Origins of the Lodge
It is not quite clear as to how the term “Lodge” came to be applied to the basic organizational unit of Freemasonry.
The term per se most probably originated during the Frankish period (see “The origins of Masonic craft associations: France”, in Part 1 of this article) from the “laubja” or temporary shelters made of foliage that the masons built against the sides of the cathedrals, to live in during construction. This was later transformed into the Old French “loge”, and the Medieval English “logge”.
The term "logge" or “loge” was used in particular for a cabin erected by masons working on the site of a major construction project, such as a church or cathedral, and may consequently have also been a type of occupational nickname for a mason.
By the 14th century the term began to be applied to a mason’s workshop. A manuscript dated 1370 notes,”All ye masons…sall be…ilka day atte morn atte yare worke, in ye loge ya: es ordained to the masonnes atte wyrke”.
By the 15th century it came to be applied to a lawful meeting of Master craftsmen. It is logical to assume, therefore, that a lawful gathering of masons came to be called a “logge”, for the term "atte Logge" appended to a personal name (e.g. Adam atte Logge), often denoted the warden of the masons' lodge. Medieval English had no spelling rules and words were spelled according to sound, and so it appears that the word came to be spelled “lodge”.
Origins of Grand Lodges in England
There is some indication that there was an ancestry of Freemasonry that was associated with both working and non-working masons in England during the 17th century. In York there is evidence of a Masons' Guild lodge in 1663.
The Grand Lodge of York: The earliest reference to the Grand Lodge at York is the minute book of the Lodge at York dated 1705. This Lodge functioned as a Grand Lodge in as much as it possessed its own collection of Old Charges and claimed the right to authorize men, to form themselves into attached extensions of the York Lodge in the towns of Bradford and Scarborough.
There are other records that attest the active condition of English Freemasonry at Yorkshire in 1705. It is inferred, therefore, that it must have been in existence from earlier times and that it interposed between the purely operative and purely speculative Freemasonry. However, the earliest document of the Grand Lodge of York available is a roll of parchment, dating from 1712 to 1730. These York minutes give accounts of meetings of Private lodges (general meetings), General lodges (meetings on the festival day in June), and St. John's Lodges (meetings on the festival day in December). The ruler of the Lodge was called the President, and brethren, who temporarily presided, in the absence of the President, were described as Masters. In the minutes we also find proceedings of meetings described as those of the “Honourable Society and Fraternity of Freemasons”.
The Grand Lodge of York therefore considered itself the Mother Lodge, and co-existed amicably with The Grand Lodge of England in the South till late 18th century
Following the formation of the Grand Lodge of England, the title of the Grand Lodge of York was changed to “The Grand Lodge of all England, TOTIUS ANGLIA”.
There is abundant evidence to prove that the Grand Lodge of York was active till 1792. However, for some reason, it seems to have broken up, for Hughan notes in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum that "All the 'York' Lodges succumbed on the decease of their 'Mother Grand Lodge,' and there has not been a representative of the Antient York Grand Lodge anywhere whatever, throughout this (19th) century."
The Legend of York: From a 15th century manuscript written in the reign of Edward IV, we learn that Prince Edwin, the brother of King Atheltstan who was a student of geometry, granted a charter in A. D. 926 to a company of Masons. Legend has it that Prince Edwin assembled the Masons at York in 926, and ordered them to submit available written documents in various languages about societies of Masons. From the documents so submitted he had formed the English Masonic Constitutions, known more popularly as the Gothic Constitutions.
Gould notes that there is no sufficient evidence that these Regulations now called the York Constitutions or the Gothic Constitutions are those that were adopted in 926.
Darrah remarks that, “So far as this assembly of Masons in York relates to Freemasonry it is simply a myth.”… “While the holding of such an association must be viewed as legendary only, yet whatever assembly may have been held was simply that of an aggregation of rough stone Masons. In no sense did it relate to the cathedral builders of the middle ages.”
Plot notes that the Ancient Charges were “brought into England by St Amphibal and first communicated to St Alban, who set down the Charges of masonry and was made paymaster and Governor of the King's works and gave them charges and manners as St Amphibal had taught him. Which were after confirmed by King Athelstan, whose youngest son Edwyn loved well masonry, took upon him the charges and learned the manners and obtained for them of his father, a free Charter. Whereupon he caused them to assemble at York and to bring all the old Books of their craft and out of them ordained such charges and manners, as they then thought fit ; which charges on the said Schrole or Parchment volum, are in part declared”. This charter has not been found. The Grand Lodge of York considered Prince Edwin their first Grandmaster.
Gothic Constitutions: The earliest record of the old Constitution's is the Ancient poem commonly known as the Halliwell or Regius Manuscript dated around 1390. The 794 line poem begins by evoking Euclid and his invention of geometry in ancient Egypt and then the spreading of the art of geometry in "divers lands." This is followed by fifteen points for the master concerning both moral behaviour and the operation of work on a building. There are then fifteen points for craftsmen which follow a similar pattern.
Another manuscript known as the Cooke manuscript, dating from the 15th century also gives a legendary origin of stonemasonry. While the Regius claims that stonemasonry was invented by Euclid to provide employment for sons of the nobility in ancient Egypt, Cooke, extends the antiquity of the craft back beyond Egypt to biblical times, with the origins of the craft placed in the pre-flood era during Cain’s lifetime.
The legends have been embellished by succeeding authors. There are 19 major and many minor manuscripts, totaling approximately 100 in number, whose contents build upon the medieval manuscripts and were compiled between 1583 and 1717. The contents of all these ancient manuscripts are all very similar and historians presume that they are copies of some earlier documents which were, apparently, lost through wars, holocaust, required book-burnings and the chaos and destruction through the ages. These Gothic Constitutions guided Freemasonry in Britain for a century and half till doubt was cast on them after the formation of the Grand Lodge of London.
The first mention of Hiram Abif is In the Dowland Manuscript (1550), but only as one name among many. The legend of King Solomon and Hiram Abif appears to have been incorporated after the publication of the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 with its Old Testament accounts of Solomon and his Temple.
The Grand Lodge of London: In 1717 there were only four lodges existing in London, and they determined to form a Grand Lodge (according to Gould in his “History of Freemasonry” there were no Grand Lodges prior to the formation of the Grand Lodge in 1717). Anderson's Constitutions, published in 1738, is practically the only known account of the formation of the Grand Lodge for there is no existing record of the transactions or activities of the newly formed Grand Lodge between the year 1717 and 1723.
The Grand Lodge of London and Westminster was formed, on 24 June 1717 (the Feast of St. John the Baptist) at a meeting of the four lodges held in the "Apple Tree Tavern," in London, and Anthony Sayer was elected as the first Grand Master. It was agreed, among other things, "that no lodge should thereafter be permitted to be held (the four old lodges alone excepted) unless by authority of a charter granted by the Grand Master, with the consent and approbation of Grand Lodge."
The four Lodges agreed to recognize every Lodge, which should thenceforth be regularly constituted, and to admit the Masters and Wardens to all privileges of the Grand Lodge.
The Book of Constitutions: In June 1718, George Payne was proclaimed Grand Master, and he invited the brethren to bring to the Grand Lodge any old writings and records concerning Masons and Masonry that referred to Masonic procedures of ancient times.
In June 1719, Dr. John T. Desaguliers was elected as the third Grand Master. Dr. Desaguliers was an erudite and learned man known in some circles as the Father of Modern Speculative Freemasonry. it His learning and social position gave a social standing to the Institution, and brought into its fold noblemen and men of influence. The Craft rapidly increased in numerical strength, respectability and influence under him with many noblemen taking part in the ceremonies, and subsequently officiating as officers. Another point in which Desaguliers took much interest was in the investigation and collection of the old records of the society.
The Mother Lodge Kilwinning
In 1720 Payne undertook the first compilation of the available material into the “General Regulations”, commonly known as the Ancient Charges.
In June 1721 the Duke of Montague, who was at that time Grand Master, ordered James Anderson to "revise and digest them in a better method." Anderson took the fragmentary data which had been collected by Payne and added to it the findings of his own research and submitted his findings. He gives the legend of Prince Edwin taken, as he says, from "a certain record of freemasons written in the reign of King Edward IV," which manuscript, Preston asserts, "is said to have been in the possession or the famous Elias Ashmole." As the old manuscripts were inaccessible, and till date few authentic records have been discovered, the general adoption of the legend by the Craft for more than a century and a half can be attributed purely the publication of the legend by Anderson, and subsequently by Preston.
In December 1721, a committee of fourteen learned brethren was appointed to examine the result of Anderson’s labors. In March 1722 Anderson’s work was adopted by the Grand Lodge. It was published in 1723, entitled "The Book of Constitutions of the Freemasons, containing the History, Charges, Regulations, etc., of the Most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity, for the use of the Lodges."
The “Constitutions” formed the code governing modern speculative Freemasonry. To this was annexed the regulation binding the Grand Master and his successors, and the Master of every Lodge, to preserve these regulations inviolable, and ordering them to be read in open lodge at least once in each year prior to his installation in the chair of the Lodge. The Book mentions that "All these foreign Lodges are under the Patronage of our Grand Master of England….. But the old Lodge at YORK City, and the Lodges Of SCOTLAND, IRELAND, FRANCE, and ITALY, affecting Independency, are under their own Grand Masters, tho' they have the same Constitutions Charges, Regulations, &c., for Substance, with their Brethren of England."
The Grand Lodge of England: In 1738, the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster changed its name to “The Grand Lodge of England”, and Anderson rewrote the Constitutions.
The British Constitutions, or “Old Charges," do not seem to have predecessors nor rivals. Gould contends that, “The so-called “Constitutions," peculiar to England and Scotland, contain legends or traditional history, which are not to be found in the regulations or working statutes of the latter country, nor do they appear in the Ordinances of the Craft either in France or Germany”.
The United Grand Lodge of England: In 1809 the Ancient and Modern Grand Lodges appointed Commissioners to negotiate an equitable Union. Over a period of four years the articles of Union were negotiated and agreed and a ritual developed reconciling those worked by the two Grand Lodges. On 27 December 1813 a ceremony was held at Freemasons' Hall, London forming the United Grand Lodge of England with the Duke of Sussex, as the Grand Master. The combined ritual was termed the Emulation Ritual and adopted as a standard ritual by the United Grand Lodge of England, although other rituals continue to be used in many lodges.
Origins of Grand Lodges in rest of Britain
The Grand Lodge of Ireland: No specific record exists of the foundation of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. There are references to Lodge meetings across Dublin in a speech given in Trinity College, Dublin as far back as 1688. The oldest artifact of Fraternal Masonry in Ireland, and one of the oldest Masonic artifacts in the world, is a brass square recovered from Baals Bridge in Limerick during excavations, which dates back to 1507 and is inscribed with the phrase, "I will strive to live with love and care, upon the level and by the square."
The oldest reference to the Grand Lodge of Ireland comes from the Dublin Weekly Journal of 26 June 1725 in which is described a meeting of the Grand Lodge to install the new Grand Master, the first Earl of Rosse, on June 24 1725. The Grand Lodge today has jurisdiction over 13 Provincial Grand Lodges covering all the Freemasons of the island of Ireland, and another 12 provinces worldwide.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland: The oldest record of the Grand Lodge of Scotland is the meeting minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) which date from 31st July 1599. In 1598 William Schaw, signed and promulgated two sets of statutes, or codes of laws, (known as the Schaw Statutes and incorporated into the Gothic charges) one for use by the Craft in general, the other for use by the lodge of Kilwinning. Schaw signed himself as "Master of the Work, Warden of the Masons."
In these Statutes, he declared that the ordinances issued by him for the regulation of lodges considered the lodge at Edinburgh to be for all time, the first and principal lodge in Scotland.
Schaw established permanent lodges for particular towns under his direct control. These lodges started to keep regular minutes, in which the initiation of entered apprentices and fellow crafts is recorded. The earliest available Lodge minutes are the those of Mother Kilwinning (1642), and Aberdeen (1670). Schaw encouraged members of the lodges to take an interest in the latest philosophical and esoteric movements. These new lodges attracted interest from men who were not working stonemasons, and intellectuals joined Scottish Masonic lodges. Eventually, these “gentleman Masons” began to dominate the membership of the Scottish Masonic lodges. The Grand Lodge of Antient, Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland was founded in 1736.
The Ancient Grand Lodge: During the 1730s and 1740s antipathy increased between the Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland who considered the London Grand Lodge to have deviated from the ancient practices of the Craft. From 1717 to 1750, there were a number of Masons and lodges that never affiliated with the Grand Lodge of England.
These unaffiliated Masons and their Lodges were referred to as "Old Masons", or "St. John Masons", and "St. John Lodges". In 1751, five lodges, comprising mainly of Irish freemasons, who were dissatisfied with the way freemasonry was practiced by the Grand Lodge of England, gathered at the Turk's Head Tavern, in Greek Street, Soho, London, and formed a rival “Grand Lodge of England According to the Old Institution”, also known as the Ancient Grand Lodge (as opposed to the Modern Grand Lodge).
Laurence Dermott compiled the constitution of the Ancient Grand Lodge borrowing heavily from the Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of Ireland which had been published in 1751. His work was titled “Ahiman Rezon; or a Help to a Brother; showing the Excellency of Secrecy, and the first cause or motive of the Institution of Masonry; The Principles of the Craft; and the benefits from a Strict Observance thereof, etc., etc.; Also the Old and New Regulations; etc. To which is added the greatest collection of Masons' Songs, etc.”. and published in 1754.