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  • The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine
  • Jan. 22, 1870
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Jan. 22, 1870: Page 2

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    Article THE RISE AND PURPOSES OF SPECULATIVE MASONRY. ← Page 2 of 3
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

The Rise And Purposes Of Speculative Masonry.

municated to him . Grand lodges were nominally Hield quarterly , but often only at irregular and distant intervals , and you will therefore readily conceive that the number of Master Masons was very few . Care was , however , taken that the

Order should always comprise a greater or lesser number of brethren of good position in society , who , attracted , perhaps , by a love of architecture , or by a desire to share in the scientific researches pursued within the tyled recesses of the

fellowcrafts' lodges , or more than all , it may be , by what was rumoured of the beautiful symbolic morality of the Craft , voluntarily underwent the trials of initiation . Such non-operative brethren were termed " accepted " Masons ; whence our

present designation of "free and accepted" Masons . In particular was some noble or other highly influential brother always selected for the office of Grand Master , who , to quote again the . Antient

Charges , did not need to be , prior to election , above the second degree . From all which it comes , that at the present day neither the Grand Master nor Provincial Grand Masters ( an office not instituted until 1726 ) require to have served Master of a

private lodge . If they have not done so , they are admitted to the secrets ofthe chair , when installed and hornaged as Grand Master , or as Provincial Grand Masters ; but all deputies must have previously served as Masters of private lodges ; and the ground

of distinction is obvious . During the first decades of the seventeeth century the Craft languished greatly , but in the year 1637 a Grand Lodge was held , with the Earl of St . Alban's as Grand Master , at which several useful regulations were enacted

and the necessity of certificates of initiation first enjoined . In 1666 , after the destruction of London by the Great Fire , architecture , both practical and symbolical , again flourished . The foundation stone of St . Paul ' s Cathedral was

laid by Freemasons m loVo , and that edifice was completed in 1710 . During the latter and longer portion of this period . Sir Christopher Wren was Grand Master , and in 1690 King William III . was initiated . But upon the accession of King George

I ., that monarch deprived Sir 0 . Wren of his Grand Mastership , and appointed an obscure brother , one Benson , to that high oflice , which being contrary to all the time-honoured regulations , practices , and customs of the Craft , led to

such almost entire disuetude on its part , that a certain Dr . Plot , author of a work entitled " The Natural History of Staffordshire , " conceived him-

The Rise And Purposes Of Speculative Masonry.

self to have , by some strictures therein , given Freemasonry its death blow . Little did the worthy doctor dream that those very attacks upon our eternal order have preserved his own name from perhaps complete oblivion .

Yet , brethreu , the darkest hour is ever that which just precedes the dawn . The bright star of the morning was about to rise upon that estimable institution on which we are taught at initiation that the sun never sets ; and when we consider

its progress , and remember that within the present year a second lodge has been opened in -Japan , we may , I trust , rely with a firm yet humble confidence that upon it that effulgent luminary never will set until the last great trump shall summon us to

that Grand Lodge above , where the world's Great Architect reigns for evermore . About the year 1714 , Dr . Theophilus Desaguliers , the son of a French pastor , educated in England , a clergyman , a philosopher , and a- savant of great celebrity in his day , was made a Mason in the old lodge held at the Goose and Gridiron in St . Paul ' s

Churchyard , and now known as the Lodge of Antiquity , No . 2 . In the words of our brother , Dr . Oliver , " the peculiar principles of the Craft struck Bro . Desaguliers as being eminently calculated to contribute to the benefit of society at large , if they

could be redirected into the channel from which they had been recently diverted . From this moment the doctor determined to revive Freemasonry , and to restore it to its primitive importance . " At this period the only lodges

existing in England were the Antient York Lodge , which had pretensions to the designation of a mother lodge , and four others in London , respectively held at the signs of the Goose and Gridiron , the Crown , the Appletree , and the Rummer and

Grapes . To continue the words of Brother Oliver : "Bro . Desaguliers no sooner intimated his intention of renovating the Order than he found himself supported by a party of active and zealous brethren , whose names merit preservation . They

were Sayer , Payne , Lamball , Elliott , Gofton , Cordwell , De Noyer , Maurice , Calvert , Lumley , Ware , and Madden . These included the Masters and Wardens of the four lodges just enumerated , and they succeeded in

forming themselves into a Grand Lodge , and resumed the quarterly communications , which had been discontinued for many years ; and having thus replanted the tree , it soon extended its stately branches to every quarter of the globe . There

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1870-01-22, Page 2” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 6 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_22011870/page/2/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
Untitled Article 1
THE RISE AND PURPOSES OF SPECULATIVE MASONRY. Article 1
THE HEBREW BRETHREN OF NEW YORK AND THE DIST. G. MASTER. Article 3
HOW I SPENT MY FIVE WEEKS' LEAVE. Article 5
Untitled Article 6
MASONIC JOTTINGS.—No. 4. Article 7
THE STUARTS AND FREEMASONRY. Article 7
MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 8
SPECULATIVE MASONRY AND BROS. FINDEL AND HUGHAN. Article 9
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 10
Untitled Article 13
MASONIC MEMS. Article 13
Craft Masonry. Article 13
PROVINCIAL. Article 14
SCOTTISH CONSTITUTION. Article 18
ROYAL ARCH. Article 18
MAKE MASONRY. Article 18
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND FINE ARTS. Article 18
MASONIC FESTIVITIES. Article 18
REVIEWS. Article 19
PROPOSED MASONIC HALL IN GLASGOW. Article 19
SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Article 19
LIST OF LODGE, MEETINGS, &c., FOR WEEK ENDING 29TH JANUARY, 1870. Article 20
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 20
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

The Rise And Purposes Of Speculative Masonry.

municated to him . Grand lodges were nominally Hield quarterly , but often only at irregular and distant intervals , and you will therefore readily conceive that the number of Master Masons was very few . Care was , however , taken that the

Order should always comprise a greater or lesser number of brethren of good position in society , who , attracted , perhaps , by a love of architecture , or by a desire to share in the scientific researches pursued within the tyled recesses of the

fellowcrafts' lodges , or more than all , it may be , by what was rumoured of the beautiful symbolic morality of the Craft , voluntarily underwent the trials of initiation . Such non-operative brethren were termed " accepted " Masons ; whence our

present designation of "free and accepted" Masons . In particular was some noble or other highly influential brother always selected for the office of Grand Master , who , to quote again the . Antient

Charges , did not need to be , prior to election , above the second degree . From all which it comes , that at the present day neither the Grand Master nor Provincial Grand Masters ( an office not instituted until 1726 ) require to have served Master of a

private lodge . If they have not done so , they are admitted to the secrets ofthe chair , when installed and hornaged as Grand Master , or as Provincial Grand Masters ; but all deputies must have previously served as Masters of private lodges ; and the ground

of distinction is obvious . During the first decades of the seventeeth century the Craft languished greatly , but in the year 1637 a Grand Lodge was held , with the Earl of St . Alban's as Grand Master , at which several useful regulations were enacted

and the necessity of certificates of initiation first enjoined . In 1666 , after the destruction of London by the Great Fire , architecture , both practical and symbolical , again flourished . The foundation stone of St . Paul ' s Cathedral was

laid by Freemasons m loVo , and that edifice was completed in 1710 . During the latter and longer portion of this period . Sir Christopher Wren was Grand Master , and in 1690 King William III . was initiated . But upon the accession of King George

I ., that monarch deprived Sir 0 . Wren of his Grand Mastership , and appointed an obscure brother , one Benson , to that high oflice , which being contrary to all the time-honoured regulations , practices , and customs of the Craft , led to

such almost entire disuetude on its part , that a certain Dr . Plot , author of a work entitled " The Natural History of Staffordshire , " conceived him-

The Rise And Purposes Of Speculative Masonry.

self to have , by some strictures therein , given Freemasonry its death blow . Little did the worthy doctor dream that those very attacks upon our eternal order have preserved his own name from perhaps complete oblivion .

Yet , brethreu , the darkest hour is ever that which just precedes the dawn . The bright star of the morning was about to rise upon that estimable institution on which we are taught at initiation that the sun never sets ; and when we consider

its progress , and remember that within the present year a second lodge has been opened in -Japan , we may , I trust , rely with a firm yet humble confidence that upon it that effulgent luminary never will set until the last great trump shall summon us to

that Grand Lodge above , where the world's Great Architect reigns for evermore . About the year 1714 , Dr . Theophilus Desaguliers , the son of a French pastor , educated in England , a clergyman , a philosopher , and a- savant of great celebrity in his day , was made a Mason in the old lodge held at the Goose and Gridiron in St . Paul ' s

Churchyard , and now known as the Lodge of Antiquity , No . 2 . In the words of our brother , Dr . Oliver , " the peculiar principles of the Craft struck Bro . Desaguliers as being eminently calculated to contribute to the benefit of society at large , if they

could be redirected into the channel from which they had been recently diverted . From this moment the doctor determined to revive Freemasonry , and to restore it to its primitive importance . " At this period the only lodges

existing in England were the Antient York Lodge , which had pretensions to the designation of a mother lodge , and four others in London , respectively held at the signs of the Goose and Gridiron , the Crown , the Appletree , and the Rummer and

Grapes . To continue the words of Brother Oliver : "Bro . Desaguliers no sooner intimated his intention of renovating the Order than he found himself supported by a party of active and zealous brethren , whose names merit preservation . They

were Sayer , Payne , Lamball , Elliott , Gofton , Cordwell , De Noyer , Maurice , Calvert , Lumley , Ware , and Madden . These included the Masters and Wardens of the four lodges just enumerated , and they succeeded in

forming themselves into a Grand Lodge , and resumed the quarterly communications , which had been discontinued for many years ; and having thus replanted the tree , it soon extended its stately branches to every quarter of the globe . There

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