The asperity of the controversy was softened.
The storm was broken.
Still, dark and threatening- clouds obscured the prospect.
The future was uncertain.
Nothing definite had been reached.
And having unsuccessfully exhausted its powers of endurance
in
efforts to establish more amicable relations,
and to effect a fraternal
reconciliation of its difficulties
with the Brethren of the St. John's
Grand Lodge, the Lodge sought the aid
of the three Military Lodges ,
attached to foreign regiments then stationed in Boston,
in a petition to the Grand Lodge of Scotland
for the appointment, in virtue
of its own inherent and undoubted right,
of a Grand Master for the
Province, clothed with the ample powers of an officer
of that distin-
guished rank.
The co-operation of the officers of these Lodges
was probably the more readily obtained by reason of the favor-
able consideration in which the young and popular Warren
was held by the military men of that day.
One of the reasons
urged by the petitioners in support of their petition, was the neces-
sity for a less precarious and uncertain protection than they then
enjoyed, of the rights of Brethren
who had enrolled themselves
and were in symPathy with the so-called
Auciait Masons ; to which relation I shall hereafter
have occasion to refer more in detail
The
schismatic body originated with some restless Brethren in London,
who, in 1738, becoming dissatisfied with certain measures of the
established Grand Lodge of England, seceded from that body and
organized themselves into independent Lodges, under what they,
without authority, claimed to be the York Constitutions. They
were originally few in number and of little influence in the
fraternity ; and had they been left to themselves, would probably have
soon abandoned their unlawful proceedings, and relapsed into the
insignificance from which they sprung. But unfortunately, and as
the event proved, unwisely, the Grand Lodge at London publicly
denounced them, and then undertook to exclude them from its
Lodges, by an unauthorized alteration of the ritual. This gave to
the recalcitrant Brethren an advantage of which they were but
too ready to avail themselves ; and calling to their aid the assistance
of an Irish masonic adventurer, of some tact and ability, and in-
creasing the number of their Lodges, they in turn denounced their
mother Grand Lodge as having violated the established landmarks
and corrupted the ancient ritual of the Order ; thereby resolving
itself into a Grand Lodge of Modem
ALSO CALLED MODERN Masons.
This denunciation
was followed by the erection in London, of the irregular and clan-
^ destine body which long filled a prominent and important place
in masonic history, as the Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons.
In order to place this factitious distinction of Ancient and ATodcrn
Masons in its true light, it may be proper to say that these terms are
not to be received in their common and ordinary acceptation. All
legitimate Masonry, wherever practiced in the Lodges, at that or
the present time, is equally Ancient, by whatever name it may be
called. It all has a common origin, and is derived from a common
source, whether that source be the valley of the Nile, or Eleusis,
or Tyre, or Jerusalem — a pre-historic or a modern age. The
Masonry of England, of Scotland, of Ireland, and of America, and
wherever else it is to be found in its purity, is identical. The only
difference in the antiquity of either, is in the comparative date of
its introduction and organization in their respective territories.
But to return. The Grand Lodge of Scotland never officially
endorsed or fully sympathized with the disturbing elements in
England ; nor did it approve of or sanction the changes introduced
into the ritual by the Grand Lodge of that kingdom. Neither did
it justify or uphold the recusant Brethren in their irregular pro- -
ceedings. On the contrary, it occupied neutral ground, and
recognized both parties, irrespective of their local dissensions.
Lawrie. in his History of Masonry in Scotland, elucidates this point
in the following words : —
" In the general History of Free Masonry, we have already given an account of the
schism which took place in the Grand Lodge of England, by the secession of a number
of men, who, calling themselves Ancient Masons, invidiously bestowed upon the Grand
Lodge the appellation of Moderns. These Ancient Masons, who certainly merit blame,
as the active promoters of the schism, chose for their Grand Master, in the year 1772, ,
his Grace the Duke of Athol, who was then Grand Master elect for Scotland." (It is
believed that anterior to this date, this Grand Lodge had been without an actual Grand
Master, that place having been filled by Laurence Dermott, under the assumed title
of Dei)uty Grand Master.) " From this circumstance, more than from any particular
predilection, on the part of the Grand Lodge of Scotland for the Ancient Masons, the
most friendly intercourse has always subsisted between the two Grand Lodges ; and
the Scottish Masons, from their union with the Ancients, imbibed the same prejudices
again.st the Grand Lodge of England, under the Prince of Wales and Lord Moira,
arising merely from some trifling innovations in ceremonial observances, which the
Grand Lodge of England had inconsiderately authorized. From these causes the Grand
Lodges of Scotland and England, though the brethren of both were admitted into each
others' Lodges, never cherished that mutual and friendly intercourse which, by the prin-
ciples of Freemasonry, they were bound to institute and reserve.
