Section 7

But our object is not so much to give a connected
history of the progress of Freemasonry as to present a
rational view of its origin and an examination of those
important modifications which, from time to time, were
impressed upon it by external influences, so as to enable

* The subject is discussed at length in Mackey's "History of Free-
masonry," published by the Masonic History Company.

Speculative and Operative Freemasonry 61

us the more readily to appreciate the true character
and design of its symbolism.

Two salient points, at least, in its subsequent his-
tory, especially invite attention because they have an
important bearing on its organization as a combined
speculative and operative institution.

CHAPTER NINE
Traveling Freemasons of the Middle Ages

THE first of these points to which we refer is the
estabUshment of a body of architects, widely dis-
seminated throughout Europe during the middle
ages under the avowed name of *' Traveling Free-
masons." This association of workmen, said to have
been the descendants of the Temple Freemasons, may
be traced by the massive monuments of their skill at
as early a period as the ninth or tenth century. Al-
though, according to the authority of Hope, who
has written elaborately on the subject, some historians
have found the evidence of their existence in the
seventh century, and have traced a peculiar Masonic
language in the reigns of Charlemagne of France and
Alfred of England.

To these men, to their preeminent skill in archi-
tecture, and to their well-organized system as a class
of workmen, the world is indebted for those magnifi-
cent edifices which sprang up in such undeviating
principles of architectural form during the middle
ages.

''Wherever they came," says Hope, ''in the suite
of missionaries, or were called by the natives, or arrived
of their own accord, to seek employment, they appeared
headed by a chief surveyor, who governed the whole

62

Traveling Freemasons of the Middle Ages 63

troop, and named one man out of every ten, under
the name of Warden, to overlook the nine others, set
themselves to building temporary huts^ for their habita-
tion around the spot where the work was to be carried
on, regularly organized their different departments,
fell to work, sent for fresh supplies of their brethren
as the object demanded, and, when all was finished,
again raised their encampment, and went elsewhere
to undertake other jobs."^

This society continued to preserve the commingled
features of Operative and Speculative Freemasonry, as
they had been practised at the temple of Solomon.
Admission to the community was not restricted to
professional artisans, but men of eminence, and partic-
ularly ecclesiastics, officials of the priesthood, were
numbered among its members. **These latter,'^ says
Hope, ''were especially anxious, themselves, to direct
the improvement and erection of their churches and
monasteries, and to manage the expenses of their build-
ings, and became members of an establishment which
had so high and sacred a destination, was so entirely
exempt from all local, civil jurisdiction, acknowledged
the pope alone as its direct chief, and only worked
under his immediate authority; and thence we read of
so many ecclesiastics of the highest rank — abbots,
prelates, bishops — conferring additional weight and
respectability on the Order of Freemasonry by becom-
ing its members — themselves giving the designs and
superintending the construction of their churches, and
employing the manual labor of their own monks in the
edification of them."

* In German, hutten; in English, lodges; whence we derive the
Masonic term.

2 "Historical Essay on Architecture," ch. xxi.

64 Symbolism of Freemasonry

Thus in England, in the tenth century, the Free-
masons are said to have received the special protection
of King Athelstan; in the eleventh century, Edward
the Confessor declared himself their patron; and in
the twelfth, Henry I. gave them his protection.

Into Scotland the Freemasons penetrated as early as
the beginning of the twelfth century, and erected the
Abbey of Kilwinning, which afterwards became the
cradle of Scottish Freemasonry under the government
of King Robert Bruce.

Of the magnificent edifices they erected, and of their
exalted condition under both ecclesiastical and lay
patronage in other countries, it is not necessary to give
a minute detail. Sufficient for us to say that in every
part of Europe evidences are to be found of the exist-
ence of Freemasonry, practised by an organized body
of workmen, and with whom men of learning were
united; or, in other words, of a combined operative
and speculative institution.

What the nature of this speculative science continued
to be, we may learn from that very curious, if not
authentic, document, dated at Cologne, in the year
1535, and hence named the "Charter of Cologne."*
In that instrument, which purports to have been issued
by the heads of the Order in nineteen different and im-
portant cities of Europe, and is addressed to their
brethren as a defence against the calumnies of their
enemies, it is announced that the Order took its origin
at a time "when a few adepts, distinguished by their
life, their moral doctrine, and their sacred interpreta-

* A complete account of this document and of its standing among
Masonic authorities is given in the Mackey-Hughan-Hawkins
"Encyclopsedia of Freemasonry," published by the Masonic History
Company.

Traveling Freemasons of the Middle Ages 65

tion of the arcanic truths, withdrew themselves from
the multitude in order more effectually to preserve
uncontaminated the moral precepts of that religion
which is implanted in the mind of man."

We thus, then, have before us an aspect of Free-
masonry as it existed in the middle ages, when it
presents itself to our view as both operative and specu-
lative in its character. The operative element that
had been infused into it by the Dionysiac artificers of
Tyre, at the building of the Solomonic temple, was not
yet dissevered from the pure speculative element
which had prevailed in it anterior to that period.

CHAPTER TEN
Disseverance of the Operative Element

THE next point to which our attention is to be
directed is when, a few centuries later than the
period just considered, the operative character
of the institution began to be less prominent, and the
speculative to assume a preeminence which eventually
ended in the total separation of the two.

At what precise period the speculative began to
predominate over the operative element of the Society,
it is impossible to say. The change was undoubtedly
gradual, and is to be attributed, in all probability, to
the increased number of literary and scientific men who
were admitted into the ranks of the Fraternity.

The Charter of Cologne, to which we have just
alluded, speaks of ''learned and enlightened men'* as
constituting the Society long before the date of that
document, which on its own authority was 1535. But
the authenticity of this work has, it must be confessed,
been impugned, and we will not, therefore, press the
argument on its doubtful authority. But the diary of
that celebrated antiquary, Elias Ashmole, which is
admitted to be authentic, describes his admission in
the year 1646 into the Order when there is no doubt
that the operative character was fast giving way to
the speculative. Preston tells us that about thirty

66

Disseverance of the Operative Element 67

years before, when the Earl of Pembroke assumed
the Grand Mastership of England, ''many eminent,
wealthy, and learned men were admitted."

In the year 1663 an Assembly of the Freemasons of
England is said to have been held at London, and the
Earl of St. Albans was elected Grand Master. At
this Assembly certain regulations were adopted, in
which the qualifications prescribed for candidates
clearly allude to the speculative character of the in-
stitution.

Finally, at the commencement of the eighteenth
century, and during the reign of Queen Anne, who
died, it will be remembered, in 1714, a proposition was
agreed to by the Society "that the privileges of Free-
masonry should no longer be restricted to operative
masons, but extend to men of various professions,
provided that they were regularly approved and initi-
ated into the Order."

Accordingly the records of the Society show that
from the year 1717, at least, the era commonly, but
improperly, distinguished as the restoration of Free-
masonry, the operative element of the institution has
been completely discarded, except so far as its influ-
ence is exhibited in the choice and arrangement of
symbols, and the typical use of its technical language.^

The history of the orgin of the Order is here con-
cluded. Briefly reviewing the facts we may say that
in its first inception, from the time of Noah to the
building of the temple of Solomon, it was entirely
speculative in its character; that at the construction of

* The evidence bearing on the various points in the growth of the
Craft, operative and speculative, is critically examined in Mackey's
"History of Freemasonry," pubhshed by the Masonic History Com-
pany.

68 Symbolism op Freemasonry

that edifice, an operative element was infused into it
by the Tyrian builders; that it continued to retain this
compound operative and speculative organization until
about the middle of the seventeenth century, when the
latter element began to prevail; and finally, that at the
commencement of the eighteenth century, the opera-
tive element wholly disappeared, and the Society has
ever since presented itself in the character of a simply
speculative association.

The history that we have thus briefly sketched, will
elicit from every reflecting mind at least two deductions
of some importance to the intelligent Freemason.

In the first place, we may observe, that reaching as
the institution does, away up the stream of time, al-
most to the very fountains of history, for its source, it
comes down to us, at this day, with so venerable an
appearance of antiquity, that for that cause and on
that claim alone it demands the respect of the world.
Freemasonry is no recent invention of human genius
whose vitality has yet to be tested by the wear and
tear of time and opposition, and no sudden growth of
short-lived enthusiasm whose existence may be as brief
as its birth was recent.

One of the oldest of these modern institutions, the
Carbonari of Italy, boasts of an age that scarcely
amounts to a century, and has not been able to extend
its progress beyond the countries of Southern Europe,
immediately adjacent to the place of its birth. That
society and every other one of our own times that have
sought to simulate the outward appearance of Free-
masonry, seem to him who has examined the history
of this ancient institution to have sprung around it,
like mushrooms bursting from between the roots and
vegetating under the shade of some mighty and vener-

Disseverance of the Operative Element 69

able oak, the patriarch of the forest, whose huge trunk
and wide-extended branches have protected them from
the sun and the gale, and whose fruit, thrown off in
autumn, has enriched and fattened the soil that gives
these humbler plants their power of life and growth.

But there is a more, important deduction to be drawn
from this narrative. In tracing the progress of Free-
masonry, we shall find it so intimately connected with
the history of philosophy, of religion, and of art in all
ages of the world, that it is evident that no Freemason
can expect thoroughly to understand the nature of the
institution, or to appreciate its character, unless he
shall carefully study its annals, and make himself con-
versant with the facts of history, to which and from
which it gives and receives a mutual influence.
^r The brother who unfortunately supposes that the
only requisites of a skillful Freemason consist in re-
peating with fluency the ordinary lectures, or in cor-
rectly opening and closing the Lodge, or in giving with
sufficient accuracy the modes of recognition, will hardly
credit the assertion, that he whose knowledge of the
"Royal Art" extends no farther than these prelimi-
naries has scarcely advanced i beyond the rudiments of
our science.

There is a far nobler series of doctrines with which
Freemasonry is connected, and which no student ever
began to investigate who did not find himself insensibly
led on, from step to step in his researches, his love
and admiration of the Order increasing with the aug-
mentation of his acquaintance with its character. It
is this which constitutes the science and the philosophy
of Freemasonry, and it is this alone which will return
a sevenfold reward for his labor to the scholar who de-
votes himself to the task.

70

Symbolism of Freemasonry

With this view we propose, in the next place, to enter
upon an examination of that science and philosophy as
they are developed in the system of symbolism, which
owes its existence to this peculiar origin and organi-
zation of the Order, and without a knowledge of which,
such as we have attempted to portray it in this pre-
liminary inquiry, the science itself could never be
understood.

i

CHAPTER ELEVEN
System of Symbolic Instruction

THE lectures of the English Lodges, which are more
philosophical than our own — although Bro.
Mackey could not believe that the system itself
is in general as philosophically studied by our English
brethren as by ourselves — have beautifully defined
Freemasonry to be "a science of morality veiled in
allegory and illustrated by symbols." But allegory
itself is nothing else but verbal symbolism; it is the
symbol of an idea, or of a series of ideas, not presented
to the mind in an objective and visible form, but
clothed in language, and exhibited in the form of a
narrative

Therefore the English definition amounts, in fact, to this :
that Freemasonry is a science of morality , developed and
taught by the ancient method of symbolism. This peculiar
character as a symbolic institution, this entire adoption
of the method of instruction by symbolism, gives its
whole identity to Freemasonry, and has caused it to
differ from every other association that the ingenuity
of man has devised. This has bestowed upon it that
attractive form which has always secured the attach-
ment of its disciples and its own perpetuity.

The Roman Catholic Church is one of the very few
institutions of the time which continues to cultivate,

71

72 Symbolism of Freemasonry

in any degree, the beautiful system of symbolism.
But that which in the Roman Catholic Church is in a
great measure incidental, and the fruit of development,
is in Freemasonry the very life-blood and soul of the
institution, born with it at its birth, or, rather, the
germ from which the tree has sprung, and still giving it
support, nourishment, and even existence. Withdraw
from Freemasonry its symbolism, and you take from the
body its soul, leaving behind nothing but a lifeless mass
of effete matter, fitted only for a rapid decay.

Bishop England, in his Explanation of the Mass, says
that in every ceremony we must look for three meanings :
"the first, the literal, natural, and, it may be said, the
original meaning; the second, the figurative or em-
blematic signification; and thirdly, the pious or re-
ligious meaning: frequently the two last will be found
the same; sometimes all three will be found combined."
Here lies the true difference between the symbolism of
the Church and that of Freemasonry. In the former,
the symbolic meaning was an afterthought appKed to
the original, literal one; in the latter, the symbolic was
always the original signification of every ceremony.

Since, then, the science of symbolism forms so im-
portant a part of the system of Freemasonry, it will
be well to commence any discussion of that subject
by an investigation of the nature of symbols in general.

There is no science so ancient as that of symbolism,'

and no mode of instruction has ever been so general as

* Was not all the knowledge
Of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols?
Speak not the Scriptures oft in parables?
Are not the choicest fables of the poets,
That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom,
Wrapped in perplexed allegories?

— Ben Jonson, Alchemist, act ii. so. i.

System of Symbolic Instruction 73

was the symbolic in former ages. "The first learning
in the world/' says the great antiquary, Dr. Stukely,
"consisted chiefly of symbols. The wisdom of the
Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Jews, of Zoroaster,
Sanchoniathon, Pherecydes, Syrus, Pythagoras, Soc-
rates, Plato, of all the ancients that is come to our hand,
is symbolic." The learned Faber remarks that "alle-
gory and personification were peculiarly agreeable to the
genius of antiquity, and the simplicity of truth was con-
tinually sacrificed at the shrine of poetical decoration."

In fact, man's earliest instruction was by symbols.^
The objective character of a symbol is best calculated
to be grasped by the infant mind, whether the infancy
of that mind be considered nationally or individually.
Hence, in the first ages of the world, in its infancy,
all propositions, theological, political, or scientific, were
expressed in the form of symbols. Thus, the first reli-
gions were eminently symbolical, because, as that great
philosophical historian, Grote, has remarked, "At a
time when language was yet in its infancy, visible
symbols were the most vivid means of acting upon the
minds of ignorant hearers."

Again: children receive their elementary teaching in
symbols. "A was an Archer;" what is this but sym-
bolism? The archer becomes to the infant mind the
symbol of the letter A, just as in after life the letter
becomes, to the more advanced mind, the symbol of a
certain sound of the human voice.^ The first lesson

^ The distinguished German mythologist Miiller defines a symbol
to be "an eternal, visible sign, with which a spiritual feeling, emo-
tion, or idea is connected." We are not aware of a more compre-
hensive, and at the same time distinctive, definition.

'^ We may add that the word becomes a symbol of an idea; and
hence, Harris, in his "Hermes," defines language to be "a system