(1) The Acception
"King James VI of Scotland (also later James I of England) was the only
child of Mary Queen of Scots and the first king to rule both England
and Scotland. He was also the first king known to be a Freemason, being
initiated into the Lodge of Scots and Perth in 1601 at the age of
thirty five."
"He
made a leading Mason by the name of William Schaw his General Warden of
the Craft and instructed him to improve the entire structure of
Masonry. Schaw started this major project on 28 December 1598 when he
issued 'The statues and ordinances to be observed by all the master
maissouns within this realme,' signing himself as 'the General Warden
of the said craft'."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus
"The man who more than anyone else deserves the title of creator of modern Feemasonry was William Schaw.
The younger son of a laird (landowner) with close connections with the
court, Schaw developed a strong interest in architecture and in 1583
was appointed master of works by King James VI of Scotland."
- David Stevenson, The First Freemasons
"Schaw started this major project on 28 December 1598 when he issued
'The statues and ordinances to be observed by all the master maissouns
within this realme,' signing himself as 'the General Warden of the said
craft'."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus
"As general warden and master of works Schaw issued two codes of
statutes, in 1598 and 1599. In these he laid down regulations for the
organization and practice of the mason craft through a system of
'lodges'."
"At
first sight is might seem that his statutes are solely concerned with
the organization and regulation of the working lives of
stonemasons....He was doing much more, reviving and developing Medieval
masonic mythology and rituals in a Renaissance atmosphere."
"Scotland's early freemasons, it would appear,
probably kept specific religious practices out of their lodges as to do
otherwise would have been to confront the church with an attack on its
monopoly of religion but as a later date the morality without religious
worship of the lodges made freemasonry attractive to those developing
tolerant or deistic attitudes."
- David Stevenson, The First Freemasons
Sir Francis Bacon, who became Solicitor-General under fellow Freemason
James I of England, was a champion of inductive reasoning and has been
described as "the father of modern science".
"It is highly likely that Brother Bacon was the driving force
behind the styling of the new second degree introduced by his close
colleague William Schaw."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus
"In Scotland there is a wealth of evidence for the existence of
operative lodges organized on a geographical basis and backed up by
statue law. From the early 1600s there are also many documented
examples of the introduction of non-operatives into Scottish operative
lodges. There is not, however, any evidence that these non-operative
members in any way altered the nature or workings of Scottish operative
lodges until very late in the seventeenth century, by which time
accepted Masonry was well established in England. All the evidence
suggests that accepted Masonry emerged in England and spread from there to Scotland."
"The legend of the Commacine Masters...stated
that the masons of the Como area of Northern Italy were so renowned and
had such recondite secrets to impart to their operatives that they were
formed into an Order by a -non-existent- Papal Bull and ordered to
travel Europe sharing their skills and 'mystery'. Evidence of their
actual existence is singularly lacking. The traditions and records of
the German Steinmezen and French Compagnonage
were diligently searched for traces of a speculative element, but none
was found. The evidence comes back all the time to the appearance of
non-operative masonry in England in the seventeenth century."
- John Hamill, The Craft, A History of English Freemasonry
"By the seventeenth century, as the number and stature of masons grew,
some lodges had begun to admit honorary members who were not
stoneworkers. The London Masons' Company founded the Acception,
a parallel organization for that purpose, in 1619. It took in as
'accepted Masons' men who did not belong to the company but who were
willing to pay double the initiation fee."
- "Freemasons; Mortar and Mysticism", Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects
"...Elias Ashmole was one of the first recorded inductees into the
Freemasons, but the actual first recorded induction was Dr. Robert
Moray in Edinburgh in 1641. Both Ashmole and Moray were founding
members of the British Royal Society."
- Gerry Rose ,"The Venetian Takeover of England and Its Creation of Freemasonry"
Ashmole was an admirer of the Knights Templars. Even after their trial, the Templars were
"
a noble Order, no less famous for martial achievements in the east,
than their wealthy possessions in the west...Which gave occasion to
many sober men to judge, that their wealth was their greatest crime."
- Elias Ashmole, Institutions, Laws and Ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter (1672)
"Masonry became so fashionable that as the seventeenth century
progressed the 'acceptance' (the collective term for non-stonemasons)
became the majority in the masonic Lodges. For example, in 1670, the
Aberdeen Lodge had thirty-nine 'accepted' members while only ten
remained 'operative' masons."
In
England, "one thing united a majority of politically conscious people
at this time: the need to preserve the gain of the Civil War of 1642-51
- the limitation of the power of the King."
"Much was eaten much was
drunk, and much was discussed in the privacy of masonic meeting placed
(usually taverns) after the rather dry formal doings in Lodge were
over. The 'better' the Lodge - in the sense of social class - the
'better' the conversation and the more lavish and expensive the
entertainment....The sights of its prime movers were already set on a
movement underpinning a type of society admirably suited to its
purposes: a stable society with limited social mobility in which a
secret inner 'Old Boy' association could provide an environment where
considerable benefit could be gained by members who knew how to 'play
the masonic organ'"
- Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood
"A Mason's life's the life for me,
With joy we meet each other,
We pass our time with mirth and glee,
And hail each friendly brother:
In lodge no party-feuds are seen,
But careful we in this agree,
To banish care or spleen.
The Master's call, we one and all
With pleasure soon obey;
With heart and hand we ready stand,
Our duty still to pay.
But when the glass goes round,
Then mirth and glee about,
We're all happy to a man;
We laugh a little, we drink a little,
We work a little, we play a little."
....
"Th' Almighty said, 'Let there be light,'
Effulgent rays appearing.
Dispell'd the gloom, the glory bright
To this new world was cheering;
But unto Masonry alone,
Another light, so clear and bright,
In mystic rays then shone;
From east to west it spread so fast,
That, Faith and Hope unfurl'd,
We hail with joy sweet Charity,
The darling of the world.
Then while the toast goes round,
Then mirth and glee about,
Let's be happy to a man;
We'll laugh a little, we'll drink a little,
We'll work a little, and play a little."
- from J. Bisset, "Song XXX" in William Preston's Illustrations of Masonry (1804)