As early as the next elections in , anti-Masonic candidates were winning offices all over the country. Even the sitting president, John Quincy Adams, declared that he had never been, and would never be, a Mason. In , they became the first political party to hold a presidential nominating convention , a custom eventually adopted by all major American political parties.
Because of the Morgan Affair, and the ant-Masonic sentiment that followed, memberships dwindled and Masonic influence diminished all over the country. Although it still exists, the organization is a shadow of its former self. An attack on the Anti-masonic party produced shortly after their September national convention. It symbolically contrasts the Freemasons, as aligned with peace, equal rights, and other positive qualitie, and the Anti-masonic party aligned with "darkness.
Although the book itself was tame compared to a political tell-all you might read today—Morgan gave a word-for-word account of a rather dull lodge opening ceremony, for example—it still contained some gasp-inducing juicy moments for early 19th century readers.
Despite many wild theories—had Morgan assumed a new identity and fled to Canada, or was he perhaps executed as a pirate in the Cayman Islands?
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Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Whatever secrets the Masons were guarding, they made for a bewitching recruitment tool. Within a couple of decades, the mystique of Freemasonry made it a worldwide phenomenon: there were Lodges everywhere from Amsterdam to Aleppo, from Charleston to Calcutta. The Craft spread on the currents of an earlier era of globalization: empire and commerce, warfare and intellectual exchange.
Its founders quickly discovered that they could not control their creation. Within the group, Masons disagreed passionately about arcane rites and procedures, splitting into rival branches based on their beliefs. They also fissured on issues of race and gender. Were women worthy to be admitted to the great mysteries?
Were Jewish or Black people? Externally, the Masonic brand was borrowed and bastardized. If you had a secret, then organizing yourself like the Freemasons seemed a good way to keep it. Groups as varied as the Ku Klux Klan to conceal the identity of white supremacist terrorists , the Sicilian mafia crime , and the Mormon Church bigamy all incorporated the furtive strands of the Masonic DNA.
The Pope excommunicated them very early on, seeing them as covert heretics; any Catholic who joins the Masons is still putting his soul in peril, according to the Vatican. Conspiracy thinking drove Mussolini, Hitler and Franco to crush the Craft.
Today, Freemasonry is banned in China, and everywhere in the Muslim world except Lebanon and Morocco. The men who built the well know how deep it is. The rest of us can only peer down and wonder what might lurk below, while the dark surface mirrors back our fears. Ask the Freemasons today about secrecy, and you will receive a pat response. But, of course, even moderately skeptical non-Masons will still wonder.
So, surely the best way of assuaging these suspicions is to publish a public register of membership. According to reports, new members taking part in rituals are blindfolded, and a rope is tied twice around his arm or neck. The right trouser leg is rolled up until the knee is exposed and a slipper is placed on the left foot. The majority of members are quite happy to publicly declare their membership. Those who prefer to keep their membership to themselves tend to fear the consequences of declaring it publicly.
He says that all Masons are under a Masonic and moral duty to report any inappropriate behaviour. Politics and religion are not discussed either in our meetings or at dinner afterwards. For example, members who have fallen on hard times and can no longer afford to keep their children at private schools can apply to have the fees paid. They can also ask for help for private medical treatment. Given the astronomical cost of private education and growing NHS waiting lists , it seems the brothers still know how to look after their own.
What happens during the initiation ceremony remains one of the Masons most closely guarded secrets. However, a number of former members have spilled the beans. According to reports they are blindfolded, and a rope is tied twice around his arm or neck.
The person is now considered fully prepared and is taken to the front door of the lodge, where an extensive ritual dialogue begins with three knocks on the door. In the final stage, the candidate strips to his shirt and trousers. Both knees and arms are exposed and a rope is wound around his body. Log In. Contact us Sign up for newsletters.
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