Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Clawson’s utopian, idyllic definition coincides with Jacob’s claim that
modern freemasonry owes a major debt to the Newtonian Enlightenment. 131 Its
influence upon Scottish lodges, at least as specifically recorded in minute books,
is negligible. Significantly absent are the “frequent references to God as the
Universal Architect,” as lodges begin to integrate such language well after
1700. 132 For example, it was only in 1740 that No. 6 Old Inverness used phrases
such as “God as the Great Architect” and “God as the Grand Master” in its bye-
laws, stating that it is the “bounded duty of all masons” to behave themselves,
“especially whyle in the Lodge as in the sight of the Great Architect and Grand
Master of the Universe.” 133 Even words such as honor, harmony, benevolence,
and order did not see widespread inclusion in lodge minutes until the late
eighteenth century.
This disciplined, utopian world did, however, broadly reveal itself in the
lodges through rituals, degrees, ceremonies, and the creation of a fictive family.
The masonic idea of brotherhood, claims Bullock, built upon and “powerfully
expressed the ideas of the early Enlightenment, especially its order, simplicity,
and social harmony.” 134 To achieve and preserve stability within the lodge,
freemasons elected a hierarchy of officers, collected entrance fees and dues to
ensure sufficient funds, and established a fixed schedule of meetings. 135 In
131 Jacob, Radical Enlightenment, 109. In particular, Jean Theophile Desaguliers was
responsible for the dissemination of Newtonian ideas. See especially pages 122-126. See also
William Weisberger, “J.T. Desaguliers: Newtonian Experimental Scientist,” in Freemasonry On
Both Sides of the Atlantic, 243-275.
132 Clawson, Constructing Brotherhood, 66.
133 No. 6 Inverness Lodge Minutes, 25 March 1740.
134 Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood, 26.
135 No. 1 Mary’s Chapel Lodge Minutes, 27 December 1708; No. 3 Scoon & Perth Lodge
Minutes, 14 January 1729; No. 8 Journeymen Lodge Minutes, 1 November 1709.
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