they want special privileges in grand lodge. And the grand lodge of France says, forget that. Then they come back a short time

Later, pretty much at their next meeting and they enact those privileges into their grand lodge law. Probably what happened is some of the grand lodge officers became Scott’s masters, right? And we don’t really, we have some good guesses ceremonially about what was going on in that degree.

But it’s the first time you hear about Scottish masonry and it’s in France. So while we call this, the Scottish, right, you should understand the degrees themselves are coming from this proliferation of Masonic degrees and rights that I talk about in France, probably by about 17 51 in

France. We have about 14 new degree or 14 degrees total. Uh uh 11 of which are building on the story of the master’s degree organized in something that becomes uh that it starts to be called Perfect Masonry or a Lodge of Perfection. Few

Years earlier, there’s a guy named Een More uh in France. He presided over a lodge called Perfect Harmony, uh and probably others. He was a prominent mason in France in 17 61. He’s granted a patent by the Council of Sublime Princes we start to

Get some really interesting and, and uh pompous titles uh in Masonic systems. About this time, Council of sublime Princes in bordeaux issue him a charter uh to confer all of the grades of perfect and sublime masonry anywhere in the world. That’s a pretty serious uh charter. But we know now, I mean, the

Latest in terms of Masonic scholarship suggests that more himself really had a handle, uh had a hand in uh organizing and creating many of the degrees that have survived into the Scottish, right? So it’s not unusual for them to perhaps grant him a charter to that effect. And he goes to Santa

Domingo French territories, the French West Indies in 17 64 and establishes a log of perfection there and starts working his system of degrees. By about this time, we know or at least by 17 71 we know that there are 25 degrees in

The right that he’s uh offering. The final degree is uh sublime prints of the Royal Secret. So it’s kind of loosely called the order of the Royal Secret. The first three degrees are apprentice, fellow, craft and master. And then there are 22 degrees. Uh In addition to that, he established lodges that do

This in Jamaica. In 17 70 he initiates other men, gives them similar organizational authority who go on uh to establish uh the rights of these degrees in New York and South Carolina. Uh And so on. Other bodies established all the way through 17 90. By this time, Marin is dead, his inheritors, his

Students, his successors are passing this on. But it’s a bit of chaos. There’s kind of an organizational loose list. There’s no, there’s no one kind of authority to control this. And frankly, a lot of the guys who, who receive the authority to confer these degrees are more interested in the money they’ll

Receive from the men who are taking the degrees. And so it’s, it’s, it’s kind of getting out of hand. It no longer really starts to respect the tradition or probably the vision that Moin had this culminates in May 31st of 18 01 in Charleston,

South Carolina when nine men who are initiates of this system of degrees that came from Marin and in France say, all right, rather than 25 degrees, we’re gonna have 32 and we’re gonna call it the ancient accepted Scottish, right? They establish the nine of them uh constitute the first Supreme Council, which

Is the governing body uh over the Scottish, right? Uh only the Scottish right degrees and they reserve what they call the 33rd degree for the members of that Supreme Council, the nine men who are administrators or leaders of the Scottish, right? That body in South Carolina refers itself to itself today

As the Mother Supreme Council. Because what this Scottish, right, which really comes from France is established formally in the United States in Charleston, South Carolina in 18 01, we then export it back uh to France and to England and eventually Scotland. Um And that’s the story of, of the

Scottish, right? And that’s where you get the 32nd degree and the 33rd degree, we can get into some detail of that. But I want to clarify uh the Supreme Council is now much larger. The members of the Supreme Council are the state

Leaders uh for uh the Scottish, right? So we have, uh we have a man who’s in charge of the Scottish, right? His named Doug Atkins here here in Texas. And he’s a member of that Supreme Council for the southern jurisdiction, which is every

State west of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio River. It’s most of the United States and that’s the original Supreme Council. But a lot of Masons, you’ll hear a 33rd degree Masons and that’s because it’s an honorarium, it’s really an honor that’s conferred on Scottish, right? Masons, uh who have uh

Uh uh turned in or, you know, who, who exemplify the ideals of the fraternity and have, who, who have done things that have really served the fraternity in their community for many, many, many years. So it’s sort of like AAA peer recognition that, hey, you know, you, you really get this

Scottish right masonry thing and you’re doing it. Uh and you’re sincere about it. And so when you hear that if someone is a 33rd degree or they’ll say a 33rd degree honorary, they’ve received that honor. But again, all of that’s within the context of the Scottish, right? All right. Really

Quickly, I got to talk about anti masonry, the ideas, we’ve talked about liberty, equality, tolerance, freedom of thought, freedom of conscious, freedom of expression, uh restrictions um perhaps, or, or uh that’s especially in free, in French Freemasonry, restrictions on the collusion of church and state.

Those are radical ideas at the time. They remain so today. And as a result, Masonic lodges and Freemasons represent a threat to those who find those ideas dangerous. That’s, that’s just the reality. You know, Freemasons were persecuted and killed by the Nazis. When Hitler came to power, they were

Interrogated and in more than a few cases killed by the Vichy government uh during the Nazi occupation of France in the Islamic world, there are conspiracy theorists, conspiracy minded Muslims who equate Freemasonry with Zionism and similarly persecute Muslims who are Freemasons. There are voices within Christian fundamentalism that object to

The tolerance and acceptance of those of other faiths or they claim that Freemasonry is some vast o conspiracy uh or a cabal to bring about a new world order. Um You know, and if your faith prohibits friendship with those who disagree with you, uh then masonry probably isn’t a good

Fit for you. Um And others still equate Freemasonry with the Bavarian Illuminati or, or some alleged continuation of them. I’m gonna recommend a book to that effect, by the way, that’s a good source of material on the real illuminati. Uh If you

Wanna know, um But that doesn’t show up on television, at least it hasn’t yet. Now, I don’t have time to express every aspect or talk about every aspect of Annie Masonry, but I wanna touch on a few quickly. The first is the Morgan affair.

William Morgan was born in Virginia. This is about 17 74 just before the revolution. He may have served as a captain during the war of 18 12. They call him captain William Morgan later. There’s no record to prove uh that he served uh or

Served in that rank, but it may very well have been the case. Uh He’s married in 18 19. He moves his family to Canada. He operates a brewery there and then loses almost everything uh in a fire becomes destitute, settles in Batavia

For a while uh in New York, which is a relatively small community and he works as a brick mason. He claims to have been initiated while he’s in Canada as a mason and he goes to lodges uh in New York and other in order to be

Received as a visitor, especially in Rochester and the local masons for whatever reason, are suspicious of his claim to membership. They’re suspicious of his character. There are some contemporary claims that he might have been pro prone to gambling or drinking, uh may have been

A serious debtor. Um But Morgan about this time, claims to have been contacted by David Cade Miller who’s an E A with a lodge in Batavia and he was denied advancement to the subsequent degrees. Scott, he’s a little bitter about masonry and he’s

A new uh newspaper editor and he gives an advance, at least this is a suggestion, He gives an advance to uh Morgan to write a book that will be called the illustrations of masonry as an exposure of all the Masonic ritual or ceremony and, and his

Criticism of freemasonry. Now, as an aside, I should say, there have been exposures of Masonic ritual uh since the 17 thirties, I mean, almost as old as the master’s degree, we couldn’t keep the secret really more than four or five years before people started writing about it. So there’s nothing really

Threatening in what Morgan is offering. However, uh guys who either didn’t like uh Morgan or were suspicious of this or didn’t want that book published, they land him in debtor’s prison for a debt of $2.68 uh which may or may not have been the

Case and that debt is almost immediately paid and he’s released to a group of men with a coach. And there’s a suggestion that maybe Morgan didn’t want to go with him. Now, there’s a lot of different versions and stories about what happened. Some say Morgan was drowned in the Niagara river

Or that he was paid to leave town that he was kidnapped and taken to Canada. Morgan’s body actually was never found, but there was the body of another man who turned out to be Timothy Monroe who was fished out of the river. And the idea that

That body before it was identified might have been Morgan uh lit the story on fire and conspiracy was presumed. And so the sheriff who was also a mason in the town was removed from office and jailed for conspiracy and kidnapping, three other masons were convicted and served time for kidnapping.

Um And I’ll tell you modern scholarship is pretty well satisfied that that who that Morgan probably was killed, but it’s not definitive. But the story of this and the idea of conspiracy, the idea that Morgan’s body had been found and he had been so harshly treated even though his body

Wasn’t found was enough to ignite interest in getting rid of masonry to the extent that you have what’s known as the anti Masonic party. Really. This is established by men who were opposed to Andrew Jackson, uh who was running for president

This time and was a well known to be a mason and spoke well of Mason Republic at the time. Now, the truth with Morgan is that in the end, sometimes corrupt men make terrible decisions and do corrupt and bad things. But the idea of this conspiracy or a systemic corruption and Freemasonry

Caught the public imagination, especially in New England. And then religious groups begin to pile on the Quakers, the Lutherans Mennonites, German reform church who don’t like the idea of taking promises and masons do make promises to each other. When we go through the degrees, you have

Leaders, ministers, pastors of other faiths that condemn Freemasonry in one way or another, especially the Presbyterians, the Methodists and the Baptists at this time. And there’s an overall perception of elitism because at least in this part of the country, it’s not really true

Outside of New England at this time. But in this part of the country, Masons are physicians and lawyers and businessmen. They really are social and economic elite. There was a guy named Thurlow Weed who’s a newspaper, a New York newspaper uh uh uh man and he’s highly influential. Eventually, he’s

Politically influential now, but eventually in the wig in the Republican parties and he’s an opponent of Jackson, especially because he likes John Quincy Adams. And he is really instrumental in establishing this an anti Masonic party whose stated purpose was really to obliterate Freemasonry in the

United States was formed in New York in February of 18 28. There’s really no question. I think it’s pretty objective to say that it was nothing more than political opportunism. These guys saw the public interest in the, in, in the, in, in anger toward freemasonry and they wanted to get rid of

Jackson and this was a convenient way to do that. So they, uh, they run a candidate for New York governor. He loses but they did become, uh, the primary opposition in a handful of state legislators. Uh, because they’re an opposition party with numbers in the state legislatures, they’re able to

Get and influence the appointment of senators who are elected by the state legislatures. At this time in the US Senate. In 18 32 there’s even a presidential candidate, William T he’s pictured there on the left. Um He won a little more than 7% of the popular vote and he won the electors

For the state of Vermont. Vermont was heavily into the anti Masonic party, uh probably more than any other state. But by 18 36 the members of the anti Masonic party start to disagree. There’s internal uh you know, disagreement, condescension and or dissension. And by 18, for 18 40 the party

Really uh ceases to be, but the damage to masonry is, is done. Uh during this time, some states enact laws that make masonry illegal lodges go dark, they shut down. Uh In New York, about 75% of the lodges that were chartered uh within a few

Years demise. Then there’s something called the human genus I’ll mention briefly. Uh This is a papal encyclical uh in 18 84 Pope Leo the 13th, who’s pictured here um his Papacy runs from 18 78 to 19 03. In 18 84 he issues an encyclical

Called the human genus and he flags, he identifies freemasonry as the great perpetrators of several ideas that he sees as uh dangerous and, and ideas that he equates uh with the, the, the, the city of or the kingdom of evil. Uh in Saint Augustine’s

Work, he says that uh at every period of time, each has been in conflict with the other, the, the uh the, the Kingdom of of Light or the Kingdom of Good and the Kingdom of Evil with a variety and multiplicity of weapons and warfare, although

Not always with equal art and assault at this period. However, the partisans of evil seem to be combining together and to be struggling with United vehement led on or assisted by the strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons. And he goes on to condemn specifically the

Ideas that Freemasons are spreading and I’ll paraphrase. But I’m not, I mean, go read the human genus. The ideas that he’s criticizing are uh that the authority of the church and the authority of the state should be separate. He criticizes the idea that there should be public education for all, independent

Of religious instruction. He says that the Freemasons say wrongly that all men have the same, right? This is a quote and are in every respect of equal and light condition that each one is naturally free that no one has the right to command another Pope Leo the 13th disagreed. He says that

Freemasons say that all things belong to free people. Power is held by the command or permission of the people. So that when the popular will changes, rulers may be lawfully disposed. And he finds that abhorrent. And so he condemns freemasonry for this in the Pelicans papal encyclical. This

Is not the first uh blow to Freemasonry within the church or not the, not the last, but it is the first. Uh And, and so we find ourselves in a state uh today uh where Catholics uh who happen, who are masons are, are generally, if that’s

Known they’re denied uh communion. But at no time in history has masonry ever prevented Catholics from joining. Uh So it’s kind of an odd circumstance. Um I’ll mention Leo Ta Real briefly because it comes up in the literature. I’ll do my best to hurry. Sorry. Um Leo Tale

Is a hoaxer. He’s a well known sort of trickster in France these days. He feigned a conversion to Roman Catholicism, but he didn’t like the church. And he published, he, he, he pro proclaimed publicly after this conversion, his intention to undo previous damage he had caused in attacking the church

Uh church and the pope in his work. And he published a four volume History of Freemasonry. And it contains very detailed but entirely fictitious accounts of Masonic uh rituals and ceremonies that he intended to appear satanic in character. He fabricated in these books, correspondence between well

Known Masonic leaders at the time. Uh You know, saying some, some things about uh about um about these ceremonies and, and conspiracies. He collaborated on a second book called The Devil in the 19th century, which again was very detailed and again, fictitious accounts of a character named Diana Vaughn,

Uh who was a figure he invented, who, who said that uh uh she had been involved in this satanic masonry. And the book details her peculiar adventures with all sorts of demons, but by some in uh uh inspiration, she says she invokes the name

Of Joan of Arc and the demons disperse. And so, uh it’s under this name through this figure of Diana Vaugh. Tael publishes a book of prayers um called Eucharistic novena, uh inspired by this experience invoking Joan of Arc. And that book received praise from the Pope himself. But, and this is

Important on April 19th, 18 97 tax calls a press conference and he tells everybody Diana Vaugh is gonna be here. So Catholics are there, there’s some Freemasons in the audience interested to see what’s going on too because they, they don’t understand these books he’s written and he confesses, he

Says none of this is true. And my intention was to discredit both the Catholic church and Freemasonry. The problem is subsequent authors uh particularly within some segments of, of Christianity that have been very hard on masonry, found the work of Leo Tale but didn’t know the

Confession. They didn’t know it was an admitted hoax that it was a trick. And so they took his material and presented it as fact that subsequently gets quoted and borrowed and quoted. And, and I mean, you know, this is how Wikipedia

Works is if it’s in a book, you can cite it, then it must be true, right? So that’s Leo Tall and his stuff continues to come up, especially around this man. Albert Pike, interesting figure. If there’s any questions, we can go into depth about him, Albert Pike, he’s alleged to be, you know,

The Pope of Freemasonry or that he wrote the Bible of Freemasonry, some of these ridiculous things and in tall’s books, he’s got some crazy correspondence that he attributes to Pike because he was so so well known, you know, Pike was a scholar. Uh he knew several languages, French Latin,

Uh Greek, Greek Hebrew, he studied Sanskrit, so he could do his own translation of the Vedic poems. Uh in his eighties, Pike is a figure in the Scottish rite specifically, although he was really involved in all aspects of masonry. Uh in many

Ways, he leaves his rima on the Scottish, right? Uh and its degree system and he creates lectures. He’s most well known for a book which is the most misunderstood and misquoted book in all of masonry, which is called Morals and Dogma, uh, published in 18 71. Uh, that book you can find everywhere

Because there was a time when every Scottish, right, Mason received a copy and none of them were capable of reading it because you get to the first page and it’s like, you know, it’s so dense and so a lot of them end up for sale. So they’re

Everywhere. You can walk into half price books and find at least a couple copies. But it’s, it’s hard to understand. Pike is brilliant, but his language is dense. He’s writing uh kind of in Victorian English. He assumes you have an expertise in classical history that, you know, a little Greek, you know,

A little Hebrew. Um And so it’s hard to, it’s hard to understand. Uh But Pike uh influences the Scottish right degrees to the extent that he adds a lot of lecture material and he provides a philosophical and intellectual framework of study uh for Scottish, right, Masons who go through the

Degrees and are interested in the symbolism and its relationship to the grand sort of philosophical and religious uh and social ideas that have existed throughout time. Morals and dogma is legitimately the first book in the English language on the subject of comparative religion. And Pike

Was probably the most qualified to write that book in his time. Fascinating, read couple of final thoughts and then to the extent we have time and I’ll hang back late of course, with questions, if you don’t wanna ask publicly, MC Masonry has always been controversial. The idea is that it promotes

Individual freedom in terms of government as well as religion have never been welcomed by established religious and political authority. Masonry has had among its members, several great and famous heroes and we’ve had a few scoundrels, but Freemasonry didn’t put any of those men in positions or

Powers of leadership. Now, it’s often been true that men who are capable of great things are interested in Freemasonry. But that’s the reason they’re Masons just not the other way around. They’re mostly Masons are just ordinary men from all walks of life and they’re trying to be better men and their

Detractors have gone to great lengths to condemn the Fraternity and Masons. And for the most part, Masons go about their business and ignore them. But Masonry persists in the idea that if we disagree, that’s ok because most people are well intended and it’s worth trying to get along. And Masons

Recognized that we learn new things through opposition and disagreement. We have to be open to being wrong in order to learn or experience something new and this is really important. If we work together, we can accomplish great things. Masonry suggests it’s better to be part of something bigger

Than yourself. So I apologize. I ran a few minutes late but I, I do want to open up to, to any questions you have. That’s the material I have this evening when, when the Pope uh gave his edict about masonry, I’ve always understood that there were so many Catholics in

Masonry that then the Knights of Columbus was formed. Is that true? Well, I think there’s some truth to that. I don’t like podiums, but I’ll come back to here if I have to. So I don’t, I can’t speak with authority on the History of Knights Columbus, but I’m certainly sure that there were

Masons, uh who were Catholic at the time, who were, who felt strongly about their adherence to the Catholic faith and would have done whatever was necessary uh to, to do what the Pope wanted them to do and would have renounced their membership in masonry at that time. It’s shortly thereafter, of course,

The Knights of Columbus do come into existence and it seems pretty clear that a man who enjoyed what he was doing with free masonry would probably like the sort of things that the Knights of Columbus were up to because they’re very similar, uh just very Catholic. And of course, uh you know,

Allowed within the faith. But certainly the truth is there are, there are Catholics who are Masons today. They just, you know, they do their own thing. Uh Briefly I missed over the, the Thai King Solomon’s Temple. Yes. What was, again, what was significant significant that to early masonry? That’s

A good question. Um Can you hear me? I, I I’ll stay over here. Ok. Stay there. All right. So. Ok. Oh, hey, technology, good thing. I’m an electrical engineer. I should have noticed that. Um So in early documentation like the old charges uh that I mentioned the 15th, 16th, 17th century,

Actually Solomon’s temple is inconsequential. Uh I don’t think that it’s ever really mentioned uh in the old documentation. What seems to fascinate masons who want and their legendary history of masonry you’ll see tied uh more often actually to the tower of Babel, the Tower of Babel

Story as this great construction or public works project, even though the outcome was questionable um or the intention, it’s really with the emergence of the master’s degree where you start to have an interest in Solomon’s temple and any reasons I could give you for that would be

Speculative, except that uh we know that the story in connection with the master’s degree and the construction uh of the temple uh in and of itself sort of inseparably links speculative masonry, not the operative tradition of the craft, but speculative masonry uh to Solomon into the temple.

And so there are symbols that preexisted uh the emergence of the master’s degree to tradition there, symbols associated with the apprentice degree, for example, that then get to have explanations associated with Solomon and that period of construction. And so the symbolism evolves and changes. It’s just part of that organic growth. And

I can’t tell you why because we don’t really know uh what the impetus for it was or who did it, except the uh the idea of the Tower of Babel sort of fades, although it pops up in one of the degrees in this, the old degrees in the Scottish,

Right? Uh That was worked that way until the early 19 hundreds. Um But uh Solomon’s Temple begins to be far more important uh as kind of this great edifice or this representation of a great spiritual edifice, not of a religious tradition that

All masons belong to. But as an example of men who are trying to build Godly lives or lives, that are an expression of what God means to them. And so in terms of the symbolism, the temple of Solomon is a far better fit for that than the

Tower of Babel. That makes sense. Yeah, two questions um early on you mentioned the three requirements for masonry. Um I only, you may uh I, I only heard two, maybe I missed. The third one was to um it was on your own initiative. You do,

You weren’t invited. And also then you have to have some concept or adherence to the concept of a deity. Oh, I’m sorry. Third, I didn’t mention you’re right. And I guess I did say there’s three I probably left that on my notes. But the third general requirement that’s almost universal in really is

Universal. This one in particular uh is that you have to be a man of good character. So you’re expected to be a man of good character. You have to be able to express that you have some sort of spiritual viewpoint, some sort of spiritual framework or foundation in your life and

You have to do it of your own free will. And um then, OK, the, even the term Freemason uh as opposed to a captive mason. Um um and then also were there like um efforts to come out of other gills or con con fraternities such as carpenters,

Mill rights plumbers, whatever. Sure, sure. Um Yes. Uh So the first question, free, the, the easiest explanation for the word free in terms of Freemason is an operative explanation. And the idea that is, is unlike other trades where, you know, a smith, for example, would, would, would perform his trade

In a community for the entirety of his life. But a stone mason who’s building a cathedral uh when the cathedral is done, there’s, you don’t need another cathedral. And so the stone mason has to have the liberty to travel across uh territorial

Boundaries, you know, from one town to the next uh or even uh you know, occasionally perhaps from one nation to the next or one kingdom to the next. And uh that was simply not have been necessarily permissible uh in the middle ages uh for

A typical tradesman. Uh But then, you know, by the time you get to France and speculative masonry, which is really probably the first place. The the word appears, it’s kind of an odd thing, but Fran, Fran was probably the earliest form

Of it in French. That may have been the source of the word Free Mason as a single word in terms of the speculative craft. Um but uh that might have had a more symbolic sense of, of a more free thinking uh or liberated uh individual.

But, you know, that’s, that’s speculation. But there is an operative tradition around the word free. Other question was the other trades. You know, I, I can’t claim expertise, but I’ve certainly read uh papers and works that talk about the other trades uh doing a similar thing, having a sort of

Speculative uh moral uh teaching uh associated with that. And certainly in the uh uh especially in the late 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds, when you had the proliferation of lots of these social and civic organizations just as Freemasonry tied itself to masonry. You had a lot of

Organizations tie themselves to earlier uh trades as well. But the direct connection probably is, is a little more tenuous there. I don’t know, can’t speak with authority, but certainly the other trades were doing it since Tom hasn’t taken the mic away. I ask one more quick question. Um You might

Have already answered this question partially. But is there any connection between the woodman of the world and the Freemasons? Well, there were men who were members of both. Uh but organizationally not really. Um The uh there was a different sort of organization, the woodman of the world and

They had kind of a different purpose. Uh Masonry has its own woodworking uh group. It’s called cedars of Lebanon, which are associated with the cedar trees that were used in the constructive of Solomon’s temple is it’s kind of wood focused uh group and we don’t really have that in Texas, I don’t

Think. But uh it is in other places in the country, in the world. But no, they, they were different organizations but a lot of men, I know I have family uh that were certainly both um but not related directly. Yes, ma’am. Do you

Admit women? Good question. Uh I uh I’m part of what we would generally think of as, as uh historically mainstream masonry and grand lodges in our traditions do not. It’s a tradition that’s just for men. Uh There are other traditions of masonry and we don’t enter visits, but, you know, they’re

Free to do their own thing. Uh Feminine masonry has been very active in England and, and in continental Europe for over a century. Uh We have all kinds of records of women for one reason or another who were actually initiated as Masons even in the United States. Uh There’s a great author, Karen

Kidd and I can’t remember the name of the book. Uh But she has all kinds of documentation in there about women who were initiated as Masons under various circumstances. Sometimes because they happen to see the ceremony anyway. And they didn’t know what else to do. Uh Sometimes they wanted to

Communicate the, the degree to a wife so that when they went to war, like in the civil war that she would know something to say, so that Masons and the opposing army would take care of her, for example, if necessary, that sort of thing.

Uh But in the United States, there are active uh what they call co Masonic groups. I’m not aware of any uh uh feminine Masonic organizations, but there are co Masonic groups that are for both men and women. Tell them about the Rainbow Girls.

Well, we do have uh Rainbow Girls is a youth organization for girls within masonry. And there are, there are yes Eastern Star and Well, yeah, and there are Masonic bodies uh for which uh women connected with free Masons can join Eastern Star

Is an example of that. If you’re a wife, widow, mother, sister or daughter of a mason, you can join that. Um There are a few other bodies associated with some of the other organizations like the York, right? And the shrine and so on uh similar.

But in terms of those three degrees, apprentice, fellow craft and master uh women could find that within either a feminine Masonic tradition or a co Masonic tradition, but that’s not mine does that answer your question? Oh, I, I wanted to ask a question about, uh, burial. Uh, would there be a

Situation where, uh, Masons would, uh, take a body and then have a, be a burial ceremony? But yet have the body in an unmarked grave? Um, ok. Well, there is, I didn’t, I didn’t mention it but there are various forms of Masonic burial services

That connects directly with the symbolism of the master’s degree and the aspects of mortality uh connected with that, that ceremony as it’s been worked in the United States. There’s several different forms of it that’s done either at the graveside or during the service in front of the family and

Everyone not. Um I’ve never encountered anything that would involve an unmarked grave or being unknown. There have been plenty of prominent Masons Pike was one, for example, Albert Pike wanted to be in an unmarked grave and he was just so important that they had to give him a, a stone and an epitaph

And he didn’t, I’m sure he wouldn’t have liked that. Um But while there have been variants in Masonic services, I’m not aware of anything that would have been done with. I’ll mention one exception, anything that would have been done when the family wasn’t present and certainly nothing that would

Specifically involve an unmarked grave. There is an old funeral service that’s not conferred anymore and to my knowledge in this country, it hasn’t been done uh, in about 75 years, Albert Pike. This was his burial service and he was really the one who he said he translated it from some old French

Manuscripts and the, and that’s a burial, that’s a, that’s a funeral service, not a burial that would be done the night before the funeral with the family and only masons were allowed to be there for that. And the reason was he was doing some things that non masons really wouldn’t understand

Because they hadn’t seen the Scottish right degrees. But that’s a very rare and unusual thing. And it’s, it’s just never done anymore. But again, even in that condition, you’re talking about something that was done before the main burial service. Ok. By the way, I encourage you all to go through

The Allen cemetery. You’ll see a lot of woodmen of the world and Masonic stones. That’s true. And Plano Mutual Cemetery. I’m, I’m from Plano. So, um, my question is about the Texas soldiers, uh, during the civil war that were in Arkansas and I have read that there were Masonic meetings that were going

On in the encampments. And can you briefly discuss that and talk, talk about how you would reconcile the, um, thinking of the, the masons and the war and that’s a good question. Oh, and a complicated one. Um So let me say first, uh, I

Don’t, is a modern 21st century mason. I don’t find a way to reconcile the teachings of freemasonry with things like slavery and racism and segregation and all that kind of stuff. I can’t put myself in the mindset of someone born

In a different place in time to know how they did that and I wouldn’t judge them necessarily. I can only say that I don’t understand it now how they put the two of those together. But it’s clear that there were Masons on both sides of the

Conflict in the Civil War. There are all kinds of documented evidence. There’s whole books devoted to this subject um of, of circumstances where Masons crossed, uh crossed the boundaries of battle, I should say and breached, breached protocol. Uh in order to help one another or to help the

Families of one another. There’s instances where uh funeral services were conferred on soldiers and in order to get enough masons together to do it, they would get masons from both sides of the battle. Um So that was happening every time there’s been a conflict. This was true in the American

Revolution in 18 12 war of 18 12 and certainly in the civil war as well. Uh There were a lot of soldiers who uh either were masons going into the war or who were interested in masonry. And so it’s a very common occurrence uh in the

Midst of warfare for there to be military lodges, they may not have charters, they may not have anything official but the, the, the the tradition tells us if you can find seven Masons, you can open a lodge. And so, uh even though the grand lodges probably wouldn’t like that, the truth is under

Circumstances, something like the Civil War. It happens all the, it happened all the time and there were masons who, you know, men who were made Masons in a military context that happened in the case of my family. So it’s absolutely a common occurrence. Uh I’m sure Google can assist you.

I wish I could remember some of the names of the books off the top of my head. Uh But there are good books on this subject. Uh You can, of course, you can read revolutionary brotherhood. I think I mentioned up there in terms of the, the uh American

Revolution, there were good books on the Civil War too and I can’t remember them right now. I, I apologize but that absolutely did happen. Fair enough. Hey, Kevin, my question was more about the operational Masons when you were discussing that you had the three degrees, the first degree and the second

Degree made perfect sense. And then they started into the third degree. Do you feel they had a need to develop morals because of the age of the initiative? You know, the, the young men that they were bringing in, what was the age of these

Apprentices that they felt they needed to teach morals on top of trade? That’s a fair question. So let me, there’s two aspects of that. So let me separate the master’s degree first because there’s no historical evidence that the operative stonemasons ever had the master’s degree. It props

Up really in England with the speculative lodges and then it finds its way back into some of the operative traditions and into Scotland, but not all of them. So let’s separate that in terms of apprenticeship. Uh You know, this was a time

When, if a family didn’t have much money, you know, you send one kid off to the priesthood, you know, maybe 11 kid takes care of the homestead that you have. And then what do you do with the other boys? And one of the things you could do if

You couldn’t take care of them where you could find a way to apprentice them to a trade. And that was great because then he would have his own livelihood. He wouldn’t depend on your homestead and he might have a better life than you did

Actually. And so really, you had probably boys coming in as apprentices to operative stonemason’s lodges young. I mean, really young, certainly by modern standards. And the traditional period of apprenticeship was, was about seven years. You could probably imagine that he would be maybe

Ready to become a fellow of the craft, maybe 17 years old, 18 years old, probably, if not a little bit younger. Um And so you’re in a time where that’s an age where you don’t have public education in an organized way, you do have religious

Instruction. And of course, these trades had laws that, you know, rules and regulations that required you to go to mass and, and so on, on a regular basis and celebrate the feast. So they would get religious instruction. But they needed, uh, they needed the sort of instruction that would come

From a dad, I guess, you know, for lack of a better way of putting that, you know, it, when the, when the rubber hits the road in life, how do you make moral decisions? How do you, how do you overcome, you know, maybe your tendency to

Make bad decisions. And that’s the sort of instruction that they were doing and, and they reached for probably what was at hand, which were these working tools and the trade and it was a, a perfect way to kind of illustrate those lessons you mentioned um uh a few times the reference to

Free thinkers. Yeah. Um Were they part uh that uh tradition or whatever part of uh the, the uh Freemason uh development? Um And if, if so, uh though were those reference to free thinkers different than the modern reference to free thinkers because they’re typically part of an atheistic

Tradition? And uh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that’s, that’s a fair question. So, yes, II, I should say, I mean, free thought, free, free thinking in terms of 18th century uh Europe. Uh you know, Anderson’s constitutions for the vast majority of, of jurisdictions in the world, uh, still hold true. Uh, he

Used the word stupid atheist. I wouldn’t do that. Uh, but a stupid atheist or an irreligious Libertine. And I think probably what you’re asking about in terms of free thought would be closer to what Anderson would have meant as a Libertine. Someone who simply is Amoral, uh, doesn’t, doesn’t

Have any sense of direction or guidance of right and wrong. Um That’s not what I’m intending when I saw was saying free thinking. Uh in terms of 18th century France, I’m talking about someone who is into and interested in ideas of the emergent uh kind of, you know, Laissez Faire, freedom,

Equality, social contract, uh sort of philosophies that we’re kind of just stating at that period of time, Kevin has anybody told you you look like Albert Pack? Uh Albert Pike, I tell you, I can tell you this, you’re just as smart as he is.

I don’t know about that. Any fat man with a beard and there’s a reason I tie this up with a ponytail because if I go to the Scottish right with that with my hair down, I, I hear that to no end. I mean, they just, they’ll never let it go. The

Uh um final question for me. Did anybody else have any questions? Um I’ve read over the years, there’s a special relationship between Jewish people and masonry can you describe that? Well, that’s an interesting question. So, uh there’s a couple of ways to answer that. Uh First of all,

I should say that in terms of the operative tradition, Masons were Catholic, right? It’s, it’s only in the speculative tradition and it’s really with Anderson’s Constitution when he says all that, you know, that they should practice what all good men can agree to, uh, to be men of honor and live with

Integrity and truth and so on honesty. That’s the moment in time at which uh you know, the speculative masons are saying we want men of other faiths uh to be part of Freemasonry. And it starts almost immediately, uh especially with the Jewish communities being invited in. Uh and certainly

Other men who, who wouldn’t have fallen into particular religious categories. Um at the time in terms of a special relationship, uh The obvious connection is with the importance of the Temple of Solomon uh in uh the structure of the master’s degree and especially within the Scottish

Right degrees uh in the continuation of that story. The other thing I will say, and this is, this is true in the earliest form of the French degrees. Um You can find elements of, of Jewish mysticism uh that falls under the broader umbrella of Kabbalah. You can find elements of that in some

Of these French degrees that find their way into the Scottish, right? And so we have uh many sincere uh Jewish men who study those traditions within the Jewish faith, who are fascinated by the fact that there are elements of that in some of the Scottish right degrees today. Um What about the

Inquisition? Uh Did it help form a relationship between masonry and Judaism? Um I think the timing in the place is wrong uh for that to have been a major factor. There certainly were divisions uh at times between the Protestants and the Jewish communities or the Catholics and the Jewish communities for

The most part, uh Freemasonry seems to do its thing independent of that. Uh And you know, it, it, and like I said, the timing of the inquisition, although it continued on for a long period of time, I think really by the time uh Freemasonry emerges in the forms that you start

To see it in France and, and elsewhere in the world. Um By that time, the power of the church has waned and the ideas of, of the things like we associate with the inquisition, that time is really passed.

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