Book Excerpt
The Transition
Eventually, over a period of approximately one hundred years, from the start of written records in 1599, many lodges came to include a large number of men who had no connection with the craft of stonemasonry whatsoever. This gradual change from stonemasonry to Freemasonry can be traced only within Scotland and is known as the transition theory. The transition from stonemasons' lodges to modern Masonic Lodges is witnessed within the written records of the Scottish lodges themselves.
One strand of the transition theory suggests that English gentleman visitors to Scotland decided that Freemasonry looked to be a pleasant pastime and decided to create lodges of their own on their return south. An alternative suggestion is that Scottish stonemasons seeking work in England created lodges there, admitting anyone in order to establish them quickly, which meant that from the outset the lodges created in this way were not strictly speaking stonemasons' lodges. Be that as it may, the main point is that by one means or another Freemasonry spread from Scotland to England.
With the spread of Freemasonry inside and outside its borders, three different types of lodges now existed within Scotland. There were the traditional stonemasons' lodges, such as those at Kilwinning, known to be in existence in 1599. There were lodges of mixed membership, such as that of Aberdeen, which was probably founded in about 1670. And there were lodges that had no connection with stonemasonry whatsoever, such as the one founded in 1702 in the hamlet of Haughfoot in the Scottish borders.
A form of speculative Freemasonry developed in some new Lodges in both Scotland and England. It was speculative in the sense that the Lodges themselves were established by men who had no direct connection with stonemasonry; its members were not stonemasons and so were therefore speculating about what stonemasons did in their lodges, what their secrets were and where their knowledge had originated.
In Scotland, the development of different Lodges, and with them different forms of Freemasonry, led to a curious situation. When the Grand Lodge of Scotland was founded in 1736, it was a speculative body. The majority of lodges that had been in existence for the last hundred and forty years wanted nothing to do with its newfangled Masonic system. Some saw no point in becoming part of a new speculative system when theirs was a lodge of stonemasons. Others did not see the need for a Grand Lodge given that they had managed independently and quite happily for more than one hundred years. Many remained independent until they ceased to exist or until they eventually joined the new Masonic system more than a hundred years later. But one or two strands still survive today (see Chapter 9).
Book-review
The true origins of Freemasonry are obscure and belong to a period when the academic discipline of history was not nearly as rigorous as it is at present, with the consequence that over the years a considerable number of different theories have been put forward regarding the beginnings and history of the Craft.
The earliest records relating to a body of men with clear links to modern Freemasonry occur in Scotland during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Some of these men began to speculate regarding the origins of the Lodges and organizations of which they were members, and as they did so, the early Freemasons came up with an unusual way of speculating about the past and about life in general. That unusual method of exploration is the basis of modern Freemasonry.
What it is, what it means and what it does is the subject of this valuable book.
Bruno Virgilio Gazzo
editor, PS Review of FM
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