After the foundation of the first Grand Lodge in England in 1717, a rival Grand Lodge arose less than two decades later, calling itself the Antients (or Ancients), whereby it intended to assert greater authenticity than the rival “modern” Grand Lodge. The Antients were also known as the Athol Masons, from their first Grand Master, the Duke of Athol. Some authors (e.g., Carl Claudy) say the Antients were schismatic–i.e., had split off from the “modern” Grand Lodge; others (e.g., Allen Roberts) of more recent vintage say that the Antients were founded independently by Lodges deriving from Scottish and Irish traditions who were excluded by the English “moderns.”

These competing English Grand Lodges, along with Grand Lodges established in Scotland and Ireland, issued charters for Lodges in the American colonies into the latter half of the 18th century, until the American Revolutionary War led to the ties between the colonies and the mother country being severed. Long after that event, in 1813 (when the two countries were again at war, in fact), the rival English Grand Lodges amalgamated to form the United Grand Lodge of England, which is the governing body of English Freemasonry to this day.

Meanwhile, in the new United States of America, Grand Lodges were organized separately in each state, some as offspring of Provincial Grand Lodges and some as self-declared independent Grand Lodges (e.g., Virginia). These Grand Lodges comprised Lodges whose charters had been issued by both the Antient and “modern” Grand Lodges in England (as well as a few Scottish and Irish constitution Lodges). The designation of whether a Grand Lodge was Free and Accepted or Ancient Free and Accepted was therefore almost an arbitrary choice, based perhaps on who had a bit more political power when the new Grand Lodge was formed.

In particular, one cannot conclude anything significant about the nature of the ritual used by a Grand Lodge as to its Antient or “modern” content, based only on the designation as F&AM or AF&AM. Many Grand Lodges use an amalgamation of the forms, and it would take detailed study (never having been done to my knowledge) to determine the precise provenance of each American Grand Lodge’s ritual contents. It does appear that Pennsylvania may adhere most closely to the work of the Antients, while a northern tier of states, running from Connecticut through Minnesota and perhaps farther west, preserves the “modern” ritual most closely. In those states where a ritual cipher is permitted, which seems to be more a characteristic of the “moderns,” the incorporation of changes to the ritual occur with much lower frequency (a fairly obvious observation). An example is the phrase “any be due,” which is synonymously rendered “aught be due” in the apparently “modern” jurisdictions: The substitution of a common word (“any”) for an archaic one (“aught”) is a natural evolution of an oral tradition, while the reverse substitution virtually never occurs in oral transmission. The states with a printed ritual cipher have maintained “aught,” while “any” has appeared in those states eschewing such written aids.

Incidentally, there are two jurisdictions which use neither F&AM nor AF&AM: The District of Columbia uses FAAM, and South Carolina uses AFM. Again, these are distinctions without any real difference.

Various suppositions are made about “four-letter” Lodges vs. “three-letter” Lodges and relationships to Prince Hall (PHA) Masonry and issues of recognition, but these are entirely unfounded.

by Bro.Roger M. Firestone

Read the rest here:
David Harrison: Reviews for the new book The Transformation of …

Das Vergissmeinnicht

THE STORY BEHIND THIS BELOVED EMBLEM OF THE CRAFT IN GERMANY

This being Memorial Day I was thinking about our last great war, World War II and our Brothers who fought.  I was also mulling  about the atmosphere that existed for Freemasons in Europe during those years leading up to the conflict.  Here is something that I think may enlighten some of you to a period in time, not so long ago when Freemasonry was forced to the shadows of secrecy, underground AGAIN, to once again reprise its’ ancient role and people’s lives were in relentless danger for being in the great Society.  It was not so long ago…

In early 1934, soon after Hitler’s rise to power, it became evident that Freimaurerei, German for “Freemasonry” was in danger.

He issued two decree on the same day: all local control over schools, colleges and universities was at an end; all the educational processes in Germany would henceforth be controlled by the Nazi Party and centralized in Berlin. The other degree was to proscribe Freemasonry and make membership and/or activity in Freemasonry a crime. Thus members of the Fraternity were to be regarded in the same category of common criminals or traitors. Hitler had long viewed Freemasonry as a part of “the Jewish conspiracy” and he lost little time in trying to eradicate Freemasonry. German Masonic lodges went dark; the organized Craft was broken; the Working Tools were either seized by Storm Troopers or secreted before their arrival; the Great Lights were extinguished. Freemasonry, as an organization, was no more in Germany.

In that same year, the “Grand Lodge of the Sun” (one of the pre-war German Grand Lodges, located in Bayreuth) realizing the grave dangers involved, adopted the little blue Forget-Me-Not flower as a substitute for the traditional square and compasses. It was felt the flower would provide brethren with an outward means of identification – in public, in cities and in concentration camps throughout Europe – while lessening the risk of possible recognition in public by the Nazis, who were engaged in wholesale confiscation of all Masonic Lodge properties.

He never quite understood that though he could desecrate or destroy Masonic Temples and disperse Masonic gatherings and imprison Freemasons that he was unable to invade the Temple that is in man and which is invulnerable except to God.

Freemasonry went undercover, and this delicate flower assumed its role as a symbol of Masonry surviving throughout the reign of darkness.

At no time did the Nazis ever detect this or learn of its having a special significance. And so did Freemasonry survive this great holocaust.

During the ensuing decade of Nazi power a little blue Forget-Me-Not flower worn in a Brother’s lapel served as one method whereby brethren could identify each other . The Forget-Me-Not distinguished the lapels of countless brethren who staunchly refused to allow the symbolic Light of Masonry to be completely extinguished.

When the ‘Grand Lodge of the Sun’ was reopened in Bayreuth in 1947, by Past Grand Master Beyer, a little pin in the shape of a Forget-Me-Not was officially adopted as the emblem of that first annual convention of the brethren who had survived the bitter years of semi-darkness to rekindle the Masonic Light.

At the first Annual Convent of the new United Grand Lodge of Germany AF&AM (VGLvD), in 1948, the pin was adopted as an official Masonic emblem in honor of the thousands of valiant Brethren who carried on their masonic work under adverse conditions. The following year, each delegate to the Conference of Grand Masters in Washington, D.C., received one from Dr. Theodor Vogel, Grand Master of the VGLvD.

Thus did a simple flower blossom forth into a symbol of the fraternity, and become perhaps the most widely worn emblem among Freemasons in Germany; a pin presented ceremoniously to newly-made Masons in most of the Lodges of the American-Canadian Grand Lodge, AF&AM within the United Grand Lodges of Germany. In the years since adoption, its significance world-wide has been attested to by the tens of thousands of brethren who now display it with meaningful pride.

What follows is another view – written by a Brother Mason, not by me.

The origin of the information is an article in TAU 2/95 p.95f (the German Quatuor Coronati periodical), a “letter to the Editor” which appeared in TAU 1/96 in reply to that article, and additional research and conversations with old German Masons over the last few years.

In the years between WWI and WWII the blue forget-me-not was a standard symbol used by most charitable organizations in Germany, with a very clear meaning: “Do not forget the poor and the destitute”. It was first introduced in German Masonry in 1926, well before the Nazi era, at the annual Communication of the Grand Lodge “Zur Sonne”, in Bremen, where it was distributed to all the participants. That was a terrible time in Germany, economically speaking, further aggravated in 1929 following that year’s “Great Depression”. That economic situation, by the way, contributed a lot to Hitler’s accession to power. Very many people depended on charity, some of which was Masonic. Distributing the forget-me-not at the Grand Lodge Communication was meant to remind German Brethren of the charitable activities of the Grand Lodge.

In 1936 (Hitler was already in control since 1933) the “Winterhilfswerk” (a non- Masonic winter charity drive) held a collection and used and distributed the same symbol, again with its obvious charitable connotation. Some of the Masons who remembered the 1926 Communication –and the forget-me-not– possibly also wore it later as a sign of recognition. We have no evidence of that and its general signification still was charity, but not specifically Masonic charity. Moreover it rapidly became quite impossible to risk wearing anything but Nazi pins. So there were probably only a very few Brethren wearing the forget-me-not, and probably only for a brief time, until wearing any non-Nazi pins became suspect. There is absolutely no record of the pin, or the flower, ever having been worn during the war (that is after 1939), even less in concentration camps, as the legend also goes.

In 1948 Bro. Theodor Vogel, Master of the Lodge “Zum weißen Gold am Kornberg”, in Selb (then in Western-occupied Germany), remembered the 1926 and 1936 pin, had a few hundred made and started handing it out as a Masonic symbol wherever he went. When Brother Vogel was later elected GM of the Grand Lodge AFuAM of Germany and visited a Grand Masters’ conference in Washington, DC, he distributed it there too, and this was the way it first came to the USA.

Its sudden popularity caused many manufacturers, some Masonic, some not, to pounce upon the occasion and sell the pin all over the world, with a variety of rather contrived and imaginative notes of explanation. The pin is nowadays quite well-known, as are the legends written about its origin, purpose and use… Which does not deter after all from the new message it carries today, through its authors’ imagination if not through rigorous historical record…

Since we are discussing the history of  our adopted flower, the forget-me-not, it is any of about 50-odd species of the genus Myosotis, family Boraginaceae, carrying clusters of blue flowers and native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.

Lodge 13 have in their archives a old brass square that was found under the foundations of Baals Bridge. This Square dated 1507 is reputed to be one of the earliest Masonic items in the world.

The old brass square, known as the Baal’s Bridge Square, was recovered from the foundations of Baal’s Bridge in Limerick when the bridge was being rebuilt in 1830. It is inscribed “I WILL STRIVE TO LIVE WITH LOVE AND CARE UPON THE LEVEL BY THE SQUARE” and bears the date, 1507.  You can also see a heart in the center.

I think this is really exciting.  Of course one can say this is not proof by any measure of the official existence of Freemasonry prior to the U.G.L.E. constituting itself in 1717, it may just be an early example of how some measure of ethical symbolism was associated on occasion with the implements of stone masonry.

However with enough other empirical evidence around supporting the existence of Freemasonry deep into history, I think that this artifact is tied to Freemasonry.  The concepts presented in the inscription upon it are not foreign to any Mason.  The inscription is evidence that people, some obviously who were stone masons, were discussing philosophical concepts and that those concepts were being allegorically applied to the working tools of stone masons.

Is this evidence that Freemasonry is founded in the structures of laboring masons in medieval Europe?  Or is this evidence of the beginnings of a new society during a period of meshing between the fallouts of the Order of Knights Templar in hiding bringing their teachings and concepts of life to a layman’s trade?

Really the speculation can go anywhere.  I don’t know if you can feel hot or cold about this artifact pointing to evidence of ancient practicing Freemasons, but I would say it’s definitely warm.

This ancient Square, carefully treasured by Lodge 13 is recorded as being presented to Brother Michael Furnell,Provincial Grand Master, by Brother James Pain, (referred to as the Provincial Grand Architect).

In the Freemasons’ Quarterly Review, 1842, p. 288, Bro. Furnell, under the date of 27th. August, 1842, printed a short note on this relic of antiquity, accompanying which is a facsimile sketch. He says that Bro. Pain, in 1830, had been contractor for re-building Baals Bridge in Limerick, and on taking down the old structure, he discovered under the foundation stone at the English town side, this old brass square, much eaten away. In the facsimile sketch, Bro, Furnell puts the date as 1517, which is a mistake, as the square bears the date 1507. A heart appears in each angle.

In the book by H. F. Berry, Assistant Keeper of the Irish Records, “The Marencourt Cup and Ancient Square.” dated 1905, Bro. Berry records that “Ball’s (or Baals) Bridge is a beautiful structure, of a single arch, built in 1831, to replace an ancient bridge of the same name, which consisted of four arches, with a range of houses on its west side. The date of the erection of this ancient structure has not been ascertained, but possibly the old square, dated 1507, may have been placed, under the foundation stone in that year. In any case, Bro. Furnell informs us that the old bridge is mentioned in records of 1558.

In a most interesting and valuable paper on a ” Diary of the Siege of Limerick Castle, 1642,” Journal, R.S.A.I., 1904, p. 163, Mr. M. J. McEnery, M.R.I.A., reproduces a facsimile of a Map of Limerick, taken from Speed’s Map of Munster, 1610, which shows the old bridge, called in the reference the Thye bridge ; also portion of the city of Limerick, cir. 1590, from Mr. T. J. Westropp’s copy of a map of Limerick in the Library, Trinity College, Dublin, wherein the same bridge is shown, and called in the reference the Tide bridge.

James Pain, a distinguished architect, was born at Isleworth in 1779. He and his brother, George R, Pain, entered into partnership, subsequently settling in Ireland, where James resided in Limerick and George in Cork. They designed and built a number of churches and glebe houses. Mitchelstown Castle, the magnificent seat of the Earls of Kingston, was the largest and best of their designs. They were also architects of Cork Court-house and the County Gaol, both very striking erections, and of Dromoland Castle, the seat of Lord Inchiquin. James Pain died in Limerick 13th. December, 1877, in his 98th year, and was buried in the cathedral church of St. Mary in that city.”

It is lucky that this artifact was found when taking apart the old bridge.  I wonder what kind of artifacts and treasures are floating around the Detroit Masonic Temple that we don’t know about.