The Justification of Masonry in Anderson’s Constitutions
In this, the tercentenary of the publication of Anderson’s constitutions, there will no doubt be many papers produced on the historical significance of this text, which formed the template of our current Book of Constitutions, and similarly inspiring the regulations of all Grand Lodges throughout the world. Likewise, there are surely likely to be many biographical examinations of James Anderson, as a man, mason and scholar.
But this paper will not focus on either of those aspects. Instead, it will look at a part of the Constitutions that has been more neglected, in spite of Anderson’s hope that this part would become a lecture to be read to every newly made mason. That is, the first or “historical” section of the Constitutions. Even at the time of the original publication of the Constitutions, this text was largely neglected as a kind of curiosity. In some of the condensed editions of the Constitutions that were soon published in many various foreign countries, the historical section was not even included.
It is my position that this historical section was meant to act as a justification for the existence of Masonry as an institution, and to express the mystical roots of Freemasonry as a Mystery School. This is a reasonable perspective in the context of the biographies of both the author (Anderson), and the notable Brother who commissioned the book’s creation (John Theophilus Desaguliers).
James Anderson was a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister, who would in the course of his life write various books on history as well as Freemasonry, though it was clear that his historical works focused less on accurate historical research than on an interest in the allegorical. Desaguliers was born in France, the son of a Huguenot protestant minister whose family was exiled to England due to religious persecution. Desaguliers became an Anglican minister, and also a scientist of renown as an assistant to Sir Isaac Newton, who was his proposer as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Both Desaguliers and Anderson were avid biblical scholars, well beyond the regular level of expertise that would have been expected of ministers at the time. Both were active students of Jewish religion and mysticism and had a significant understanding of hermetic teaching and symbolism. Indeed, such was the level of their attainment in this secret wisdom that it is likely that the Third Degree of Freemasonry, which was only invented some time after the establishment of the Grand Lodge, was originally a product of their collaboration.
It is also noteworthy that the actual commission from the Grand Lodge for the book that would eventually be known colloquially as “Anderson’s Constitutions”, issued September 1721, was not originally for a set of Constitutions, but for a “history of freemasonry”, a fact that brings to light why Anderson, who was a historian and religious scholar (and not a lawyer or jurist) was the eventual author of the Constitutions.
Apart from a 4-page introduction by Desaguliers, the Constitutions begin with the 49-page historical lecture, which is in fact longer than the sections of the Charges and General Regulations combined. This historical overview of Freemasonry begins with Adam himself, and proceeds with a great many examples of grand civilizations producing great architecture all through history, in due course focusing on the history of Masonry in England and Scotland from the middle ages onward, up to what was then the present day, where he claimed (patriotically) that the “freeborn British Nations” have revived “drooping Lodges” so to see that the Royal Art is duly cultivated. You will no doubt be glad to hear that
I do not intend to do a page-by-page analysis of this text, as it is the underlying propositions the texts make that are of interest to this paper; for while the Charges and Regulations explain how Anderson thought a Grand Lodge (then a brand new invention) could work, the historical section explains what Anderson thought about WHY Masonry (in his eyes a secret art as old as humanity) should exist in the first place.
The historical section of Anderson’s Constitutions can be broadly divided into three sections, in a chronological order. The first part begins at the time of Adam, and proceeds to detail a lengthy chronicle of a large number of famous figures of history and mythology, and their contributions to the art of Masonry. But more importantly, this section acts as a hermetic justification of the importance of Masonry itself.
This justification commences with the suggestion that “Adam, our first parent, created after the image of God, the Great Architect of the Universe, must have had the Liberal Sciences, particularly Geometry, written on his heart”. The descendants of Adam were clearly taught Geometry, as both Cain and Seth were the first city-builders; among which he also mentions Tubal-Cain and Enoch. Also Noah, another figure of great importance in some early Masonic ritual, who built the ark which Anderson notes “tho’ of Wood, was certainly fabricated by Geometry and by the Rules of Masonry”.
Mentioning the descendants of Noah after the flood, Anderson comments on the Tower of Babel, which although its vanity was an offense to God, was clearly a sign of their great skill in Masonry; and that following the destruction of that tower these descendants were dispersed throughout the Earth where much of their learning was spread. Among these were the “learned Priests” of the Magi, encouraged by their Kings in the Royal Art. This art was brought to Egypt by Mitzraim, son of Ham, who gave the wisdom by which the ancient Pyramids were built. Of the descendants of Shem, Abram (Abraham) was trained in Geometry and its arts while living in Ur and transmitted this knowledge to his sons Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac’s descendant Moses was guided by God to instruct the proportions of the Tabernacle according to Geometry, which also served as the basic pattern for the later Temple of Solomon. He thus asserts that “the Israelites, at their leaving Egypt, were a whole Kingdom of Masons, well instructed under the conduct of their Grand Master Moses, who often marshall’d them into a regular and general Lodge while in the wilderness, and gave them wise Charges, Orders etc”.
In this way, Anderson is creating an equivalence between Geometry, Masonry, and the physical embodiment of the Laws of God. Geometry in this context must be understood as more than just the study of the proportions of mathematics in shapes and the physical world, but rather as the embodiment of Order in the universe. Just as the Volume of the Sacred Law is the book that constitutes the Great Work of life in the level of moral philosophy and symbols, the hidden structure of what the Hermetics called “The Book of Nature”, the laws of our physical world, explain the Great Work in a manifested form in the physical world. And all humans, containing that divine spark within them in their intellect and spirit alike, have an inborn tendency to be able to manifest that order, participate in the great work, to degrees of ability dependent on how they are nurtured. Masonry is thus the creation of man that reflects that divine Order.
Anderson thus also argues a contrast between Masonry directed by human ambitions, and Geometry directed by the moral imperative of God, as he points out that “the finest sacred building of the Canaanites was the Temple of Dagon in Gaza… a wonderful discovery of their mighty skill in true Masonry as must be own’d… but Dagon’s Temple and the finest structures of Tyre and Sidon could not be compared with the Eternal God’s Temple at Jerusalem, begun and finish’d, to the amazement of all the World, in the short space of seven years and six months, by that wisest Man and most glorious King of Israel, the Prince of Peace and Architecture Solomon”; with the aid, he notes of Hiram King of Tyre, and “his namesake Hiram, the most accomplish’d Mason upon Earth”. This last detail is interesting as Anderson’s Constitutions predates the creation of the Third-Degree ritual, and it might be theorized that
Anderson’s emphasis on Hiram Abiff (accompanied by lengthy footnotes explaining the origin of Hiram, his Jewish descent and his divine skill) may be a precursor to the central role Hiram plays in the third-degree ritual, in spite of the specific Masonic Legend not being mentioned in the Constitutions themselves.
What is central to the import of all this chronicle is repeated again in this section, where Anderson states “we may warrantably affirm that however ambitious the Heathen were in cultivating of the Royal Art, it was never perfected until God condescended to instruct his peculiar People… in building at length this gorgeous House, fit for the special refulgence of his Glory, where he dwelt between the Cherubims on the Mercy-Seat and from thence gave them special oraculous Responses”. In this sense, the building of the Temple of Jerusalem was the culmination of a process of spiritual evolution that began from the origin of humanity.
Anderson is here saying that Freemasonry is not just an homage to the builders of great edifices, but is rather a reflection of that Hermetic art, imbued in our heart from humanity’s origin, of being able to create a sacred dwelling, a liminal space where God meets Man. And the Freemasons are not just builders in the “heathen” sense but rather are the heirs of the Wisdom of Solomon in the art of manifesting the sacred in the world. He emphasizes this point by detailing how, after the building of Solomon’s Temple, many great nations of the ancient world would construct wondrous edifices, that he suggests drew their inspiration from the “constant pattern” of the Temple (knowingly or not), and that none of these were able to fully achieve the sublime Perfection of Masonry represented in the Temple of God. He notes that even “Zerubbabel the Prince and General Master-Mason of the Jews” in the construction of the Second Temple “came short of Solomon’s Temple” though it was still the “most glorious Edifice in the whole World”. Thus, the Temple of Solomon is depicted as the perfected state of Man’s aspiration to create, in imitation of God as creator, a space worthy of our creator; and as the first Temple was lost due to man’s imperfections, we as Masons struggle within ourselves to rebuild a glorious and divine edifice that is a constant attempt to approach that lost perfection.
The second part of the Historical section of the Constitutions records how the art of Masonry was spread throughout the world, particularly by the Roman Empire (drawing a parallel of sorts with Augustus as “grand master of the Lodge at Rome” and Vitruvius the great Roman scholar of Architecture, with that of Solomon and Hiram Abiff). It thus came to the British Isles, and the Royal Art of Masonry was somewhat preserved from the barbarian invasions that destroyed the Ancient World. This part largely deals with how various English (and Scottish) Kings encouraged works of Masonry and sought to try to relearn some of the lost art. The main purpose of this section is to create a line of transmission, from the Temple of Solomon, through the Roman Architects, via the medieval Operative Masons, to the Freemasons of the modern era. Secondly, to note a link between Freemasonry and the patronage of good Kings and Rulers, and how Masonry contributed to good order in society. Thirdly, to explain the origin of the Ancient Charges.
The final part of the History details a long list of grand innovations, brought forth in the more recent history, that led to a revival of Freemasonry and restoration of its lost glory. Mention is made of many specific great buildings and great English architects (including Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren), and how with the “Royal Art duly cultivated… the whole body resembles a well-built Arch” and it has led many noblemen, gentlemen, clergymen and scholars to join the order.
The most important aspect of the latter two parts is that in them Anderson makes a link between the harmony of the hermetic qualities of the true Royal Art and the values of the Modernist and Enlightenment ideals that were blossoming in the western world at that time. He points out that “the old Records of Masons afford large hints of their Lodges, from the Beginning of the World, in the polite Nations, especially in Times of Peace, and when the Civil Powers, abhorring Tyranny and Slavery, gave due scope to the bright and free genius of their happy subjects; for then always Masons, above all other Artists, were the favorites of the Eminent, and became necessary for their grand undertakings in any sort of materials”.
In this way he creates in his history not only a mystical and hermetic justification for why an individual should become a Freemason, but also a social justification for how Masonry betters the world, in the connection between the promulgation of the hermetic principles of Masonry, the growth of peace and prosperity generated by good social order, and the furtherance of human freedom and happiness.
WBro. John Tarnowski ADGM
April 27th 2023e.v.