Unlocking the Masonic Code: The Secrets of the Solomon Key

In 1751 a Master Mason named Laurence Dermott, an Irishman living in London, formed a rival to the Grand Lodge of England called the Antient Grand Lodge. This group objected to the perceived progressive tendencies of the Grand Lodge of England, which it believed had degenerated into a mere philosophical talking-shop that was neglecting the essential rituals and traditions of Masonry. The Antients versus the Moderns dispute simmered within Freemasonry until 1813, when it was resolved by the creation of the United Grand Lodge of England (see page 53).

Masonry gets a Constitutional

As part of its drive to reunite and redefine Freemasonry, in 1721 the Grand Lodge of England decided to create a Masonic constitution. It asked one Dr James Anderson, a Scottish nationalist and preacher living in London, to examine old Masonic documents and update them into one instructional manual to be distributed to all lodges as a definitive text.

The result, The Constitution, History, Laws, Charges, Orders, Regulations and Usages of the Right Worshipful Fraternity of Accepted Free Masons, collected from their General Records and their Faithful Traditions of Many Ages, was published in 1723. Also known as the Ancient Charges, or the Book of Constitutions, Anderson’s script remains Freemasonry’s most significant document, and is still read aloud annually in many Masonic lodges around the globe.

Taking its cue from the Regius Manuscript, the Book of Constitutions opens by making outlandish claims about the provenance of Masonry, claiming that not only was Adam the original architect and Noah a Mason, but Moses was a Grand Master! Yet it was the main body of the regulations, headed The Charges of a Free Mason, which was to drop a theological bombshell—and shape Freemasonry for centuries to come.

Until now, Masonry had routinely genuflected before God, with Christian prayers said in lodge meetings and references to the Holy Trinity scattered throughout some rituals. Anderson’s Constitutions abolished such devotions in favour of a nebulous, non-specific deism in the following paragraph:

A Mason is oblig’d by his Tenure, to obey the moral law: and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid ATHEIST, nor an irreligious LIBERTINE. But though in ancient Times Masons were charged in every Country to be of the Religion of that Country or Nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves; that is, to be good Men and true, or men of Honour and Honesty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they may be distinguish’d…

Henceforth, Freemasons would require new Entered Apprentices to pledge their belief in a Greater Being: without such faith, they believed initiates would be unable to undertake the journey of spiritual growth mapped out by the fraternity. But in the new spirit of non-sectarianism, this Supreme Being would take a new name: the Grand Architect of the Universe.

Aside from this radical departure, Anderson’s Constitutions were largely a summation of existing Masonic law. As per the Regius Manuscript, Masons were ordered to be ‘a peaceable subject to the Civil Powers’ and never to plot against king or country. The Charges also emphasized that Freemasonry is inherently democratic: ‘No Master or Warden is chosen by Seniority, but by his Merit’.

Another key Charge stressed the importance of courtesy and consideration amongst Freemasons, and—after a clause warning against excess intake of alcohol—Anderson added a few lines intended to maintain this internal harmony:

‘Therefore no private Piques or Quarrels must be brought within the Door of the Lodge, far less any Quarrels about Religion, or Nations, or State Policy, we being only, as Masons of the Catholick Religion above-mentioned; we are also of all Nations, Tongues, Kindreds and Languages, and are resolved against all Politicks, as what never yet conduc’d to the Welfare of the Lodge, nor ever will.’

These words established the crucial Masonic tenet that religion and politics should never be discussed with the walls of a lodge. It is a stipulation that can be regarded as hugely ironic: the secretive organization that many detractors believe to be a seething mass of dissent and subversion actively legislating against discussing the state of the world.

After the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England and the drafting of the Constitutions, Masonry underwent a period of expansion in England and elsewhere. By 1730, over 100 lodges had pledged allegiance to the Grand Lodge, and 1737 saw the first (publicly admitted, at least) Royal Freemason: Frederick Lewis the Prince of Wales, the son of King George II.

As the British Empire expanded throughout the eighteenth century, Freemasonry made similar territorial quantum leaps. By the end of the century, lodges had been established in Spain, India, South America and even parts of Southeast Asia. As we shall shortly see, however, by far the most significant—indeed, revolutionary—events in international Masonic history were set to play out in the United States and France.

Rome is not amused

The 1700s was not an era of unbridled growth and prosperity for Masonry. The Catholic Church, fighting Protestantism’s rampant encroachment onto its turf right across Europe, was less than enamoured of Freemasonry’s exclusive and secretive reputation, and Rome’s disapproval turned to outright horror when Anderson’s Book of Constitutions dispensed with the Holy Trinity within the lodge walls.

In 1738, Pope Clement XII issued a papal bull threatening any Catholics who were also Freemasons with excommunication. The following year, he upped the ante with a second decree that all Catholics within the Papal States (Italy, plus parts of France) who were found to be Masons would be executed.

Some Freemasons found themselves at the wrong end of the Inquisition in Spain, Italy and Portugal, and in 1884 Pope Leo XII came close to calling the fraternity satanic in his notorious encyclical Humanum Genus edict. Like many popes after him, he was horrified not only by Masonry’s perceived deism but also by its refusal to allow

Catholicism vs Freemasonry Today

Freemasons hoped that the Roman Catholic Church’s position on Masonry had softened towards the end of the twentieth century. The Church’s 1917 Code of Canon Law had declared Masonic membership punishable by automatic excommunication, but when this major doctrinal document was revised in 1983, Freemasonry had vanished from the list of prohibited ‘secret societies’. However, later in the same year the current Pope Benedict XVI, who was then a senior Church functionary, made it known that Masons remain ‘in a state of grave sin’ and are barred from taking communion. There appears little prospect of change as long as Benedict XVI is in charge at the Vatican.

members to even speak of religion during Masonic meetings.

The Antients vs Moderns schism that had ripped Masonry asunder for sixty years was resolved in 1813, when the two factions joined forces to form the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE). This new body thus became the main legislative and administrative authority for English Masonry, but declined to impose standardized wording on all rituals and ceremonies, instead leaving individual lodges scope to shape their own vows.

The UGLE agreement, however, included a classic fudge caused by a major divergence in Masonic thinking across the world. The Modern school, represented by the original Grand Lodge of England, felt that the established three degrees of Masonry—Entered Apprentice, Fellow of the Craft and Master Mason—were all that were needed. The Antients held the opinion that another piece was required to complete the puzzle.

Feeling that the Master Mason degree as it stood did not complete the tale it purported to tell (namely, the murder of Hiram Abiff—see Chapter 3: Inside The Lodge: Masonic Rituals and Symbols), the Antients conceived an additional degree, the Holy Royal Arch—indeed, there is categorical evidence that at very early Masonic meetings, this ceremony formed part of the basic Master Mason degree. Loath to tamper with the long-established three degrees but keen to get the Antients on board, the UGLE resolved the dispute by means of a carefully worded compromise:

‘Pure Ancient Masonry is to consist of three degrees, and no more; viz, those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellowcraft, and the Master Mason including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.’

This deliberately convoluted phrasing opened the way for UGLE-affiliated English lodges to practise the York Rite, should they be so minded (see page 199). Along with the Scottish Rite, this series of elaborate rituals allows Freemasons to collect appendant degrees after they have qualified as a Master Mason (see Chapter 3).