CORONA GLADIORUM Transactions of the Bristol Masonic Society Volume 2004 - 2005 1 Published by Bristol Masonic Society Freemasons’ Hall Park Street Bristol BS1 5NH April 2006 All enquiries about this volume should be addressed to the editor (A.R. Baker) at the above address. ISBN 0-9552111-1-5 978-0-9552111-1-9 Printed in England By Adroit Printers, Blackfriars Road, Nailsea, BS48 4DJ. Tel: 01275-810080 Fax: 01275-810071 2 Contents Page Dedication 5 Introduction by the Provincial Grand Master for Bristol 8 Officers of the Bristol Masonic Society 2004 – 2005 9 Publications Committee 9 The Society’s Lodge Representatives 2004-2005 10 Programme for 2004-2005 11 Notes on Contributors 12 Section I – Papers Delivered to BMS Meetings 2004-2005 Together with Their Introductions and Discussions Masonry in the Man Year 21 JSM Ward: Brother and Father A.R. Baker 23 (Presidential Address) Captain Francis George Irwin (1828-1893), C.W. Wallis-Newport 33 (37) and his Revival of an Antient Hiberno-masonic Royal Order of Ireland in Bristol The Nature and Purpose of Ritual R.A. Gilbert 53 (53) The Esoteric Tradition in Masonry M.N. Buckley 65 (75) The Spiritual Message of the Royal Arch R.A. Crane 81 (93) A Russian 1st Degree Ceremony of 1812 A.J. Rhodes 97 (111) Demonstration Bristol Masonic Society Visit to Glastonbury A.R. Baker 107 (119) Section II – Papers Delivered Elsewhere by BMS Members 2004-2005 The Reasons for Masonic Secrecy A.R. Baker 111 (123) Toast to Founders of Peace Lodge – 13/5/2005 A.B. Jenkins 117 (129) Early References to Irish Royal Arch Masonry C.W. Wallis-Newport 121 (133) in Bristol 3 Section III – Past BMS Papers and Other Papers Origin of the Ceremony known as Sir Ernest Cook 129 (143) ‘Passing the Veils’ as Practised in the Province of Bristol (First published in November 1932) The Old Minute Book of the Lodge at A.C. Powell 137 (153) the Rummer The Mystical Avalonian Labours of a C.W. Wallis-Newport 145 (165) Rosicrucian Bristol Freemason, Rt. Revd. Frater Frederick Bligh Bond Masonic Rogues, Thieves and Vagabonds: R.A. Gilbert 159 (183) a Gallery of Masonic Ne’er-Do-Wells The Origins and Values of Bristol Masonry Dr M.J. Crossley Evans 171 (199) Section IV – Bristol Masonic Miscellanea A Provincial Letter – March 1942 189 (221) ‘Avalon’ – a poem Francis John Hector 191 (223) Bristol Masonic Society’s Donations to Charity 193 (225) Programme for 2005-2006 194 (227) Caveat The pagination of the volume as printed is different from this on-line version. The page numbers printed in red and in parenthesis are the numbers in the ‘hard-copy’ volume as printed – Ed. 4 DEDICATION Arthur Cecil Powell (1868-1949) Portrait by permission of QCCC Ltd This first edition of our annual Transactions is dedicated to, arguably, the most influential, yet sadly undervalued, figure in Bristol Freemasonry over the past one hundred years. In the study of this eminently intriguing western Province, it would be difficult to find anyone whose fraternal endeavours matched those of Arthur Cecil Powell. As an assiduous researcher and local historian, who associated and corresponded with all of the Masonic luminaries of his day, he is justly entitled to the reverence and gratitude of all Bristolian Craftsmen – albeit some fifty-six years after his death. Bro Powell came from a very distinguished Bristol Masonic background, in that his uncle, William Augustus Frederick Powell, had served as Provincial Grand Master from 1889 to 1906. In due course, however, Arthur Cecil the nephew was to emulate his familial predecessor in truly spectacular fashion. Born in 1868, little is known of the young Powell’s early life, other than the fact that he was a member of a traditional glass-making family whose manufactory, the Phoenix Glass Works, was located in the St. Philips district of Bristol. 5 In common with that well-known 18th century rogue, Bamfield Moore Carew, the one-time King of the Gypsies, Bro Powell was sent away to boarding school at Blundell’s. Without feeling either the necessity, or the apparent desirability, of going up to university in those distant mid-Victorian days, he clearly received a good educational grounding, which would hold him in future good stead, both in the family business and in his amateur pursuit of local history and Masonic research. Initiated at the age of twenty-one into Royal Sussex Lodge of Hospitality, No. 187, in 1889, Bro Powell was installed as Master just seven years later in 1896. This was merely the prelude to a truly remarkable Masonic career of some sixty years duration. Meanwhile in 1910, the year he was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Mark Master Masons, aged forty-two, he privately published, entirely at his own expense, a collaborative work (with Joseph Littleton) entitled: A History of Freemasonry in Bristol. This remains the only major history produced in the Province, to date. Two years later, in 1912, he became both the R.E. Provincial Prior and Inspector General, thus commencing an astonishing thirty- seven year period as ruler over Bristol’s venerable Camp of Baldwyn. As an Associate Member of the distinguished Lodge of Research CC of Ireland, he displayed a refreshingly open minded approach to the origin and development of Freemasonry in Bristol, and would appear to have accepted that the Masonic Order of Knights Templar most probably arrived in the city during the late 18th century from the shores of Hibernia. Of particular interest to readers of this volume is that, during the fraught events of the First World War, Bro Powell emerged as the major force behind the formation of the Bristol Masonic Society. This coincided with the year in which he occupied the Chair of England’s premier Lodge of Research – Quatuor Coronati Lodge (No. 2076) – the only Bristol-born Mason in the Province to achieve this distinction, to date. It has often been surmised that, had Powell not been obligated in this latter regard, he would have almost certainly superseded his friend, Dr E.H. Cook, as the Inaugural President of the Society in 1917. In fact, he assumed the presidency twelve months later. In the midst of subsequent national emergency, twenty-four years later, there occurred the sudden resignation of (by now Sir) Ernest Cook, and it fell to Bro Powell to hold together, and re-build the Bristol Craft as Provincial Grand Master during, and immediately after, the Second World War. This was a time that had seen the complete destruction of Freemasons’ Hall in Park Street as a result of a particularly severe aerial bombing raid by the German Luftwaffe in November 1940. Once again, Bro Powell displayed great presence of mind and foresight in time of war. As a zealous custodian of the Transactions of his Mother Lodge, Royal Sussex Lodge of Hospitality (whose available records go back to 1772 and pre-date the actual formation of the Province), he conveyed each of these valuable Minute Books – together with those of older, now extinct, Bristol Lodges – to his home at “The Hermitage” in Weston-super-Mare upon the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. Consequently, these priceless annals were the only 18th century records to survive the obliteration of the Hall in 1940 – much to the distress of other Lodges in the Province of Bristol. Following his final appointment as Provincial Grand Master and Grand Superintendent of the Craft and Royal Arch, Bro Powell presided simultaneously over every Order of Freemasonry working in Bristol – an awesome combination of responsibility unlikely to be repeated. 6 However, as an indication of his evident humility, this most modest of men continued to serve his Mother Lodge – as Honorary Treasurer – for some twenty-five years, whilst at the same time leading all other aspects of fraternal endeavour in the Province! This remarkable “Man-for-all-Seasons,” was also elected Master of the Ancient Society of Merchant Venturers and, in his fiftieth year, presided likewise over the Bristol Chamber of Commerce and Shipping. He was also Past President of the Colston Society. Throughout most of his long and active life, Bro Powell remained unmarried, and was universally assumed among his friends and Brethren in Bristol to be a confirmed bachelor. However, from recent research by the author of these notes it is clear that he embarked upon matrimony for the very first time during the course of his eightieth year. It is perhaps not too surprising that he had by this time retired as Treasurer of his Mother Lodge, and shortly thereafter, on 12th October, 1949, he passed away at his home in Weston-super-Mare. It is in his capacity as a distinguished Founder and one-time President of the Bristol Masonic Society that we pay tribute to his immense contribution to the fraternal well-being and development of the Province, which has been for so long largely forgotten. (C.W.W-N) 7 INTRODUCTION by The R. W. Provincial Grand Master for Bristol In my introduction to the Anthology Volume of the Transactions of the Bristol Masonic Society covering the period from 1992 to 2004, I described it as a most compulsive read. This description may equally be attributed to the first annual volume of the BMS Transactions during the period 2004-2005. The dedication of this volume brings vividly to our attention the extreme importance to the Province of Bristol of the late Arthur Cecil Powell (1868-1949) who, during an illustrious Masonic career, presided over every available Order of Freemasonry in Bristol. Amongst his Masonic achievements – and there were many, as will be noted – it was he who, in conjunction with Joseph Littleton, privately published in 1910 A History of Freemasonry in Bristol which remains the only major history produced in the Province to date.