The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

50
Chapter 2 – Historical Background
use in lodges. Indeed, the diversity of English ritual practices would
make any attempt to do so very unpopular, and local attempts in the past
at standardisation have largely failed. Today, English Masonry
possesses in excess of fifty different rituals in use in its lodges, bearing
such names as Emulation, Stability, Logic, West End, Bristol, and so
forth. The Emulation ritual is used by the majority of English lodges.
Others are confined to smaller pockets of lodges in geographical
locations, having no general currency. [...] It should also be noted that
many lodges have their own variations to any standard ritual, and that
these are invariably guarded with care. 103
2.2 Ireland and Scotland
Ireland
Contrary to the political situation, with the British crown having the say over
Northern Ireland, Irish Masonry managed to control administratively the whole
of the country: the Irish Grand Lodge, the second oldest jurisdiction of the world,
is the sole Masonic authority both for Northern Ireland and the Republic of
Ireland. 104
Freemasons must have been active in Ireland many years before the first
preserved record of a lodge meeting some time after 1717. The Masonic
fraternity seems to have been known to the Irish as early as 1688. There are
several indices to prove the existence of operative masonry considerably earlier.
For example, under Baal's-Bridge near Limerick, an old corroded brass square
was found that bears the metaphorical Masonic inscription: "I will strive to live
with love and care upon the Level, by the Square, 1507." 105 Further, in Dublin
exists a "Freemason's Stone," possibly dating from 1602. In 1688, John Jones
delivered a speech at Dublin University, making the pretense to form a lodge of
Freemasons in the University, composed of gentlemen, parsons, porters, etc. This
shows that lodges of mixed members, none of them being a stonemason, already
existed at that time.
To the pre-Grand Lodge era also belongs the story of the famous Lady
Freemason: Elizabeth St. Leger (born in 1693), who married Richard Aldworth
in 1713, was, before her marriage, detected by her Masonic father spying his
lodge. She allegedly was initiated so as to bind her to the oath of secrecy. 106
The Grand Lodge of Ireland in the real sense, as a representative body with
subordinate lodges, was formed in 1730 by Lord Kingston, Grand Master of
103
Henderson and Pope, vol. II, p. 106/107.
104
Ibid, p. 121.
105
CME, p. 332.
106
Cf. ibid.