‘The author of our charges and prayers’

    

Born on this date in 1768:

Bro. Thaddeus Mason Harris!

Who?

Magpie file photo

Portrait of RW Thaddeus Mason Harris exhibited in the Boston Masonic Building.

The clergyman, Harvard librarian, and first Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts (nice resume) is the author of inspiring pieces of Craft lodge ritual familiar to—I think—most of the brethren in the United States, to wit: “You are now about to quit this sacred retreat of friendship and virtue…”

This has been embraced by grand lodges beyond the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and its phrasing varies a little from place to place. Here in New York we call it the Harris Charge, and it is a favorite among ritualists and all who value the meaning of Masonry. But that’s not all!

First, some biography.

Thaddeus Mason Harris was born July 7, 1768 in Charlestown, Massachusetts to William and Rebekah (Mason) Harris. He would be the eldest of seven children in a family that was uprooted by the Revolutionary War, literally having to abandon their home and possessions to walk to Choxet in 1775. His family in destitution and with his father dying in the winter of ’78, he had several homes during childhood.

In his preteen years, Harris lived with different families. At ten, he resided in Templeton with the minister of that town, and it was there where he became affected with a love of books. At eleven, he relocated to Shrewsbury and lived with a minister who provided a fatherly influence. At fourteen, he left for Cambridge with the goal of enrolling in the recently organized Harvard University. It wasn’t to be, yet, due to finance, so he returned to his remarried mother, now in Malden.

Unsuccessful in finding employment, his grandfather, Register of Deeds at Cambridge, made Thaddeus one of his secretaries. There, he befriended a minster who encouraged him to enter college, and, in 1783, Harris enrolled in Harvard. Truly a kind of existence that would be popularized a century later in the stories of Horatio Alger.

Harris was eulogized by his successor as pastor of The First Church of Dorchester, Rev. Nathaniel Hall, who related this story:

...he set off to meet his mother, as by previous arrangement, in Boston; having nothing, in possession or prospect, but a few coppers which he had transferred from his trunk to his pocket as he left his room; and these—so strong were his benevolent sympathies—he gave to a poor crippled soldier that he met on his way, and who, faint and famishing, solicited his aid. As he went on, deeply depressed at his destitute condition and in despair at his seeming fate, he perceived something adhering to the end of his rude staff he had cut on the way; and found it to be a gold ring, into which his staff had struck itself as he walked, and having engraved upon it the words “God speed thee, friend,” its pecuniary worth proving sufficient for his present exigency; and its moral value, incalculable; helping to clothe him in what he felt he needed a cheerful faith and confidence in God. The whole incident, acting upon his sensitive nature, and predisposed as he was to see in everything which befell him a peculiar and sacred significance, subdued and overwhelmed him; and appears to have given to his character a stronger religious determination. “That motto,” in his own words, “has ever been the support of my faith when it was feeble, and the strength of my heart when it was faint.”

He graduated Harvard in 1787 (in the same class as John Quincy Adams, who would become an avid anti-Mason forty years later). After Harvard, Harris spent a year working at a school in Worcester, but returned to the university to pursue theological studies. Harvard appointed him its Librarian in 1791, and he served for two years before being ordained as Unitarian minister of the First Parish Church in Dorchester, from which he retired in 1836. He earned a Doctorate of Theological Studies from Harvard in 1813. He died April 3, 1842 at Dorchester, and is buried in the Old North Burying Place in Uphams Corner, Dorchester.

RW Benjamin Huntoon

Harris’ Masonic eulogy was delivered by Bro. Benjamin Huntoon, himself a notable in his Grand Lodge, having served several stints of Grand Chaplain before becoming Junior Grand Warden in 1853. Excerpted:

Of the many incidents in his early life; the precocious developement of talents, which gave promise of intellectual eminence the ardent thirst for knowledge, and the almost instinctive acquisition of learning, which attracted the admiration, and secured the patronage of strangers as well as friends—and those signal instances of the remarkable, if not miraculous smiles of a gracious Providence upon his orphanage—and the encouraging tokens of Divine aid in his despondency, which always kept alive a fervent glow of pious gratitude in his heart, and spread the brilliancy of hope upon every gathering cloud of after discouragement, like the bow of promise, that brightens athwart the lowering tempest, and bid “God speed” to his every literary effort and holy enterprise, of these, and the numberless vernal blossoms of that delicate constitution of mind, which ripened into so mellow a harvest of unassuming goodness of that tender sensibility, which seemed like a lid, “which God had placed over the eye of his soul to guard its holy crystal from impurity”—time will permit me to say nothing. These are details, which belong to the biographer, rather than the eulogist….

The writings of Dr. Harris in the departments of Literature and Natural History, Theology, Biography, and Antiquity will form a solid and durable monument of his claims to public esteem and gratitude. They deservedly hold a conspicuous rank and occupy a large space in our National literature. His Natural History of the Bible, a work of great learning, diligent and extensive reading, has met with an honorable reception, and passed through several editions in England.... As a Scholar, a Naturalist, Antiquarian, and a Divine, the memory of Dr. Harris will go down to posterity with enduring esteem and lasting reputation. As a man, in the social relations of obliging neighbor, entertaining associate, and facetious companion for he had a vein of good humored wit and innocent pleasantry—Dr. Harris has left a pattern of amiable excellence, of which it is difficult to speak too favorably, and which will not soon be forgotten, by a large circle of acquaintances, extending from Maine to Georgia.

As the kind Pastor, the religious counsellor, the sympathizing friend, in all the varying “lights and shadows” of ministerial trial and duty, he exhibited a heart full and overflowing, with the milk of human kindness and fellow-feeling. Most truly did he “rejoice with those that rejoiced, and wept with those that wept.” In his every look and deportment there was manifested a singleness of intention, a simplicity of purpose, a gentleness of spirit, a patience of love, and a meekness of charity, of rare attainment on earth. In his manners, there was an affability, frankness and child-like sincerity which won the affection and confidence of all who approached him. His very countenance seemed radiant with the pure benedictions of a generous, disinterested soul, communicating instinctively its gladness or its gloom to every beholder the faithful mirror of all the workings and emotions the cloud and sunshine of the inner man.

In his study, there was an arrangement, a classification, an order, in every department of intellectual pursuit, of learning, and of business, which enabled him to avail himself of all his stores of knowledge, and of interest, with the greatest facility and the most indubitable exactness. “He had literally a place for every thing, and every thing in its place.” This, with his constant and most assiduous employment of time, enabled him to perform an amount of literary labor, and practical good works, truly astonishing, considering his many interruptions from sickness and constitutional debility….

This exclusive and appropriate service cannot be deemed obtrusive or uncalled for by any who “would live respected, or die regretted” by their fellow travelers to that country “from whose bourne no traveler returns.”

The elevated rank, the conspicuous station, which Dr. Harris held in the various departments and distinguished offices of the Masonic household; the many important services which he rendered by his talents and his virtues, by his active labors, and personal sacrifices, entitle him to the full meed of Masonic gratitude and love. He was an ardent, consistent, steadfast Mason. He brought the energy of his gifted mind—the patronage of his immaculate reputation and the weight of his personal character—as a willing offering to the altar of Freemasonry—for which generous oblation, he has received, and will ever receive, the respect and veneration of the Fraternity through all coming time. His first great Masonic work was the editing of a collation, revision and publication of the Constitutions of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, a quarto volume, printed at Worcester, Mass., 1792. A work which he accomplished with the accustomed diligence, and “known fidelity” with which he performed every enterprise confided to his care. His various, occasional addresses, while Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge—his Masonic defenses—anonymous tracts and his volume of Masonic Discourses, published in 1801, constitute a large part, and valuable portion of the Masonic classic literature of America. They contain a faithful and dispassionate exhibition of our principles, in that chaste and captivating style, that graceful and easy diction, that forcible and earnest language which characterize all the productions, which he has given to the public. They are a rich legacy to our Fraternity from an accomplished mind, a ripe scholar, and an intelligent Mason, and they will connect his name and his memory with whatever is dear and hallowed in our recollections of his amiable virtues and personal endowments….

 

Front cover of RW Huntoon’s eulogy.

In the Masonic heart he will be held in undying remembrance—with the immortality of the affections. In that simple memorial, of the justly appreciated services, which he had rendered to the cause of Freemasonry, in the capacities of Grand Chaplain, and Corresponding Grand Secretary, given by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, A. L. 5816, this sentiment is forcibly expressed in the touching inscription: Memoria tenemus, quæ non remunerare possumus. (Memory shall retain a sense of obligation which we can never remunerate.)

In the fiery ordeal, that inquisition of prejudice, that hurricane of malignity, through which our Institution has been forced to pass, Dr. Harris was firm and unshaken. From his age, his character, his profession, and high standing in Society, he was selected as a prominent mark for the shafts of anti-masonic proscription and vituperation. His extreme susceptibility to the veriest breath of censure, his shrinking delicacy of feeling at every rough accent of reproach, made this attack the more unmanly, not to say cowardly. He was frequently insulted by printed papers sent to him, containing the most scurrilous abuse of his character, as a Christian and a minister of the gospel, because he would not, with the vaunting, self-styled champions of religion, piety, and patriotism, renounce our time-hallowed Institution—whose principles he had early espoused, whose patrons he deeply revered, whose members he sincerely loved, whose generous philanthropy, and expansive charity accorded with the native feelings and instinctive promptings of his large, noble, and humane heart, his Brotherly Love, and universal good will to man. His whole character was the complete impersonation of Masonic benevolence. His only prayer, for his most abusive traducers, was “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Title page of 1819 edition printed in Philadelphia.

To really get to know Harris, I recommend to all thinking Freemasons his book Discourses, Delivered on Public Occasions, Illustrating the Principles, Displaying the Tendency, and Vindicating the Design, of Free Masonry, first printed in 1801. There’s a lot he shares in its more than 350 pages. Chapter 1, for instance, recalls the Charges of a Freemason in Anderson’s Constitutions, but benefits from generations of hindsight and from Harris’ wise counsel. He’s simply more instructive and specific.

This book includes several items you may have memorized during your tenure as a Freemason, such as:

The Ancient Prayer,

at making or Opening.

Most holy and glorious Lord God, the great Architect of the Universe; the giver of all good gifts and graces: Thou hast promised, that where two or three are gathered together in thy name, thou wilt be in the midst of them. In thy name we assemble, most humbly beseeching thee to bless us in all our undertakings, that we may know and serve thee aright, and that all our actions may tend to thy glory, and to our advancement in knowledge and virtue.

*And we beseech thee, O Lord God, to bless this our present assembling; and grant that this our new Brother may prove true and faithful. Endue him with a competency of thy divine wisdom, that he may, with the secrets of Free Masonry, be able to unfold the mysteries of godliness. And may he and we walk in the light of thy countenance; and when the trials of our probationary state are over, be admitted into the Temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ! — Amen.

*This paragraph is to be omitted, except when a candidate is about to be initiated.

A prayer used at opening a Lodge.

May the favor of Heaven be upon this meeting; and as it is happily begun, may it be conducted with order, and closed with harmony. Amen.

A Prayer used at closing the Lodge.

May the blessing of Heaven rest upon us, and all regular masons! May brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social virtue cement us! — Amen.

And, of course, our Harris Charge (a longer form than what you might know):

Charge at the Closing of a Lodge

You are now to quit this sacred retreat of friendship and virtue, to mix again with the world. Amidst its concerns and employments, forget not the duties you have heard so frequently inculcated, and forcibly recommended in this Lodge. Be, therefore, diligent, prudent, temperate, discreet. Remember also, that around this altar you have solemnly and repeatedly promised to befriend and relieve, with unhesitating cordiality, so far as shall be in your power, every brother who shall need your assistance: That you have promised to remind him, in the most tender manner, of his failings, and aid his reformation. Vindicate his character when wrongfully traduced. Suggest in his behalf the most candid, favourable, and paliating circumstances, when his conduct is justly reprehended. That the world may observe how Masons love one another.

These generous principles are to extend farther. Every human being has a claim upon your kind offices. So that we enjoin it upon you “to do good unto all,” while we recommend it more “especially to the household of the faithful.”

By diligence in the duties of your respective callings, by liberal benevolence, and diffusive charity, by constancy and fidelity in your friendships, by uniformly just, amiable, and virtuous deportment, discover the beneficial and happy effects of this ancient and honorable institution. Let it not be supposed that you have here labored in vain, and spent your strength for nought; for your work is with the Lord, and your recompense with your God.

Finally, brethren, farewell. Be ye all of one mind. Live in peace. And may the God of love and peace delight to dwell with and to bless you!

I’ll close this long edition of The Magpie Mason with what I consider an oddity:

A Prayer, said at the opening

of a Lodge,

or making a new brother used

by Jewish Free Masons.

O Lord, excellent art thou in thy truth, there is nothing great in comparison to thee; for thine is the praise, from all the works of thy hands, for evermore. Enlighten us, we beseech thee, in the true knowledge of Masonry: by the sorrows of Adam, thy first made man; by the blood of Abel, thy holy one; by the righteousness of Seth, in whom thou art well pleased; and by thy covenant with Noah, in whose architecture thou wast pleased to save the seed of thy beloved; number us not among those that know not thy statutes, nor the divine mysteries of the secret Cabbala. But grant, we beseech thee, that the ruler of this Lodge may be endued with knowledge and wisdom, to instruct us, and explain his secret mysteries, as our holy brother Moses did (in his Lodge) to Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar (the sons of Aaron) and the seventy elders of Israel. And grant that we may understand, learn, and keep all the statutes and commandments of the Lord, and this holy mystery, pure and undented unto our lives end. Amen, Lord.

     

‘Meeting the Massachusetts Lodge of Research’

    

Massachusetts Lodge of Research hosted an enriching and enjoyable Zoom meeting this morning. My first experience with the brethren. I took a break from working to finish the long overdue MLMA newsletter to tune in, and am glad I did. RW Bro. Walter Hunt recounted his recent trip to England to research the activities of Henry Price who, as you know, was the Provincial Grand Master in Boston who established St. John’s Lodge and the Provincial Grand Lodge of New England in 1733. W. Frank Kautz asked and answered “What Is Esoteric Freemasonry?”

“I solved the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts problem once and for all,” said Bro. Hunt, the Grand Historian of their Grand Lodge, in conclusion to his presentation. He certainly made a solid case leading up to that. (If you don’t know, there is a “Who Came First?” rivalry between those two grand lodges.)

RW Walter Hunt

The Grand Lodge recently dispatched him to London for three days of examining eighteenth century records archived in the United Grand Lodge of England’s Museum of Freemasonry. This was prompted, in part, by the Grand Master’s reception in London three years ago at the tercentenary celebration of Anderson’s Constitutions. Massachusetts Masons’ self-image is of the third eldest grand lodge (1733) in the world, after England (1717) and Ireland (1725), but before Scotland (1736). The Most Worshipful attending that commemoration expected to be seated accordingly, but instead was—well, I’m not sure he got the Nick Cave and the Bad Seats treatment, but he wasn’t exactly in the front row either.

Grand Historian Hunt saw rare documents pertaining to Freemasonry in 1700s Massachusetts (and elsewhere), but he also discovered the absence of other papers one would have hoped contained answers to important questions. For example, Masonic correspondence between Massachusetts and England during the 1730s is scant. It seems Henry Price did not send reports to London. (In my reading over the years, I’ve seen this is not uncommon, as provincial grand lodges enjoyed much independence. I think we today might think of them as districts, like we have within our grand lodges, but that wasn’t the reality.) More problematic is there isn’t a record in England of Henry Price being appointed a Provincial Grand Master! (I hope I understood Bro. Hunt on this.)

In Anderson’s Constitutions of 1738.

Nor is he listed in James Anderson’s New Book of Constitutions of 1738. That text, in its section “Deputations Sent Beyond the Sea,” lists several dozen provincial grand masters around the world. That named for New England is Robert Tomlinson, Esq. in 1736.

Regardless, Hunt explained, he’d traced Price’s travel to London, where he paid the three guinea fee for receiving a PGM deputation. And Price executed his duties, signing the papers that established lodges down what we call the East Coast and even into the Caribbean. Speaking of the Pennsylvanians, Price issued a deputation to Benjamin Franklin, making him PGM of that colony.

Meanwhile, as you probably know, the Grand Lodge of England made Daniel Coxe its Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in 1730, making him the first PGM in British North America, but there’s no evidence Coxe did anything with that authority.

So, in that Massachusetts vs. Pennsylvania dispute, Bro. Hunt says if you’re talking about grand lodges, then Massachusetts is first, but if you’re counting only lodges, then Pennsylvania is premier. Sounds to me like a very Solomonic solution.

W. Frank Kautz

In his “What Is Esoteric Freemasonry?” W. Bro. Frank Kautz gradually unfurled his answer to that question. He defines Freemasonry as a “system of morality, veiled in allegory” that imparts an “understanding by which man can transcend ordinary experience to be in harmony with the Great Architect of the Universe.” And the types of Masons he notes: the fun-seekers, the charitably inclined, those continuing a family tradition, and the esoteric Masons studying the meaning of Masonry.

The meaning is communicated in the “‘mysteries’ and ‘wise and serious truths’ hinted at in the lectures,” the symbolism of the working tools, the images placed about the lodge, and in the many books on Freemasonry.

What does esoteric mean? Bro. Kautz says:

Then we come to the Western Esoteric Tradition, a term Kautz attributes to MacGregor Mathers (I wasn’t aware of that), who created Golden Dawn in response to the rise of Eastern-themed movements that were growing in England and Europe.

The Western Esoteric Tradition, he continues, consists of Qabalah (he explained the spelling), Hermeticism, Gnosticism, Rosicrucianism, Paganism, Martinism, and Freemasonry.

The benefits of these are that they give us quests for gaining knowledge; they maintain wisdom from the past; and they help us develop critical thinking. Kautz also noted negative connotations of esotericism, such as suspicion of things that take place only behind closed doors, jealousy over possession of information by only the select, and even simple changes over time in the meanings of words.

In conclusion, W. Kautz defines esoteric Freemasonry:

As always, any errors or omissions discerned in the above are attributable to me, not the speakers.

With a minimum of lodge business (one new member was elected), the entire session took about ninety minutes. At The ALR, we’ve been talking for a long time about hosting online discussions, not only to augment our in person communications, which tend to be far apart, but also to reach our international membership. It’s proving hard to get that organized.

My worry about it concerns drawing too small an audience. I’d hate to invite someone, have him contort his schedule to help us reach members in, for example, Finland (seven hours ahead of New York), only to have about nine Masons present when we go live. There were, I think, twenty-one today, mostly lodge members and other Massachusetts Masons, but others, like me, from outside the Commonwealth. Not bad at all.

Massachusetts Lodge of Research will meet next on Saturday, August 8 at Tahattawan Lodge in Littleton for its Installation of Officers. That is where Senior Warden Stephen Rogg is at labor, so it will be there where he’ll be installed in the Solomonic Chair.

In the meantime, I completed the online form for joining this research lodge. You should too. Click here. I’ll let you know if they accept me.

     

‘Music is a language of delightful sensations’

    

Two live music concerts to tell you about. Sorry this first one comes so late, but I learned of it only today. Wish I could go. All the info you need is in the above advertisement.

However, a few weeks off, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts will host “A Concert for Brotherhood, Family, and Future” at the Boston Masonic Building. From the publicity:

Boston Latin American Quartet.

Brother, you are invited to the Grand Lodge Gala 2025, presented by the Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts in support of Massachusetts Rainbow Girls and DeMolay.

Eliot Fisk and Zaira Meneses.

Join us for an afternoon of world-class music featuring celebrated artists Zaira Meneses, classical guitarist; Eliot Fisk, virtuoso guitarist; and Boston Latin American Quartet, celebrating rich musical traditions.

Sunday, May 4

186 Tremont Street, Boston

Doors open at 1 p.m. followed by hors d’oeuvres reception. Tickets are on sale now here. Business Attire.

The headline of this edition of The Magpie Mason is borrowed from the lecture of the Fellow Craft Degree, as rendered in New York.

     

‘1764 MM° in November’

     

This sounds like a great day!

I don’t think I’m familiar with the “Book of Hiram.” A ritual exposure, I’ll guess.

I’ll see if Ben mentions it at The ALR on Tuesday.

     

‘Massachusetts Masons commemoration’

    

The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts will have a big anniversary to celebrate next Monday. From the publicity:

249th Commemoration

of the Battle of Bunker Hill

Monday, June 17

Join the Grand Master and a group of state and local dignitaries to pay tribute to the selfless acts of heroism during the early days of the Revolutionary War that paved the way for our liberty from the Crown. Her Excellency, Governor Maura Healey, and Most Worshipful Brother Hamilton will be among the speakers.

1:30 p.m.—Ecumenical Service at St. Francis de Sales Church, 303 Bunker Hill Street, Charlestown.

Procession to Bunker Hill Monument.

3 p.m.—Battle of Bunker Hill Commemorative Exercises.

Dress: Dark jacket, tie, and apron (aprons will not be provided). Don’t forget your top hat (requested, not required).

If your lodge is named for Joseph Warren or otherwise has a touchable connection to the American Revolution, this would make an ideal weekday happening. Maybe top it off with a historic pub crawl? Or, at least, walk the Freedom Trail!

Yesterday was the 283rd anniversary of Warren’s birth. He was killed in action against the British at Breed’s Hill, site of the monument shown above, in Charlestown. Monday will be the 249th anniversary of the fighting. Next year will be the bicentenary of the start of the monument’s construction.

The National Park Service, with partners, has a more than week-long celebration underway already. Click here.

I cannot attend this one, but next year’s—the 250th—is on my calendar. Maybe see you there.

     

‘Visit Cleopatra’s Needle on Tuesday’

    

The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts’ 26th District will host a lodge of instruction next Tuesday that will be open to the public (sort of) for a discussion by a New Jersey Freemason on the subject of an ancient Egyptian monument that is on display in New York City. From the publicity, courtesy of Bro. Dagoberto:

Grand Lodge of Massachusetts

26th District Lodge of Instruction

Tuesday, February 27 at 7 p.m.

Register here for the Zoom

Prepare to embark on an enlightening journey through time and symbolism with our program on the enigmatic Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park, New York City.

Join us as we delve into the mystical symbolism of this ancient artifact, exploring its Masonic connections in its winding journey from the sun-drenched temples of Egypt to the bustling streets of New York.

Worshipful Brother Victor Moschella of Republican Lodge was entered, passed, and raised in Wilkins-Eureka-Continental Lodge 37 in New Jersey in 2003. He has presided in the East in all three York Rite bodies as well as his AMD council, and has received national recognition for distinguished service to the Craft in several of the York Rite bodies. He is a Past Most Excellent President of the Grand Convention of Anointed High Priests for the State of New Jersey, and is a member of the Silver Trowel and KYCH.

     

‘Bro. Norton and Masonry’s universality’

    

Click here to register.

Late afternoon on a Thursday might not be the most attractive timing for an online presentation, but our speaker is domiciled in Budapest where it’ll be 10 p.m. If he can do it, you can too.

Peter Lanchidi is an art historian who has found his way into the study of Masonic history via, as I understand it, a Judaic prism, writing in the academic world about Kabbalistic art and, maybe unusually, the challenge of practicing religious tolerance in the fraternity.

I’m told the story of Jacob Norton, a Massachusetts Mason in the nineteenth century, is well known about the apartments of the Temple in the Bay State, so the rest of us can profit from this upcoming discussion. From the publicity:

Jews, Freemasons,

and a Nineteenth Century

Debate on Universality

Thursday, March 14

4 p.m. Eastern

Presented by Dr. Peter Lanchidi

There is a notable history of American Jewish engagement with the Freemasons. In this talk, Dr. Peter Lanchidi will shed light on the meaning and relevance of Freemasonry for American Jewry, and share the story of Jacob Norton, a Jewish Mason in Boston, and a debate he found himself at the center of when he presented a petition to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1851 concerning the role of religion within the Masonic brotherhood. Dr. Lanchidi will address the skirmish that followed, pitting universalist Jewish (and non-Jewish) brethren against conservative Christian Masons, as well as the broader context regarding the appeal of Freemasonry for American Jews.

Click here to register.

Peter Lanchidi is a tenured Assistant Professor in the Institute of Art History at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. As an Azrieli Fellow, he earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheva. With background in art history and aesthetics (BA) from Budapest and Jewish studies (MA) from Stockholm and Heidelberg, his research focuses on the interface between Freemasonry and Kabbalah in visual material in the nineteenth century and its historical and cultural contexts.  

     

‘A look inside the Masonic Building in Boston’

    

Magpie coverage of the Boston Tea Party anniversary celebration last weekend continues belatedly with a quick tour of the Masonic Building, headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in Boston. The following photos were shot both during a formal guided tour and while I was exploring on my own. Some items are permanently displayed; others were exhibited for the special weekend. Descriptions are mostly the official histories, but some also have my editorializing, which you’ll be able to discern. Enjoy.

The seal of the Grand Lodge greets you upon entering the side door. Not a typical mosaic, but each tile is a stone shaft of (I think) two inches bored into the floor by artisans from Italy who labored several years throughout the building in the early twentieth century. A shame everyone trods across, but evidently it can take it. You might recognize ‘Follow Reason,’ which also is the motto of St. John’s Lodge 1 in New York. A tour guide was unsure where the motto originates, but it may come from the coat of arms of the Duke of Montague, sixth Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England. Those are beavers flanking the shield; a nineteenth century study by Grand Lodge said they were lizards! (Don’t tell David Icke.) The tour guide didn’t know what to make of the left side, saying the castles may have something to do with Henry Knox, but of course that comes from the arms of the first Grand Lodge of England, and is still used on the UGLE’s arms.

I was told this portrait of Bro. George Washington was painted by Gilbert Stuart, which is not impossible, I suppose, considering the artist’s Athenaeum Portrait is displayed in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. The brother also mentioned it had undergone very extensive restoration in recent years.

The Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, (1767-1842) first Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

Christmastime is a good time to visit Boston.

The immortal Warren!
That such men lived is miraculous.

A sample of the Boston Tea Party tea! Said to have come out of the boots of one of the participants, and donated to the Grand Lodge by W. Bro. Paul F. Dudley of Milton Lodge.

Read the description below.

Click to enlarge.

A copy of the very rare first edition of Ahiman Rezon, Pennsylvania’s Masonic constitutions, dedicated to George Washington.

Joseph Warren’s King James Bible, printed 1614.

Until modern scholarship, which I’ll get to in the next edition of The Magpie Mason, this eyewitness account of the Boston Tea Party by George Hewes is the most reliable source. (I was told on Faceypage last week that the Tea Party was a revolt against the Stamp Act. ‘Tea tax,’ I reminded the brother. He told me to read the lodge secretary’s minutes. Ooh boy.)

Certificate of Rising States Lodge, Boston, signed by Paul Revere, September 3, 1800.

You know St. Andrew’s Lodge was the Scottish lodge that met in the Green Dragon Tavern, but you might not have known that the tavern got its name on account of the oxidized copper dragon employed as signage above the door. It turned green over time. And this is it! The actual green dragon!

Note the dragon above the entrance.

Detail.

Henry Price. The reason Massachusetts claims to have the first grand lodge in the Western Hemisphere is because Provincial Grand Master Henry Price constituted the original grand lodge there. Knowledge of the original Grand Lodge of England’s way of doing things is needed, I think, because while we today might assume provincial grand lodges were akin to our current Masonic districts, the truth is the Premier Grand Lodge considered provincial grand lodges to be local sovereign authorities.

Henry Price’s headstone. At some point, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts obtained permission from Price’s family to take possession of this headstone and move it to the Masonic Building to prevent damage caused by time and weather. It now is installed in a wall upstairs. In exchange, the brethren commissioned a massive monument for their founder.

MW John T. Heard, Grand Master 1856-58, was said to have weighed more than 400 pounds...

…consequently, this eight-legged chair was made for him.

Click to enlarge to read the card.

Franklin + Pallas Athena = Wisdom. Corinthian Hall.

And finally, a portrait of Ned Flanders. No inscription accompanies his portrait because he was not a grand master, but his picture hangs in respect for (I think) a massive donation he made to the Grand Lodge. Remind me to tell Tabbert there’s a Ned Flanders!

I shot many more photos, but these are the most interesting. Thanks for looking.

     

‘Tommaso Crudeli: Masonic martyr’

    

The plaque reads:

TOMMASO CRUDELI
(1702-1745) Florence, Italy
FIRST MARTYR OF
UNIVERSAL FREEMASONRY
Presented by the President
of HSTCI of America
MWGM KENNETH S. WYVILL Jr of GL of MD
MMXV

I wish I could have copyedited that.

Born on this date* in 1702 was Bro. Tommaso Crudeli.

That’s a new name to me, having learned of him only last weekend. Taking in the many sights inside the Boston Masonic Building, home to the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, on Saturday, I was drawn to this bust. The plaque on its pedestal is not the most informative inscription, but I shot a photo and looked up Bro. Crudeli later. There’s an amazing story.

From the Institute of Historical Studies Tommaso Crudeli:

Tommaso Baldasarre Crudeli (December 21, 1702-March 27, 1745) was a Tuscan free-thinker who was imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition in Florence. He was a poet, lawyer, champion of free thought, and is remembered as the First Martyr of Universal Freemasonry.... Tommaso was the seventh [Crudeli generation] to graduate from the University of Pisa [both canon and civil law, 1726]. His mentor was Bernardo Tanucci (Premier of Naples and Sicily Kingdom) during the preparation of studies and university years; in Pisa he had strong relationships with teachers and colleagues for cultural affinities Lucretian and above the nascent Enlightenment.

Tommaso moved to Venice at the family of the Counts Contarini and then he returned to Florence as professor of Italian for English Colony. For his lively intellect and his boldness, Tommaso was brought into the English Lodge, first Masonic Lodge in Italy and dependant from Grand Lodge of England, in which he was initiated on May 5, 1735. He became secretary, but also a scapegoat for a strong conflict between the Vatican and English Freemasonry, who began in Florence at the end of the long dynasty of the Medici trying to establish the Lorraine, titled dynastically, to change the political destiny of the Grand Duchy.

 

He was arrested for suspicion of heresy, or worse, to be the bearer of heresies, and was left in prison in total darkness and without air for three months. He was interrogated for days on “francmassonery,” but he did not cooperate and he would not sign the papers falsely noted his guilt so he was incarcerated again for another four months in inhumane conditions.

 

Questioned again about the aims of Freemasonry in Florence, members’ names, and Masonic rituals, he would not comply. He was sent back to jail even though his body was tried and he was vomiting blood. Meanwhile his father, Atto Crudeli, pleading the liberty for his child, sadly died of a broken heart for sorrow. Before Christmas, his brother Antonio clumsily attempted to free Tommaso, with a daring plan that ended before it was started. The Inquisitor interpreted the plan as proof of guilt and was convinced even more the need to pursue the prisoner. After another four months in prison, still in the darkness with sealed windows for fear of escape, he was questioned and charged with sins against religion whose list was irrelevant but that eventually concluded “and other serious facts known only to us.”

 

Subsequently, the inquisitors carried him, near death, to the prison at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence where he spent three months. In August 1740, in a church parade in black, they did ask him to recant, accepting his gasp as explicit consent. After the sentence came the partial grace that provided the compulsory residence in his home until the end of his life with a series of religious obligations that Tommaso never fulfilled.

 

CORRECTION: Apparently, I saw a copy of the bust at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial during a visit in November 2022.

Meanwhile all of Florence was in turmoil and especially the Governor, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice, and brothers of the lodge. Even the Grand Lodge of England mobilized, giving the King these facts, among others, that touched British interests in the dynastic succession in Europe. The Grand Duke of Tuscany (also a Mason) asked for a report from Tommaso. Because he had some bed rest, but was still sick and dying, Tommaso was able to dictate a detailed report which was why Francis Stephen of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa of Austria in 1742 closed the Inquisition Tribunal forever (next to the Basilica of Santa Croce), and after five years had it demolished.

 

Meanwhile Tommaso died in his bed because of the after-effects of imprisonment on March 27, 1745. He did have the satisfaction of seeing the Inquisition abolished by the secular power, the first in the Catholic world. The “Antica Condanna” which in fact was the first conviction by the Papal Bull of April 1738, was heard for many decades in which the writings and poems of Tommaso Crudeli were scattered, as it was altered many times [and] on the basis of which the Grand Duke did close the Inquisition Tribunal.

A brief video from 2008 when the Grand Lodge of New York memorialized Bro. Tommaso Crudeli.

*They used another calendar back then, so just play along.