The Grand Lodges and Modern Freemasonry 259urrected in the person of the newly initiated master, was used by the
friends of Charles I to avenge his death and set his son upon the throne.
English Freemasons, it is claimed, adopted the grade of master in the
years 1723-1725, when the thinking that had inspired its development
and application had faded from memory.
Similarly, some say the Jacobites combined their knightly titles and
decorations with Freemasonry and that this served as the origin of the
Scottish higher grades, which were intended to serve the political pur-
pose of dominating Freemasonry and placing it in the service of the
dynastic interests of the Stuarts.
We have covered the legend of Hiram at length and it seems it has
an ancient origin that cannot be traced to any single location and
retains a sense that is strictly traditional and Christian. We have also
seen that the English craft did not overlook the grade of master, but that
it was simply less differenciated in their practice than it was in Scotland.
During the era of the transistion between the two forms of masonry—
operative and speculative—lodges of both England and Scotland fol-
lowed two rituals, those of the apprentice grade and those of the
journeyman grade. It is conceivable, though, that masters in Scotland
had, if not their own ritual, then at least signs of identification—words
and customs reserved for their use alone. By virtue of circumstance,
Scottish master masons were able to take advantage of these distinctive
features for purposes of superiority and management, which were not
always purely initiatory.
It was only starting in 1723 that the English masons of the Grand
Lodge of London instituted a clearly separate grade of master similar to
that in Scotland. In the domain of ritual, a replica of the journeyman
ritual and the gradual impoverishment of its symbolism accompanied
this creation. There is nothing in their adoption to suggest, however,
that they were able to integrate the unique Scottish features to reverse
this impoverishment. Further, remaining within the strict concerns of
the order, the grade of Scottish master could continue to be considered
as a veritable extra grade with its own secrets. This would explain the
nomination of "Scots master masons" that took place at that time,
chiefly at the Lodge of Bath (Somerset) on October 28, 1735. Yet we
should not jump to the hasty conclusion that "Scots master mason"