Culture and Religion

An Interdisciplinary Journal

ISSN: 1475-5610 (Print) 1475-5629 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcar20

Image and identity: Religious symbols and

symbolic representation on European Masonic
nineteenth-century certificates

Harriet Sandvall

To cite this article: Harriet Sandvall (2012) Image and identity: Religious symbols and symbolic
representation on European Masonic nineteenth-century certificates, Culture and Religion, 13:1,
75-89, DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2012.658423

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2012.658423

Published online: 12 Mar 2012.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 204

View related articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rcar20

Download by: [KU Leuven Libraries] Date: 30 November 2017, At: 08:23
 Culture and Religion
Vol. 13, No. 1, March 2012, 75–89

Image and identity: Religious symbols and symbolic

representation on European Masonic nineteenth-century
certificates
Harriet Sandvall*

Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, UK

Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

Masonic certificates have a fascinating and unique iconography. Many of the

documents possess great artistic value. Other certificates, like the one drawn
during the Napoleonic wars by a French prisoner of war in Okehampton,
Devon, testify to how readily the language of Masonic symbolism was used
and understood during this time. The spiritual, mystical and extremely
eclectic character of Freemasonry presented a challenge for artists who tried
to give the ideas of the Craft artistic form. It became their charge to develop a
whole new iconographic system in order to present the unique social and
moral identity of this fraternal society, and they drew their inspiration from
sources as varied as Egyptian, Jewish, Christian, Greek and Roman
mythology, religion and architecture.
Keywords: Freemasonry; fraternal societies; Masonic certificates; religious
iconography; symbolism

The Great Architect of the Universe: Freemasonry and its relationship

with religion
Introduction
This short paper investigates ways to approach the imagery of Masonic
certificates, and focuses especially on the religious iconography of these
documents. For the student of iconography in general and Masonic iconography
in particular, illustrated Masonic certificates are particularly fascinating, since
their illustrations often attempt to represent the whole, illusive concept of
Freemasonry in one condensed, 2D, image. However, the discussions below
would of course be equally valid when analysing other types of Masonic
material culture such as aprons, jewels or tracing boards, to give but three
examples. First, however, a couple of introductory words on the subject of
Freemasonry and Masonic certificates are necessary, in order to fully illustrate
the influential role Freemasonry played worldwide in the long eighteenth
century and to underline the importance of Freemasonry as a rewarding topic
for academic research.

*Email: harriet.sandvall@gmail.com

ISSN 1475-5610 print/ISSN 1475-5629 online

q 2012 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2012.658423
http://www.tandfonline.com
 76 H. Sandvall
Freemasonry is the collective term of what is in reality many independent
organisations, some admitting women but most of them being fraternal.
Freemasonry originates from the medieval Stone Masons’ guilds, but the order
changed character and organisation in the late seventeenth-century Scotland and
England, mainly by starting to initiate gentlemen into the lodges. By doing so, the
workings in the lodge changed from operative work – the hewing of stones and
the actual involvement in the building industry – to lectures on intellectual,
moral and spiritual matters, using the Stone Masons’ customs and tools in a
purely allegorical way.
Freemasonry in its highly organised, national, eighteenth-century form was
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

not an awkward phenomenon on the fringes of society. The Masons were

organised in lodges where eight was minimum membership requirement, though
the average mid-eighteenth-century lodge membership was four times that
number. Incomplete membership registers make it hard to even guess with
sufficient accuracy just how many English or French men that were Freemasons
at a certain moment in time; but in 1800, one of the many Masonic organisations,
the English Moderns Grand Lodge, had around 527 lodges under its jurisdiction
– 171 of which were located abroad. The figure in 1807 for the rival English
Antient [sic ] Grand Lodge was a total of 270 lodges, 96 of which were located
abroad. This meant that in the first decade of the nineteenth century, there were
nearly 800 English Masonic lodges worldwide. The growth and development of
Freemasonry elsewhere in Europe were similar (Clark 2002, 310 – 11).
To some extent, these Masons were all fluent in a common and transnational,
iconographic language of Freemasonry, in the same way that any gentleman of
good standing in the eighteenth century would be fluent in the common lingua
franca of, say, classical architecture, or Greek and Roman mythology.
The illustrated Masonic certificates testify to just how readily understood this
Masonic idiom, with its bewildering and highly original use of religious symbols,
was within the fraternity: Freemasons from different parts of the globe clearly
recognized and were able to interpret the symbols on these well-travelled
documents. However, like the eighteenth-century language of ‘good breeding’,
access to this ‘Masonic code’, to paraphrase a much loved term, was restricted:
in the former mostly by economical resources, in the latter to Masonic
membership – Or was it? The popularity of Freemasonry in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, and the abundance of printed material that was the result of
it, meant that non-Masons also had to interact with, interpret and draw inspiration
from this Masonic code, with various levels of success.
It is not known when Masons started to issue certificates that testified to a
brother’s membership of the order and the date and place of his initiation into the
Craft. A printed version of the Constitutions of the Society of Freemasons from
1722 (commonly known as ‘Roberts’ Constitutions’ after the printer, J. Roberts)
mentions that Masonic certificates were in use already in 1663, though no actual
certificate from these early times (if indeed there were any) has survived. At any
 Culture and Religion 77
rate, Masonic certificates seem to have been quite rare until the middle of the
eighteenth century (Haunch 1969, 170 –71).
Far from all of these certificates were printed, many are manuscript documents
without images, simple, unadorned and many times folded. Folded, because
Masonic certificates, at least those from the long eighteenth century, were
intimately linked to travel: because of the cost, there was probably only a minority
of the Masons who took the trouble to acquire one. Local lodges would issue
certificates that would no doubt do very well for domestic journeys. For longer,
international journeys, the travelling Mason could either take a chance and hope
that his local lodge certificate would be enough to give him admission into lodges
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

abroad or he could pay an additional fee and exchange his local one for a more
officially recognised Grand Lodge certificate, if passing through London.

Freemasonry and religion

In an article from 1995, called Freemasonry and Sir John Soane, Professor David
Watkin, Cambridge, writes:
. . . Soane’s extensive course of reading in the theory of the French Enlightenment
made him aware that Freemasonry could be regarded as the religion of the
Enlightenment. He reflected its deistic philosophy in his own references to God as
‘the Architect of the Universe’, and in his numerous designs for funerary
monuments, tombs, sepulchral chapels, and mausoleums, from which he always
scrupulously excluded all Christian references. (Watkin 1995, 402)
As an introduction to a study of Freemasonry, religious identity and Masonic
certificates, Professor Watkin’s comment offers a good starting point for further
discussions. In one quotation, both the architect Sir John Soane, the
Enlightenment, ‘deistic philosophy’ and ‘the Architect of the Universe’ are
mentioned, all in its turn associated with or expressed through Masonic art in
general, and Masonic certificates in particular.
Nowadays, two of the major Masonic bodies, the United Grand Lodge of
England (the oldest and largest of the two, established in 1717) and the Grand
Orient of France (established in 1773), have different approaches to religion,
though none of them professes being a church or a religion. The official webpage
of the United Grand Lodge of England, for example, states that ‘all Freemasons
[under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of England] are expected to have a
religious belief, but Freemasonry does not seek to replace a Mason’s religion or
provide a substitute for it’. It should be noted, however, that since 1877, the
French Grand Orient-type Freemasonry practice ‘la liberté absolue de
conscience’, granting its members the right to any or no religion. The webpage
of the Grand Orient de France explains: ‘In order to be a member of the Grand
Orient de France, it should not be a question whether one believes or not believes.
Our obedience takes as its motto from that of the Republic (Freedom, Equality
and Fraternity) and as the Republic itself, it is secular [ . . . ]’ (author’s
translation). Another difference between modern day United Grand Lodge of
 78 H. Sandvall
England and the Grand Orient de France is that in the latter, political discussions
are allowed; while both religious and political discussions are banned from
lodges meeting under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England.
In Anderson’s Constitutions from 1723, one of the earliest, most widespread
set of rules of modern Freemasonry, the following can be read regarding
Freemasonry and religion:
A mason is obliged by his Tenure, to obey the moral law; and if he rightly
understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist nor an irreligious Libertine.
But though in ancient times masons were charged in every country to be of the
religion of that country or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought more
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men agree [ . . . ]
(Anderson 1723, 50)
Anderson goes on to define this religion by stating:
[ . . . ] that is, to be Good men and True, or Men of Honor [sic ] and Honesty, by
whatever Denomination or Persuasion they may be distinguished; whereby masonry
becomes the Centre of Union and the Means of conciliating true Friendship among
persons that must have remained at a perpetual distance. (Anderson 1723, 50)
Anderson’s statement has been the object of much debate; on the one hand,
it clearly states that religion is important to Freemasonry, since it argues against
atheists joining the fraternity. On the other hand, his description of what religion
encompasses, is very vague and only mentions moral obligations, avoiding
spiritual issues or the mentioning of ‘God’.
This non-dogmatic and personalised view of religion, written not too long
after a time of extreme political and religious upheaval, is also reflected in the
certificates. On these, the term ‘Great Architect of the Universe’ is generally
used, in both English and French, to denote God, and the impression of freedom
from any particular religious context is further enhanced by the compilation of
objects, landscapes or mythological subjects, derived from all sorts of historical,
geographical and religious sources.
It has often been noted that even though the term ‘Great Architect of the
Universe’ was used already in the Middle Ages to denote God, the popularity the
term enjoyed in Freemasonry could reflect a conception of God coloured by the
new science of the time, notably the discoveries made by Isaac Newton and
published in 1687 in his Principia Mathematica (Jacob 2006, 59). That the Masonic
conception of religion was sometimes seen as a threat by established religious
institutions is clear. When the Catholic Church first condemned lodge membership
in 1738, it objected that Freemasonry constituted a new form of religion.

Eclecticism and syncretism: Masonic certificates at a glance

The first samples of Masonic certificates that survive are from the mid-eighteenth
century. Even though certificates are still in use among Masons today, their
heyday (qualitative as well as quantitative) coincided with the glory days of
Freemasonry, namely the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
 Culture and Religion 79
The iconography of these fascinating documents has its own singular flavour,
and yet examined in detail, very few of the symbols or the mythological or
religious metaphors embellishing these certificates are unique to Freemasonry.
On the contrary, most of them are borrowed or slightly adjusted from sources as
varied as Egyptian, Jewish, Christian, Greek and Roman mythology, religion and
architecture, as well as more contemporary sources such as the neo-classicism of
the early nineteenth century. Emblem books, such as the Italian renaissance
scholar Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia from 1593, was widely used in other areas of art
during the eighteenth century, and their influence is also evident in the imagery of
the Masonic certificates.
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

Rather than individual elements, what gives these documents their very
distinct Masonic quality seem to be the repeated juxtaposition of certain symbols,
together with the syncretism itself. If anything, the rich compilation of religious
symbols and other symbols on these certificates tells the story of spiritual and
moral search, and a general freedom of religious dogmas.
From this Egyptian printed certificate (Figures 1 and 2) by an unknown
artist, issued by the local Egyptian lodge of Saint Jean to a Luigi Zaja, 20 August
1866, one gets a good understanding of the eclecticism and compilation of
symbols, so typical for Masonic art. Even the languages used (Hebrew, Arabic
and French) seem to contribute to that impression. Note the Hebrew
tetragrammaton inscribed in a triangle (Figure 2), both a reference to God,
encircled by an ouroboros, a snake biting its tail (an ancient sign of eternity) and
below, a blazing five-pointed star, a reference among other things to the life- and
light-giving Divine Providence (Mackey 1966, 1: 138, 384 –85; Mackey 1966,
2: 1034, 1053).
The star has the letter G in the middle, a reference to, among other things, God
(Mackey 1966, 1: 384– 85). Also note the sun and the moon, the two pillars with
oriental style capitals, the central position of the classical Doric temple,
transported to Egypt and somewhat oddly adorned with a winged sun disc, an
ancient Egyptian symbol. The foreground is littered with Masonic tools.

The interpretation of Masonic art: a possible model

The art historian Erwin Panofsky became world famous for his studies of hidden
symbolism in northern renaissance art. Even though his efforts were concentrated
on the renaissance, it is illuminating, if not always rewarding, to study the
symbolism of these certificates with the help of Panofsky’s three strata or levels
of subject meaning: primary/natural subject matter, secondary/conventional
subject matter (iconography) and finally intrinsic meaning/content (iconology).
Though it is certainly true that Panofsky’s model of interpretation has been
around for a long time (Studies in Iconology was first published in 1939), the
author argues that it does offer new insights into how to come to terms with
interpreting Masonic art, and uses a certificate from the collection of the Library
and Museum in London to make the point (Figure 3).
 Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

80
H. Sandvall

Figure 1. A printed Masonic certificate with the heading in French: ‘Au nom et sous les auspices du G[rand] O[rient] d’Egypte et dépendances’,
issued by the local lodge of Saint Jean to Luigi Zaja, 27 years old, on his being raised to the third degree of Freemasonry on 20 August 1866.
Several of the signatures are in Arabic. Artist unknown. q The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, United Grand Lodge of England. Published
with permission.
 Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

Culture and Religion

Figure 2. Same certificate as above, detail. q The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, United Grand Lodge of England. Published with
permission.
81
 Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

82
H. Sandvall

Figure 3. Certificate belonging to French prisoner of war Jean Baptiste Anselm Mousnier, held captured in the British parole town of
Okehampton. Certificate drawn by hand, probably by a fellow prisoner, in 1810. q The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, United Grand Lodge
of England. Published with permission.
 Culture and Religion 83
Between the years 1803 and 1814, some 122,000 French military personnel
were captured in the Napoleonic wars and sent to England for imprisonment
(Griffith 1899, 163). The common soldiers and sailors were mostly confined in
barracks and prisons, but the officers were allowed to reside on parole in certain
specified towns, called parole towns. Among these French prisoners of war, lodges
of Freemasons were formed, containing prisoners from all ranks and classes.
The manuscript certificate in Figure 3 dates from 1810 and [ . . . ] belonged to
prisoner of war Jean Baptiste Anselm Mousnier. A fellow prisoner probably made
the certificate, stating that he was held in the British parole town of Okehampton.
(At any rate, it is clear that it is not a professional artist that is responsible for the
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

execution.) It was quite possibly drawn only from the memory of similar
certificates, seen in France prior to the capture. It is interesting to note how much a
Masonic certificate, designed under such confined conditions, testifies to how
fluently the Masonic language was understood and spoken at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. Another fact that testifies to Masonic symbolism being common
knowledge at the time are the many examples of European artists and architects who
used Masonic symbolism in their works of art (be it interior decorations, paintings,
stage scenery or something else) without necessarily being Freemasons themselves.
Let us first look at this certificate with the eyes of a child, a somewhat simplified
way of explaining the meaning of Panofsky’s Stratum of Primary Subject Matter.
Apart from the obvious observation that two boys (they can hardly be called
anything else) seem to be very busy working on something at the bottom of the
certificate, and that lots of tools are scattered about the place, very little else – and
this is significant of Masonic art – makes any sense. Masonic certificates, then,
we conclude, are almost entirely about iconography and iconology.
Moving up one stratum of understanding, basic cultural and iconographic
knowledge are added to the interpretation. This is where the scholar of
Freemasonry recognises the tessellated border, a cord intertwined with knots with
a tassel at each end. This cord alludes to many things; according to French ritual
(to give just one example), the cord reminds Freemasons that the Brotherhood
surrounds the earth and is also an emblem of the fraternal bond by which
Freemasons are united (Mackey 1966, 2: 1030 –31). In the sky to the left, is the
moon, and to the right, the sun with the face of the sun god Apollo, God of light.
The ‘Meridian Sun’ is also associated with the office of the Junior Warden (who
is placed in the South) and the moon (as well as the setting sun) with the Senior
Warden, two important officers of a Masonic lodge (Mackey 1966, 2: 662, 930).
The trio of the sun, the moon and the Master of the lodge (here absent) represents
the Masonic ‘three lesser lights’ (Mackey 1966, 1: 585). The sun and the moon
also remind the Mason of the influence of the planets and stars in creating days,
nights, months, seasons and years, and thus of their influence on the life and death
of all living things (Galvin 2003, 214). Two pillars with pomegranate capitals
flank the text of the certificate. These refer to Jaquin and Boaz, the two pillars that
flanked the entrance of the temple of King Solomon (Mackey 1966, 1: 497).
Another reference to Judaism (although it is of course also the name of the
 84 H. Sandvall
Christian God in Hebrew and frequently seen in churches) is the Hebrew
tetragrammaton, inscribed in a blazing triangle. Another common Masonic way
of referring to God is through the letter G, often inscribed within a star. The letter
can refer to many things, as always in Masonic symbolism, and is as earlier
mentioned often interpreted as ‘God’. However, one common explanation of G is
that it stands for ‘Geometry’ (Mackey 1966, 1: 384 – 85). Geometry is one of the
seven liberal arts, and is in Christian tradition considered of vital importance to
God when he created the universe, and to the Mason, both in the erection of
actual buildings and while constructing his spiritual and moral inner temple.
The Supreme Being, or God, is also mentioned under another name at the top of
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

the certificate: ‘Grand Architect de L’Univers’ or ‘the Great Architect of

Universe’. This corresponds to the medieval conception of God, in illuminated
manuscripts often seen holding compasses with which he draws up the universe.
Finally, the chequered (or Mosaic) pavement is a symbol of the good and evil in
life (Mackey 1966, 2: 683).
After this basic analysis, we come to the third of Panofsky’s strata, the
stratum of Intrinsic Meaning or Iconology. This is where it gets slightly
complicated, for this level supposedly brings knowledge of the persons involved
in the making of an art work, as well as more detailed knowledge of its technical
and cultural history, and looks at the work of art as a product of a very specific
historical environment. ‘Why did the artist choose to represent the Masonic
certificate in this way? What did the symbols of the certificate mean to the artist
who made the drawing, or to the certificate holder, Jean Baptiste Anselm
Mousnier?’ would be questions belonging to this elevated stage of interpretation.
These types of questions are of course the most interesting ones, but often
impossible to answer with certainty, especially when dealing with a more private
type of society like the Freemasons.
If the first stratum was difficult to access, the third is deliberately constructed to
be attainable only by fellow Masons. Also, new meanings of the same symbols are
being added at every stage of the Masonic journey, creating many more strata of
understanding, and providing an intellectual challenge even for the Mason
himself. Masonic art, more than anything else, makes use of the conception,
untraceable back in time, of art as a hermeneutic and learned game of association.
Like religious texts, these images have to be carefully interpreted, and it is well
documented that the interpretation of complex images and symbols (in early days
painted on floors with chalk, later on floor cloths and on the so-called tracing
boards) always formed an essential part of the work in the modern-type speculative
Masonic lodge (Curl 2002, 60). Therefore, the French prisoners themselves might
have used this certificate as an object of hermeneutic discussions.
The question of the fraternal society’s spiritual identity definitely belongs to
Panofsky’s third stratum of understanding. The juxtaposition of religious
symbols from different times and religions, such as Apollon (or Apollo), the
Greco-Roman sun god, the Hebrew tetragrammaton, the pillars of the first temple
of the Israelites, together with the denotation of God as the Great Architect of the
 Culture and Religion 85
Universe, again gives the impression of freedom from religious restraint and a
will to experiment.

With certificates as a guide: Freemasonry and religion in revolutionary

France
That French Freemasons as individuals, and also the Masonic lodges as a body,
played an important role in bringing about the French revolution can hardly be
doubted. Marat, Mirabeau and Robespierre for instance, all attended the same
Masonic lodge (MacNulty 2006, 116). Louis Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans, a leader of
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

the liberal aristocracy, was the Grand Master of the Grand Orient at the time of the
French Revolution. In some parts of France, the Jacobin Clubs were continuances of
Masonic lodges from the Ancien Régime. Alan Forrest, Director of the Centre for
Eighteen Century Studies, University of York, states: ‘some early clubs, indeed, took
over both the premises and much of the membership of Masonic lodges, before
rebadging themselves in the new idiom of the revolution’ (Forrest 2004, 108).
A possible example of Masonic influence in revolutionary France is the
artificial mount, constructed by the artist Jacques-Louis David for the Festival of
the Supreme Being, on 8 June 1794, as shown in Figure 4 (Roberts 2000, 304;
MacNulty 2006, 114). The Figure shows a detail of a painting by Pierre-Antoine
Demarchy recording the event. Several paths led through a cave build up of rocks
up to the top of the mount where a tree of Liberty was planted and a giant statue of
Hercules was erected on a pillar. The natural strength of the rock symbolised the
strength and advantages of the uncorrupted, uncultivated and pantheistic religion
of the Supreme Being, as having been laid down in Rousseau’s Emile.
The similarities with Masonic practice in France at the time are discernible in the
use of theatrical role play, where the festival organisers let the procession
participants’ undertake a physical journey through dark tunnels up towards the
light at the summit, meant to mimic a spiritual journey towards freedom,
knowledge and enlightenment.
The spring of 1794 was a particularly turbulent time in France, as the name of
the period, ‘la Terreur’, makes clear. Having abolished Catholicism, in May 1794
Robespierre, being a Deist (and a Mason), proclaimed a new state religion, the
theistic cult of the Supreme Being. The notion of the Supreme Being was probably
based on ideas that Jean-Jacques Rousseau had outlined in the chapter ‘Civil
Religion’ in The Social Contract, a view on religion, which was consistent with
many contemporary Freemasons’ religious convictions. In fact, the elaborate
system of symbolism devised for many of the French revolutionary festivals is very
similar to the symbolism so often displayed on Masonic certificates. Lafayette’s
Fête de la Fédération 14 July 1990, for example, included clasped hands, triangles,
obelisks, pyramids, altars, angels and compasses (Roberts 2000, 277). During the
ceremony depicted in Figure 4 a procession, led by Robespierre, went around and
finally up the mount. However, only the illustrious members of the Convention
were allowed to mount to the very summit (Roberts 2000, 305). Robespierre, then
 Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

86
H. Sandvall

Figure 4. Pierre-Antoine Demachy: The Festival of the Supreme Being (Fête de l’Etre Supreme) at Champ de Mars, 8 June 1794. Musée
Carnavalet, Paris. Detail. Picture from Wikipedia. Cult of the Supreme Being. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:F%C3%
AAte_de_l’Etre_supr%C3%AAme_2.jpg.
 Culture and Religion 87
President of the Convention, delivered a speech where he made it clear that his
concept of a Supreme Being was fundamentally different from the traditional God
of Christianity: Robespierre’s Supreme Being namely was a radical democrat.
The new state religion was short lived, for on 28 July 1794, Robespierre was
executed, and the cult aborted instantly.
Our next certificate (Figure 5) was issued by an English lodge in 1809 to a
William Harper. The certificate reuses an earlier design, possibly of a print by the
Freemason and printmaker William Tringham from 1755, under which it is
written ‘The Mysteries that here are shown are only to a Mason known.’ What
makes this certificate interesting in this context is the part of the illustration that is
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

situated in the middle to the left. Here, Freemasons ascend a mountain with a
cave at the top. The mountain with the cave alludes to the various tests and trials
the Mason has to pass on his Masonic journey through the degrees towards the
summit and the light (‘light’ here also taking on the sense of both moral and

Figure 5. The private lodge certificate of William Harper, issued by English Lodge
number 239 in 1809. q The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, United Grand Lodge of
England. Published with permission.
 88 H. Sandvall
divine ‘Enlightenment’). The darkness of the cave could symbolise the final trial
of symbolic death, before being raised to the new life as a Master Mason. There
are several other reproductions of the mountain with the cave in Masonic art,
making it quite a common representation. (Apart from the above shown
certificate of William Harper and the 1755 print by William Tringham, there is in
the Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, a punch bowl and an oil
painting, both bearing the date of 1753. Furthermore, there is an undated cream
ware mug. All these objects display a very similar design, suggesting that they all
have some common source of inspiration, perhaps an earlier edition of the
Tringham print.) The close likeness between these pictures and the artist David’s
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

artificial mount, together with some of the symbols used during the festival,
particularly the compasses, seems to suggest that Robespierre’s cult of the
Supreme Being was being organised partly by using iconography that was well
established within Freemasonry. If so, it would not have been the first time
Masonic symbolism was used by Jacques-Louis David: earlier, on 10 August
1793, during the Festival of Brotherhood, the organiser David had the people pass
under a ‘national arch’ adorned with a square, another tool of great significance in
Freemasonry. A level, another Masonic tool imbued with symbolic meaning,
figures in a prominent position in a drawing by David entitled ‘The triumph of the
French people,’ probably executed in spring 1794 for a play at the opera
(Schnapper 1982, 138 [illustration], 142 –43).
Before leaving the topic of Freemasonry and its relationship to religion
during the French revolution, another religious experiment initiated by
revolutionists who were Freemasons has to be noted: in opposition to the cult
of the Supreme Being, revolutionists and Freemasons Jacques René Hébert and
Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette organised the cult of Reason, which culminated with
the Fête de la Liberté (‘Festival of Liberty’) at Notre Dame de Paris, 10 November
1793 (Mathiez 1907, 145). This experiment also turned out to be fatal: the cult
went underground when Hébert and his immediate followers were guillotined on
24 March 1794.

Conclusion
To call Freemasonry the ‘religion of the Enlightenment’, even if one uses
quotation marks around the word, is controversial and it is not the purpose of this
paper to prove this thesis to be true.
What this paper aspires to do is inspire scholars from all disciplines to use
Masonic certificates in their research. It attempts to point out how even a quick
glance at certificates of this fraternal society, such as this study into the
relationship between Freemasonry and religion, can yield interesting insights into
the importance and impact of Freemasonry and Masonic iconography on religion,
art, architecture and many other subject areas. Though iconography is what has
concerned us here, there are many other aspects of the certificates that are
rewarding to study. Some certificates, for example, carry endorsements testifying
 Culture and Religion 89
to the certificate holder’s visits to lodges abroad, pointing towards a usage of
Masonic certificates as a form of letters of introduction in a time long before
national passports. A prosopographical study of such endorsements could reveal
how Freemasonry might have functioned as a social safety net for travellers such
as artists, craftsmen, sailors or merchants. In addition to this, the article suggests a
model of approach to use when analysing Masonic art.
Thousands of Masonic certificates exist in publicly accessible collections all
around the world, awaiting interest from scholars from all disciplines (there are
over 500 pre-1813 certificates in the collection of the Library and Museum of
Freemasonry, London alone). They offer a unique window into the elusive and
Downloaded by [KU Leuven Libraries] at 08:23 30 November 2017

contradictory world that is that of the Enlightenment.

References
Anderson, James. 1723. The constitutions of the Free-Masons, containing the history,
charges, regulations, &c. of that ancient and right worshipful fraternity. London:
Senex; Hooke.
Clark, Peter. 2002. British clubs and societies 1580– 1800. The origins of an associational
world. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
Curl, James Stevens. 2002. The art and architecture of Freemasonry. London: B.T. Batsford.
Forrest, Alan. 2004. Paris, the Provinces and the French Revolution. London: Arnold.
Galvin, Terrance G. 2003. The architecture of Joseph Michael Gandy (1771 – 1843) and Sir
John Soane (1753– 1837): An exploration into the Masonic and occult imagination of
the late enlightenment. PhD diss., Pennsylvania University.
Grand Orient de France. Foire aux questions. http://www.godf.org/index.php/pages/
details/slug/foire-aux-questions
Griffith, Arthur. 1899. Old War Prisons in England and France. The North American
Review 168, no. 507: 163– 77, Iowa: University of Northern Iowa, http://www.jstor.
org/stable/i25119137
Haunch, T.O. 1969. English Craft Certificates. Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Transactions of
the Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2077, London. York: Ben Johnson & Co., Ltd 82:
169– 253.
Jacob, Margaret C. 2006. The radical enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and
republicans. Lafayette, LA: Cornerstone Book Publishers.
Mackey, Albert G. 1966. Encyclopedia of masonry. 2 Vols. New York: Macoy Publishing
and masonic Supply Company Inc.
MacNulty, W. Kirk. 2006. Freemasonry – Symbols, secrets, significance. London:
Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Mathiez, Albert. 1907. Contributions à l’histoire religieuse de la révolution française.
Paris: Félix Alcan. http://www.archive.org/stream/contributionslh00mathgoog#page/
n169/mode/2up
Roberts, Warren. 2000. The public, the populace and the images of the French Revolution
– Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Louis Prieur: Revolutionary artists. Albany, NY:
State University of New York Press.
Schnapper, Antoine. 1982. David. New York: Alpine Fine Arts Collection.
United Grand Lodge of England. Frequently asked questions, http://www.ugle.org.uk/
what-is-masonry/frequently-asked-questions/
Watkin, David. 1995. Freemasonry and Sir John Soane. Journal of the Society of
Architectural Historians 54, no. 4: 402– 41. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians.