From our initiation into Freemasonry we are made very aware of the story of the First Temple, the building which is the very basis of the rituals that permeate our entire Craft. In the three degrees of Craft Masonry we learn that it was built on land acquired by King David, by his son, Solomon, aided by his friend King Hiram of Tyre and the Architect, Hiram Abiff.
On reaching the dizzy heights of Master Mason, we are then encouraged to complete our three degrees by joining the Royal Arch which deals with the rebuilding of the Temple that had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Other aspects of the actual building work occur in the Mark degree which some of us also join. As far as I know, there is no reference in our rituals to the rebuilding of the Second Temple by King Herod -the Temple which the Romans destroyed.
Little is known of King Herod despite the fact that he was one of the most glittering figures of one of the spectacular periods of human history. There are few characters of the time of which so much is recorded but who are so little remembered. As the stories of the first and second Temples form the basis of the Craft and the Royal Arch it is perhaps surprising that the story of the “Third Temple” – for, that is what it really was – and its builder, has never been told in Freemasonry.
Certainly neither he nor his works have ever been the subject of an extension to an existing degree or a separate degree in Masonry, but as I hope I will show, Herod was undoubtedly a Master Mason. He not only rebuilt the Temple but he also organised much rebuilding of Jerusalem and in many other parts of the Kingdom of Judaea which he ruled on behalf of the Romans. What is more, whereas there is absolutely no trace of the First Temple and only a little of Second Temple, some of Herod’s building is available for inspection today, 2000 years after his death.
Of course, one of the reasons for Freemasonry ignoring this final aspect of the Temples in its rituals, is the nature of the man himself. For all of us, the name Herod immediately indicates cruelty. He was the man who massacred the Innocents, he was the one before whom Christ appeared for trial, and who procured the death of St. John the Baptist to satisfy the adulteress, Salome.
Not a good example for moral and upright Masons. Can you imagine our enemies’ joy if it were shown that the Heroes in our Masonic Rituals included not only Solomon, Hiram, Zerubbabel, and the rest, but also Herod?
The massacre of the Innocents of which Herod is considered the perpetrator, however, is only mentioned in one of the four Gospels – the one written by Mark – and is almost certainly not true, or perhaps relates to a minor incident. There is no mention of it either in the other Gospels or in the writings of Josephus, who hated Herod, and would certainly have included such a story in his History of the Jews. It is possible that it relates to an incident from one of the succeeding generations because of the custom of sons being named after their fathers, and it is easy to blur all the Herods into one. It is possible that it was an invention of Mark, to make Herod seem even more wicked than he was. The balance of opinion in the researches I have made on this particular subject leaves me thinking that it possibly never happened, and if it did, it was to a very small number (probably not more than ten) of boys in the small town of Bethlehem.
The following words of warning by the Editor of a Masonic magazine two centuries old , show how transcendent the danger for our Order is. Freemasonry membership is a privilege that should be bestowed on an aspiring man who is not only of good character but who can demonstrate to be a resourceful individual , able to apply himself to the the study and understanding of our symbology . It should not be enough for the candidate to be a “buddy”. If Freemasonry continues to open its doors and disclose its secrets to the vain, casual, trivial, curiousity seeker , then the eternal teaching will be wasted on the unworthy and lost.
The Test of Time
The privileges of Freemasonry have been made too common ! They have been bestowed upon the worthless and the wicked and the reputation of the Society has been injured.
Only true and good men of good report ought to be honored with them.
Every Freemason should be particularly careful to recommend none as Candidates for our mysteries but such whose characters will answer the description.
The following is a combination of theories as to the design of the Apron used in English Craft Freemasonry, and therefore does not take into account the many variants found in other countries and side orders. It is also important to note that the shapes and symbols are used in many esoteric arenas, and not just confined to Freemasonry, save that their significance are often similar.
In 1814, the Board of Works of the new United Grand Lodge of England, brought in the regulations for the uniformity of Masonic regalia, and particularly in relation to material, design, and decoration of aprons. It is interesting to note that in all three degrees, it is conferred by the Senior Warden and not by the Master. This is because symbolically, the Master represents the spirit of man, and the Senior Warden the soul. It is the soul which registers the spiritual advance of man, and is the link between body and spirit; therefore the outward sign of the spiritual progress made by the Initiate, is conferred by that Officer who represents the soul. Continue reading The Apron – its symbolism and mysticism
The use of allegory and symbolism is a method of teaching that is still applied in Freemasonry today.
The allegory is a figure of speech that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically of a moral nature and symbolism, in the words of Albert Pyke [1] is: “(…) the soul of Masonry. Every symbol of a lodge is a religious teacher, the mute teacher also of morals and philosophy. It is in its ancient symbols and in the knowledge of their true meanings that reposes the pre-eminence of Freemasonry over all other Orders”.
Even our name – Freemason – is symbolical and it literally means “builder in stone”. Of course,that is not what we do. We are engaged in building work only in a figurative sense of the word and so we describe ourselves “speculative” Freemasons. We allegorise the development of human character to the erection of a structure and we equal the virtues which constitute the finished character of man, to the strengths of a stone which contributes to erect the perfect finished structure.
In biblical times the earth was thought to be square. Isaiah (xi, 12) speaks of gathering “the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” and in the Apocalypse (xx, 9) there is a vision of four angels, “standing on the four corners of the earth”. Of course the meaning that the cube had in ancient times can never be shared by our modern minds but so grounded was that belief that it made the square a Masonic symbol to represent the Lodge. Continue reading The pointed cubic stone in Freemasonry
Among the interesting characters that populated Georgian England and spiced it with many anecdotes is the Rev. Dr. William Dodd [1] ; a clergyman with a very unmistakable nickname whose weakness in money matters sent him to the gallows for the crime of forgery on 27th June 1777.
His life history resembles a middle-class melodrama and is a fascinating reading.
———– ~~~~~~~ ———–
William Dodd was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, in 1729, the son of the local vicar. He attended the University of Cambridge from 1745 to 1750 and achieved academic success by graduating with first class honours. He then moved to London where he impulsively married Mary Perkins, the daughter of a penniless domestic servant, on 15th April 1751. To secure his family a steady income, William took the holy orders in 1771. Two years later he was ordained priest and thereafter his career in the Church took him to serve as a Curate and a preacher of some success.
by John Russell, oil on canvas, 1769
He devoted a lot of his time to charitable work and is accredited to have written over fifty books. However he also mixed with friends of dubious reputation and infamous public fame such as the Freemason John Wilkes, a member of the Parliament who had been arrested for his radical political ideas and for his opposition to George III.
In 1763 Dodd became the vicar of Chalgrave and three years later he gained a doctorate in law from Cambridge University.
The other offices that he filled in life were: Honorary Canon of Brecon, Rector of Hocliffe, King’s Chaplain in Ordinary and tutor to Philip Stanhope who later became the 5th Earl of Chesterfield. All these various church and academic appointments rewarded him with a good income, but Dodd lived well beyond his means and money was always in short supply.
In 1774 Dodd, in an attempt to bolster his earnings, endeavoured to bribe Lady Apsley, the wife of none other than the Lord Chancellor! He had incautiously offered her £ 3,000 if she would secure him the appointment as Rector of St George’s, Hanover Square, London. In those days Vicars could be in control of more than one Church and so tot up their salary.
The dishonourable proposition to Lady Apsley proved fatal for the fortunes of the Reverend Dodd as it led to the dismissal from all his academic and religious positions and compelled him to flee abroad.
His exile lasted two years and was made the more unbearable by the fact that whilst he was spending time in foreign lands – Switzerland and France – he was regularly being made an object of public ridicule in London by the dramatist and actor Samuel Foote who taunted him as the character Dr Simony in a play he staged at the Haymarket Theatre.
WILLIAM DODD THE FREEMASON
It is bizarre to notice that in Georgian England whenever an individual of some reputation became the target of defamation, the recipient of life threats or had his freedom restricted by accusation of unlawful behaviour, Freemasonry would step in to offer protection, support and sometime even rehabilitation.
As a matter of fact, nothing strange was taking place because, as far as the Craft was concerned, it was applying its principle that “he who is on the lowest spoke of fortune’s wheel, is equally entitled to our regard”.
Therefore what William Dodd decided to do at that point of his life and on his return to England in 1755, was no more unusual than what many of his contemporaries in similar situations were doing: he joined Freemasonry.
Dodd was initiated into the St. Albans Lodge No. 29 where, after briefly occupying the office of Junior Deacon, he rose to the rank of Grand Chaplain of the Order and in May 1755, on the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone for the Grand Lodge of England in Queen Street, London, the Rev. Dr. William Dodd even delivered an oration which was widely pubblicised.
The St Alban’s Lodge [2]had been founded in 1728 and was meeting at the Castle and Leg Tavern in Holborn, London. Today it is one of nineteen Lodges that have received the privilege by Grand Lodge of nominating one of its members – every year – to the office of “Grand Steward”. It has therefore become known as a “Red Apron Lodge”.
THE NICKNAME OF THE MACARONE PARSON
Dodd’s constant presence at the race horse tracks had made him a well known public figure and the extravagant style of his clothes, led him to become known as “The Macarone Parson”!
Some sources describe the Macarone as “a fashionable fellow in the mid-18th-century England who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner” and also as a person “who exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion in terms of clothes, fastidious eating and gambling”.
But the Macarone was also the caricature of an upper-class effeminate practitioner of sodomy, recogneasable by an extravagant hairstyle, effeminate mannerism and the small tricorn hat that he wore on top of a big wig. The early 1770s saw a series of scandals in the fashionable circles of London society that further linked the term of Macarone to a queer inclination and the homosexual man. A certain Captain Robert Jones, a “Macarone” , was convicted in July 1772 at the Old Bailey for sodomizing a thirteen-year-old boy and was sentenced to hang in October. A letter published in The Public Ledger on August 5th 1772, warned those men like the Captain : “(…) therefore, ye Beaux, ye sweet-scented, simpering He-She things, deign to learn wisdom from the death of a Brother”.[3]
But Jones obtained a royal pardon on the condition that he left the country after new evidence suggested that the boy’s testimony may have been unreliable. The pardon was of course greeted with accusations of an establishment cover-up.
Which of the above two mentioned categories of men – the fashionable fellow or the effeminate molly – our Reverend Doctor belonged to, however, can only be speculated on.
THE REVEREND DODD’S CRIME
By 1776 Dodd was living in Argyle Street, London and was regularly in need of money.
Years earlier he had been the tutor of the current 5th Earl of Chesterfield who had just come of legal age ; this gave Dodd the idea of defrauding a large sum of money by borrowing it in the name of his former pupil.
He went to a money broker and told him that the Lord urgently needed funds whilst he was in waiting for his inheritance to come through. However the Lord – explained Dodd – desired to keep the transaction private and had authorised him to conduct the negotiations.
The means of financing the loan was by a Bond issued in the Earl’s name. Being a man of the Church and a former tutor of the aristocrat, Dodd thought nobody would suspect the arrangement to be a fraud. He also no doubt flattered himself to believe in his heart that the Lord, warm of his feeling towards him, would have generously paid the money rather than see Dodd suffer the dreadful consequences of violating the law.
But finding Banks or individuals prepared to lend against a Bond that was not going to bear the actual borrower’s signature and was not going to be witnessed either, was proving difficult.
Even though forgery and fraud carried a sentence of death by hanging in those days, many fortunes were lost and many gained through such games of tricks.
Eventually the Broker Lewis Robertson came forward and persuaded the firm of solicitors Messrs Fletcher & Pitch to advance the sum of money. A bond was drafted in the name of the Earl of Chesterfield and released to Lewis Robertson who passed it on to Dodd.
The Reverend affixed his signature where that of the Lord should have been , the broker endorsed it further by placing his own signature under that of Dodd and the money changed hands.
Except that when the note fell due and was presented to the Lord for redemption, it was disowned. The law representatives immediately called at Dodd’s house to inform him of the accusation of forgery and advise him that if he wanted to save himself from prosecution and incarceration he was to return all of the money forthwith. The Rev. Dodd explained that he had been obliged to commit the fraud by a debt which had fallen due at a time when he was short of money and he could not meet his obligation. In any case, said Dodd he always intended to return the sum he had borrowed. And indeed, true to his word, he immediately handed a great part of the sum in cash to them , signed a few promissory notes and allowed a charge to be raised on his house belongings for the remaining balance.
He then pleaded forgiveness with the Earl of Chesterfield
but to his mortification he found that his noble pupil showed no clemency and later he will even appear in Court to testify against him.
The matter became of public knowledge; the Rev. Dodd was remanded in custody and soon found himself at the centre of a scandal with fatal consequences for him.
THE TRIAL
On February 19th 1777, Dodd appeared at the Old Bailey.
With no lawyer to defend him, he pleaded for mercy with the Court and delivered a speech from which we have extracted the following:
“My Lords and Gentlemen of the Jury, (…) there is no man in the world who has a deeper sense of the heinous nature of the crime for which I stand indicted, than myself.
(…) I humbly apprehend, though (I am) no lawyer, that the (…) malignancy of a crime – always both in the eyes of the Law and of Religion – consists in the intention.
(But) such intention (to defraud), my Lords and Gentlemen of the jury, has not been sufficiently proven on me (…), for ample restitution has been made.
I leave it to you, my Lords and Gentlemen of the Jury, to consider that if an unhappy man ever deviates from the Law and yet in (a) moment of recollection does all that he can to make full and perfect amends, what (…) can God and man desire further ?”
Dodd then went on to cry out that he had been “perused with excessive cruelty” and “persecuted with a scarcely parallel cruelty” even though reassurances had been given to him after he had made restitution. His death, he said, did not matter to him but it was the loss caused to those he would have left behind that concerned him.
“I have, my Lord, ties which render me desirous even to continue this miserable existence.
I have a wife who for 27 years has lived as an unparalleled example of conjugal attachment and fidelity (…) I have creditors, honest men, who will lose much by my death. (And so) I hope for the sake of justice towards them, that some mercy will be shown to me”.
It was a preposterous defence. The jury returned a guilty verdict and the judge pronounced his sentenced in these words:
“Dr William Dodd, you have been convicted of the offence of publishing a forged and counterfeit bond (…) and you have had an impartial and attentive trial. The jury to whose justice you have appealed have found you guilty and (…) the judges have found no grounds to impeach the justice of that verdict.
(…) your application for mercy therefore must be made elsewhere.
(…) I am now obliged to pronounce the sentence of the law, which is that you, Dr William Dodd, be carried from hence to the place from whence you came, that from thence you are to be carried to the place of execution where you are to be hanged by the neck until you are dead”.
DR SAMUEL JOHNSON INTERCEDES
The XVIII century diarist James Boswell wrote in his diary that on Monday September 15th 1777 he went with his lifetime friend Dr Samuel Johnson to visit the garden of the school of Ashbourne; a very pretty place on a bank of the river. It was a hot day and they sat on a bench for a little rest, whereupon Johnson – Boswell reports in his diaries – told him of his “humane interference” on behalf of the Rev. Dr Dodd whom he barely knew. Knowing Johnson’s persuasive power of writing Dodd had asked him, through the interception of the late Countess of Harrington, to employ his pen in his favour by writing a letter of supplication to the King so that “(the King) may spare me the ignominy of public death which the public itself is solicitous to waive, and grant me in some distant part of the globe to pass the remainder of my days in penitence an prayer (…)”.
Dr Johnson, who had only been once in the company of the Rev. Dodd many years earlier and never visited him at Newgate prison, wrote these lines for Dodd to use in his letter to the King:
“May I not offend your Majesty that the most miserable of men applies himself to your clemency (…) a clergyman whom your laws and judges have condemned to the horror and ignominy of public execution.
I confess the crime …but humbly hope that sparing the spectacle of a clergyman dragged through the streets to a death of infamy, justice may be satisfied with irrevocable exile, perpetual disgrace and hopeless penury.
My life, Sir, has not been useless to mankind. I have benefited many. (…)Preserve me, Sir, by your prerogative of mercy (…) permit my to hide my guilt in some obscure corner of a foreign country (…) I am, Sir, your Majesty’s, &c. “
In a post scriptum Johnson recommended Dodd never to disclose who the real author of such words was: “Tell nobody” stressed the Doctor and with it he also advised Dodd not to indulge in hope.
Samuel Johnson also wrote many petitions and letters on the Rev. Dodd’s behalf and was the author of the errant Mason’s sermon called “The Convict’s address to his unhappy Brethren” [4] whose lines Dodd read in the Chapel of Newgate Prison as perhaps a last attempt to sway matters in his favour! The sermon suggested in so many words that if one sincerely repents of a crime he has committed , God (and therefore by association, the King ) should pardon him and set him free to go and repent for the rest of his life, rather than be sent to death.
Although Johnson never admitted that such sermon was the product of his mind, when challenged by a friend he answered: “Depend on it, Sir, that when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, he concentrates his mind wonderfully”.
Having lost any hope of a royal pardon, Dodd wrote a final letter to Johnson to thank him for all that he had done for him: (…) as I shall be admitted to the realm of bliss before you, I shall hail your arrival there with transports, and rejoice to the knowledge that you were my comforter, my advocate and my friend! God be ever with you!”
Dr Johnson was moved by such words and wrote back: “may God (…) accept your repentance” and “in requital of those well-intended offices which you so emphatically acknowledge, let me beg you that you make (in your devotions) one petition for my eternal welfare.”
These lines, so full of irony and wit, bring a smile on my face whenever I read them.
At the time, Dr Johnson’s health was deteriorating and he had become particularly scared at the thought of dying. One night Boswell was struck by the expression of horror on Johnson’s face at the mention of the word “death” and of the Rev. Dodd during conversation. Boswell was expressing his full of admiration for the determination with which Dodd had met his creator a few days earlier. “Dr Dodd seemed to be willing to die and was full of hopes and happiness”, said Boswell. But Johnson retorted that hardly any man dies in public with apparent resolution: “Sir” –said Johnson – “Dr Dodd would have given both his hands and both his legs to have lived because the better a man is, the more afraid is he of death, having a clear view of infinite purity”.
THE EXECUTION
The Rev. Dr. Dodd was allowed to be driven to his place of execution by a private coach and his father is said to have accompanied him on the journey. Every face in the crowd expressed sadness for the fate of that popular preacher who was also a respectful author of books, poems, theological works and newspaper articles and for whom a twenty three pages long petition full of signatures had been presented to the Authorities in the hope that it would spared him from the gallows.
The death-by-hanging technique improved only in the 20th century when mathematical formulas begun to be applied to determine the length of the rope and the height of the drop required to break the person’s neck, quickly. But in the days when such factors – height, weight and neck size of the condemned – where never taken into consideration , the condemned’ s death would have occurred only by a long and inhumane process of strangulation.
Often the family members of the executed person would run under the gibbet and pull his or her legs so as to hasten asphyxiation.
However, it is also the case that the shorter the drop was, the highest the chance of the condemned surviving and being revived if freedom from the noose could be secured within a few minutes.
The latter is just what was attempted on Rev. Dodd’s body as it is recorded that no sooner the cart driver had run forward to cause him to hang, that the same driver returned to steady Dodd’s legs, stop his convulsions and cut the rope.
The Rev. Dodd’s family had pre-arranged and paid for the body of Dodd to be transported from the place of execution in Tyburn to a barber-surgeon’s shop near Oxford Street where an attempt would have been made to resurrect Dodd with hot and cold water baths.
But the mobbing crowd which lined and blocked parts of the journey caused such a delay that the short transit of about eight minutes took over two hours.
By the time the coach reached the barber’s shop, any sign of life in Dodd’s body had of course extinguished.
However the myth of this unfortunate Freemason and man of the Church lived on for many more years because the Northampton Mercury edition for Saturday 18 October 1794 , reported that the Reverend Dodd ‘s body had been successfully revived and that he had escaped to France.
CONCLUSION
All Master Masons are sworn to form, metaphorically speaking, a “column of mutual support and defence” when it is necessary to defend a Brother’s honour. But in the case of this reckless clergyman it is clear that Freemasonry wanted to have no part.
The Reverend Dr. Dodd had insulted the integrity of the wife of the King’s Chancellor, had been keeping a lifestyle little akin to that of a man of the cloth and had been gambling and losing money he did not have. Furthermore as a “Macarone” he might, for all we know, have belonged to that crowd of dandified men who were no strange to the rumours of vice and sodomy which was a serious crime at the time.
The Rev. Dodd had claimed to have been the author of many books – almost 50! – of translations and newspaper articles and yet we know for almost certain that he could not himself write a supplication letter to the King but had to ask Samuel Johnson to do so for him.
He had also fully confessed his crime and naively undertaken to defend himself in a Court of Justice. In short, his weaknesses had disgraced him sufficiently to have pushed the boundary of intervention by his Brethren in his “support and defence” well out of reach. The Right Rev. Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol in 1777, on hearing of the execution of the Rev. Dodd for the crime of forgery, was reported to have exclaimed: “He has hanged for the least of his crimes”.
As for Philip Stanhope, the 5th Earl of Chesterfield [5], he was no common Brother but a nobleman who descended from a family of Freemasons and was destined , within a few years, to become an important Peer of the Kingdom.
He recognised that the only right thing for him to do was to uphold the Masonic principle that “murder, treason, felony and all other offence against the laws of God and the ordinances of the realm” – perpetrated by a Freemason and confessed to another – “must at all time be most especially excepted” from being kept a secret. And so the Lord chose neither to excuse nor to pardon the Rev. Dodd but by even testifying in Court for the Prosecution, he sealed Dodd’s fate.
In closing, we must not think that the outcome of this story is indicative of a society and of a Masonic Order which were upholders of rule and justice. They were not, particularly in that epoch.
In society – and by reflection in the Craft – then like now, all are equal but some are and will always be “more equal than others”!
ByW.Bro. Leonardo Monno Anglisani – NHL 6557 ,Middlesex, England
The author forbids any reproduction or publication of this article, in full or in part, without his explicit authorization.
SOURCES
The Masonic Square (UK)
“Dr William Dodd Grand Chaplain” by Bernard Williamson
“Reverend William Dodd” - article published in the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon’s website
“The sad case of Dr. Dodd” – from “Everybody’s Boswell”
[2] The Lodge was named St Alban’s Lodge in the year 1771
[3] From “Oscar Wilde prefigured: Queer Fashioning and British Caricature, 1750-1900” by Dominic Janes
[4] A twenty four pages long text that is remarkable for the amount of lexicon used. The Rev. Dodd dedicated it to the Reverend Mr Villette, Ordinary of Newgate Prison
[5] Philip Stanhope (10.11.1755-29.08.1815) became the British Ambassador to Spain (1784-1787) and Master of the Mint (1789-1790), Joint Postmaster General (1790-1791) and Master of the Horse (1798-1804).
Masonic research can be divided into two main groups: the mainstream one that prefers a strict academic approach that considers 1717 as the official beginning of Freemasonry; and that which is mystical and prefers a spiritual approach, connecting Freemasonry with the Ancient Mysteries, Egypt, the Templars, Gnosticism, Alchemy and other spiritual and initiatic traditions.
Two examples of the former are the Quatour Coronatorum Lodge of Research, probably the most famous Lodge of Research at present, and the Bristol Masonic Society. Two examples of the latter are the Cornerstone Society and the Dormer Masonic Study Circle. Their esoteric approach is maybe not to everyone’s taste; however it is without doubt that their papers are hugely interesting and thought-provoking to say the least.
Perhaps for fear of being perceived as a religious Organisation – which we absolutely are not – Freemasonry publicly tends to underline the charitable, social and moral sides but never the spiritual one which should really be its fulcrum.
As Bro Darren Lorente states in his paper called “The spiritual dimension of Freemasonry” : We cannot deny the fact that our ritual is full of spiritual references and compels us to reach out to God and to acquire self-knowledge and self-improvement. These are spiritual quests. Unless we really absorb the meaning of the ritual, we will just be a club like any other with the sole difference of having some particular eccentricities, i.e. wearing aprons and sashes. Will we not be doing ourselves and the candidates that follow us a disservice by ignoring the spiritual dimension of Freemasonry? I somehow think this will be the case”.
There are wealth of documents in existence and coincidences which are far too consistent not to be considered seriously. Although we do not have definitive proof about how much older than 1717 we really are, research is quite strongly indicating that our history is very ancient indeed and most likely connected to spiritual traditions as far back as the Ancient Mysteries.
The Ancient Mysteries promoted self-improvement and self-knowledge. They required initiation. They had degrees to be obtained progressively. It was a journey of the spirit, a “journey towards light, as the Masonic writer Julian Rees calls it.
Or, as the influential Masonic writer Walter Leslie Wilmshurst described it:
These mysteries were formerly taught (…) in circumstances of the greatest seclusion and secrecy (. . .) All the great teachers of humanity, Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Moses, Aristotle, Virgil, the author of the Homeric poems and the great Greek tragedians, along with St John (…) were initiates of the Sacred Mysteries.
The Greek historian Plutarch, a Mystery initiate himself, describes how the candidate was left in complete and utter darkness. At the end of this darkness period, the initiate would receive a heavy blow to the forehead to open up his skull and set the spirit free.
The oldest known Masonic text in existence is The Halliwell Manuscript, or Regius Poem, written between 1390 and 1425.The Regius Poem ‘s introduction stated that the ‘craft of masonry, began with Euclid in Egypt, and came to England in the reign of King Athelstan (927-939). Around the year 1450, the second oldest Masonic text – the Cooke Manuscript – traces Masonry back to Jabal, son of Lamech (from Genesis) and tells how this knowledge came to Euclid, from him to the Children of Israel (while they were in Egypt), and so on through an elaborate path to Athelstan. This myth formed the basis for subsequent manuscript constitutions, all tracing Masonry back to biblical times, and fixing its institutional establishment in England during the reign of Athelstan.
In France, the 1737 lecture of Chevalier Ramsay maintained that Crusader Masons had revived the Craft with secrets recovered in the Holy Land, under the patronage of both the Knights Templars and the Knights Hospitaller – also known as Knights of St John.
Much more recently, several authors have linked the Templars to the timeline of Freemasonry through the imagery of the carvings in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, where the Templars have sought refuge after the violent dissolution of the order started on the 13 October 1307 and completed by 1314 with the execution of their last Grand Master Jacques De Molay. In the very successful and controversial book The Hiram Key, Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight describe a timeline starting in ancient Egypt and taking in Jesus, the Templars, and Rosslyn before arriving at modern Freemasonry.
Rosslyn Chapel was built by the later William St Clair, who brought Europe’s finest masons to Scotland for the purpose, building the nearby village of Roslyn to house them. Even a quick tour of this amazing chapel is enough to show its strong connections to Freemasonry when in the 1400s, Freemasonry was not supposed to be anywhere to be seen, if we believe the historical “orthodox” version. Rosslyn Chapel is not at all Christian, as it is usually described: the symbolism is profusely Egyptian, Celtic, Jewish, Templar and Masonic. The only Christian symbols are Victorian modifications.
In the eastern side of Rosslyn we can see two splendid pillars called the Mason’s pillar and the Apprentice pillar. The official story tells that a Rosslyn master mason went to Rome in order to gather inspiration for the design of the pillars.
But in the meantime, an apprentice in Rosslyn built one on his own. When the master came back and found that his pupil’s pillar was much better than anything he could have ever conceived, he killed the apprentice. .. with a mallet hit to his forehead. There is clear evidence that this story is false. William St Clair masterminded and personally supervised any detail of the work. Any carving was to be created in wood first, in order for him to approve it. So it is utterly unthinkable that an apprentice was able to build one of the most important pillars of the chapel out of his own initiative.
Continuing to walk in the chapel, we find the Indian maize arch. There wouldn’t be anything special with this, if it were not that the Indian maize plant was only known in North America and unknown in Europe until the 1600s; but unbelievably there it is, clearly sculpted in Rosslyn in the year 1440. This does make sense though, considering there seems to be evidence that the first St Clair Earl of Orkneys had, with Templar money, commissioned a fleet of twelve ships to a voyage to the “new world’ prior to 1400. And a medieval knights image has been found in Westford, Massachusetts; although medieval knights were not around at the time of Christopher Columbus’ discovery, let alone the fact that Christopher Columbus did not even reach the USA. How do we explain that image?
Talking about the American continent, it is impressive what can be found while researching the concept of America: it is actually a very old concept among the Mandaeans.
The Mandaeans are an ethno-religious group of Southern Mesopotamia also known, among Iraqi and Iranian Muslims, as Sabians. The Mandaeans are the last surviving baptising sect; they follow the Gnostic belief called Mandaeism. Their belief regularly mentions the star called “Merika` which they placed west, across the ocean, marking a land. The amazing point here is that Mandaeism said so a good 2000 years ago! These are the same Mandaeans who believed St John the Baptist, a Mystery initiate, to be their great prophet, the last prophet in fact; they called him “Son of Man”.
It is certainly only a coincidence that the Templars, during their time in the Middle- East, met the Mandaeans; and that the Knights Hospitaller were also called Knights of St John.
It is a coincidence that St John the Baptist’s life is celebrated on 24 June, which is when the first Grand Lodge met in 1717, the “official” beginning of Freemasonry. It certainly is another coincidence that Freemasons were known, until a short time ago, as “St John’s Men’; and that the Antients installed their Masters during St John’s Day.
So, let’s see what we have so far;
The Gnostic Mandaeans worship St John the Baptist, a Mystery initiate, and were known by the Templars.
The Templars have visited America much earlier than its official discovery, which makes sense if we consider their knowledge of Mandaeism and its “Merika” concept.
The Templars’ American expedition has been organised by St Clair who created Rosslyn, a safe haven for Templars escaping persecution.
Rosslyn features a Wealth of Gnostic and Masonic symbolism, to include the Hiram Abif legend.
St Clair and Rosslyn are historically connected to Freemasonry (the St Clair family has been ‘hereditary Scottish Grand Masters’ for three centuries, having given up this right only in 1736).
Freemasonry officially, started on 24 June, St John’s Day, 1717; which is the same day of the year the Antients installed their Grand Masters.
Now: it is starting to become quite difficult to believe that a bunch of gentlemen met in a pub on whatever random 1717 date, drank beer and created our Fraternity’s first Grand Lodge just out of few random lodges, adapting whatever ritual from cathedral builders they knew and without any spiritual or esoteric connection.
How comes it is that the mythology, the symbolism, the very name and legend of the Master Builder are borrowed from every imaginable source – Kabbalistic, Gnostic, Neo-Platonic, Buddhist, and Egyptian?
I personally believe (and many others like me) that Freemasonry is part of an esoteric line of thought, a stream of spiritual truth passed in a straight line through time immemorial using symbols which are eternal human archetypes.
Borrowing again W.L. Wilmshurst’s words from his enlightening book Meaning of Masonry:
Masonry is a modern perpetuation of great systems of initiation that have existed for the spiritual instruction of men in all parts of the world since the beginning of time. Whether in ancient India, Egypt, Greece, Italy or Mexico, or among the Druids of Europe, temples of initiation have ever existed (…). Our rituals and doctrines are an authentic embodiment of a secret doctrine and a secret process that have always existed (…)
Can we trace this exact line with 100% irrefutable proof? We will probably never be able to. But the evidence we already have is pointing quite clearly to the fact that Freemasonry is very ancient and is a path of the spirit, a way of spiritual and personal betterment. Experiencing our rituals more deeply and progressing in Freemasonry with open hearts and minds, makes us sense the depth of the message, makes us feel it. The Masonic experience becomes so much more alive! It should make us think that retention is a negligible problem for Masonic lodges and organisations oriented towards the spiritual and the esoteric. I think this happens because Freemasonry experienced with such a deeper and all-encompassing approach is far more interesting and fulfilling to the Brethren.
Lord Northampton, former Pro Grand Master and charismatic leader of English Freemasonry for 14 years before his retirement in 2010, said the following at the inauguration of the esoteric study circle called Cornerstone Society:
It is important that at the centre of Freemasonry there is a core of brethren who do understand the spiritual message that our rituals contain. I am sure that like me there are many who joined Freemasonry as earnest seekers after light and wisdom, only to find that much of the masonry as practiced today in many parts of the world, has forgotten [its] destiny. Nevertheless, it has survived for nearly 400 years and possibly more – and as far as I am concerned, carries the torch for what could loosely be described as the hermetic tradition. It is my fervent hope that through this Society and other similar initiatives it will rediscover its spiritual heritage and become an active catalyst for the transformation of Man’s consciousness.
Published by courtesy of the author WB Corrado Canonici
The Cable-Tow is purely Masonic in its meaning and use, or so we are told.
(…) In an early pamphlet by Pritard, issued in 1730 the cable-tow is a called a “Cable-Rope” and in another edition : a “Tow-Line.” However in neither pamphlet is the word ever used in exactly the same form and sense in which it is used today. (…) The whole Masonic Lodge is a symbol and every object and every act performed within it , is symbolical. The whole fits together into a system of symbolism by which Masonry veils the truth that it seeks to teach.
As far back as we can go in the history of any initiation, we find the cable-tow, or something similar , used very much as it is used in a Masonic Lodge today. Whether it is called “Khabel” from the Hebrew or “Cabel” from the Dutch (both meaning a rope) the fact is the same. In India, in Egypt and in most of the ancient world , a cord or cable was being used in the same way and for the same purpose.
So far as we can make out, the cable-tow seems to represent some kind of pledge, a vow in which a man pledges his life. We even find the cable-tow being employed outside the initiatory rites. For example, in a striking scene recorded in the Bible (I Kings 20:31,32), the description of which is almost Masonic, “Ben-Hadad” – the King of Syria – had been defeated in battle by the King of Israel and his servants are making a plea for his life. They approach the King of Israel “with ropes upon their heads,” and speak of his “Brother, Ben-Hadad.”
Why did they wear ropes, or nooses, on their heads?
Possibly to symbolize a pledge of some sort, given in a Lodge or otherwise, between the two Kings, of which they wished to remind the King of Israel. The King of Israel asked: “Is he yet alive? He is my brother.” Then we read that the servants of the Syrian King watched to see if the King of Israel made any sign, and, catching his sign, they brought the captive King of Syria before him. Not only was the life of the King of Syria spared, but a new pledge was made between the two men.
The cable-tow, then, is also the visible symbol of a vow by which a man has pledged his life, or has pledged himself to save another man’s life at the risk of his own. Its length and strength are measured by the ability of that man to fullfil his obligation ; a test of both his capacity and his character.
If a lodge is a symbol of the world and the initiation is our birth into the world (of Masonry) , the cable-tow is not dissimilar from the cord which unites a child to his/her mother at birth. Just as the physical cord, when cut, is replaced by a tie of love between mother and child, so, in one of the most impressive moments of initiation, the cable-tow is removed, because the Brother, by his oath at the Altar of Obligation, is bound by a tie stronger than any physical cable.
The cable-tow is the sign of the pledge of the life of a man. As in his oath he agrees to forfeit his life if his vow is violated, so he pledges his life to the service of the Craft. He agrees to go to the aid of a Brother, using all his power in his behalf, “if within the length of his cable-tow,” which means, if within the reach of his power.
But, let us remember that a cable-tow has two ends. If it binds a Mason to the Fraternity, by the same token it binds the Fraternity to each man in it. Happily, in our days we are beginning to see the other side of the obligation – that the Fraternity is under vows to its members to guide, instruct and train them for the effective service of the Craft and of Humanity.
Control, obedience, guidance – these are the three meanings of the cable-tow. Of course, by Control we do not mean that Masonry commands us in the same sense that it uses force. Not at all ! Masonry rules men as beauty rules an artist, as love rules a lover. It controls us, shapes us through its moral teaching and so it wins obedience and gives guidance and direction to our lives.
What is the length of a cable-tow ?
Some say it is seven hundred and twenty feet, or twice the measure of a circle. Others say that the length of the cable-tow is three miles. But such figures are merely symbolical, since to one man it may mean three miles and to another three thousand miles – or to the end of the earth.
For each Mason the cable-tow reaches as far as his moral principles go and his material conditions will allow. Of that distance each person must be his own judge!
So mote it be.
by Anon
extract from the "short Talk Bulletin" - vol IV March, 1926 N.3
(This is an extract from “Historical Consideration of the Origin and Development of Freemasonry” by Arthur Edwards Waite published in its entirety in 1923)
Less than forty years after the foundation of Grand Lodge , Knightly Orders begun to develop with titles , in some cases , being borrowed from the old institutions of Christian Chivalry.
The invention was so successful that those Orders multiplied from 1754 to the threshold of the French Revolution. New denominations were being devised when the old titles were exhausted and many rituals established.
Twenty years after the date of the London Grand Lodge and when that of Scotland may not have been twelve months old, the memorable Scottish Freemason Andrew Michael Ramsay, delivered an historical address in a French Lodge in Paris, in the course of which he explained that the Masonic Brotherhood arose in Palestine during the period of the Crusades, under the protection of Christian Knights, with the object of restoring Christian Churches which had been destroyed by Saracens in the Holy Land.
The foster-mother of Masonry, was the Chivalry of St. John.
Ramsay left the Masonic arena after that speech and died in the early part of 1743, but his discourse produced a profound impression on French Freemasonry. He offered no evidence, but France undertook to produce the creation of Rites and Degrees of Masonic Knighthood, no trace of which is to be found prior of Ramsay. Their prototypes were the Knights of Malta, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, the Knights of St.Lazarus – all under the Papal seal – and the Order of Christ under the patronage of the Portuguese Crown. There is no need to say that those Religious and Military Orders have nothing in common with the Operative Masonry of the past. When the story of a secret perpetuation of the old Knights Templar rose up within Freemasonry, it came about that the Templar element overshadowed the dreams and pretensions of other Masonic Chivalries, or, more correctly, outshone them all. The Chevalier Ramsay never spoke of the Templar ; the points of his statements were that :
the hypothetical building confraternity of Palestine united with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem;
that such fraternity became established in various countries of Europe as the Crusaders drifted back;
that its chief centre , in the thirteenth century , was Kilwinning in Scotland.
But the French and German Masonic minds went on to work upon this thesis, and in presenting the Craft with the credentials of Knightly connections, it substituted the Order of the Temple for the Chivalry chosen by Ramsay. The Battle of Lepanto in October 1571 and the Siege of Vienna had invested the annals of the St. John Knighthood with a great light of valour. But this was little in comparison with the attraction which, for some reason, attached to the Templar name and was magnified when the proposition arose that the great chivalry had continued to exist in secret from the days of Philippe le Bel even to the second half of the eighteenth century. But of course there is no evidence of any Rite or Degree of Masonic Chivalry prior to 1737, the date of the discourse of Ramsay.
According to the Rite of the Strict Observance the proscribed Order was carried by its Marshal, Pierre d’Aumont, who escaped with a few other Knights to the Isles of Scotland, disguised as Operative Masons. They remained there and under the same veil the Templar Order continued to exist in secret from generation to generation under the shadow of the mythical Mount Heredom of Kilwinning.
The first Masonic Chivalry Order which put forward the story of the Templar origin was The Strict Observance , founded by Baron von Hund in Germany between about 1751 and 1754.
The Story of the origin
The story goes that the Templar Order began in poverty, but Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, gave them a house in the vicinity of the site where Solomon’s Temple had been built. When it was put in repair by Hugh de Payens and the rest of the first Brethren, their digging operations unearthed an iron casket which contained priceless treasures. Chief among them was the process of the Great Work in Alchemy, in other words the secret of transmuting metals, as it had been communicated to Solomon by the Master Hiram Abiff.
Only in this way it is possible to account for the wealth which adorned and characterised the First Temple. The discovery also explains the wealth acquired by the Templar Order and which it later led to their destruction. Traitors who knew of the secret, although they had not themselves attained it, revealed the fact to Clement V and Philip the Fair of France, and the real purpose of the persecution which followed was to wrest the transmuting process from the hands of its custodians. Jacques de Molay and his co-heirs died to preserve such secret but three of the initiated Knights made their escape and after long wandering from Country to Country, they found refuge in the caves of Mount Heredom. They were helped by Knights of St. Andrew of the Thistle, with whom they made an alliance and on whom they conferred their knowledge. To conceal it from others and yet transmit it through the ages , they created the Masonic Order in 1340; but the alchemical secret, which is the physical term of the Mystery, has only ever been reserved to those who can emerge from the veils of allegory , that is to say, for the chiefs of St. Andrew of the Thistle, who are Princes of the Rosy Cross and the Grand Council of the Chapter.
There is nothing in this story that can be taken seriously but this is not to say that there is no vestige of possibilities behind it. In which case the old material would then have been worked over and adapted to Masonic purposes, inspired by the oration of Ramsay.
How can one distinguish a Freemason from other men ?
By his true character, of course !
The real Freemason is distinguished from the rest of mankind by the unrestrained rectitude of his conduct.
Other men are honest in fear of the punishment that the Law might inflict; they are religious in expectation of being rewarded or in dread of the consequences in the next world. A Freemason would be a just man even if there were no laws, whether human or divine !
A Freemason is and remains the same under every climate, under every system of Religion.
He kneels before the throne of God in gratitude for the blessings he has received and in humble solicitations for his future protection. He venerates the good men of all religions; he disturbs not the religion of other men. He restrains his passions because they cannot be indulged without injuring his neighbor or himself. He gives no offense because he does not choose to be offended.
A Freemason is honest upon principle !
Source The Farmers Almanac (1823 edition) Andover, Massachusetts.
Masonic Etiquette is very much an unpublished as well as an unspoken code of behaviour and therefore it can only be learnt in time or through observation.
But in general it is expected that a Freemason exhibits ,at the very least and from his initiation, a decorum that is appropriate in polite societies, before s0meone should have to explain his errors.
The Master in charge of his Lodge for the terms of 12 months is the most powerful of the member as he has the authority to:
rule any Brother who is out of order on any subject and at anytime.
decide on what can and cannot be discussed.
if a Brother insists on speaking after the Master has ruled that he is out of order, he may be committing a Masonic offence
Courteous brethren accept the requests made by the Master to serve in various committees as determined by the Lodge’s need
The following items are not Masonic official offences but a display a lack of Masonic etiquette. In other words they are considered to be “bad form” or “bad manners”
WALKING BETWEEN THE ALTAR AND THE WORSHIPFUL MASTER
As a courtesy to the Worshipful Master, Brethren are not allowed to pass between the Altar and the East when the Lodge is open. The “eternal light and wisdom” which the Worshipful Master represents in the Lodge room should never be put in the shadow, not even for a second, while a Degree work is taking place.
SITTING IN THE EAST
Brethren do not take a seat in the East without an invitation, even if all other seats are full. While in the tiled room all Brethren may be equal to one another, all lodge officers have studied and contributed hard to be in their offices. It is the Worshipful Master’s prerogative to recognise their devotion and loyalty and therefore to honour them with an invite to sit in the East with him.
In other words: if you were in your centre of cult and all available seats or places were full, would you go uninvited to sit beside the Priest, Rabbi, Imam etc ? Note that this rule will also apply to the sitting at the Festive Board.
ALWAYS FULLY DRESSED
Brethren do not enter the Lodge room without their apron already on. The formalities of the Lodge demand that a Brother should enter the Temple only fully dressed and ready for the labour. Therefore when you pass by the Tyler and enter the Lodge room, ensure that all is as it should be.
STAND WHEN YOU SPEAK
No one sits while speaking in the Lodge room, no matter if he addresses an officer or another Brother. While the Worshipful Master when elected gains no personal special honour, it is to the Worshipful Master that a member stands to address. It is just a form of respect!
If you wish to address the audience, you will stand so all may see who you are and request permission to speak from the Worshipful Master.
TALKING
Talking to the Brother sitting next to you while a degree is being worked is considered bad manner! The Lodge room is the Temple of the G.A.O.T.U., just like your Church or place of cult is of your God. Talking – even whispering! – without asking to do so shows irreverence for the proceedings. God’s house is not for social conversation but for worship and for learning the lessons of the day.
Unless of course you have requested the Worshipful Master’s permission to speak. Therefore if you have something of interest to say, raise your hand and when the Worshipful Master recognises you, stand up and salute.
To address the Brethren, you must begin with [1] : “Worshipful Master, Wardens and Brethren” ……
SPEAKING
If you wish to offer a motion or discuss a matter , advise the Worshipful Master, in private, before the Lodge is open. It is an important courtesy to him because the Worshipful Master may have plans for the meeting and your motion may not have the purpose or find the time to fit within the allotted timeframe. If you do not ask him , you may end up being publicly refused and appear to be a little arrogant or disagreeable.
OBEYING THE GAVEL
The gavel must be obeyed immediately. Failure to do so is a great discourtesy. The Worshipful Master is all powerful in the Lodge and his word is final. He can put or refuse a motion, he can rule any brother who is out of order on any subject and at any time. Only he can say what he will be permitted or not permitted to be discussed.
When and if a brother is rapped down he should obey at once, without any further discussion.
TURNING YOUR BACK
Never turn your back on the Master of the Lodge before you speak, unless he gives you permission to do so.
SALUTING
The salutation to the Worshipful Master shows your renewed pledge of fidelity and service. It is your public display of decorum before all the other brothers. It also shows your courteous, heart felt respect for all that the Master stands for and shows that you acknowledge his authority.
BALLOTTING
Never enter or leave the lodge at will during a ceremony. It is discourteous to do so during a degree work , a ballot ,a speech and so forth.
Only when the Master has put the lodge at ease and before he sounds the gavel, you may leave the lodge without being considered rude and after having asked the Master for permission. It is Masonic etiquette that all brethren are expected to vote when requested to do so. Failure to cast your vote may be interpreted as a failure to fulfil your duties and it is in direct disobedience of the Master’s request.
VOTING IS MANDATORY
When an issue is put to a vote, all brethren should vote. The brother, who does not do so, distorts the ballot. No matter what reason you may have for not wanting to vote, you injure the lodge’s ballot, its value and its secrecy by not doing so.
SMOKING
No smoking is allowed in a lodge room. The ceremony you take part in and watch is a solemn occasion.
SHOULDERING THE WORK
It is good Masonic etiquette to accept a request made in the name of the lodge if it is within your abilities. It means the lodge trusts you to fulfil such a request based on your competence.
CORRECTION OF ERRORS
No one, except for the Worshipful Master, may correct any mistake that may occur during the course of a ceremony, even when the error is a serious one. It is discourteous to point out ritual mistakes in front of the lodge brethren or even criticise a brother for them after the ceremony.
GOOD POSTURE
Lounging, leaning and slovenly attitudes should be avoided. Poor posture is considered poor Masonic etiquette.
NO PRACTICAL JOKES OR OFF-COLOUR STORIES
The great lessons taught by our ritual must never be demeaned. The lodge room is not a proper location for the telling practical jokes, pranks, horseplay nor for off-colour stories.
USE PROPER MASONIC NAMES
It is common courtesy to be accurate in mentioning a brother’s name and officers, members and visitors must be addressed by their correct Masonic titles.
ENTERING OR LEAVING THE LODGE AFTER THE MEETING HAS BEGUN
If a brother should enter the Lodge after the ceremony has open, he must step onto the carpet, salute the Worshipful Master and apologise to him. The same should be done if the brother has to leave the ceremony before time.
ALL PRAYERS AT THE LODGE FUNCTIONS ARE NON-SECTARIAL
Freemasonry holds no sectarian views. Freemasonry embraces all religions. A Freemason may choose the religion of his choice in his private life but should be aware and open to the fact that other brethren do not necessarily share nor were they brought up with the religion dogmas and beliefs that you, personally, embrace. Prayers at the lodge functions should be in keeping with Masonic teachings and never be an expression of specific sectarian or dogmatic creeds.
It is a matter of courtesy!
Therefore prayers are always directed to the Creator, to the G.A.O.T.U. and not to someone specific such as Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, Allah, Muhammad, Jehovah etc. We must always bear in mind the meaning of the tale of the construction of the Babel Tower : the reason our Creator has so many different names across the world is because when Man built the Tower taller and taller to glorify himself, God decided to punish him by changing his common language into the many idioms spoken on Earth.
TURN THE MOBILE PHONE OFF
All mobile phones must be turned off before entering the lodge room so as to not disrupt the proceedings.
— ### —
And last , but no least, a lodge which does not honour its Worshipful Master, no matter how the Brethren personally feel about the man himself, lacks Masonic courtesy !
[1] This is kept basic, as there may be other higher officers in the Lodge whom must be also address but each with its respective manner
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despite the fact that he was one of the most glittering figures of one of the spectacular periods of human history. There are few characters of the time of which so much is recorded but who are so little remembered. As the stories of the first and second Temples form the basis of the Craft and the Royal Arch it is perhaps surprising that the story of the “Third Temple” – for, that is what it really was – and its builder, has never been told in Freemasonry.
Zerubbabel, and the rest, but also Herod?
as “a fashionable fellow in the mid-18th-century England who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner” and also as a person “who exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion in terms of clothes, fastidious eating and gambling”.
Earl of Chesterfield
With no lawyer to defend him, he pleaded for mercy with the Court and delivered a speech from which we have extracted the following:
to visit the garden of the school of Ashbourne; a very pretty place on a bank of the river. It was a hot day and they sat on a bench for a little rest, whereupon Johnson – Boswell reports in his diaries – told him of his “humane interference” on behalf of the Rev. Dr Dodd whom he barely knew. Knowing Johnson’s persuasive power of writing Dodd had asked him, through the interception of the late Countess of Harrington, to employ his pen in his favour by writing a letter of supplication to the King so that “(the King) may spare me the ignominy of public death which the public itself is solicitous to waive, and grant me in some distant part of the globe to pass the remainder of my days in penitence an prayer (…)”.
Boswell was expressing his full of admiration for the determination with which Dodd had met his creator a few days earlier. “Dr Dodd seemed to be willing to die and was full of hopes and happiness”, said Boswell. But Johnson retorted that hardly any man dies in public with apparent resolution: “Sir” –said Johnson – “Dr Dodd would have given both his hands and both his legs to have lived because the better a man is, the more afraid is he of death, having a clear view of infinite purity”.
The death-by-hanging technique improved only in the 20th century when mathematical formulas begun to be applied to determine the length of the rope and the height of the drop required to break the person’s neck, quickly. But in the days when such factors – height, weight and neck size of the condemned – where never taken into consideration , the condemned’ s death would have occurred only by a long and inhumane process of strangulation.
Dormer Masonic Study Circle. Their esoteric approach is maybe not to everyone’s taste; however it is without doubt that their papers are hugely interesting and thought-provoking to say the least.
King Athelstan (927-939). Around the year 1450, the second oldest Masonic text – the Cooke Manuscript – traces Masonry back to Jabal, son of Lamech (from Genesis) and tells how this knowledge came to Euclid, from him to the Children of Israel (while they were in Egypt), and so on through an elaborate path to Athelstan. This myth formed the basis for subsequent manuscript constitutions, all tracing Masonry back to biblical times, and fixing its institutional establishment in England during the reign of Athelstan.
. In the very successful and controversial book The Hiram Key, Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight describe a timeline starting in ancient Egypt and taking in Jesus, the Templars, and Rosslyn before arriving at modern Freemasonry.
aster came back and found that his pupil’s pillar was much better than anything he could have ever conceived, he killed the apprentice. .. with a mallet hit to his forehead. There is clear evidence that this story is false. William St Clair masterminded and personally supervised any detail of the work. Any carving was to be created in wood first, in order for him to approve it. So it is utterly unthinkable that an apprentice was able to build one of the most important pillars of the chapel out of his own initiative.
The Mandaeans are an ethno-religious group of Southern Mesopotamia also known, among Iraqi and Iranian Muslims, as Sabians. The Mandaeans are the last surviving baptising sect; they follow the Gnostic belief called Mandaeism. Their belief regularly mentions the star called “Merika` which they placed west, across the ocean, marking a land. The amazing point here is that Mandaeism said so a good 2000 years ago! These are the same Mandaeans who believed St John the Baptist, a Mystery initiate, to be their great prophet, the last prophet in fact; they called him “Son of Man”.
Lord Northampton, former Pro Grand Master and charismatic leader of English Freemasonry for 14 years before his retirement in 2010, said the following at the inauguration of the esoteric study circle called Cornerstone Society:
his/her mother at birth. Just as the physical cord, when cut, is replaced by a tie of love between mother and child, so, in one of the most impressive moments of initiation, the cable-tow is removed, because the Brother, by his oath at the Altar of Obligation, is bound by a tie stronger than any physical cable.
delivered an historical address in a French Lodge in Paris, in the course of which he explained that the Masonic Brotherhood arose in Palestine during the period of the Crusades, under the protection of Christian Knights, with the object of restoring Christian Churches which had been destroyed by Saracens in the Holy Land.
and the Siege of Vienna had invested the annals of the St. John Knighthood with a great light of valour. But this was little in comparison with the attraction which, for some reason, attached to the Templar name and was magnified when the proposition arose that the great chivalry had continued to exist in secret from the days of Philippe le Bel even to the second half of the eighteenth century. But of course there is no evidence of any Rite or Degree of Masonic Chivalry prior to 1737, the date of the discourse of Ramsay.
Other men are honest in fear of the punishment that the Law might inflict; they are religious in expectation of being rewarded or in dread of the consequences in the next world. 
before the throne of God in gratitude for the blessings he has received and in humble solicitations for his future protection. He venerates the good men of all religions; he disturbs not the religion of other men. He restrains his passions because they cannot be indulged without injuring his neighbor or himself. He gives no offense because he does not choose to be offended.