‘An “unhappy Man” vs. the “pursuit of Happiness”’

    

The Sunday Times

Mr. Cole Tomas Allen of California, an unhappy man, is in custody after a failed attempt on President Donald Trump’s life hours ago at the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner in Washington, DC.

A good (and familiar) question was posed the other day on Faceypage and, since the semiquincentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is near, I thought I’d expand my limited answer to that query for this edition of The Magpie Mason.

Bro. Thomas of Thornton Lodge 486 in Texas asks:

“Can someone please explain whether or not the 3rd paragraph of the EA Charge is actually a charge or a suggestion?”

Knowing nothing about any ritual(s) promulgated by the Grand Lodge of Texas, I didn’t know what might be communicated in the third paragraph of his lodge’s Entered Apprentice Charge, but the abundant replies to his question clarified that for me. In New York, we actually have two charges from which to choose to instruct the youngest Entered Apprentice. The first charge includes the following (although it’s the fourth graf):

In the State you are to be a quiet and peaceable citizen, true to your government and just to your country. You are not to countenance disloyalty or rebellion, but are patiently to submit to legal authority, and conform with cheerfulness to the government of the country in which you live.

As an aside, I’ll point out how this echoes in our Installation of Officers. In seating the new Worshipful Master, he must agree to fifteen commands, including:

II. You agree to be a peaceful citizen, and cheerfully conform to the laws of the country in which you reside.

III. You promise not to be concerned in plots or conspiracies against the government, but patiently submit to the law and the constituted authorities.

IV. You agree to pay a proper respect to the civil magistrates, to work diligently, live creditably, and act honorably by all men.

None of the above are Masonic secrets. The EA Charge is not protected by oath; the Ancient Charges and Regulations for the lodge’s new Master can be heard by all who witness the ceremony, which often is attended by our families and friends. What wisely was kept confidential were Thomas’ reasons for asking, as he did not reveal personal political opinions or why he might take being a peaceable citizen as merely a suggestion for Masons.

Anyway, here is my long form Magpie answer:

I wouldn’t think any part of a charge would be discretionary, but that [third paragraph] part most definitely is a command that reverberates through history.

The idea enters Masonic ritual via The Rev. James Anderson’s book The Constitutions of the Free-Masons from 1723, the jurisprudence (although it contains other content) of the premier Grand Lodge of England.

The best known, most frequently cited portion of that book is “The Charges of a Free-Mason.” Not only is this section kept current by the United Grand Lodge of England, but also we find this section reproduced in the pages of grand lodges’ law books all over the world. We New Yorkers can read it on page 57 of Masonic Law of New York. Freemasons who don’t know Anderson’s Constitutions should read it because it informs much of what we think, say, and do in our lodges. (This will be covered in what I’ll present to the Observant lodges of Oklahoma when I step to the lectern on St. John’s Day.)

Charge I, “Concerning God and Religion,” is credited by some historians for partly inspiring the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but Charge II is our topic today, to wit (spelling modernized):

II. Of the Civil Magistrate supreme and subordinate.

 

A Mason is a peaceable Subject to the Civil Powers, wherever he resides or works, and is never to be concerned in Plots and Conspiracies against the Peace and Welfare of the Nation, nor to behave himself undutifully to inferior Magistrates; for as Masonry has been always injured by War, Bloodshed, and Confusion, so ancient Kings and Princes have been much disposed to encourage the Craftsmen, because of their Peaceableness and Loyalty, whereby they practically answered the Cavils of their Adversaries, and promoted the Honor of the Fraternity, whoever flourished in Times of Peace. So that if a Brother should be a Rebel against the State, he is not to be countenanced in his Rebellion, however he may be pitied as an unhappy Man; and, if convicted of no other Crime, though the loyal Brotherhood must and ought to disown his Rebellion, and give no Umbrage or Ground of political Jealousy to the Government for the time being; they cannot expel him from the Lodge, and his Relation to it remains indefeasible.

Click to enlarge.

You see the similarities to the charges shown above. This is whence they came.

Anderson’s book also contains a legendary history of Freemasonry, some of which is factual, some fanciful. Among the reliably accurate notes is mention of English laws dating to the Middle Ages. In England, the various Statutes of Laborers regulated stone masons’ qualifications, remuneration, ability to meet, and other details, but the statute of 1405 specifically compelled such workers to take an annual oath to comply with the law. Anderson writes (spelling modernized):

Now though in the third Year of the said King Henry VI, while an Infant of about four Years old, the Parliament made an Act, that affected only the WORKING Masons, who had, contrary to the Statutes for Laborers, confederated not to work but at their own Price and Wages; and because such Agreements were supposed to be made at the General Lodges, called in the Act: Chapters and Congregations of Masons, it was then thought expedient to level the said Act against the said Congregations: Yet when the said King Henry VI arrived to Man’s Estate, the Masons laid before him and his Lords the above-mentioned Records and Charges, who, tis plain, reviewed them, and solemnly approved of them as good and reasonable to be holden: Nay, the said King and his Lords must have been incorporated with the Free-Masons, before they could make such Review of the Records; and in this Reign, before King Henry’s Troubles, Masons were much encouraged. Nor is there any Instance of executing that Act: in that, or in any other Reign since, and the Masons never neglected their Lodges for it, nor ever thought it worthwhile to employ their NOBLE and EMINENT BRETHREN to have it repealed; because the working Masons, that are free of the Lodge, scorn to be guilty of such Combinations; and the other free Masons have no Concern in Trespasses against the Statutes for Laborers.

Stone masons’ literature of the 1400s, namely the Regius Poem, communicates the same thinking. The marvelous website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon still shows the poem and the modern translation, from 1923 by Bro. Roderick Baxter of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076, including:

In 1799, with the bloodbath of the French Revolution in mind, the British government devised the Unlawful Societies Act. The law, which remained enforceable until 1967, banned groups, that met in secret and that required oaths, out of fear of organized political subversion. Freemasonry, being loyal and peaceful in its activities, was exempted from the law. (If you’ll be in London on May 14, get to QC 2076 at Freemasons’ Hall to hear Bro. Paul Calderwood present his paper on this law.)

In more recent years, Masons’ practice of being peaceable citizens has proven valuable in inoculating the Craft from suspicion. For example, when the Irish Republican Army seized the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Ireland in Dublin exactly 104 years ago, they relinquished control of the property (after six weeks) because Michael Collins and Arthur Griffiths were satisfied that Irish Freemasonry was apolitical and nonsectarian, despite its fraternal connection to England. More information on that here.

National Archives

What about the Declaration of Independence? The American Revolution placed Freemasons here in rebellion and war against their king. That’s not very peaceful! How did our Masonic ancestors, the famous and the obscure alike, square their commitment to the Craft with their revolution? Benjamin Franklin knew about Anderson. The first Masonic book printed in the New World was Franklin’s reprint of Anderson’s Constitutions in 1734.

Perhaps Anderson’s Charge II sometimes must be a romantic ideal, something aspirational, that has to be suspended when considering “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” for yourself and your posterity. Then again, on the practical side, America’s Founders, whether Masons or not, did not see the distant British king as their civil authority. After all, the colonists had no representation in Parliament. There were sympathizers (Bro. Edmund Burke and others), but that’s not the same as electing your own MPs. Meanwhile, the colonists here did elect local representatives and were used to having their say in government. Therefore, a rebellion against the government across the ocean could be outside the boundaries of Anderson’s charge.

In addition, we would be wise to consider that Anderson wrote for his time. (He’d be stunned to hear us talking about him 300 years later.) 1723 was early in the Hanoverian era, the dawn of which finally concluded decades of political violence in England. Think about what happened there between 1640 and 1721. Some of the major points:

➢ The Long Parliament

➢  Civil War

➢  Regicide of Charles I

➢  Cromwell

➢  The Restoration

➢  Glorious Revolution

➢  Bill of Rights

➢  The Act of Union

➢  The Hanoverian Succession

➢  Bro. Walpole as Prime Minister

There’s stability by 1723. The Grand Lodge, desiring royal patronage, wants to be known as being supportive of the constitutional monarchy, and so codifies its peaceful intentions, noting their historical basis.

Other replies to Bro. Thomas’ question on Thursday placed the Declaration of Independence at odds with the EA Charge, and even hinted it may be time to knock off this peaceful citizen business. (It appears those remarks have vanished.) But that is a valid question Thomas poses. How should we today reconcile Anderson’s “unhappy Man” and Jefferson’s “pursuit of Happiness?” 

     

‘To rekindle the rhyme of Regius’

    

UPDATE—October 1: Macoy Masonic Supply Co. is accepting pre-orders, so save some money on shipping. $59 per copy. Click here.

Lewis Masonic

I admit I’m trying to stop acquiring Masonic books, but it isn’t easy, and Lewis Masonic isn’t helping. The venerable publisher now has an edition of the Regius Poem that bridges the Middle English to the Modern in a translation that revives the rhyme. From the publicity:

Freemasons throughout the world are finally able to study a 600-year-old manuscript of The Old Charges thanks to an unprecedented translation in modern English that has preserved the original rhyme scheme. For these Brothers, it may provide new and meaningful insight into the history of the Craft from a medieval perspective, which is more about the actual dos and don’ts for ancient stonemasons than today’s Brotherhood and its symbolism. Nonetheless, it offers a lot of recognition when it comes to the origin of modern Masonic practices.

Ever since James Halliwell (1820-99) discovered The Regius Poem in 1842, English-speaking Masons have had to make considerable effort to cope with its language, which dates approximately to 1425. Until now, the manuscript could be read only in its original wording, in modern prose, or in attempts that failed to qualify as poetry. This implies that, in actual practice, the earliest document of The Old Charges has mostly been appreciated for its wisdom and strength—at the expense of its beauty.

Lewis Masonic

To reinstall this trinity, Brother Harry G. de Vries has translated the old text from rhymed Middle English to rhymed Modern English for the first time. It was his aim, he says, to facilitate his English-speaking brothers with a version in which the essential literary ingredient of rhyme would be revived in order to rekindle the poem’s 600-year-old beauty. As a result, it helps bring today’s Masons much closer to the impact the poem would have had on its medieval audiences.

In the foreword, the Dutch author explains why being a native speaker of Dutch may have been a considerable help to understand and translate the language of The Regius Poem. You can check the results of his labor in this edition, in which each left-hand page has the original text and each right-hand page displays the modern translation.

Lewis Masonic

Brother Harry takes you back to a medieval lodge where a travelling word artist served masons the history of their craft as it was seen at the time—after the day’s work had ended. At Lewis Masonic we are sure that this unique version in rhymed modern English will provide Freemasons with a new perspective on the beauty of their Craft.

◆ Limited Edition of 500 only

◆ Printed on Artisanal Textured Italian Paper

◆ Cloth Bound

◆ Beautiful End Papers

◆ 152 pages

◆ 168 x 240

◆ 978-0-85318-655-7

£39.00 ($50) Click here to order.

     

‘Another Feast Day’

Mustn’t let the day end without noting how the eighth of November is the Feast Day of the Four Crowned Martyrs.

The feast days celebrated in Freemasonry are those dedicated to St. John the Baptist (June 24) and St. John the Evangelist (December 27), but there are others that have a historical significance to the Masonic Order, even if rarely acknowledged or understood.

What connects the Four Crowned Martyrs to Freemasonry is the first of what are called the Old Charges, a corpus of about 130 manuscripts that state Masonic principles or other defining characteristics, like ritual elements, and that date between c.1390 and c.1710. That first manuscript goes by two names: the Regius Poem (or Regius Manuscript) and the Halliwell Manuscript. It is believed to be the work of two monastic scribes, and is said to date to anywhere between 1390 and 1450. Its two names derive from the fortuitous circumstance of its discovery, which I’ll describe below.

But first, what makes this document unique among Old Charges is that it is written in verse, and that it is written in a form of English known from the 1400s.

To that I would add only that the word “mote,” as in “so mote it be,” which Masons say in affirmation of prayer, is found at the end of this poem in a rhyming pair of octameter lines:

“Amen! Amen! So mote it be!
So say we all for charity.”

The entire poem of 794 lines, in its original language and in modern English, can be read here.

This “poem of moral duties” was unknown for centuries, being included among the many documents in the library of noted collector Charles Theyer. This library became owned by King George II, who turned it over to the British Museum in the mid 18th century where it became part of the King’s Library (ergo the name Regius Poem/Manuscript). It was discovered, studied, and, in 1840, published by James Halliwell (ergo the name Halliwell MS), who, although not a Freemason, recognized its significance to the Masonic Order.

A remarkable turn of events.

But who were the Four Crowned Martyrs?

Like so much in Freemasonry that frustrates the seeker of knowledge, there is no single definitive answer to that question. Instead there are two legends that differ in details but speak essentially a similar story. The Catholic Encyclopedia says:

The old guidebooks to the tombs of the Roman martyrs make mention... of the Four Crowned Martyrs (Quatuor Coronati), at whose grave the pilgrims were wont to worship. One of these itineraries, the “Epitome libri de locis sanctorum martyrum,” adds the names of the four martyrs (in reality five): “IV Coronati, id est Claudius, Nicostratus, Simpronianus, Castorius, Simplicitus.”

These are the names of five martyrs, sculptors in the quarries of Pannonia (now a part of Austria-Hungary, south-west of the Danube), who gave up their lives for their faith [during] the reign of Diocletian. The acts of these martyrs, written by a revenue officer named Porphyrius, probably in the fourth century, relates of the five sculptors that, although they raised no objections to executing such profane images as Victoria, Cupid, and the Chariot of the Sun, they refused to make a statue of Æsculapius for a heathen temple. For this they were condemned to death as Christians. They were put into leaden caskets and drowned in the River Save. This happened towards the end of 305.

The foregoing account of the martyrdom of the five sculptors of Pannonia is substantially authentic; but later on a legend sprang up at Rome concerning the Quatuor Coronati, according to which four Christian soldiers suffered martyrdom at Rome during the reign of Diocletian, two years after the death of the five sculptors. Their offence consisted in refusing to offer sacrifice to the image of Æsculapius. The bodies of the martyrs were interred at St. Sebastian and Pope Melchiades at the third milestone on the Via Labicana, in a sandpit where rested the remains of others who had perished for the faith.

Since the names of the four martyred soldiers could not be authentically established, Pope Melchiades commanded that, the date of their death (8 November) being the same as that of the Pannonian sculptors, their anniversary should be celebrated on that day, under the names of Sts. Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorianus, Castor, and Simplicius....

On a closing note, on this date in 1884, the United Grand Lodge of England organized the first lodge of Masonic research and education in the world. The creation of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 coincided with the birth of the science of history – that is, the regard for factual accuracy determined by scholarly research that is reviewed by peers.

And the rest is history.