The Transitions Of British Freemasonry In 18th And 19th Century

The modern Freemasonry of England which originated from A.D.1717 in London is an important social organization in the modern history of Great Britain. Since its first appearance, this community had attracted English aristocrats, gentries, members of Royal Society and officers from British oversea military regiment, and became an important platform for their social interactions. In the 18th and 19th century, the membership of freemason spread from metropolitan to all the territories of the empire, including global colonies, which made freemasonry a considerable popular association. Meanwhile, during the expansion, the members brought British masonic institutions to other European countries, made the Grand Lodge of England as a Mother Lodge for the local freemasons and a transmission channel of British thought and culture, and consequently obtained great international influence.The period from the establishment of the Grand Lodge to the end of 19th century is considered as one of the most important decades in the history of English freemasonry. In this progress of maturing, the English freemasonry underwent three major trasitions. These transitions are:from A.D.1723 to 1790s, a period of internal conflicts on religious idea; from 1790s to A.D.1813, a period of an affirmation of loyalist identity and legitimacy under the authority of government; form A.D.1813 to the end of 19th century, a period of controversy between the leaders and general members about the lodges’ autonomy and middle class diversion in the members.The very nature of Deism narrative tendency in the first Constitution of freemasonry which published in A.D.1723 caused a huge dispute inside the comunnity. The lodges located in the north of England (including York, Ireland, and Scotland), which adherent to traditional Christianity established their own Grand Lodges, and through their own institutions contended with the ones of the Grand Lodge of England. In the Irish famine of 1730s to 1740s, the freemasons of Ireland and Scotland which came to London looking for jobs were disregarded and denied by the lodges of metropolitan. The division of religious tendency, the barriers of regional culture and the diversity of class status finally force these newcomers to establish their own masonic system in London, named as the Ancients. This Great Masonic Schism between the Ancients and the Moderns lasted for more than half a century and finally ended with the decline of British Deism in philosophy and the pass away of Ancients’leader who insist dichotomy attitude.From the end of 18th century to 1820s, the outbreak of French revolution, the continuation of Napolean War forced the British government tighten restrictions on all kinds of civil society domestically. The secret society form of English freemasonry and ineffective restriction on members’ political expressions cause an unprecedented legitimate crisis. For the sake of survival under the legal framework of British Empire, the two Grand Lodges compromised and forged a consolidation. Through the political defence from the top leaders of the two sects, the freemasonry of England obtained legal recognition from the Parliament. The two sects demonstrated their loyalist identity through the forge of a new United Grand Lodge of England, and achieved the legitimacy for further development under the high-pressured political context.After the union of 1813, the English freemasonry indicated an unpolitical and unreligious position, but inside the association, a dispute about the developing direction surfaced. The leader wished a highly philosophical route with Sun Worship elements, the majority expected more improvement in members’ mutual aids, and a few radicals desired advance towards to French Republic. The three sides used cheap publications and periodicals which teemed in the first half of 19th century as their battlefields. On these papers, they expressed their opinions on freemasonry and other social events like Parliament Reform or Noble Crisis. Eventually, numerous new freemasons from middle class grabed the discourse power and pushed the divisive leadership compromise to this burgeoning membership inside the community. This new diversion produced a clear orientation to individual member’s moral promotion and religious ambience offering.Through the three major transitions above, the English freemasonry realized a transformation from origination to maturity, and shaped its mature developing model. The contradictions between the gaming plates inside the English freemasons fully embodied. Despite these contradictions, the English freemasonry expanded to a larger scope of the empire, and constructed the masonic principles and historical textuality. The English freemasonry forged an extendable framework between the tensions of secular and religion, equality and limitation, elite and mass, radical and conservativeness, and shaped a specific pattern aim at moral transcendence and social fraternity.