Foreword by the LateJ. H. Lepper P. G. D.
Librarian and Curator to the United Grand Lodge of England 1943-1952
It gives me great pleasure to introduce Brother Bernard Jones to what I am confident will
prove an ever-increasing circle of those interested in the history and antiquities of the
Craft of freemasonry. The aim of this book is to make available in a convenient form and size all those
advances in our knowledge due to masonic historians and students of research during the
past sixty years. That knowledge is scattered through a great variety of books and
pamphlets, and no small amount of time and trouble has gone to the making of what
might justly be termed a handbook of masonic lore.
The book is unique in that it provides the man who has small leisure for extensive
reading with the essence and marrow of what has been accomplished in two generations
of masonic scholarship-generations, moreover, that have produced the greatest names in
this field of study.
While the contents of this book consist in the main of hard fact supported by
appropriate evidence, the author in pursuing his design has had to refer to various
theories, sometimes conflicting, that have at different times enjoyed popular support. To
my mind he has approached this phase of his subject with admirable discretion, setting
forth the hypotheses and then leaving the reader, after examination of the pros and cons,
to form his own judgement about their credibility. He acts as an expositor, not as an
iconoclast or partisan.
That being the scheme of the book, it will be patent to every reader of intelligence
that the writer of this foreword is in no sense responsible for any of the opinions to be
found in it. I must, however, express the gratification I feel that Bernard Jones has joined
the band of those who are trying with proper discretion and caution to spread more light
among the collective members of the masonic Order.
Preface by Author:
THE addition of one more book on freemasonry to the many thousands already in
existence must invite a very proper question. Is it wanted? If not, there can he no excuse
for publishing it. Let the reader judge when 1 say that my real object in writing it has
been to provide the young mason with a concise, simply worded, and comprehensive
guide to the Craft, an explanation of everything in the growth and present practice of
freemasonry that (with masonic propriety) can be discussed in print. This book is
intended for the ordinary member of the ordinary lodge, who usually has neither time
nor facilities for making a regular study of freemasonry yet feels a definite need of
instruction, but I hope that the serious student will find in it a few things new to him and
possibly some ideas that will provoke his thought.
The lack of a book on the lines of this present one must have been felt by every
young mason who wishes, for example, to assure himself as to the exact nature of
freemasonry's claim to be an ancient system and who seeks a clear view of the rise and
emergence of speculative masonry, a view not rose-coloured by romantic fictions or
overlaid with hoary fallacies; who wants to know how the system of masonic
government developed, how the appointments of his lodge were derived, how the rituals
came to assume their form, and whence came the many curious masonic customs and
how they have been influenced in the course of history.
Robert Freke Gould, still the greatest name in masonic literature, said in 1885,
"The few students of our [masonic] antiquities address themselves, not so much to the
Craft at large, as to each other., They are sure of a select and appreciative audience, and
they make no real effort to popularize truths. . . ." His words apply with nearly as much
force to-day as when he wrote them, and the need to do what the older students have
largely left undone is no small part of the inspiration that led me to my task and
maintained me in the doing of it.
Every mason has received the injunction to make a daily advancement in masonic
knowledge, but he seldom or never has an easy means of doing so. 1 trust this book will
provide that means, that it will serve to enlarge or even open up the young mason's
interest and give him a
new joy in masonry, and that in hundreds of lodges lecturers will find in my pages
material upon which they can base modest and plainly worded talks of a kind which I
know, from my own personal experience, the brethren welcome and appreciate.
I did not decide to write this book until I had assured myself that what I had in mind was
what my brethren in the lodges did in fact need, and that I either had or could acquire the
necessary qualifications for the task. Although I had been long aware that such a book
was wanted, it was not until I had had heart-to-heart talks with Brother J. Heron Lepper
that I determined to devote a few of my remaining years to the task of writing it. Brother
Lepper did two things. He finally convinced me of the need for the book. As Librarian
and Curator at Freemasons' Hall, as the Treasurer of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, as a
masonic authority and historian, and as one to whom freemasons all over the world go
for information, he had a unique qualification to advise as to the kind of book I should
write. Of his rich store of advice he gave freely and gladly, and I well know that the
thanks I now tender him must inevitably be inadequate. I particularly appreciate his
kindness in writing a foreword to this book. The second thing he did was to assure me,
from a personal knowledge based upon an editorial association a score of years back, that
he believed I, was the man to attempt what both of us, as book craftsmen, knew to be a
considerable task-one calling for hard work, steady application, wide yet critical reading,
a flair for explanation, and ever a clear vision of the purpose that inspired the original
intention.
As to my qualifications, I was initiated in 1905 in a lodge consisting almost
entirely of authors, journalists, and artists, and in due course passed to the chair and to
the Royal Arch and Mark Degrees. I have had thirty years as Secretary of my mother
lodge, a particularly rich and useful experience. As it so happens that I have spent fifty
years in the editorial production of books and journals dealing with a variety of practical
subjects, including architecture and building, all written from the one point of view of
instructing the uninformed reader, it should follow that I ought to have some
acquaintance with the art of teaching by the printed word. May it prove that my
craftsmanship is equal to my high purpose!
The point may fairly be stressed that this book presents in general an essentially
modern treatment. The old-fashioned masonic books so often tell a story that is more
romantic than factual, and repeat fallacies that should long ago have died a natural death.
They have a way of mixing up fact and fiction so that only a well-versed student can
safely pick his way through them and they tend to give new life to unreliable stories and
ideas that were either invented or put into new dress by Anderson in his Constitutions of
1723. Fallacies die hard, very hard indeed.
This book, being based as far as possible on modern research, is believed to be as
authentic as the present state of knowledge permits, and the fact that it has been read in
manuscript by Brother the Rev. Herbert Poole and one chapter of it ("Initiation") in proof
by Brother Fred L. Pick is in itself an assurance on this point. Both of these brethren are
well-known authorities and Past Masters of Quatuor Coronati Lodge. Brother Poole is
the editor of its Transactions, and the author of many contributions to masonic literature;
while Brother Pick is editor of the Transactions of the Manchester Association for
Masonic Research, and is also an experienced masonic author. My warm thanks are due
to both of them.
Failing the explanation I am now about to make, Brother Herbert Poole might be
fathered with certain opinions for which he may have no use. It so happens that in one or
two matters relating to the emergence and early history of speculative masonry,
particularly Scottish, I have been led to take views with which Brother Poole is not
always in sympathy. Where I have failed, in spite of all his patience, to see eye to eye
with him, I have tried fairly to present both sides of the question, but my readers will
understand that in no case should Brother Poole be saddled with opinions here given
other than those to which his name is attached.
The scope of this book is believed to be far wider than that of any explanatory
work yet offered to the English-speaking mason, a claim which a glance at the List of
Contents - or even at the Index, containing more than seven thousand items - will, I
think, confirm. Obviously the book includes a considerable amount of historical matter,
but I offer it to the Craft as an explanatory rather than as an historical work. While I have
written chiefly for my brethren in the lodges, I have addressed two long and special
chapters to Royal Arch and Mark Masons; in them and in many earlier chapters they will
find much to help them to understand the rise and development of the degrees in which
they are specially interested. With regard to the many additional degrees, lack of space
has forced me to content myself with no more than a brief introduction and list.
In immediate preparation for the writing of this book I spent more than a year in
reading and in the making of notes. Boswell told Dr Johnson "that the greatest part of a
writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to
make one book." That certainly is true in my case, for I found it necessary to read, or at
any rate to consult, many hundreds of books, and to digest whatever in them offered
itself to my purpose.
Some readers may object to the length of the book. I wish it were smaller, and I
tried hard to make it so but failed, although I could easily,
time permitting, have made it many times larger. My problem was to decide what I dare
omit, and in this regard I worked to one criterion: would the information in question help
the young mason to a better understanding of his Craft? If the answer was yes, then I did
my best to include it. I may be asked why the reader is expected to plough through
sections telling the story of architecture, medieval operative masonry, and the medieval
guilds, a question I might evade by saying that he can easily skip them if he so wishes,
although I am convinced that later he will turn to them as he comes to realize that in the
Gothic period of English building and in the life of the guilds and other fraternities that
flourished in its day the roots of modern speculative masonry have many a tenacious
hold. But let any impatient reader make a start, if he so wishes, with the chapter on the
London Company and the Acception, or with the following one on the emergence of
speculative masonry, thus beginning the story in the seventeenth century; I feel sure that,
in time, he will feel obliged to turn back to the earlier pages.
The foundation of my masonic reading was Gould's three-volume History of
Freemasonry(1884-1887), in the production of which the author had the help of many
fine masonic scholars who later came together to found the world's premier lodge of
masonic research (Quatuor Coronati). The young mason generally finds Gould hard
going, but his work is undoubtedly, and always has been, the outstanding history of
freemasonry, and I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to it. On Gould I founded
my masonic education. On Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the Transactions of Quatuor
Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, I carried it further. Since the 1880's members of that Lodge
have been patiently collecting and sifting masonic evidence and communicating the results
in the form of papers read to the Lodge and afterwards printed in the annual transactions.
I made myself acquainted with the contents of well over fifty volumes of those
transactions before I wrote a word, and I frankly confess that so very much of what is
authentic in my book was originally communicated to the Quatuor Coronati Lodge. In
common with all other masonic writers, I was remarkably fortunate in having such a
source of information to my hand, and in being able, at will, to pick the best brains in
English -speaking freemasonry-and to pick them, in my particular case, on behalf of
younger brethren seldom if ever able to find time for such a lengthy task.
Next comes my heavy indebtedness to Miscellanea Latomorum -the masonic 'Notes and
Queries'-a most valuable little print which unfortunately has found the difficulties of the
times too much for it and has now temporarily closed down to await easier conditions. I
have also found useful the transactions of some of the societies for masonic research
in particular those of the Merseyside Association. I have referred to many Lodge histories
and have consulted and abstracted a considerable number of books on freemasonry, as
well as a host of books not specifically masonic. The bibliography at the end of the book
includes at best only a selection from the many works to which 1 have gone for help.
My method in writing this book has been to elucidate the facts of masonic history,
tradition, and lore where I could do so, rather than indulge in imaginative conjecture.
Facts are better than guesses, better than imagination; but all three have their place when
we come to consider matters in which knowledge of some of the facts died long ago with
the brethren concerned in them-brethren who did not make records or, at any rate,
refused to keep them. Every masonic author must have a proper regard for tradition, for
in it is "a nucleus of truth to be sought diligently." The story of freemasonry is not a
simple catalogue such as one may read of the names and personalities of the kings and
queens of England. Parts of the story are missing where they are most needed, just where
we have the keenest desire to know what happened. Obviously there is no finality in a
great many of the subjects discussed. Learned authors have been arguing over them for a
century or more, and will go on arguing, so we must ever be on our guard against
pronouncing what pretends to be a final verdict. There is yet so much to learn.
While I have naturally had first in my mind my brethren of the English lodges, I
have taken great care to see that the book contains much of direct appeal and usefulness to
the Irish and Scots freemason, to the freemasons of the Dominions overseas, as well as
those of the many thousands of lodges in the U.S.A. It must never be forgotten that the
story of English and Scottish freemasonry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is
actually the story of the emergence of World freemasonry, and that every one of the
scores of thousands of speculative lodges throughout the world is a daughter-though
perhaps many places removed-of the handful of English, Irish, and Scottish lodges
working in those same centuries.
It has been a source of great happiness to me that I have been writing a book
designed to help my brother masons. The Right Hon. Winston Churchill has said that
writing a long and substantial book is like having friend and companion at your
side, to whom you can always turn for comfort and amusement, and whose
society becomes more attractive as a new and widening field of interest is lighted
in the mind.
He clothes in eloquent words an experience which in great good fortune came to me. My
book was a friend and companion all through the period of its production, every chapter a
new pleasure, a welcome endeavour.
A word now on one or two practical matters that require explanation. Reference in
much later pages to the Constitutions'means the 1940 edition of the Constitutionsof the
United Grand Lodge of England. A.Q.C. means Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the
Transactions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. .2076. A bare reference to " Gould "
means Gould's original three-volume History of Freemasonry.I make hundreds of
references to 'Antients' and 'Modems.' I spell the ordinary word, ancient,' carrying the
ordinary meaning, always with a 'c,' even when I quote the word from sources in which
the word is spelt with a 't.' But I allude to the opponents of the Premier Grand Lodge of
England as 'Antients, and never by any chance as 'Ancients,' quite regardless of how the
word is spelt in any source from which I may be quoting .Similarly, the ordinary word
'modem' carries the ordinary meaning, but the appellations 'Antient' and 'Modern' are
always given with capital letters and in single quotation marks, as in this present
sentence.
Much of my four years of work in producing this book has been done in the
Library and Museum at Freemasons' Hall, London, where Brother J. Heron Lepper and
his staff patiently and generously afforded me many facilities. To the Assistant Librarian,
Brother W. Ivor Grantham, and the assistant Curator, Brother Henry F. D. Chilton, I am
deeply obliged for all their help and for all the trouble taken on my behalf (and very much
on my readers' behalf) so readily and courteously.
For permission to use the photographs, prints, etc., comprising the thirty-one
full-page plates, I am under a chief obligation to the Grand Lodge of England and to the
Quatuor Coronati Lodge, and I have also to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Grand
Lodge of Scotland; the Britannic Lodge, No. 33; Brothers H. Hiram Hallett and Bruce
W. Oliver; and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. With regard to the line
illustrations in the text, I wish to thank an architectural student, Herbert F. Day, for going
to the trouble of making a number of special drawings to meet my needs.
I must confess that, in spite of all the care taken to avoid blemish and error, it is
quite unlikely that a book of this particular kind could be immune from the perils that
beset the printed word, and it would be idle to suppose that it does not present many
opportunities for criticism. Well, Dr Johnson thought it was advantageous to an author
that his book should be attacked as well as praised! I can only repeat that I have done my
best to produce a plainly worded but authentic book of wide scope to meet the needs of
young and intelligent brethren anxious to make a daily advancement in masonic
knowledge-and, for the rest, let me beg the never failing indulgence of the Craft.
B. E. J.
BOLNEY
SUSSEX MsSVig
Librarian and Curator to the United Grand Lodge of England 1943-1952
It gives me great pleasure to introduce Brother Bernard Jones to what I am confident will
prove an ever-increasing circle of those interested in the history and antiquities of the
Craft of freemasonry. The aim of this book is to make available in a convenient form and size all those
advances in our knowledge due to masonic historians and students of research during the
past sixty years. That knowledge is scattered through a great variety of books and
pamphlets, and no small amount of time and trouble has gone to the making of what
might justly be termed a handbook of masonic lore.
The book is unique in that it provides the man who has small leisure for extensive
reading with the essence and marrow of what has been accomplished in two generations
of masonic scholarship-generations, moreover, that have produced the greatest names in
this field of study.
While the contents of this book consist in the main of hard fact supported by
appropriate evidence, the author in pursuing his design has had to refer to various
theories, sometimes conflicting, that have at different times enjoyed popular support. To
my mind he has approached this phase of his subject with admirable discretion, setting
forth the hypotheses and then leaving the reader, after examination of the pros and cons,
to form his own judgement about their credibility. He acts as an expositor, not as an
iconoclast or partisan.
That being the scheme of the book, it will be patent to every reader of intelligence
that the writer of this foreword is in no sense responsible for any of the opinions to be
found in it. I must, however, express the gratification I feel that Bernard Jones has joined
the band of those who are trying with proper discretion and caution to spread more light
among the collective members of the masonic Order.
Preface by Author:
THE addition of one more book on freemasonry to the many thousands already in
existence must invite a very proper question. Is it wanted? If not, there can he no excuse
for publishing it. Let the reader judge when 1 say that my real ob
been to provide the young mason with a concise, simply worded, and comprehensive
guide to the Craft, an explanation of everything in the growth and present practice of
freemasonry that (with masonic propriety) can be discussed in print. This book is
intended for the ordinary member of the ordinary lodge, who usually has neither time
nor facilities for making a regular study of freemasonry yet feels a definite need of
instruction, but I hope that the serious student will find in it a few things new to him and
possibly some ideas that will provoke his thought.
The lack of a book on the lines of this present one must have been felt by every
young mason who wishes, for example, to assure himself as to the exact nature of
freemasonry's claim to be an ancient system and who seeks a clear view of the rise and
emergence of speculative masonry, a view not rose-coloured by romantic fictions or
overlaid with hoary fallacies; who wants to know how the system of masonic
government developed, how the appointments of his lodge were derived, how the rituals
came to assume their form, and whence came the many curious masonic customs and
how they have been influenced in the course of history.
Robert Freke Gould, still the greatest name in masonic literature, said in 1885,
"The few students of our [masonic] antiquities address themselves, not so much to the
Craft at large, as to each other., They are sure of a select and appreciative audience, and
they make no real effort to popularize truths. . . ." His words apply with nearly as much
force to-day as when he wrote them, and the need to do what the older students have
largely left undone is no small part of the inspiration that led me to my task and
maintained me in the doing of it.
Every mason has received the injunction to make a daily advancement in masonic
knowledge, but he seldom or never has an easy means of doing so. 1 trust this book will
provide that means, that it will serve to enlarge or even open up the young mason's
interest and give him a
new joy in masonry, and that in hundreds of lodges lecturers will find in my pages
material upon which they can base modest and plainly worded talks of a kind which I
know, from my own personal experience, the brethren welcome and appreciate.
I did not decide to write this book until I had assured myself that what I had in mind was
what my brethren in the lodges did in fact need, and that I either had or could acquire the
necessary qualifications for the task. Although I had been long aware that such a book
was wanted, it was not until I had had heart-to-heart talks with Brother J. Heron Lepper
that I determined to devote a few of my remaining years to the task of writing it. Brother
Lepper did two things. He finally convinced me of the need for the book. As Librarian
and Curator at Freemasons' Hall, as the Treasurer of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, as a
masonic authority and historian, and as one to whom freemasons all over the world go
for information, he had a unique qualification to advise as to the kind of book I should
write. Of his rich store of advice he gave freely and gladly, and I well know that the
thanks I now tender him must inevitably be inadequate. I particularly appreciate his
kindness in writing a foreword to this book. The second thing he did was to assure me,
from a personal knowledge based upon an editorial association a score of years back, that
he believed I, was the man to attempt what both of us, as book craftsmen, knew to be a
considerable task-one calling for hard work, steady application, wide yet critical reading,
a flair for explanation, and ever a clear vision of the purpose that inspired the original
intention.
As to my qualifications, I was initiated in 1905 in a lodge consisting almost
entirely of authors, journalists, and artists, and in due course passed to the chair and to
the Royal Arch and Mark Degrees. I have had thirty years as Secretary of my mother
lodge, a particularly rich and useful experience. As it so happens that I have spent fifty
years in the editorial production of books and journals dealing with a variety of practical
subjects, including architecture and building, all written from the one point of view of
instructing the uninformed reader, it should follow that I ought to have some
acquaintance with the art of teaching by the printed word. May it prove that my
craftsmanship is equal to my high purpose!
The point may fairly be stressed that this book presents in general an essentially
modern treatment. The old-fashioned masonic books so often tell a story that is more
romantic than factual, and repeat fallacies that should long ago have died a natural death.
They have a way of mixing up fact and fiction so that only a well-versed student can
safely pick his way through them and they tend to give new life to unreliable stories and
ideas that were either invented or put into new dress by Anderson in his Constitutions of
1723. Fallacies die hard, very hard indeed.
This book, being based as far as possible on modern research, is believed to be as
authentic as the present state of knowledge permits, and the fact that it has been read in
manusc
by Brother Fred L. Pick is in itself an assurance on this point. Both of these brethren are
well-known authorities and Past Masters of Quatuor Coronati Lodge. Brother Poole is
the editor of its Transactions, and the author of many contributions to masonic literature;
while Brother Pick is editor of the Transactions of the Manchester Association for
Masonic Research, and is also an experienced masonic author. My warm thanks are due
to both of them.
Failing the explanation I am now about to make, Brother Herbert Poole might be
fathered with certain opinions for which he may have no use. It so happens that in one or
two matters relating to the emergence and early history of speculative masonry,
particularly Scottish, I have been led to take views with which Brother Poole is not
always in sympathy. Where I have failed, in spite of all his patience, to see eye to eye
with him, I have tried fairly to present both sides of the question, but my readers will
understand that in no case should Brother Poole be saddled with opinions here given
other than those to which his name is attached.
The scope of this book is believed to be far wider than that of any explanatory
work yet offered to the English-speaking mason, a claim which a glance at the List of
Contents - or even at the Index, containing more than seven thousand items - will, I
think, confirm. Obviously the book includes a considerable amount of historical matter,
but I offer it to the Craft as an explanatory rather than as an historical work. While I have
written chiefly for my brethren in the lodges, I have addressed two long and special
chapters to Royal Arch and Mark Masons; in them and in many earlier chapters they will
find much to help them to understand the rise and development of the degrees in which
they are specially interested. With regard to the many additional degrees, lack of space
has forced me to content myself with no more than a brief introduction and list.
In immediate preparation for the writing of this book I spent more than a year in
reading and in the making of notes. Boswell told Dr Johnson "that the greatest part of a
writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to
make one book." That certainly is true in my case, for I found it necessary to read, or at
any rate to consult, many hundreds of books, and to digest whatever in them offered
itself to my purpose.
Some readers may ob
tried hard to make it so but failed, although I could easily,
time permitting, have made it many times larger. My problem was to decide what I dare
omit, and in this regard I worked to one criterion: would the information in question help
the young mason to a better understanding of his Craft? If the answer was yes, then I did
my best to include it. I may be asked why the reader is expected to plough through
sections telling the story of architecture, medieval operative masonry, and the medieval
guilds, a question I might evade by saying that he can easily skip them if he so wishes,
although I am convinced that later he will turn to them as he comes to realize that in the
Gothic period of English building and in the life of the guilds and other fraternities that
flourished in its day the roots of modern speculative masonry have many a tenacious
hold. But let any impatient reader make a start, if he so wishes, with the chapter on the
London Company and the Acception, or with the following one on the emergence of
speculative masonry, thus beginning the story in the seventeenth century; I feel sure that,
in time, he will feel obliged to turn back to the earlier pages.
The foundation of my masonic reading was Gould's three-volume History of
Freemasonry(1884-1887), in the production of which the author had the help of many
fine masonic scholars who later came together to found the world's premier lodge of
masonic research (Quatuor Coronati). The young mason generally finds Gould hard
going, but his work is undoubtedly, and always has been, the outstanding history of
freemasonry, and I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to it. On Gould I founded
my masonic education. On Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the Transactions of Quatuor
Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, I carried it further. Since the 1880's members of that Lodge
have been patiently collecting and sifting masonic evidence and communicating the results
in the form of papers read to the Lodge and afterwards printed in the annual transactions.
I made myself acquainted with the contents of well over fifty volumes of those
transactions before I wrote a word, and I frankly confess that so very much of what is
authentic in my book was originally communicated to the Quatuor Coronati Lodge. In
common with all other masonic writers, I was remarkably fortunate in having such a
source of information to my hand, and in being able, at will, to pick the best brains in
English -speaking freemasonry-and to pick them, in my particular case, on behalf of
younger brethren seldom if ever able to find time for such a lengthy task.
Next comes my heavy indebtedness to Miscellanea Latomorum -the masonic 'Notes and
Queries'-a most valuable little print which unfortunately has found the difficulties of the
times too much for it and has now temporarily closed down to await easier conditions. I
have also found useful the transactions of some of the societies for masonic research
in particular those of the Merseyside Association. I have referred to many Lodge histories
and have consulted and abstracted a considerable number of books on freemasonry, as
well as a host of books not specifically masonic. The bibliography at the end of the book
includes at best only a selection from the many works to which 1 have gone for help.
My method in writing this book has been to elucidate the facts of masonic history,
tradition, and lore where I could do so, rather than indulge in imaginative conjecture.
Facts are better than guesses, better than imagination; but all three have their place when
we come to consider matters in which knowledge of some of the facts died long ago with
the brethren concerned in them-brethren who did not make records or, at any rate,
refused to keep them. Every masonic author must have a proper regard for tradition, for
in it is "a nucleus of truth to be sought diligently." The story of freemasonry is not a
simple catalogue such as one may read of the names and personalities of the kings and
queens of England. Parts of the story are missing where they are most needed, just where
we have the keenest desire to know what happened. Obviously there is no finality in a
great many of the subjects discussed. Learned authors have been arguing over them for a
century or more, and will go on arguing, so we must ever be on our guard against
pronouncing what pretends to be a final verdict. There is yet so much to learn.
While I have naturally had first in my mind my brethren of the English lodges, I
have taken great care to see that the book contains much of direct appeal and usefulness to
the Irish and Scots freemason, to the freemasons of the Dominions overseas, as well as
those of the many thousands of lodges in the U.S.A. It must never be forgotten that the
story of English and Scottish freemasonry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is
actually the story of the emergence of World freemasonry, and that every one of the
scores of thousands of speculative lodges throughout the world is a daughter-though
perhaps many places removed-of the handful of English, Irish, and Scottish lodges
working in those same centuries.
It has been a source of great happiness to me that I have been writing a book
designed to help my brother masons. The Right Hon. Winston Churchill has said that
writing a long and substantial book is like having friend and companion at your
side, to whom you can always turn for comfort and amusement, and whose
society becomes more attractive as a new and widening field of interest is lighted
in the mind.
He clothes in eloquent words an experience which in great good fortune came to me. My
book was a friend and companion all through the period of its production, every chapter a
new pleasure, a welcome endeavour.
A word now on one or two practical matters that require explanation. Reference in
much later pages to the Constitutions'means the 1940 edition of the Constitutionsof the
United Grand Lodge of England. A.Q.C. means Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the
Transactions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. .2076. A bare reference to " Gould "
means Gould's original three-volume History of Freemasonry.I make hundreds of
references to 'Antients' and 'Modems.' I spell the ordinary word, ancient,' carrying the
ordinary meaning, always with a 'c,' even when I quote the word from sources in which
the word is spelt with a 't.' But I allude to the opponents of the Premier Grand Lodge of
England as 'Antients, and never by any chance as 'Ancients,' quite regardless of how the
word is spelt in any source from which I may be quoting .Similarly, the ordinary word
'modem' carries the ordinary meaning, but the appellations 'Antient' and 'Modern' are
always given with capital letters and in single quotation marks, as in this present
sentence.
Much of my four years of work in producing this book has been done in the
Library and Museum at Freemasons' Hall, London, where Brother J. Heron Lepper and
his staff patiently and generously afforded me many facilities. To the Assistant Librarian,
Brother W. Ivor Grantham, and the assistant Curator, Brother Henry F. D. Chilton, I am
deeply obliged for all their help and for all the trouble taken on my behalf (and very much
on my readers' behalf) so readily and courteously.
For permission to use the photographs, prints, etc., comprising the thirty-one
full-page plates, I am under a chief obligation to the Grand Lodge of England and to the
Quatuor Coronati Lodge, and I have also to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Grand
Lodge of Scotland; the Britannic Lodge, No. 33; Brothers H. Hiram Hallett and Bruce
W. Oliver; and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. With regard to the line
illustrations in the text, I wish to thank an architectural student, Herbert F. Day, for going
to the trouble of making a number of special drawings to meet my needs.
I must confess that, in spite of all the care taken to avoid blemish and error, it is
quite unlikely that a book of this particular kind could be immune from the perils that
beset the printed word, and it would be idle to suppose that it does not present many
opportunities for criticism. Well, Dr Johnson thought it was advantageous to an author
that his book should be attacked as well as praised! I can only repeat that I have done my
best to produce a plainly worded but authentic book of wide scope to meet the needs of
young and intelligent brethren anxious to make a daily advancement in masonic
knowledge-and, for the rest, let me beg the never failing indulgence of the Craft.
B. E. J.
BOLNEY
SUSSEX MsSVig