Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

parliamentary reforme” faced possible incarceration and charges of sedition and
treason. 99
Paine may well have sympathized with the aims and beliefs of
freemasons. According to Harrison, Paine – in his 1805 essay Origins of
Freemasonry – “writes understandingly of the masons and contrasts masonry
favourable with Christianity. He is convinced that masons are the descendants
of the ancient Druids: ‘Masonry is derived and is the remains of the religion of
the ancient Druids…who, by all accounts…were a wise, learned and moral class
of men.’” 100 Thus it is possible that Paine, “with his condemnation of what he
regarded as ignorance, superstition and mummery would have little time for
freemasonry. The masons’ secrecy and ceremonies would surely be ridiculed.
Not a bit of it.” 101
The Grand Lodge of Scotland considered McAdam’s allegations at a
quarterly communication in May 1800 (Appendix 6). 102 Ostensibly to settle the
dispute between No. 14 and No. 264, the Grand Lodge used the meeting to
employ several “neat piece[s] of footwork to dodge an awkward situation.” 103
Royal Arch Maybole had been granted a working warrant in February 1797 and
was officially chartered in November 1798. As such, Grand Lodge ruled that
any accusations against No. 264 made prior to 6 February 1797 were
213
99
George Spater, “Introduction: Thomas Paine – Questions for the Historian,” in Citizen of the
World (New York, 1988), 7. Spater also notes that “Habeas Corpus act was suspended in 1794
largely because of Paine’s work,” 7.
100
Harrison, “Millenarian Radicalism,” Citizen, 82-83.
101
Ibid.
102
Appendix 6 contains full transcripts of all the minutes and excerpts included in the discussion
of Grand Lodge trial, from pgs. 212-214.
103
Wartski, “Secret Societies,” 66.