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

Chapter 10 - Conclusion 829
logical deduction is made in another letter to the editor, arguing that the language
of three hundred years ago would not be intelligible in modern lodges, and
therefore the wording has to be renewed: "[...] [T]he advocates of uniformity
have been so sweeping in their demands as to require not only uniformity of
work, but of lectures and phraseology also, word for word, letter for letter,
syllable for syllable, and nothing less will satisfy those zealots in (I say it in all
charity,) a bad cause." 2021 The writer further argues,
[s]uppose this doctrine had obtained three hundred years ago, what
initiate of the present day would or could have understood the language
addressed him on the very threshold of the Lodge. In what does the
phraseology of three hundred years ago resemble that of to-day? and yet
those sapient instructors inform us that the language of Masonry like its
landmarks should never change. 2022
"The possibility of unifying the rituals in the United States was formerly
urged and still seems to haunt the Fraternity," says Coil in his Masonic
Encyclopedia. 2023 The advocates hereby foster the idea that once there must have
been one originally authorized Masonic ritual, however, history shows that this
has never been the case. Neither the Gothic Constitutions, the oldest of which,
the Regius Manuscript, dates back to about 1390, nor the exposed rituals of the
17 th and 18 th centuries were uniform. The rituals which followed were not even
uniform in one and the same country; thus, England had eight rituals.
There is quite a widespread notion that differences and divergences in
rituals have been an unfortunate development, and this originates in the
misconception that originally there was somewhere one authorized
ritual. The Masonic rituals were not created; they grew and there never
was only one Masonic ritual; there have always been many. 2024
Coil argues that if the first Grand Lodge in 1717 had formulated specific
rituals for each degree when it was created, if it had forbidden any kind of
variation, and if it had installed a lecturing program at home as well as abroad,
then "more or less" 2025 uniformity would have reigned under the control of the
Grand Lodge. However, nothing could have stopped the bodies which had
become independent, such as the Grand Lodge of Ireland (after 1725-30), the
Grand Lodge of Scotland (after 1736), the Grand Lodge of Ancients (after 1736),
and many European, American, and other institutions, to make their own
modifications.
2021 Ibid, p. 298.
2022 Ibid.
2023 CME, p. 567.
2024 Ibid, p. 565.
2025 Cf. ibid.