History
Excellence in Scholarship and Learning
Excellence in Scholarship and Learning
Schism
The Battle that Forged Freemasonry
Richard Berman is the author of Foundations of Modern Freemasonry; he holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a Doctorate in History from the University of Exeter. Ric was previously a Senior Visiting Researcher at the University of Oxford’s Modern European History Research Centre and is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University. He lives with his family in Oxfordshire and is presently researching a book on colonial America.
Schism examines the creation of the Antients Grand Lodge and traces the influence of Ireland and the London Irish, and most especially that of Laurence Dermott, the Antients’ Grand Secretary, in the development of freemasonry in the second half of the eighteenth century.
The book demonstrates the relative accessibility of the Antients and contrasts this with the exclusivity of the ‘Moderns’ – the original Grand Lodge of England. The Antients instigated what became a six decades long rivalry with the Moderns and pioneered fundamental changes to the social composition of freemasonry, extending formal sociability to the lower middling and working classes and creating one of the first modern friendly societies.
Schism does not stand solely as an academic work but introduces the subject to a wider Masonic and non-Masonic audience and, most particularly, supplements dated historical works. The book contributes to the history of London and the London Irish in the long eighteenth century and examines the social and trade networks of the urban lower middling and working class, subjects that remains substantially unexplored. It also offers a prism through which Britain’s calamitous relationship with Ireland can be examined.
| Hardback ISBN: | 978-1-84519-606-6 |
| Hardback Price: | £55.00 / $74.50 |
| Release Date: | July 2013 |
| Paperback ISBN: | 978-1-84519-607-3 |
| Paperback Price: | £25.00 / $39.95 |
| Release Date: | July 2013 |
| Page Extent / Format: | 272 pp. / 234 x 156 mm |
| Illustrated: | Yes |
List of Tables
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Review
by John R. “Bo” Cline, President, The Masonic Society,
PGM, Grand Lodge of Alaska, in The Journal of The Masonic Society
In
his book Masonic
Facts and Fictions, first published in 1887,
Henry Sadler argued against the contemporary notion “that
the founders of this body [Ancient Grand Lodge] were originally
seceders from the Mother Grand Lodge of 1717, and they are
invariably referred to as ‘the schismatics’ ”. Sadler states
that there is no evidence available to conclude that a considerable
number of the founders of the Ancient’s Grand Lodge actually
owed allegiance to “the regular Grand Lodge of England.”
... In
his current book, Schism: The Battle that Forged Freemasonry,
Ric Berman (author of The
Foundations of Modern Freemasonry) argues that Sadler’s
contention that no schism had occurred, since “. . . by
definition, one cannot leave or fracture an organization
of which one has not been a member. . .”, “was a nonsense”.
Berman points to a socio/economic schism which existed
between the upper and middling progenitors of the ‘Premiere’
Grand Lodge (the Moderns) and the lower middling and working
class, primarily Irish émigrés who founded the rival Antients
Grand Lodge as the chief cause of the rift.
... Touted
by the publishers as more accessible to the average reader
than Berman’s previous
work, Schism provides an objective view of the social and
economic environment surrounding the formation of the Antients
Grand Lodge during the mid-eighteenth century in England.
Berman describes the various factors that fostered the
development of the Antients to the detriment of the Moderns,
factors which included:
• Social indifference and a greater
accommodation of all who wished to participate;
• Focus on Masonic ritual during meetings, which for some
more especially expatriate Irish, became a substitute for
Christian liturgy;
• Patronage by Irish and Scottish aristocracy;
• Masonic charity accessible to all through creation of
the world’s first ‘friendly society’;
• Official recognition by the Grand Lodges of Ireland and
Scotland;
• Dysfunction of the Moderns Grand Lodge during the mid-eighteenth
century; and more particularly
• The marketing skill of Laurence Dermott (Antients Grand
Secretary and author of Ahiman Rezon).
All of this on the backdrop of England’s onerous mercantilist
policies which subjugated the British colonies, especially
Ireland and the Anglo-Irish during the eighteenth century.
... Understanding
the past and the conditions that existed during the formation
of Freemasonry
provides a lens by which to view the Craft and understand
its relationship with the world today. Schism: The Battle
that Forged Freemasonry provides such a lens and is an
excellent addition to Berman’s The Foundations of Modern
Freemasonry.
Review by Dr Bob James, Newcastle, UK, of Foundations of Modern Freemasonry
and Schism – The Battle that Forged Freemasonry
These two books, in my opinion, are the most important
on English freemasonry published in recent times.
... The
first introduces the crucial networking which produced the
first
buzz of interest in
freemasonry in 1720s London. The second describes the battle
between London’s established Grand Lodge, the ‘Moderns’,
and the lower middling, largely Irish, ‘Antients.’
... In Foundations, Berman located new material showing the predominance
of magistrates
in
Masonry’s most sociable and therefore most influential
lodges and the bridge freemasonry provided between Newtonian
theory and its application. Masonic lectures and demonstrations
of ‘natural philosophy’ fed directly into the engineering
and hydraulic schemes driving the industrial revolution
and their popularity enhanced freemasonry’s image as THE
society for the upwardly mobile.
... In
Berman’s view, English freemasonry was a deliberate creation
of a few members of
the Horn
Tavern able to convince leading politicians and aristocrats
to join. The argument has profoundly political and religious
implications and in highlighting them Berman has done a
great service to scholars of Masonry. In showing how the
organisation changed soon after it began, was challenged
and forced to reform he has ensured that assertions that
freemasonry was somehow immutable can no longer be made.
... Where
Berman’s first volume was centred on personalities and their
unique histories, his
second concerns the collective experiences of two distinct
social groups. He brings ‘the Antients’ to life, delves
into their occupations, communities and grievances against
the original Grand Lodge.
... Berman
reports the evidence that suggests that Antient freemasonry
was an association of
friends, neighbours and co-workers, ‘the large majority
of whom lived and laboured’ close to one another. From
the middling and lower classes, these men were concerned
with the financial security fraternalism could offer and
formed recognisable ‘mutual benefit funds’.
... The two volumes
are extremely well produced and both are credits to their
publishers
and their printers. But the warmest appreciation must go
to the researcher and author, Ric Berman, in providing
a precise, social context for the invention of English
Freemasonry.
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