| |
Dr.
Wilhelm Begemann vs. The English Masonic History Establishment:
A Love-Hate Story
Alain Bernheim, 32°
The Correspondence
Circle of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 (English Constitution)
was founded in January 1887. Twenty-three applications were registered
during the following month and, on March 3rd, G.W. Speth, then Secretary
to the Lodge, reported thirty-seven applications altogether. Among
the twenty-three applicants of February 1887-their names are enumerated
in the St. John's Card appended to the first volume of Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum (AQC)-are two famous ones: Henry Sadler and Dr. Wilhelm
Begemann.
Henry Sadler
(1840-1911)
1887 was also the year when Henry Sadler published his first book,
Masonic Facts and Fictions, which changed in a radical way views
then current about English masonic history of the 18th century.
Whereas Gould considered the Ancient Grand Lodge founded in 1751
as composed of "schismatic"members from the premier Grand
Lodge founded, according to the (sole) testimony of James Anderson,
June 24, 1717, Sadler showed that schismatic was hardly an appropriate
word, since it implied that the founding members of the Ancient
Grand Lodge were former members of the premier Grand Lodge. Quoting
the Minute-Books of the Ancients, Sadler demonstrated that such
was not the case for any of them.
R.F. Gould-who
never admitted Sadler's theory and kept on referring all his life
to the "schismatics"-would hardly appreciate being fundamentally
contradicted and is likely responsible for Sadler waiting until
May 1st, 1903-sixteen years!-before becoming a full member of QC
Lodge. Sadler was installed Master of the Lodge November 8, 1910,
less than a year before his death.
Dr. Wilhelm
Begemann (1843-1914)
The case of
Begemann-who was not admitted to the honor of becoming a full member
of the Lodge-is even more interesting than Sadler's. Volume 1 of
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum included a paper by Begemann, "An Attempt
to classify the 'Old Charges' of the British Masons," which
represented a milestone in masonic history. Here are two excerpts
of Begemann's paper (Reader, please remember that there were no
computers in those glorious days):
This [philological
criticism of the Old Charges] can only be done by an accurate
and laborious collation of the texts line by line, whereby we
may estimate the greater or lesser degree of relationship existing
between individual copies.… I have taken the trouble of collating
the different versions and copies line by line, nay, word by word,
which was indeed a very tiresome and laborious task, but enabled
me to obtain a deeper insight into these very "microscopic
peculiarities." (AQC 1, 1886-88, pp. 152 & 161)
Nine further
papers by Begemann were published in volumes 4, 5, 6, 12, 14, and
21 of AQC between 1891 and 1908. When Fred J. W. Crowe was installed
Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, November 8, 1909, he chose the
masonic publications of that fertile year-enumerating nineteen books
amongst which Freemasonry in Bristol by Powell and Littleton, and
Freemasonry in Pennsylvania by Sachse and Barratt-as theme of his
Inaugural Address. This brought him to mention Begemann's Vorgeschichte
and Anfänge der Freimaurerei in England:
This is the
first volume of a History of Freemasonry in England which our
learned Brother Begemann has in contemplation. The present volume
deals with the Earliest History and Beginnings of Freemasonry
up to the commencement of the eighteenth century. A second volume
will deal with English Masonry from the foundation of Grand Lodge
to the Union of 1813, while a third will embrace the History of
Masonry in Scotland and Ireland. All those who are acquainted
with Bro. Begemann's writings can imagine the conscientious and
painstaking manner in which he has approached his subject, in
fact some of his work may really be called microscopic. A certain
proportion of his book has appeared already in the form of papers
contributed to the Zirkel Correspondenz der Grossen Landesloge
der Freimaurerei von Deutschland, and it is to be regretted that
English Masons in the past have to a great extent neglected the
excellent papers that appears in this journal. Had this not been
the case some controversial points that occur in Bro. Begemann's
work would, I think, have been cleared away, but in spite of these
his book will have to be consulted by all real students of Freemasonry.
It is undoubtedly an important contribution to Masonic literature.
A review of this great work, by Bro. Dring, will appear in our
Transactions. (AQC 22, 1909, p. 195)
Within the
next five years, Begemann published the second volume of Antecedents
and Beginnings of Freemasonry in England (1910) and two further
books, Antecedents and Beginnings of Freemasonry in Ireland (1911)
and the first volume of Antecedents and Beginnings of Freemasonry
in Scotland (1914). Before writing the latter, Begemann thought
necessary to go to Scotland in order to study the original lodge
archives. Death prevented him to write the second contemplated volume
on Scotland.
On January 2, 1914, Quatuor Coronati Lodge adopted its annual Report
for the year 1913, which included the following:
The Lodge
has also undertaken the publication of an English edition of the
important work by Bro. Dr. Begemann, of Berlin, entitled The Early
History and Beginnings of Freemasonry in England. The task of
translation has been very kindly undertaken by Bro. Lionel Vibert,
who will incorporate much additional information on the same subject
contributed to by Bro. Begemann to the German Masonic periodicals,
which hitherto has not been available for English readers. (AQC
27, 1914, p. 2)
Begemann died
in 1914. Quatuor Coronati Lodge Report for 1914, adopted January
8, 1915, a few months after the beginning of World War I, said:
"It will be realized that the projected publication of the
English Edition of Dr. Begemann's book has had to be postponed,
although the translation is nearly completed" (AQC 28, 1915,
p. 2). Remarkably Begemann's name was indexed in AQC 27 but not
in AQC 28.
The announcement
of Lionel Vibert's election as a member of the Lodge in 1917 mentioned
"He had translated into English and edited Begemann's History
of Freemasonry in England." (AQC 30, 1917, p. 2). Again, Begemann's
name was not indexed. Three years later, on January 2, 1920, a Bro.
H. G. Rosedale, D.D., P.G. Chap., read a paper entitled "Some
Fresh Material for classifying the Old Charges," apparently
the only paper ever read before QC Lodge which the useful Concise
Index produced in 1971 by Bros. Hewitt and Massey doesn't mention
at all, either under the key-word Old Charges, or under the author's
name. This may be construed as a fervent desire on the part of the
indexers to let that paper fall into eternal oblivion. Rosedale's
paper began thus:
Amongst the
efforts which have been made to impress German ideals upon the
Grand Lodge of England, there stand out prominently those of Dr.
Begemann, a well known Mason of Berlin, who, by dint of that curious
devotion to minutiæ so characteristic of all German students,
made the Masonic world believe that the practical ideas of our
own eminent Bro. Gould with respect to the Ancient Charges (of
purely British origin) ought to be ignored, in order forsooth
to make way for the Doctor's own complex, useless, and, I venture
to say, false system of classification, a classification of purely
German manufacture based on the weakest of all arguments, coincidences
of sound.
To-day thoughtful students of Masonic lore are awakening to the
fact that Dr. Begemann's classification of the Old Charges is
neither useful nor correct. This opens a wide door, and there
lies before the Masonic world a road of liberty along which they
may pass to an intelligent classification of the Old Charges,
based upon historic facts and demonstrating the purely British
influences which have made Masonry what it is. (AQC 33, 1920,
p. 5)
*
* *
This excerpt is from Heredom,
the transactions of the Scottish Rite Research Society
Volume VI, Year 1997
©1997-2002, Scottish Rite Research Society
All Rights Reserved
Scottish Rite Research Society
1733 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20009-3103
202-232-3579 voice, 202-383-1847 fax
srrs@srmason-sj.org,
www.srmason-sj.org
|
