FREEMASONRY in SPAIN Bernard Street, Madrid , in 1727-8 Suffered
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and many brethren of the original Lodge, founded in FREEMASONRY IN SPAIN Bernard Street, Madrid , in 1727-8 suffered. However, this edict had the usual effect of causing tho further deve- stated last week that we had it in contemplation WE lopment of the Craft, and in 1750-1, there were, to publish an English version, either in full or in according to the Inquisition , as many as ninety- summary, of the article entitled " Freemasonry in Spain," seven Lodges in Spain. About this time, Father which appeared iu the Jnly number of Le Monde Macon* Joseph Torrubia , member of the Inquisition, acting under nique. The article is decidedly interesting, more espe- the authority of a Papal brief , was initiated as a Mason, cially as our knowledge of Spanish Freemasonry is some- taking the oaths prescribed of all who sought admission, what limited, the materials at our disposal for anything his object being to obtain a complete knowledge of the like a connected history being extremely scanty. In fact, members of the Spanish Craft. In March 1751, Father tbe bulk of the English brethren know little beyond the Torrubia placed in the Grand Inquistiors' hands list of the fact that Lodges were established in Spain , that, 67 Lodges then in Spain, when, to the latter's great dismay thanks to the tender regards of the Bomish priesthood, it turned out that pretty nearly the whole of the Masonic but particularly of the Inquisition, the members had a body consisted of nobles and members of the upper ranks of hard time of it, and that, as shown in the Cosmopolitan society. However, he referred the subject to Popo Bene- Masonic Calendar , there is now a Grand National Orient, dict XIV. and King Ferdinand VI., when the King, by with a Grand Lodge, and a Supreme Council 33°, working a decree dated 2nd July 1751, ordered the complete sup- apparently in harmony. The Orient is credited with pression of the Order, the penalty of death without any some 180 Lodges and a membership of 14,800, while the previous trial of any kind being assigned to all found to be Grand Lodge has 270 Lodges, to some 50 of which are members. Chapters. Thus, from the mere point of numbers Spain During the next sixteen years, Freemasonry in Spain would seem justified in claiming a foremost position remained in obscurity, but not without making considerable among Masonic powers, though to judge from certain progress, and in 1767 it renounced its obedience to the Grand remarks in Le Monde Maconnique, it would seem as if Lodge of England and declared itself independent, when Spanish ideas of the Craf t inclined too much towards the Count d'Aranda, Prime Minister of Charles III. and those prevalent in France to make it of much account as the real author of the royal decree which in the spring of a section of the true Fraternity. that year banished the Jesuits from Spain, was appointed According to our French contemporary, the establish- Grand Master, his election to that office being due to this ment of Feeemasonry in Spain is traceable to the influence edict. In 1780 , influenced by French ideas, the Grand of the Duke of Wharton, who was Grand Master of Lodge took the title of Grand Orient, the Count d'Aranda, England 1723. The writer of the article produces no however, continuing to preside with his original title of evidence in support of this statement,-but it is by no Grand Master, and so remained till 1795, when, having means improbable. It is in evidence that the Duke of lost his liberty, he designated as his successor the Wharton was in Spain about the year 1727—he married Count de Montijo, an able diplomatist and Spanish a maid of honour to the Queen of Spain in 1726— Ambassador to the Court of Berlin . The Count was that he took part against his own countrymen at the siege legally nominated Grand Master of the Grand Orient and of Gibraltar—a possession of ours since 1704—and that he it was under his auspices that tho Ancient and Accepted died in a state of penury at a Bernardino convent in Scottish Rite made its appearance in Spain in Catalonia in 1731. Le Monde Macoj mique, however, 1808. One of the creators and propagators states absolutely that the Duke of Wharton was charged of the Dalcho theory, Count Alexander Augustus de with the duty of introducing Freemasonry ; that he Grosse-Tilly, G. Commander of the Supreme Council 33° in repaired to Madrid in 1727, took np his quarters in the France, had a brother in Spain—the Count de Tilly. This only French hotel in the Spanish capital, and having brother, out of hatred for Buonaparte, devoted the whole made all the requisite preliminary arrangements, that on of his vast energy to the service of Spain, and, under the the 15th February 1728 was consecrated in his Grace's name of Gusman, was the soul of the popular movement apartments a Lodge which was afterwards ranked as in Andalusia, which commenced in May and June 1808 No. 50 on the roll of the Grand Lodge of England. Our with the relief of Seville from tbe French and terminated own early registers bear testimony to the fact of there at Baylen ; in fact, it was he who prepared the terms of the having been such a Lodge, and from the Appendix to capitulation of Baylen , which utterly discomfited the Bro. Gould's " Four Old Lodges," it seems to have been forces of Napoleon. This Count de Tilly, on the 17th De- erased in January 1768, but we shonld like to hear more cember 1808, assembled at Aranjuez several Brothers, about the authority on which the chief place in the among whom were Quintana, Saavedra, Vadillo, and account is assigned to the Duke of Wharton. This Gonzalez, and constituted tbe Supreme Council of the appears to have been the only Masonic Lodge in Spain 33rd Degree for Spain. Thus, towards the close of 1800, Wl 1739, when Lord Lovel , who was at the time Grand Spanish Freemasonry consisted of the Grand Orient, ruled Master, granted to Captain James Cnmmersford a depu- by Count de Montijo, practising the English Rite of tation as Provincial Grand Master of Andalusia with full Anderson-Ashmole, and the Supreme Council, ruled by the Powers to found Lodges in the south of Spain. This Count de Til ly, and practising the system of Morin- gave great umbrage to the clergy and monks, and so dis- Dalcho. quieted the secular power that, influenced by the Legate of On 3rd November 1809 was constituted in the very f^ope Uement XIII., Philip V. issued an edict against dungeons of " the Inquisition itself," in the street Isabella freemasonry, in which members of Masonic Lodges were the Catholic, a new Spanish Grand Orient, founded under aercel y denounced , and threatened with the severest the auspices of Kng Joseph, formerly Grand Master of the Penalties if they retained their connection with the Ord er, Grand Orient of France, by the Grand Duke de Berg. Thus in 1809 the Supreme Council of France, and the of the skill of the operative Masons of three thousand Grand Orient of the same country, had both established years ago. off-shoots in Spain, the Grand Orient, ruled by the Count There is no end to the fanciful theories of intellectual lish element speculators abont the Great Pyramid. John Taylor Montijo, alone representing the original Eng , Prof*. according to the Anderson system, but independent and con Piazzi Smyth, H. C. Agnew, Joseph A Seiss, D.D., J. Ral fined wholly and solely to brethren of Spanish blood. The ston Skinner, Everett W. Fish, M.D , W. M. Flinders former Minister of State, Azanza, was nominated Grand Petrie, William Rowbottom, Robert Hewitt Brown, and Master of the new Grand Orient born in 1809 of French others, have created a Pyramid literature, that of itself origin. In 1811 , tho Count de Grasse-Tilly, being dis- constitutes in size no mean library. The latest contribu. satisfied with the manner in which his brother the Count tion to the literature of the subject is of the destructive de Tilly conducted the affairs of the Supreme Council of order, from the pen of President Barnard, of Columbia Spain, constituted a second Supreme Council on the 4th Collego, New York * President Barnard is an ardent July, and the better to vindicate its dependence on French advocate of the introduction of tbe Metric system of Masonic authority, he installed , in tho capacity of Grand weights and measures in this country, and he has attacked Commander of this new power, tho same Azanza, who for the theories of the fanciful school of Pyramidalists with the preceding two yrars had held the office of Grand considerable power, his purpose evidently being to abolish Master of the Grand Orient of Spain, under the protection the idea that our English inch measure bears any relation of the Grand Orient of France. Consequently, there were to the so-called sacred cubit, whioh should justify its at this epoch four Supreme Masonic authorities in Spain : retention, and thus influence the exclusion of the Metric Grand Orient, No. 1, founded 1780—Spanish ; Supreme system. His work is written with grace and scholarly Council, No. I, founded 17th September 1808, also tact, and affords pleasant reading on a recondite subject. Spanish ; and the Grand Orient, No. 2, founded 3rd No- He argues that the Great Pyramid was simply a royal vember 1809, and Supreme Council, No.