clarification between Templars and Scottish Freemasonry: an Amazon.com review of a Scottish history professor's book

[Angus mac Lir]

        Top of Form[PARA]The Origins of Freemasonry : Scotland's Century,
1590-1710[NL]by David Stevenson (history professor at St. Andrew's, I
believe)[PARA]The  question of Freemasonry's origins and history prior to
the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 is such a morass of
speculation, supposition, and wishful thinking that professional
historians - Stevenson included - feel the need to justify their researches
in this subject lest they be tainted by its disrepute among their fellows.
Against such a background this book really stands out. Stevenson bases his
research on actual records of almost a hundred Scottish Masonic lodges that
date from the 1600's, along with municipal records, other guilds' records,
diaries, and royal statutes. [PARA]What emerges from this mass of
information is a compelling story of the origin of Scottish Lodges as trade
associations established by royal decree in the late 1590's and their
development by 1710 into mutual benefit and social societies involving a
broader range of members. Stevenson's most important finding, established
early in the book, is that both before and after the establishment of the
Lodges, masons were also members of municipally chartered, or incorporated,
building trades guilds along with carpenters, wrights, and the detested
cowans or unskilled laborers. The Lodges, in essence, were parallel and
competing organizations with the municipal "Incorporations", of which the
masons were also members. Stevenson illustrates the power struggles between
the Lodges and the "Incorporations", as well as the search for influence on
the part of various noble patrons. Along the way we get a good look at the
frequently theorized, but never well documented transition from operative to
speculative membership (it did not happen the way you might think!).
Stevenson covers such topics as initiation practices (both Masonic and
other), the "Mason Word", the number and names of the degrees, the
development of the Master Mason degree, and the frequency, content, and
location of meetings. There is an interesting and illustrative biography of
an early gentleman Freemason, Robert de Moray. Stevenson also proposes a
curious and rarely considered source for much of the ritual and symbolism.
Many Freemasons will probably enjoy comparing the ritual as worked in their
jurisdictions with the Scottish material from the late 1600's that Stevenson
discloses. [PARA]All is not lost, however, for those who prefer to see
Masonic origins in ancient Egypt, the Knights Templar, the Commacine
Masters, or other more romantic sources. Stevenson does not claim to have
the whole story of Masonic origins. He wonders himself why William Schaw,
the Director of Works under King James I, wanted to "re-establish" Lodges of
stonemasons (complete with esoteric practices) in competition with the
existing building guilds. Stevenson freely admits that the oldest evidence
of Freemasonry, those fascinating documents called the "Old Charges", are
English in origin. The only claim he makes on behalf of Scotland is that it
was there and in that century that whatever Freemasonry was in 1590 took
root and developed into the fraternity that we might recognize as
Freemasonry today. Hence the title "The Origins of Freemasonry - Scotland's
Century". Stevenson has firmly nailed down this corner of the puzzle of
Masonic history. All future authors on the subject must insure that their
theories fit his facts.


Sent: Friday, 18 May 2001 13 29
 Subject: Re: clarification
 The lapse in time between the founding of the Masons and the formal
"extinction" of the Templars - I know there was an explanation in "The
Temple and the Lodge" - I just don't remember it off hand.  I'll have to
look it up later.