The Mason Word and Calvinism

The Regius Ms. (1390)

In this entry we are going to talk about the Mason Word, and a little bit about the Old Charges. Operative Masons of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age did not consider the Old Charges and the Mason Word as rituals, but rather as procedures for carrying out the making of Fellowcrafts. However, both the Old Charges and the Mason Word were really far more than mere professional usages. Each one implied a very definite religious perspective (Catholic the Old Charges, Calvinist the Mason Word) and they responded to diferent historical circumstances. So, although they cannot be considered as rituals in the modern sense of the word, for the sake of clarity we will refer to them as the Rite of Old Charges and the Rite of the Mason Word.

The oldest known Masonic ritual formulation is what we will now call the Rite of Old Charges. It consisted of a ceremony which took place only once a year, on the day of the patron saint of the masons' guilds, and in the course of this ceremony one or more Apprentices were made Fellowcrafts.

The manuscript of Old Charges included the history of Freemasonry, an account of the rules of the trade, moral prescriptions that every Christian should follow, and a series of legends which embodied the religious and symbolic tradition of operative masons. The culminating moment of the ceremony took place when the Apprentice knelt down, placed both hands under the document of Old Charges, the Old Charges were read to the him, and then he swore to abide by its contents, thus becoming a Fellowcraft. The first time this ceremony is described is in Grand Lodge Ms. No.1 (1583):

Tunc unus ex senioribus teneat librum, ut ille vel illi ponant manus sub librum et tunc praecepta debent legi.

Then one of the Seniors holds the book, so that he or they put their hands under the book, and the Charges should be read.

The Rite of Old Charges was a ritual that a Roman Catholic mason first, and Anglican Catholic later, would practice without finding in it anything contrary to his faith. Although the Rite of the Mason Word, created by the Presbyterian masons, will appear later, the Old Charges will have a long existence in time. While the first document of Old Charges, the Regius Ms., dates from 1390, documents of Old Charges will be written until well into the 18th century. About one hundred of this manuscripts are currently preserved.

John Calvin (1509-1564)

At the end of the 16th century will take place a historical event that will provoke profound changes in Freemasonry: the Protestant Reformation, which will have a strong Calvinist imprint on the island of Great Britain. Calvinism was based, among other things, on the conviction that the human being was perverse and that the worst should be expected of him, as well as on predestination. In other words, man could not be saved by means of his good works, but was already predestined to be saved or to be condemned regardless of his efforts, an ordered and laborious life being proof that God had chosen one to be saved (this is the origin of the Calvinist overestimation of success, and the consideration of the loser as a culprit who has been deprived of the grace by God). It also placed great emphasis on education, so that parishioners could read the Bible for themselves, and it showed a strong theocratic character, which caused the relationship between Calvinists and the monarchy to be always troublesome.

Very soon the Rite of Old Charges would prove inappropriate for the Calvinist masons of Scotland, as there were elements in it incompatible with their faith. First, this rite forced them to swear on the manuscript of Old Charges, while they could only swear on the Bible or on a document relating to the Covenants. In addition, Calvinists were iconoclasts, so they refused to trace with chalk on the floor, as was the Masonic custom of the time, the symbols that we expose today on the Tracing Board. They also rejected sumptuous temples and cathedrals, as well as the Catholic Church (whether Roman or Anglican) and the royal power, while in the manuscripts of Old Charges these elements were indeed celebrated. The episcopate was a chain of transmission of the royal power; in fact the king was as much king through his nobles as through his bishops. In the Calvinist churches, however, there was no pyramidal power structure, but they were governed by assemblies of presbyters (hence the term Presbyterians).

For all these reasons Scottish Calvinist masons created a new ritual, different from the Old Charges, and which looks already a little more like the rituals we practice today. This ritual was called the Mason Word, and consisted essentially of the transmission of a grip or token and two words of recognition, which are those of the columns Jakin and Boaz.

The use of this mode of recognition has its origin in Galatians 2:9[1]

James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.

 

Paul meets Peter at Antioch
(and gives him the right hand of fellowship)
by Duccio di Buoninsegna (c.1310)

The reason why they had chosen to represent this passage of Galatians is due to a special circumstance of Protestant churches: the Anglican Church, in spite of having split from Rome, had preserved bishops in its ranks at the time of the schism. Therefore, the transmission of Holy Orders, and consequently the transmission of the grace, was guaranteed. However, no bishop ever joined the Protestant Reformation. Hence, the natural accusation of Romans and Anglicans against Protestants was as follows: “Since you have no bishops who can continue the sacrament of Holy Orders, and therefore the transmission of the grace, your religious life is false and you are deprived of grace.” That is why Calvinists were so interested in demonstrating that grace did not need the continuity of the Holy Orders, and the best possible example to show this was Paul of Tarsus, an apostle to whom, in spite of not having seen and heard Jesus personally, grace had been given, and who was considered an apostle. This meant that, just as Paul did not have to receive grace through direct contact with Jesus, neither did the reformers (Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc.) need the Catholic Church, which calls itself the heir of the apostles. This ceremony of the Mason Word is the origin of the Tokens that are currently practiced in the different degrees.

Also in line with this theological debate about grace is the requirement, in the catechisms of the Mason Word, that twelve Masons be present in order to open the lodge, instead of the five or seven required by Catholic masons. This was again due to the problem of the transmission of grace and the absence of bishops. Together with the cited passage from Galatians 2:9, another great moment in the New Testament where it was demostrated that the Holy Spirit could come directly to the faithful was Pentecost, when the twelve apostles were gathered together, this being the reason why Calvinist masons demanded twelve members to open the lodge.

Pentecost by Angelo di Giovanni (1506)

It is also plausible that the Five Points of Fellowship were originally an allusion to the Five Points of Calvinism (or Five Points of Dordrecht), where the theological foundations of Calvinism were laid. The Five Points of Calvinism are: Total Depravity, Inconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the Saints. At this time it was common to concentrate theological teachings into five points. Thus appeared the Five Articles of Perth, which attempted to impose Anglican practices in the Scottish Church, and the Five Articles of Arminianism.

The Synod of Dordrecht, by Pouwels Weyts de Jonge (1621)

In the case of the creation of the Mason Word something very peculiar happens: we probably know where, when, and maybe even by whom it was created. During the 17th century appear many written references to the Mason Word. The first is found in 1638 in a poem referring to the Rosicrucians (The Muses Threnodie, by Henry Adamson). It also appears constantly in the documents of operative masons, as being in possession of the Mason Word implied being a Fellowcraft. The epicenter of this rite is most probably Kilwinning Lodge, of which all Presbyterian lodges declare themselves subsidiaries. And for the creation of the rite, the masons of Kilwinning may have been assisted by a very reputable character: the theologian Robert Baillie. Baillie was one of the leading theologians of Scottish Calvinism, and between 1631 and 1638, when the Mason Word was to take shape, he was appointed to the parish of Kilwinning. Later, in 1643, he would be one of the five Scottish clergymen sent to the Westminster Assembly, where a more Calvinist bias would be imprinted on the Anglican Church.

However, it was not usual for a Masonic lodge to be made up exclusively of Calvinists or Anglican Catholics (Episcopalians in Scotland). Usually, members of both faiths coexisted in the lodge, which caused Masonic manuscripts to have a mixed character, and this is why in catechisms like Sloane Ms. or Dumfries No.4 Ms. we can find that usages from the Old Charges were employed together with others from the Mason Word. If the lodge was dominated by Calvinists, apart from the transmission of the Mason Word, we would find the Five Points of Fellowship, the oath on the Bible, a significant absence of signs traced on the floor, references to Kilwinning Lodge, the names of the columns Jakin and Boaz, criticism of the apostle Peter (as the first pope, founder of the episcopal chain) and the need for twelve masons to be present in order to open the lodge. On the contrary, when the lodge had a majority of Anglicans or Episcopalians, we find references to the Lodges of Saint John, references to the Tower of Babel (which in the Old Charges represented cathedrals), signs of loyalty to the monarch, mentions of the five architectural orders (which go hand in hand with the appreciation for the great temples), the requirement of only five or seven masons to open work, or even literal references to the Catholic Church (the Dumfries manuscript mentions it, although without specifying whether it refers to the Roman or the Anglican Church, probably because at that time it was not perceived as a difference).

WAS THE MASON WORD A PRESBITERIAN MODE OF RECOGNITION?

Despite all the above, it is possible that the Mason Word was not created ex novo by Freemasons, but was an old form of recognition among Presbyterians. We know this because in 1652 a striking debate took place: it had become known that a candidate for minister in the parish of Jedburg, by the name of James Ainslie, was in possession of the Mason Word. This led to an extensive correspondence with nearby parishes to see if a candidate in possession of the Mason Word could become a minister (note the mistrust about the fact that Masonic rituals had non-Christian content). The parish of Kelso responded in writing on February 24, 1652 “anent a young mans having the maison word whither he myt (might) be admitted to the ministrie”:

(…) that to their judgement ther is neither sinne nor scandale in that word because in the purest tymes of this kirke maisons haveing that word have been ministers, that maisons and men having that word have been and daylie are elders in our sessions, and many professors having that word are daylie admitted to the ordinances[2].

That is, the parish of Kelso was claiming that, long ago, Presbyterian ministers and “professors having that word” (in short, non-masons) were in possession of a mode of recognition that was now known as the Mason Word. The author of the letter placed the origin of this form of recognition “in the purest tymes of this kirke”. Now, what can “the purest tymes of this kirke” mean for a Scottish minister of religion in 1652? Maybe, the first Covenant of the Church of Scotland (1581); but most likely, the period of the Kirk previous to the revival of the Episcopacy in 1610 by royal wish of James VI. If we give credence to the lines written by the Kelso presbyters (and the only reason we would have to doubt it is the lack of other documentary evidence to support this assertion), it is plausible that Presbyterian masons (likely from Kilwinning, and maybe assisted by Robert Baillie) would have incorporated an ancient form of Calvinist recognition into the Masonic ritual.

James VI

---

[1] Négrier, Patrick (2005). La Tulip - Histoire du rite du Mot de macon de 1637 à 1730, p.33. Éditions Ivoire-Claire.

[2] NLS, Adv. Ms 34.5.12, p.49. The passage is printed in D. Laing (ed.), A relation of proceedings concerning the affairs of the kirk of Scotland, from August 1637 to July 1638 (Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1830), but with spelling and punctuation partially and inconsistently modernized and the date given wrongly as November 13. Cited in Stevenson, David (1988). The origins of Freemasonry, p.29. Cambridge University Press.