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

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Chapter 10 - Conclusion
Anti-Masons often have reproached Freemasonry to attempt to rule the
world. For this to be so, Freemasonry would have to be a world organization.
Clearly, it is not. Without a common law and a common leadership, this is
impossible, and when we look back at the last three centuries, we can make the
prognosis that this will never be achieved. People are different, and it will never
be possible to introduce a kind of communism into Freemasonry. Human beings
are great unifiers. They want to unify languages, markets, and currencies. Look
at the official introduction of the Euro in January, 2002. It is a different thing to
create a common European currency, and even this was not an easy step and was
met with many forms of protest. People have often attempted, but never
managed to create a universal language, like Ido, Unitario, Volapük, Esperanto,
and so on. Such attempts remained unsuccessful since these artificial languages
are based on grammar - they are not a "culture" like Freemasonry.
Thus comments the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Quebec, John
Hamilton Graham, in a publication from 1892 on the universality, eternity, and
cultural value of Freemasonry:
The fact of its time-immemorial age, and its world-wide prevalence
shows, that as to its moral principles; - its social order; its system of
jurisprudence and government; its stability and permanence; its
educating influence; its adaptability to the condition, needs, and
aspirations of a free and progressive people; its humanizing efficacy; its
non-proselyting and non-partisan character; its practical and allcomprehensive
voluntary charity; and, in short, its raison d'être and its
modus vivendi et operandi; - it contains within itself the essential and
necessary elements of a true, universal brotherhood, destined to exist
and prosper, world without end. 2106
With this, we would like to shift from the universality of Freemasonry to the
universality of the Masonic language. It is a fact that in the beginning of the
Craft, universality concerning the ritualistic language was impossible because it
was forbidden to print rituals and manuals. Of the 18 th century, we have only a
few exposés written by former Masons or anti-Masons mainly to denounce the
Craft. As Duncan puts it, "[i]t is almost unnecessary to argue the question in
relation to Uniformity of Work, because such can never be [...], as long as we
live up to the teachings of the Fathers and communicate, orally, the mysteries to
candidates. To obtain uniformity, the work must be written, and that will never
be done, so long as Freemasons regard their obligations." 2107 This was said by
the writer of a Masonic exposé in the late 1800's which he intended to be a
guideline for neophytes. As we have seen, in the 19 th century rituals were
printed. They were even a little camouflaged, being mostly very small (so as to
fit into the white gloves), with a black cover, some without a title or title page,
and more or less coded. But even after the overcoming of the hindrance of oral
2106 Quoted from Graham in Stillson (ed.), p. 697.
2107 Duncan, p. 268.