SCOTTISH FREEMASONRY 1725-1810 ... - Lodge Prudentia

of gentlemen masons was a direct result from either “changes in policy within
the lodge or changes in attitudes of non-operatives to the lodges.” 109 The
attitude of non-operatives to new speculative lodges is one which reflected a
strong devotion to the belief that “freemasonry ha[d] always claimed to have
grown out of the practices and beliefs of stonemasons.” 110
Though the Grand Lodge was purportedly created to facilitate the union
of Scottish lodges while simultaneously allowing operative and speculative
masons to retain and promote individual customs, it did not immediately achieve
this harmonious merger, as operatives continued to harbour feelings of
resentment towards non-operatives. Notably, these sentiments did not exist
before the establishment of the Grand Lodge, suggesting that only after the
creation of a centralized masonic government which endorsed speculative
masonry and attempted to accommodate the remaining operative masons did
such attitudes of suspicion and distrust begin in earnest. Indeed, lodges involved
in the founding of the Grand Lodge of Scotland – for instance No. 1 Mary’s
Chapel – emphasized their operative roots and prohibited non-operatives from
taking part in the election of lodge officers. In a minute dated 24 December
1753, several members
protested for themselves…In regard [that] as the lodge being
constitutionally an Operative Lodge, and uniformity in use to be
represented by an Operative Brother, they judg’d in departing from their
Constitution to Elect an Honorary Member however worthy unto that
office, and thereupon they left this meeting and declined to Concur in
any further proceedings…as this [No. 1 Mary’s Chapel] Lodge is the
most Ancient Lodge upon the Rolls of the Grand Lodge, and by their
records appears to be originally and Constitutionally an operative Lodge,
109 Stevenson, Origins, 197.
110 Ibid, 216.
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