Secret societies and subversive movementsWebster, Nesta Helen
History
Secret societies and subversive movements
Webster, Nesta Helen
Secret societies
But the Grand Orient goes further than this and attacks all forms of
religion. Thus, as has been said, those "ancient landmarks" of British
Masonry, belief in the Great Architect of the Universe and in the
immortality of the soul, had never formed an integral part of its
system, and it was only in 1849 that for the first time "it was
distinctly formulated that the basis of Freemasonry is a belief in God
and in the immortality of the soul, and the solidarity of Humanity." But
in September 1877 the first part of this formula was deleted, all
allusions to the Great Architect were omitted, and the statute now
reads: "Its basis is absolute liberty of conscience and the solidarity
of Humanity."[674] British Freemasonry, which does not admit liberty of
conscience in the sense of Atheism, but demands that every Mason should
profess belief in some form of religion and which insists that the
Volume of the Sacred Law--in England the Bible, in Mohammedan countries
the Koran, and so on--should be placed on the table in its lodges,
thereupon broke off all relations with the Grand Orient. In March 1878
the following resolution was passed unanimously:
That the Grand Lodge, whilst always anxious to receive in the most
fraternal spirit the Brethren of any foreign Grand Lodge whose
proceedings are conducted according to the Ancient Landmarks of the
Order, of which a belief in T.G.A.O.T.U. is the first and most
important, cannot recognize as "true and genuine" Brethren any who
have been initiated in lodges which either deny or ignore that
belief.[675]
The Grand Orient, says M. Copin Albancelli, not content with renouncing
the Great Architect whose glory it had celebrated on every possible
occasion and whose praises had been incessantly sung in its lodges,
demanded of its initiates that they should declare themselves to be
absolutely convinced that the Great Architect was nothing but a
myth.[676] More than this, violent anti-religious tirades have been
permitted and even applauded in the lodges. Thus in 1902 the Freemason
Delpech in his discourse at a masonic banquet uttered these words:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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