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BACK NEXT Summer 2008 Issue 45 Letter from the Editor Grand Lodge News News and Views On The Level International News Beyond the Craft Perambulating the Lodge Masonic Dining and Celebration Interview: The Grand Chancellor The Orator Walking the Way of Saint James Abd el-Kader: Algerian Nationalist and Freemason Province of Cambridgeshire Library & Museum Brother Lightfoote's Journal Review: Committed to the Flames Review: The Mythology of Secret Societies Review: The Dawn of Astrology Letters to the Editor Internet Library & Museum of Freemasonry Grand Lodge Quarterly Communication Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter RMBI Masonic Samaritan Fund Grand Charity RMTGB Canon Richard Tydeman: Looking unto the Rock Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Masonic History Abd El-Kader: Algerian Nationalist and Freemason Freemasonry can count many extraordinary members in its history, but surely one of the greatest must be Abd El-Kader – an Algerian nationalist, a Sufi Saint, and a towering figure of nineteenth-century Islam. Abd El-Kader was born at Guetna near Mascara in Algeria on 6 September 1808. He was a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed and by the age of fourteen he was a recognised Hafiz – someone who had memorised the entire Koran ... Secrecy and Suppression The closing years of the eighteenth century were enveloped in a climate of fear, with the Tory government of William Pitt the younger suffering the anxiety of revolution, rebellion and riot. The French Revolution in 1789, the subsequent Bloody Terror and the rise of Napoleon had cast a shadow of dread over Great Britain. This had been compounded by rebellion in Ireland in 1798 and frequent riots and protests by the working classes, with groups of ... Texas and the Alamo An intrepid movie magazine reporter once asked Hollywood cowboy star, Freemason, and director of The Alamo, John Wayne: ‘Was that really the way it was?’ . John Wayne replied, ‘Hell No, but that’s the way it ought to have been!’ And so it was that legend became firmly entwined with history. Tensions had arisen as settlers flooded into the territory that had previously been Mexican. The attraction to Americans was obvious; land, and plenty of it ... Napoleonic Prisoners of War in Hampshire The Minutes of my lodge, then Ancient’s Lodge No. 88 (now Lodge of Economy No.76), meeting at The King’s Head Inn, Winchester, on Saturday November 17th 1810 record: ‘The following Brethren were introduced as visitors belonging to the Lodge of the Great Orient of France, prisoners of war, marching from the interior to Portsmouth for the purpose of being embarked for Scotland’ The names and ranks of four infantry and two cavalry officers ... Nicholas Hawsmoor That Sir Christopher Wren, the celebrated English architect, was a Freemason, has been claimed since the late seventeenth century by some writers, yet the debate surrounding his possible membership has obscured a little-known fact: Wren’s protégé and one of England’s finest baroque architects, Nicholas Hawksmoor, was indeed a member of the fraternity. Despite this fact, very little has been written on Hawksmoor’s association with the Craft ... Acre: The Templars' Last Battle The great Crusader port of Acre - today Akko - is about one hour north of Haifa, Israel. Much of the old city of the Crusaders still exists, incorporated into later Islamic architecture. It is a fascinating warren of narrow streets, shops, squares and impressive buildings erected by merchant groups long ago. Yet it remains a working city with schools, restaurants, workshops and mosques all tucked away in the middle of the medieval stone buildings ... A Question of Identity An unusual print in the collection at Freemasons’ Hall in London features a fencing exhibition staged in front of the Prince of Wales in 1787. One of the participants, who appears to be a middle-aged woman, is in fact the Chevalier D’Eon, one of the most colourful characters in 18th Century Freemasonry, a diplomat, spy, swordsman and Freemason, who lived the first half of his life as a man and the second as a woman. Charles D’Eon de Beaumont ... The Great and Lesser Lights The three great, though emblematical, lights of masonry are revealed immediately after an initiate has been ‘restored to the blessing of material light’. Blinking, and for the first time conscious of his curious situation, the newcomer has a moment to glimpse the objects before him as each is briefly explained. A moment later, now standing, he is turned round. He sees for the first time the room in which he is situated, and the Brethren all ... John Wilkes John Wilkes is primarily remembered today as a notorious wit and rascal, and as the prime mover in a popular radical movement that emerged in England during the early reign of King George III. Yet few people know that Wilkes was also a Freemason. And even fewer are aware he was actually initiated in prison at a time of great social and political unrest. Born in London, well educated and married to a rich Buckinghamshire heiress, Wilkes fraternised ... A Most Miserable Trade The slave trade in Liverpool reached its peak during the late eighteenth century, with many Liverpool merchants and businessmen taking part in what they saw as just another legitimate business - making an acceptable profit from slavery. Liverpool became dominant in the trade. Freemasonry was also popular in Liverpool at this time with around ten lodges, both Antient and Modern, emerging in the port during ... Mozart's Genius and Masonry This year Austria is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth, on 27 January 1756, of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the greatest composers of all time. In Salzburg, the city of his birth, celebrations include performances of all of his operas; in Vienna, celebrations under the banner of Mozart Year 2006 are taking place, including substantial exhibitions at the refurbished house in the Domgasse near the cathedral, where he wrote Figaro, and ... Nicholas Stone: Accepted Freemason In the summer of 1718, one year after the formation of the London Grand Lodge, the second Grand Master, Mr. George Payne, requested that Brethren donate ‘any old Writings’ concerning masonry. Accordingly, several manuscripts were produced. However, it was subsequently reported that, sometime in 1720, ‘several very valuable Manuscripts… concerning the Fraternity… particularly one writ[ten] by Mr. Nicholas Stone the Warden of Inigo Jones’ were tragically ‘burnt’. Although ... York Mysteries Revealed More than two million tourists visit York each year: there are the ancient encircling walls and their Bars (or gatehouses) . There is Clifford’s Tower, the Castle precinct with its museum and the nearby site where a Viking settlement once flourished. In the excavated foundations of the present Minster you can make your way not only amongst the Norman remains but the bases of the original Roman headquarters’ walls. For others there are the gardens in the grounds of what was once ... Masonic Paintings in a Berkshire Church Charles Edward Keyser, 1853 - 1929, was a highly successful late Victorian businessman looking for a country seat when his sister, Agnes, drew his attention to Aldermaston Court which reminded her of Sandringham where she had been a guest. Offered for sale by auction at The Hind’s Head in the nearby village of Aldermaston, it comprised over 2500 acres of parkland, meadows and farms, and boasted a lake as well as a splendid mansion ... Built by Freemasons There are few towns which can boast of being planned by a resident masonic lodge but Paraty, on the Brazilian coast south of Rio de Janiero, is one. This profound philosophical and spiritual heritage is publicly proclaimed at the road junction leading to the main access route: in the roundabout stands a large masonic Square and Compasses. Paraty (pronounced Para-chi) is one of the oldest towns in Brazil. It was an important harbour at the end of the stonepaved ‘Caminho do Ouro’, the ‘Gold Road’ which reached over 1,200 kilometers into the interior of Brazil ... Freemasonry Serving Egypt Today it is a tragic irony that Freemasonry is falsely derided in much of the Muslim world as a stooge of Zionism, when some of the great names of the Islam have in fact been keen Freemasons. And foremost among these were two towering figures of nineteenth-century Islamic modernism - Jamal al-Din al Afghani and Sheikh Mohammed Abduh - both actually members of the same Egyptian lodge ... Band of Brothers I was privileged to be in Normandy for the sixtieth anniversary of the D-Day landings. I trust that the vast majority of readers will be well acquainted with what happened on 6 June 1944. The operation was, quite simply, the greatest feat of arms in history. The logistics are almost incomprehensible: an armada of five thousand ships, eleven thousand aircraft and, most importantly, a hundred and thirty-three thousand men delivered to ... The Masonic Rebellion in Liverpool On 22 December 1823 at the Shakespeare Tavern in Williamson Square, Liverpool, a gathering of masonic rebels took place. The door to the lodge room was closed and guarded by the Grand Tyler, the masons present settled and watched as Brother Michael Alexander Gage took the chair. The lodge was opened in the third degree, and the minutes of the previous meeting were read. That last meeting on 21 July had been adjourned, but now ... Freemasonry and the Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War was really a foretaste of a much larger conflict to come, but in many respects was no less savage, as terrible atrocities were committed on both sides. As so often happens in times of violent flux the situation polarized, the moderates were pushed aside, and the extremists gained the upper hand. On 15 May 1937 Largo Caballero (a Freemason) resigned as Prime Minister, and Dr Juan Negrin (a non-mason) ... Freemasonry and the Spanish Civil War Throughout its long and eventful history Freemasonry has often been attacked and its members persecuted. Yet today many people are unaware that the movement’s darkest hour occurred little over half a century ago, in Spain. Freemasonry first arrived in Spain in 1728, when the English Duke of Wharton established a lodge in Madrid. Although frequently persecuted, Spanish Freemasonry thrived in the nineteenth century ... Shaped by the American Frontier What gives American Masonry a different flavour from the Craft in the British Isles and Europe? It’s not so much the differences in ritual, but the emphasis on the individual Freemason rather than the lodge, an emphasis which was forced upon it by the environment. The last major U.S. frontier was the central northern plains. Although the frontier experience there was little different from that of eastern America, it remains new and real ... Home Away From Home In May 1938, on the eve of war, Winston Churchill urged Britons to do their part for Anglo-American relations. ‘It is in the homes, not the hotels, of a nation,’ he declared, ‘that we can learn the truth about our people.’ He addressed British businessmen in particular, imploring them to go beyond mere business contact with visiting Americans but instead ‘ask them to your homes and your clubs, so that they may see something of the real England ...' The Lodge that Never Was Two elements of Freemasonry which set it apart from virtually all other societies of men are firstly, the mystery within which it is enshrouded and secondly, the secrets which its Brethren gradually become privy to as they progress through the various offices. There is however one other body that is similarly enveloped in mystery as well as being the custodian of numerous secrets: the Magic Circle. Surprisingly there is a much closer link between Freemasonry and the world of magic than most Brethren have realised. For example, in the same way that a new initiate ... Gold and Freemasonry The mighty Yukon River, from its source at the Llewellyn Glacier high above Atlin Lake in north western British Columbia, runs about 2,300 miles, northwards through the Yukon territory, the Cities of Whitehorse and Dawson, continuing westwards across Alaska to the Yukon Delta, where it empties into the Bering Sea. In 1896 prospector George Carmack and his Indian brother-in-law ‘Skookum Jim’ Mason, and another Indian relative ... 275 Years of Freemasonry Celebrated in France How do you get more than 130,000 Freemasons, men and women, belonging to more than ten different rival jurisdictions, each passionate about the claims of his or her own masonic system, to act together in concord and brotherly love? French Freemasonry found the answer to this question in June this year, when over a thousand Freemasons gathered together in Lyon to celebrate 275 years of Freemasonry in France, and at the same time to assert that the values, culture and aims of Freemasonry united them more strongly ... Trench Art Art is often born out of hardship, adversity and suffering, and this is nowhere more true than in the field of armed conflict. From the Spanish Armada to Vietnam, from the BoerWar to Bosnia, across more than two centuries and five continents, the most amazing collection of artefacts of all kinds – much of it masonic - has come into being as a result of war. Trench Art is the name given to objects - be they of metal, cloth, wood, bone, stone or any ... Murder and Masonry In the sparse, hushed courtroom, the judge prepared to pronounce sentence of death. Looking straight at the prisoner, he said; ‘We both belong to the same Brotherhood,’ (he faltered here) ‘and though that can have no influence with me, this is painful beyond words for me to have to say what I am saying, but our Brotherhood does not encourage crime, it condemns it.’ This was the culmination of a sensational trial, sensational not only ... The Pope and the Spy Towards the end of January 1731 the London government received a frenzied report from Rome. Its author was a certain Baron von Stosch, a resident in the Holy city, and a personal favourite of King George II. Stosch reported that about 10 o’clock the previous Sunday he had been returning home, when suddenly his carriage had been surrounded near Prince Ruspoli’s palace by three masked assailants brandishing muskets ... Frontier Freemason Oklahoma City, September 9th, 1927. The body of Frank Canton, clothed in the full dress uniform of a United States Army General, was buried. Oklahoma City Freemasons, dressed in the sombre suits and aprons of American tradition, raised their hands to heaven in final honours to their departed brother. Frank Canton was finally resting from a turbulent life. Frank Canton had led a life embracing both crime and law-enforcement. No one knows ... From the Rough to the Smooth By the late sixteenth century Birmingham was renowned for its manufacturing industry, an industry founded upon metal work and typified by many small premises run by independent craftsmen. Over the next two centuries these craftsmen produced guns, swords, knives, locks and keys, buttons and buckles, boxes and toys, and jewellery: Birmingham became renowned for skilled work in silver, gold and precious gems. It also pioneered the use of machines in jewellery manufacturing, producing the first machine cut diamonds in England ... Celebrating the Jubilee "Equal in glory to King Solomon" was the comparison made by an enthusiastic Victorian Freemason of Queen Victoria, then celebrating her Golden Jubilee. Charles Meiter of Mizpah Lodge, No. 1671, speaking at the meeting of Grand Lodge in March 1887, proposed to perpetuate the memory of the 1887 Golden Jubilee by rebuilding Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem as a "House of Prayer for all Nations". He added, optimistically seeking to allay an important difficulty, that the expense to Grand Lodge would be about £25, "the cost of the Foundation Stone" ... A Masonic Gunfighter of the Old West Gunfighters were as indigenous to the Old West as cattle. The more famous of the breed ended up becoming household names: John Wesley Hardin, Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, to name but a few. Dallas Stoudenmire was a shooter and a Freemason from the town of El Paso, Texas, where, one week in April 1881, he blasted his way into history. This was his brief and violent moment of fame. Masonry had been established in Texas since the formation of its Grand Lodge in 1837. El Paso’s first lodge was founded in 1854; by 1881 a good number ... French Freemasonry and the Resistance The first active ‘Résistant’ shot during the Second World War by the German authorities was a Freemason. Brother José Roig was executed at Ivry, 1st August 1941, for supporting, and recruiting for, General de Gaulle and the Free French Government in exile. The French Government’s Act of 13th August 1940 ... Anti-Masonic Laws in Occupied France Traditionally, French anti-masonic sentiments were based on the two themes of politics and religion. Freemasonry’s enemies were right-wing anti-Republicans and the Catholic Church. In no other Occupied country were the Germans given so much assistance in their anti-masonic policies. After the German victory in the French campaign, the Armistice was signed on the 22 June 1940 and France was divided into Occupied and Unoccupied zones ... Masonic Newspapers, Periodicals, and Journals The earliest records we have of Masonic activities in the 18th Century, are to be found in newspaper reports of the day. Many of these were purely news items: the installation of the new Grand Master, Masonic persecutions in Russia and Portugal, George Washington laying the Corner stone for the Capitol building. Freemasonry itself made good use of the media, with official and private announcements and various advertisements. It served Grand Lodge’s purpose for the general public to be informed in the Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, for instance, of the admission ... The Masonic Halfpenny In their original village life, communities were to a great extent self-supporting, and the bulk of local trade was carried out by barter, the miller taking a part of the farmer's corn as his fee for grinding it, and the bootmaker receiving a sack of potatoes for his services etc. But, in the factories, labour was bought for cash, and the labourer had to buy the necessities of life with cash likewise. This great upsurge in money trade led to an embarrassing shortage of currency, particularly of smaller coins. This was aggravated by the demands for metal by the munitions industry to supply the needs of the recent war of American Independence ... Occupation, Terror and Revival On 9th May this year, Channel Islanders will celebrate the 56th anniversary of the most joyous day in their history - their liberation from five years of enemy occupation. But for members of the Craft who had remained in the Islands, while sharing the joy and relief experienced by all Channel Islanders on that day in 1945 ... A Town Called Kilwinning Legends abound concerning the antiquity of the Craft, but perhaps none are as curious as those surrounding an obscure Scottish town called Kilwinning. Situated on the banks of the river Garnock some twenty-five miles south-west of Glasgow, this small community lies a short distance from the Ayrshire coast, where the Irish sea meets and churns with the waters of the Firth of Clyde. Some distance from the town, the ruins of an ancient abbey ... Beyond the Five Points I am the widow of Philip RS May, G.C., late of Simon Langton Lodge No 7586, Canterbury, St Augustine Chapter No 972, Canterbury and the Macdonald Chapter No 1216, London. My greatest regret is that I have not yet been able to find a publisher for what is a really remarkable book – the only one of its kind dedicated entirely to Freemasons who were, or still are, holders of the Victoria Cross or the George Cross. The name of the book is ... Mystery of the Acception It is well known that the origins of modern Freemasonry are still shrouded in mystery. On the face of it, it would appear there is little early evidence of the movement before 1717, with the notable exception of the making of ... The Masonic Benefit Society From the earliest days of operative Masonry, there has been a tradition of ‘looking after one's own’. Operative masons who had fallen upon hard times could doubtless call upon their better-off colleagues for assistance in a brotherly spirit to help tide them over until their circumstances had improved, and Freemasons were no different. Although an integral part of a Freemason’s life, the first serious attempt to organise a charitable institution for all masons ... The Grand Master and the York Institute Wednesday 18 July 1883 and York was en fête. The Prince of Wales, Grand Master, was to lay the foundation stone of the new Mechanics Institute with masonic honours after a procession through the streets of York in full masonic regalia. Thousands of visitors flocked into York : 45,000 by special excursion trains and 20,000 by ordinary trains. The newspapers waxed lyrical about the pending masonic event. As one paper reported, “Next to the Holy City itself there is no place whose traditions are so closely mixed up with those of Freemasonry ..." Making a Manx Mason at Sight Making a Mason at Sight is unknown in English Freemasonry, although up to the end of the First World War many examples are known where to do so was regarded as a ‘landmark’ by most American Grand Lodges. It is intriguing therefore that in the museum of the Province of the Isle of Man we have minutes recording how a Manx ship’s captain came to be Made a Mason at Sight while in port in Mississippi. On 1 June 1894, JL Spinks, Grand Master of Mississippi, together with five other brethren, had been invited by JF McCormick, Inspector of Customs for the Port of Biloxi ... Masons Under Attack - in the 15th Century At Westminster on the 1 November 1388 (according to the Calendar of Close Rolls) a writ was issued by King Richard II and sent to all the sheriffs throughout the land. To the sheriff of Lincoln. Order, for particular causes declared in the parliament last holden at Cantebrigge, on sight &c. to cause proclamation to be made, that all masters and wardens of guilds and fraternities shall before the Purification next certify in chancery the manner, form and authority for the foundation of such gilds, the continuance and ruling thereof, the oaths of the brethren and sisters, their meetings ... Hiram Abiff Like Melchizedek and Enoch, Hiram of Tyre has become something of a mythological figure, yet the record of I Kings and II Chronicles - as well as Jospehus (Antiquities VII.22) - seems straightforward enough. Hiram’s technical services were made available to King Solomon’s temple project as a gift from the King of Tyre, also called Hiram. However, in masonic circles the oft-quoted reference in I Kings VII.13-14 is frequently conjoined to a reference ... The Country Stewards Lodge Since masonic records began, never has a single lodge caused such disruption in Grand Lodge as the Country Stewards. The story begins with the Grand Feast, held in London for many years and presided over by the Grand Master. It was thought that a Country Feast might also be held, both to honour the Deputy Grand Master and to provide an enjoyable day-out of fund raising for masonic charities. The first was held in 1735 and its success might have led one to imagine it would continue forever, but for the events which I shall now relate ... Shakespeare and Freemasonry In July 1929, Lord Ampthill, pro Grand Master of the UGLE, accompanied by 600 masons in full regalia, laid the foundationstone of Stratford's Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. United Grand Lodge perceived a link between the craft and the bard. Why? "For charity itself fulfills the law, and who can sever love from charity?" (Love's Labour's Lost, IV.iii). This speech expresses the essence of a Freemason's purpose: to be a builder of love. Shakespeare was an ethical teacher. Could he also have been a mason? Look at the Dedication in the first Shakespeare Folio, addressed "To the Most Noble and Incomparable Pair of Brethren, William, Earle of Pembroke... and Philip, Earle of ..." Fascist Attack In May 1940, as the Battle of Britain raged in the skies above southern England, Nazi intelligence officers in Berlin were busily preparing for the expected invasion. Yet few people today realise the hatred reserved for Freemasonry, and to what extent this would have been vented in the event of a German victory over Britain. Upon the outbreak of war, Adolf Hitler ordered the creation of an overall directorate of Reich Security ... In Those Days Masters Carried Swords Scotland holds some of the most mysterious masonic and chivalric remnants in the world. Yet many of these residues remain enigmatic because much of Scotland’s history can never be recovered. In particular, that of the important thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when chivalry flourished and the Craft Guilds were organizing. The majority of Scotland’s historical documents for this period have vanished entirely : destroyed by war or fire; lost by incompetence or accident. The first great loss came in 1291 when English king Edward I gathered together all ...   Masonic History © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008