252 FROM THE ART OF BUILDING TO THE ART OF THINKING
In Scotland, the lodges long retained their independence with
respect to customs. In 1736, however, they too decided to form an inde-
pendent overseeing authority—the Grand Lodge of Scotland—but its
spirit was different from that of the Grand Lodge of London. While the
Scottish masons used English Freemasonry as their model for a central-
ized denominational organization, they remained solidly attached to the
traditional rites, leaning more to the side of the Antients and opposing
the Moderns. It is significant that they named as their first grand mas-
ter William Saint Clair of Roslyn, last in the line of the family of the
hereditary protectors of the Scottish lodges. The Scottish distinction
was further emphasized by the undying fidelity of many to the house of
Stuart and the Catholic religion, the sole "Holy Church" for them in
the terms of the old obligations. Despite all this, a number of Scottish
lodges did not rally to the new denominational form. Their resistance
found a cohesive structure in 1743 when the old Mother Lodge of
Kilwinning established itself as a single grand lodge, like that of York
or England.
But staunch Scottish resistance to masonic modernism did not only
occur in Scotland. It was also taking hold, perhaps even more strongly,
on the Continent, primarily in France.
Scottish Freemasonry in FranceIt is commonly believed that modern French Freemasonry was an off-
shoot of English Freemasonry and that the first French lodges were cre-
ated if not directly by the Grand Lodge of London, then at least on the
model of those lodges it established.
This opinion conforms to the claims of the Grand United Lodge of
England, which, although formed in 1815 by the merger of the Antients
and the Moderns, dates its founding to 1717 and by virtue of this feels
it should be recognized as the Grand Mother Lodge of the World as
well as guardian of the masonic tradition. Many French Freemasons are
receptive to this viewpoint with one major distinction: They place this
modern tradition with Anderson's 1723 Book of Constitutions, where,
as they read them, theism and deism gave way to free thought. This or
course does not result in atheism so much as nondogmatic attitudes. We