Lodge & Altar

LODGE & ALTAR

A Pub Theology Discussion

on the Church and Fraternal Orders

Ancient Brotherhood

The concept of a “Band of Brothers”—young landless men allying as a war-band before settling down as established heads of families—is so ancient and pervasive, both in history and myth, that scholars have long speculated on the existence of a *Kóryos or Männerbund in Proto-Indo-European (PIE) societies. We see this in-group dynamic spanning from the Irish Fianna to the steppe nomad warbands of central Asia.

Pythagoras

The sixth-century philosopher Pythagoras founded societies of like-minded brethren not for the purposes of war or self-aggrandizement but for education and the sharing of mathematical and mystical discoveries. His was a two-tier fraternity of apprentices (“those who listen”) and those who test up to join the inner circle (“those who learn”).

They had initiation rituals, secret meetings, signs (pentagram) and passwords, that they might know one another. And all knowledge to them was sacred: mathematical, musical, mystical, astronomical, esoteric, and ethical. Theirs was an all-encompassing understanding of philosophy, truly the “love of wisdom.” Training of mind and virtue went hand-in-hand. Later schools of philosophy built upon Pythagoras’ foundation.

Mystery Religions

Related to this we have the Mystery Religions or Mystery Cults of imperial Rome. Whenever the Empire would conquer a fresh new slab of provinces, they would pick up a new faith: Magna Mater from Anatolia; Mithraism from Seleucid Syria; Serapis and Isis from Ptolemaic Egypt; and the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece, with the related cults of Orpheus and Dionysus.

Romans found irresistible this mixture of the exotic and the universal. Again we have initiatory rites, secret insider information, and—most especially for the Mystery Cults—a mysticism of union with the divine, leading to a blessed afterlife. According to the historian Marcus Terentius Varro, they provided one of three sorts of Roman religious experience: civil (state ceremonies), natural (philosophy), and mythic (ritual, mystic).

Medieval Guilds

Artisan guilds date back to the earliest days of civilization and history. Roman collegia did not survive the collapse of the Empire, but by the Middle Ages all manner of guilds—merchant, craft, frith, and religious—were pillars of society. These were incorporated legal entities, many of which began as religious confraternities, but which were often denounced by the Church for their binding oaths or collective feuds.

Guilds had their own stories, rituals, secret meetings, traditions, and patron saints. They served as training grounds for apprentices and mutual support for members. Oftentimes guilds were as close to higher education as their initiates were like to receive. Classical and biblical narratives were common. This instructive function held especially true for those trades involving geometry, mathematics, and engineering. No-one wants a collapsing cathedral.

Operative to Speculative

In the wake of Renaissance and Reformation, Enlightenment ideals percolated throughout Europe and her colonial empires. Notions of democracy, universal education, and the basic equality of all humankind threatened the old order of things. Where could such aspirations properly foment, away from prying authoritative eyes?

Secret societies—fraternal orders—formed as a safe place to practice education, democracy, and Enlightenment. Foremost amongst these were the Freemasons, a medieval guild steeped in mathematics and religious allegory, which now began to accept “speculative Masons” less interested in quarries than in inquiry.

Blockheads

The Masonic Lodge and others like it became the seedbed of Enlightenment reforms. Here those of every class and creed could come together to vote (!) and learn and teach and offer a classical education—trivium and quadrivium—to every man jack one of us. This brought the admiration of great reformers and the ire of great reactionaries.

During the American and French Revolutions, thinking men belonged to several such orders. Franklin, Washington, Lafayette: all republican revolutionaries; all Masons. Freemasonry did push forward a conspiracy, and it was democracy. Everywhere the ancien régime looked, right up to Garibaldi uniting Italy, they saw Masons at work. Yet many clergy—especially Anglican, but even one future Pope—joined the Lodge.

Léo Taxil

Taxil was a 19th-century journalist and flimflam Frenchman who had a bone to pick with both the Lodge and Catholic Church. He wrote spurious exposés about Masonic satanism, to the delight of the Pope at the time. By the time he called a press conference to reveal how he had made fools of both the Magisterium and the reading public, it was too late.

The damage was done, and the clerical hierarchy felt that they had no choice but to double-down. This built upon anti-Masonic political sentiment earlier in the century in America. Conspiracy theories have rained down ever since, upon an organization dedicated to neither affirming nor denying false accusations.

Cousins and Brethren

Freemasonry is but the most famous of fraternal orders. Let’s not forget the Oddfellows, Eagles, Moose, Knights of Pythia, Know-Nothing POSA, Sons of Norway, Knights of Columbus, UCCE, Woodmen of the World, and of course the Boy Scouts. The heyday of them all followed the end of World War II. Today all of voluntary civil society withers.