Freedom in first degree

A Free Man An Examination of the Concept of Freedom in the First Degree

by W. Bro. Niall Johnson

Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies United Grand Lodge of England 8

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The City of London has for centuries be free”? amiliarity may not necessarily been home to many “companies”, that is, There has always been some breed contempt, but it guilds, of craftsmen who have constituted mystery surrounding the use of the term certainly encourages an the Corporation of the City and thereby “Freemason” and many attempts have unquestioning acceptance.

For its governance. As you may know, the City been made to identify its source. There are years I drove to work each day on has long stood outside the authority of the plenty of references to freemasonry from monarch and to this day, when the Queen the mid-fourteenth century onwards but automatic pilot and hardly ever enters the City her coach is obliged to stop they are without exception solely concerned noticed anything; for thirty years – usually at the site of Temple Bar - until, with operative masons. It may be that they I have been listening to and taking with the formal presentation of the City’s were so called because they worked in “free part in Masonic ritual and, I suspect sword, she is allowed to enter. Freedom stone”; or that they were “free” in that they like most of us, rarely bothered could be achieved by membership of a were obliged by their work to move about company – and sometimes even the freedom and were therefore not tied to the land; to ask what was intended, what it of the City itself. Oddly, freemasons alone perhaps they were simply, again by virtue means, and why we do what we do. have a single syllabled name; every other of their work and necessary movement, But just occasionally something company incorporating the word “free” free from tolls or taxes levied on others. A brings itself to one’s attention and in its title uses it as an adjective and not suggestion was made in the Gentleman’s causes one to part of a compound noun.

Certainly think. Thus it “As you may know, the City has long stood outside the there was a mason was with this authority of the monarch and to this day, when the Queen company in London; word “free”. it was, however, small

enters the City her coach is obliged to stop – usually at the

If we start from because most masons first principles, site of Temple Bar - until, with the formal presentation of the by the very nature of we call ourselves City’s sword, she is allowed to enter.” their profession were “free and accepted itinerants employed in various parts of the masons”.

The country and were not settled in business Magazine in 1740 that, following the “accepted” bit is easy – it just means in a specific location as other craftsmen impressing of masons by Edward III to that we have been accepted into a were. Thus it may be that the original enlarge Windsor Castle, they had agreed lodge, that is “initiated”. And it is at freemason was free in a variety of ways – not to work and had established various the initiation ceremony that the word as a worker in freestone, enjoying freedom tokens etc. to know one another by and to “free” is used so extensively – would from tolls and taxes and being made free assist one another against being impressed. you believe no fewer than fifteen by his association with a guild or company An even more amusing suggestion was that times from when the candidate enters and probably the City of London itself. the term comes from the French Le Frère the temple until he kneels to take the Whatever the truth of it – and we shall Maçon – brother mason – and had been obligation! Some of those references never know for certain – there is a fairly corrupted over the years to Freemason. obvious dividing line to be drawn between we are all immediately familiar with.

Unfortunately, since the French for the freedoms of the mediaeval operative freemason is franc-macon, that cannot be.

Which of us hasn’t at some time had masons and their speculative descendants.

What is abundantly clear is that the term a quiet snigger at the phrase “masonry Many of the references to freedom existed in the middle ages but it almost is free”? And yet the very fact that we in the candidate’s first encounter with certainly refers only to the operative snigger at this shows that we know it masonry are – on the face of it – more masons and, although they certainly doesn’t refer to money; therefore we easily explained. I say on the face of it preserved their guilds by the use of tokens must know it refers to something else – because I suspect that there is a neat little and pass words, it has little to do with the but what? In what way can “masonry paradox lying underneath. Much is made symbolic masonry established later.

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of the candidate’s being a “free man”. In always have, the reason being I imagine, draconian in their regulation of the order to make sense of this we need to that as an undergraduate you could not lives of apprentices – hence perhaps the return to modern masonry’s origins in possibly be bound apprentice and were bloodthirsty oaths some of us took when the 18th century. Now before you tell therefore free. And reference to Rule 157 we joined. me, let me say that I am well aware of in the Book of Constitutions says that Masonry these days is a pretty the pre-eighteenth century references those under the age of twenty-one may be harmless sort of beast. It is an urban myth, to what appears to bear some relation to admitted by “dispensation of the Grand perpetuated by a few barmy politicians to Masonry as we know it. I am aware of Master, or Provincial Grand Master or hide their own inadequacies, that we have Ben Jonson who, in his play The Alchemist District Grand Master.” And it adds that and employ influence. We nowadays describes an initiation very similar to our “Every candidate must be a free man, and espouse openness and pass ourselves off own and in his masque Loves Wel-Com in reputable circumstances.” Let us also as a charitable organisation. But it wasn’t at Bolsover written to entertain King remember that in the eighteenth century always thus. The charitable dimension Charles 1st at Bolsover Castle in 1634 has there were only two universities in this has always been present but needs to a character called Maul – The Freemason, country and that a university education be understood in the sense of the Latin Elias Ashmole initiated in Warrington in was available only to those from wealthy “caritas” – dispassionate love, the sentiment 1646, the Kirkwall Scroll – carbon dated and privileged families until comparatively described in the Address to the Brethren to the 15th century although the painting recent times. following Installation; it did not mean on it is probably much later, the supposed And if you know the novel, you supporting good causes of any and every influence of the Knights Templar on might think here about Thomas Hardy’s variety – that has only come about during Scottish Freemasonry etc. I know all that portrayal of a working man with a first the tenure of the present Grand Master.

– but the starting point for freemasonry as class brain attempting to gain admission Influence there certainly was during we know it, our rituals and our lodges is, to Oxford in Jude the Obscure. If, the late nineteenth and early twentieth I believe, the eighteenth century – the Age therefore, I am correct in thinking that the centuries when it was the norm for all the of Reason.

University Lodges could admit below the local worthies to be members of the lodge By that time – but as two world the active mediaeval wars changed the “Masonry these days is a pretty harmless sort of beast. It stonemasons’ structure of society, is an urban myth, perpetuated by a few barmy politicians guilds were things so the composition of of the past, but our membership has to hide their own inadequacies, that we have and employ the metaphor of changed accordingly influence. We nowadays espouse openness and pass building the temple and I imagine the was meaningful and average golf club ourselves off as a charitable organisation. But it wasn’t the working tools wields more influence always thus.” and recognition nowadays. We’re not signs held a certain even a secret society attraction for the intellectuals of the age of twenty-one without the need for anymore – we don’t need to be; but we day. The development of the temple was a dispensation it rather supports the idea did two hundred and fifty years ago when intended to represent our growth on the that the freedom implied is that of a man the ideas that brought us about were moral plane, the working tools of each bound to no other. What does seem odd, dangerous in the extreme. So let’s look degree are symbolic of the attributes to be however, is that when making the candidate back to the early days of our institution acquired and the recognition signs kept the an apprentice we should be asking about and try to see why freedom and “freedom uninstructed at bay. But first you had to be freedom from apprenticeship – hence the of inclination” were so important and why initiated – and for that you must be “free”. underlying paradox I spoke of before. the concept of freemasonry has irritated That question may simply derive from the And why should our illustrious eighteenth and indeed frightened so many people so imagined workings of a stonemason’s guild century forebears, none of whom was much over the centuries.

– that is, are you no longer an apprentice ever likely to be – or have been – bound The eighteenth century began with a bound to a master? And that would appear apprentice, ask this question unless there greater period of stability for this country to be substantiated by the question we was some other motive? Of course we than it had known for ages, first under the usually ask with that – “and of the full age could just dismiss it as playacting – but I rule of William and Mary, then Queen of twenty-one years?” – since indentures doubt that minds of the calibre of Newton Anne and then the Elector of Hanover, usually bound apprentices from the age or his assistant Desaguliers, the 3rd Grand George I. Art and science, literature of fourteen to twenty-one years. Now Master of the Premier Grand Lodge and and architecture flourished again, ideas some of you, like me, have probably long reputed to be the author of the 3rd Degree abounded and, inevitably, the status laboured under the impression that you Ceremony, really indulged in that. And quo was questioned. Talk was the order must be twenty-one to become a mason. if it were just playacting it would give the of the day for the intelligentsia and the Not true. Two lodges, Apollo No. 357 and lie to everything we profess to believe and coffee houses and inns were hotbeds of Isaac Newton No. 859, in the Universities render our ceremonies pointless. If you discussion – witness our own early lodges of Oxford and Cambridge respectively, care to look at some of the indentures being established in taverns. Science really certainly admit men of eighteen and of the period you’ll find that they were started to come of age and throw off its 10

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magical connotations – but it is worth reminding oneself that no less a figure than Newton remained an alchemist all his days and wrote some pretty amazing stuff on the prophecies of Daniel, and on the Apocalypse as well as a history of creation. And let us not forget, apples and gravity permitting, that Newton’s great work was with light – another very potent Masonic symbol. Perhaps too we should remember that alchemy was in many ways a search for the truth and not just the transmutation of base metal into gold with which it is permanently associated in the popular imagination. Roman Catholicism had long been outlawed from these shores but the established church was being called into question for its corrupt practices and the Wesleys’ Methodist movement begun in Oxford soon gained ground particularly with the underprivileged. We really were at a crossroads in our history and it was into the vacuum left by the discrediting of so many long accepted notions that modern Masonry was born. “A system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols” is how we describe Freemasonry; yet at the time this was being written there was already such a system in existence Rocky Mountain Mason

– it was called Christianity. It would seem, therefore, superfluous to introduce another such system and particularly one which lacked historical legitimacy and the need for religious belief. And yet that was probably the whole point; miracles do not sit comfortably in the Age of Reason and there are none in Freemasonry. Where dissatisfaction with the Church led the Wesleys to redefine their Christianity others, perhaps because of their scientific backgrounds and being less ready to accept without questioning but not yet ready to adopt anything other than an agnostic approach to religion, found satisfaction in a code of conduct founded on brotherhood. But in order to embrace this system they would need to be “free”, that is to say, not bound intellectually, politically or ideologically; but at liberty to enter the metaphor presented by the Masonic allegory, to enjoy the fruits of fellowship and to dare to hope that death is not the end. You can probably see why Roman Catholicism, which of all branches of Christianity binds its adherents most firmly to itself, finds such difficulty in tolerating Freemasonry. No matter how much the aims of both are in concert, it

is the freedom sought by the one which makes it anathema to the other. You might like to remember that Galileo spent the last years of his life under house arrest for daring to say that the earth was not the centre of our universe and that it revolved around the sun and not vice-versa. I’m always amused that the Roman Church only accepted this a few years ago when Galileo was finally pardoned in 1992!

It is probably this very concept of freedom which has also managed to upset so many states. If I might digress for a little while I wonder whether we might consider “freedom” itself and try to ascertain just what we understand by it.

One of the great oddities of this word is that these days we always define it in the negative – that is to say, we explain what it is not. We fail ever to think of it as a positive absolute but instead think of it as a state in which we are not constrained, not bound etc. Again, it wasn’t always like this. We are very modest in Derbyshire and make very little of the fact that one of the greatest of all political thinkers lies buried in the tiny church at Ault Hucknall, just to the east of Chesterfield. His name was Thomas Hobbes; he was tutor to the 11

Earls of Devonshire and his acquaintance was astonishing ranging from Ben Jonson to Galileo and Descartes. But it was the geometry of Euclid – if that rings any bells with you – which left the most enduring impression on him. His greatest work published in 1651 was “Leviathan”, named for the Hebrew sea monster – do you recall that psalm which includes the words: “There go the ships, and there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to take his pastime therein”? The world for Hobbes was a mechanical system driven by the forces of attraction and repulsion governing human psychology and determining good and evil. Human beings are wholly selfish and, in a state of nature, there would be “a war of every man against every man.” Therefore in the light of self-interest we are forced to establish a social contract in which we surrender the right of aggression to an absolute ruler whose commands are law. Clearly, one man’s freedom is another man’s anarchy!

The paradox is that freedom can only be

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attained by accepting boundaries and limitations to one’s freedom – hence perhaps the insistence on freedom in the Initiation ceremony when the candidate is being bound as an entered apprentice.

If pushed I might posit the notion that there is no such thing as freedom.

More than a century after Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, in his “Social Contract” – you remember those opening words: “Man is born free but is everywhere in chains” – reiterated the idea of a state in which the individual surrenders his rights totally to the collective general will which by definition represents the common good - and those who do not subscribe to this can then “be forced to be free in their own interests.” His words. And it was his text in this work that became the slogan and bible of the French Revolution of 1789 – “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” Is it fanciful of me to think that those words are not too far removed from the Masonic ideal? And are they not the ideals enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence?

Do you remember those simple but so powerful words? – “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The eighteenth century, as well as being the age of reason, was also the century of revolution.

England had had its revolution a century before, but it became convulsed with paranoia when it considered the concept of freedom, saw the terror across the channel, and contemplated the loss of its American Colonies in 1776. Actually, I think Rousseau, who was an odd individual whose life contradicted his books – he had a longstanding affair with an illiterate girl, Thérèse Levasseur who bore him five children all of whom were put into the workhouse and who lived near Ashbourne at Wootton Hall for two years when he was forced to leave France - got it all wrong. No one is ever born free. Our lives are constrained from the moment

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of conception; we have no influence over whom we are born to, when or where we are born, our physical and intellectual make-up etc., etc.. The concept of the Noble Savage dates from that time too – but as Hobbes had so effectively shown, there is no such animal, and Rousseau’s friend Voltaire had a lot of fun with the idea in his book “L’Ingénue”.

I mentioned some time ago the loss of the American Colonies and the birth of the United States of America – the land of the free. I’m always fascinated by Presidential Inaugurations and especially by the oath taken by the President and the much longer one by the VicePresident. They are purely Masonic oaths - which is not surprising given the number of Founding Fathers who were Freemasons. And have you ever studied the Dollar Bill, the famous greenback? It’s an amusing exercise to see just how many Masonic emblems you can find and if you would like to try it later I have one here.

Freedom really seems to have been the underlying principle throughout the century, whether it be freedom from oppression by the state, freedom from religious dogma and persecution, or freedom of thought, be it philosophical or scientific. And it is only to be expected that those who controlled the apparatus of church or state should be at pains to curtail any movement which might threaten them. That is as true today as it was two hundred and fifty years ago and I dare to suggest that still the most dangerous weapon facing any state is freedom of thought. I further suggest that it is the notion of being free, having a freedom of inclination, and belonging to a society which labels itself as free, that strikes fear into the hearts of those who would and do persecute us. Presumably that was what motivated Hitler to ban Masonry and still motivates totalitarian states in which we are not welcome. Frankly, I don’t think they have much to be afraid of. Sadly we pay lip service to the splendid rituals which have been bequeathed to us; too many of us speak and hear the words without trying to understand what they signify; and now there is a movement gathering momentum for ceremonies to be read rather than learned.

To do that misses the whole point and ignores that admonition at the end Rocky Mountain Mason

of the First Degree Charge – to make a daily advancement in Masonic knowledge.

Looking back again to our early brethren, I cannot believe that they met only to initiate or pass candidates – the 3rd Degree being reserved for the Master, hence the Master Mason’s Degree. They would have talked and debated the issues of the day.

Masonry for them was another means of seeking the truth – not just somewhere to go on the second Monday in the month. It was daring, vibrant, quarrelsome. Living, as we do, comfortable lives in a quiet place with an equable climate, untouched by much of what happens in the world at large, free to come and go as we please, free to think what we will, it is easy to grow complacent. It is easy to go on doing “what we’ve always done” without giving it a great deal of thought – thought, after all, is for Quatuor Coronati Lodge or for a University Department specialising in Masonic research. Well, actually, no – I don’t believe it is. If we are not just a dining club, if we are not just Oxfam with rolled up trouser legs, there must be some meaning, some point in what we do and it should be incumbent upon all of us to try to understand our ceremonies, engage in debate about our practices and undertake a little Masonic education. If

Masonry is free, and if we who joined it are free, we owe that freedom to our forebears and it should not be taken for granted. Rather we should understand it, treasure it, continue to seek the truth and work to preserve it so that we may pass it on to our successors, pure and unsullied as we received it. Another great political thinker, John Stuart Mill, said that “with freedom comes responsibility.” And that, I think, is why such insistence is placed on the word “free” in the First Degree ceremony. It is a glorious double paradox – only by being free can a man be bound an Entered Apprentice; but it is only by being bound that he can become free. And it is by his acceptance of the moral limitations imposed on him by his new-found freedom that he engages himself to uphold all the responsibility it entails.

So there you have it. We are not free, we never were and we never shall be. But by the willing acceptance of a code of conduct, by ensuring that we keep our lives and actions within due bounds, we may enjoy a certain freedom. The music of Bach and Mozart, the poetry of Chaucer and Shakespeare, some of the greatest creations – and yet they all work within the constraints of incredibly restrictive forms. I am sure that that is what our eighteenth century forebears had in mind when they insisted on a man’s freedom and kept the word free as an integral part of their name. Living in a different age and a different culture, with a recent turbulent history and no great life expectancy, it was exciting to have thrown off the shackles of the past and to be able to catch a glimpse of a free and marvellous future. But they understood that commitment and responsibility were needed, and a new set of rules and constraints must be adopted if the promised freedoms were to be enjoyed to the full. And that is a lesson that echoes down the ages in the First Degree. By all means let us enjoy ourselves in Masonry – having a good time is certainly an important part of what we do. But we must never become so blasé that we cease to listen to the words of our ritual and thereby miss the point of what we are there for. Since our own initiations we may have seen more Firsts than we can remember, but it is a ceremony that still has much to teach us if we will only listen.

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