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

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Chapter 8 - Categorization of Rituals
definitions of the Order, from the free election of its chief magistrate,
and the inferior governors of every private lodge, annually and by
universal suffrage, and from the reputed form and extent of its lodges. If
it were deprived of any of the above attributes, it would be no longer
Freemasonry; and all its beneficial effects upon the mind and manners
of men, would be scattered to the winds of heaven. 1719
The writers of Masonic manuals and textbooks have often copied paragraphs
from such well-known and widely circulated Masonic encyclopedias (this is
obvious since all manuals treated in this paper, whether the one by Simons,
Sickels, Dove, The Text Book of Freemasonry, and many others, contain almost
literally the same descriptions of symbols and tenets). Also, many dictionaries
have used other dictionaries that were printed before, such as Masonry Defined
from the 1920's which is a compilation of more or less fantastic views and
paragraphs found in earlier Masonic encyclopedias. It becomes evident that a
false doctrine, once let loose and being repeated over and over again, makes its
way through generations of credulous Masons.
If Freemasonry professes to be an undenominational institution open to any
creed, this is a Utopian view and only partly true. For in 1773, the Grand Orient
developed in France, which openly confessed its political and humanitarian
standpoint. It admitted women as well as men, and abolished the belief in a
Supreme Being. Both the English and this new French orientation expanded and
formed international lodges, so that today, there exist two streams of Masonry:
[...][L]e monde connaît deux maçonneries. L'une, conduite par les
Anglo-Saxons, l'autre, conduite par les Français. L'une, centrée sur
l'existence de Dieu, le Livre de la Loi Sacrée, la prière et le
conservatisme politique et social, l'autre, axée [...] sur la liberté de
pensée, sur le progrès et la justice sociale et politique. 1720
1719 GHCDF, p. 681.
1720 Mitterrand, p. 58.