Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

subsidiary societies, by the demands made on its members for repeated
contributions, and by the natural shocks that such institutions are heir to.” 203
138
Although freemasonry faced similar problems throughout the century, its
longevity surely can be attributed to its inclusiveness, organisational
competence, the myriad intellectual, economic, and social benefits it offered,
and the freedom of lodges to form their own identity based on who joined. Yet
the problems which plagued other associations – for example the Select and
Edinburgh Societies – would eventually beset the associational behemoth that
was freemasonry. The massive consolidation of power, continual growth, the
vulnerability of the Grand Lodge facilitated by the emergence of new,
unsanctioned concordant orders, and flagging interest in clubs and societies
resulted in derisive, internal conflicts. Even more influential were politics,
eschewed by other societies principally because of their potentially destructive
effects. Despite the masonic proscription of political discussions, it steadily
found its way into lodges. Combined with a suspicious government and a
fragile political state, freemasonry’s relatively unproblematic existence was
surely over.
203 Ibid, 187.