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

Chapter 10 - Conclusion 831
Likewise, the editor of the Masonic Department of the New York Dispatch
recites an incident in which a brother from New York had difficulties gaining
entrance into a European lodge because the work was not "Cosmopolitan," this
story being quoted in an article headed "Ritual Tinkering" published in 1862 in
the Masonic Review:
In Denmark my examination and my certificate would not pass me to a
Master's Lodge; yet both, according to our system, were perfect. I have
been a bright Mason for twenty-one years, and no one can surpass me in
an examination; but the systems did not agree. Fortunately I had been
the guest of the King (the Grand Master), and held the confidence of the
government, an individual vouching gained me admission into their
lodges [...]. 2028
In the analysis of the technical vocabulary in Chapter 5. the ironic term
"bright Mason" is defined as somebody who knows the ritual very well. If such
an expert now is refused the entrance into another lodge, the ritualistic
differences must have been remarkable. In another case, an English Mason wrote
his experience to the London Magazine (reprinted in the Masonic Review, N° 33
of 1868) concerning his visit to a Scottish lodge where he had the opportunity to
witness an initiation ceremony. This brother had no problem of being identified
as a Mason and was cordially invited to attend the lodge, however, he noticed
the "looseness with which things are done in Scotland":
I went and found that the brethren were assembling in a school-room,
having let their lodge for a small annual rental. On entering I found no
book on which to record my name, and afterwards, when the lodge was
opened in the first degree, there was no reading of minutes of former
meetings, and indeed, there appeared to be no record kept of the
proceedings. When, or where, or how they entered the names of the
candidates I could not learn. I saw the whole four Entered Apprentices
go through the second and third degrees. The ceremonial was very
different to our own English ceremony, and was lax and loose to a
very remarkable degree. In some parts it astonished me [...]. 2029
The visiting brother further remarks that after the business was over and the
brethren had been called from labor to refreshment, the latter was of the simplest
kind: "I may not be going out of my way in stating that our drink was chiefly
whisky toddy." He also expresses his surprise at the low initiation fee and the
fact that an annual subscription did not exist. Equally interesting is the
experience of an English brother visiting a French lodge in the 19 th century,
whose peculiar forms of mysteries are thus described in the article: "[s]olemnity
is unknown; mockery and ridicule prevail; and the 'ceremonies' are such as
2028 Moore, Masonic Review, N° 26, p. 102-103.
2029 Moore, Masonic Review, N° 33, p. 47.