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Ritual
© Rosslyn Templars The 'exposure' by Samuel Prichard was still being printed in 1802
On this page the Rosslyn Templars had thought to provide some examples of Masonic rituals. However, as we began to discuss how and what to supply, it became clear that there was no need to do so as there are a number of websites devoted to 'exposing' Masonic ritual. Instead we shall devote this page to a short discussion of Masonic ritual, its purpose, and the effect that 'exposing' ritual by non-Masons has had on the Craft.
The first known Masonic rituals in the world are Scottish in origin. The earliest is dated 1696 and is known as the Edinburgh Register House manuscript (ERH MS) after the place in which it was discovered. Other MS rituals, or more accurately - catechisms, are the Airlie and Chetwode Crawley MSS dated 1705 and c.1710 respectively. Unfortunately, for the Masonic historian, these MSS are scattered across the country and are not easily accessible. For this reason many historians have tended to concentrate their studies on the earliest printed rituals from 1730 onwards.
(The reader might like to know that on the 24th June 2004, Robert L. D. Cooper, the Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland Museum and Library presented a paper in Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No.2076, (London, England) discussing these earliest Masonic rituals).
The first 'exposure' of Masonic ritual was by Samuel Prichard of London, England, who printed Masonry Dissected in 1730. Despite his claim to be a Freemason there is no evidence to support that claim. However, his apparent knowledge of (written) Masonic ritual suggests that, at least, he had information from someone who was a Freemason. His exposure shows some deficiencies but on the whole is accepted as being reasonably accurate for the time. Until then ritual had been memorised and passed on by oral communication and occasionally supplemented by the brief MS catechisms mentioned above. It is for this reason that Prichard's Masonry Dissected became phenomenally successful. Prichard's printed ritual meant that, at a stroke, Freemasons no longer had to learn ritual by oral transmission only but now could buy a book and learn it in the comfort of their own homes.
There is no doubt that Prichard published the ritual in order to make money from Freemasons and in this he certainly succeeded as Masonry Dissected was re-printed innumerable times and translated into German, Dutch and French. It was still being reprinted in the 19th century. It was not Prichard's intention to supply Freemasons with their own ritual as his motives were to supply it to the public. Oddly enough therefore he greatly achieved Freemasons as evidenced by the fact that his main customers were in fact Freemasons who were anxious to obtain the words, in an accessible form, of the ritual of the fraternity which they loved and cherished. After 1730 the development of Masonic ritual is much easier to trace thanks to Prichard and those anti-Masons who followed in his footsteps. That process continues today with modern authors writing books which now often include photographs of Freemasons performing part of the ritual. Of course the chance of making money for the minimum amount of effort has always attracted some.
The websites which today supply full details of Masonic ritual are following in a long line of those who have sought to 'expose' what they believe to be the secrets of Freemasonry. They do with the intention destroying Freemasonry. However, they do not realise that they merely provide a valuable service to Freemasons themselves. Examples of these attempts to 'expose' Freemasonry are numerous but this in itself has proved to be very, very useful. For examples, Masonic historians such we the Rosslyn Templars have been able to compare different rituals from various parts of the world and examine those differences gaining, in the process, a better understanding of the teachings of Freemasonry. As an added bonus, and because we are mostly Scots!, we are delighted to get all these different rituals completely free!
The Rosslyn Templars try not to favour any particular site over another but that can be rather difficult. There is one site in particular that provides a lot of Masonic rituals:
nireland.com/evangelicaltruth/index.html
To go there copy and past the above into your browser and hit return and you should go there directly. Remember to use the back button to return here!
Use of Lodge ritual
On a more basic level Masonic rituals on the internet has allowed many Lodges to save a considerable amount of money by saving the cost of typesetting and printing rituals. Like Samuel Prichard nearly 275 years ago those who attempt to denigrate, expose or otherwise 'do down' Freemasonry has simply ended up, yet again, assisting the very organisation that they appear (for some obscure reason known only to them selves) to dislike.
Detractors of Freemasonry seem to think that publishing words on a page reveals what Freemasonry is, what it stands and what it teaches. Sadly, this completely misses the point. It is not possible for a non-Freemason to understand Freemasonry and that has been proved over the last 275 years for had the repeated publication of our rituals led to the consequence apparently desired by such people Freemasonry would have ceased to exist soon after Prichard published Masonry Dissected in 1730. The anti-Mason most find it frustrating that after continuously exposing the so called secrets of Freemasonry for 270+ years all that they have achieved is the thanks of the Freemasons themselves!
Finally, we would mention that caution requires to be exercise by Freemasons who obtain rituals from the Internet. Many of the available rituals are well out of date and are no longer authorised by the Grand Lodge which originally issued them. In other words you might be buying a pig in a poke!
In addition all Freemasons ought to be aware there is no such thing as a Scottish ritual (each Scottish Lodge has the right to devise its own) so do no be misled into believing that you can have a 'Scottish' ritual as there is simply no such thing.
Anti-Masons make the naive assumption that by 'exposing' Masonic ritual they expose Masonic secrets - of course they do no such thing. Masonic ritual is a living, breathing, participation event. Words on a page, sold or given away free over the internet, can never convey the true secrets of Freemasonry - these are only available to genuine Freemasons.
Provided that you understanding this very important and basic point there is no reason why you should not be able to buy the ritual from the Freemasons themselves - at least you will know that it is genuine - can you say the same when buying Masonic rituals from non-Freemasons!
See for example the Grand Lodge of Scotland online shop at:
www.grandlodgeshop.com/list/rituals.html
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