‘MLMA day in Trenton & Philly’

    

Most of the gang at the MLMA annual meeting last month at the Trenton Masonic Temple in New Jersey, home state of outgoing President Glenn Visscher, front right.

So I’d better get started recapping the great Masonic weekends I’ve enjoyed recently. I’m going to start in the middle with the annual meeting of the Masonic Library and Museum Association on Saturday, September 6, which spanned two states.

I missed the Friday night dinner, but arrived at the Hilton in Jersey on Saturday morning to find the group in great spirits and ready for a long day of work and play. There are two news items that merit sharing here.

1. The peaceful transfer of power was completed during the meeting, and the MLMA leadership for the next two years is comprised of President Dirk Hughes, of the Michigan Masonic Museum and Library; Vice President Julia Wells, of the Iowa Masonic Library & Museum; Tyler Vanice, from the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, remains as Secretary; and Eric Trosdahl, of St. Paul Lodge Number Three in Minnesota, is setting a record for longevity as our Treasurer.

2. Future annual meetings of the association are scheduled.

2026: Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library and Museum of the Grand Lodge of New York, in New York City.

2027: Masonic Library & Museum of the Grand Lodge of Washington, in Washington State.

2028: Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, in Lexington, Massachusetts.

2029: Saint Paul Lodge Number Three in Minnesota.

Our meeting last month was hosted by the Trenton Masonic Temple in Trenton, New Jersey, home of the Museum of Masonic Culture which has been curated by outgoing MLMA President Glenn Visscher and his family since, I think, the 1990s. Then we rode the Shriners’ “trolley” to the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia for a tour of the building, including its Library & Museum, all arranged by Moises Gomez. Having been to the Philly temple often and recently, I didn’t shoot many photos, so what follows is a selection from the Trenton temple, its museum, and one lodge room.

New President Dirk Hughes, at right, explains some
of the nuances of museum curating.

New Jersey’s research lodge used to meet in this room.

The West of the same room.

The first minutes of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey.

I didn’t realize a few details about the mysterious lodge
at Basking Ridge were at our fingertips.

New Jersey has a Crudeli bust too!
Sorry for the glare.

In the museum room.

It’s not a museum, in my view, without tobacciana,
although I believe this is a match safe, not a snuff box.

I love these menageries fashioned by creative brethren.

Make Masonic material culture great again!

Remember when grand lodge law books could fit
in your jacket pocket? Good times.

The Royal Arch apron of John Scott, MEGHP
of the Grand Chapter of New Jersey in 1826
and the namesake of my chapter, Scott No. 4.

While we were enjoying the Museum of Masonic Culture,
Glenn and Mark recorded a promo for their podcast,
The Rite Stuff, seen on YouTube. Click here.

     

‘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.