The masonic system of time-reckoning in Java and the

elevation of Thomas Stamford Raffles as Sovereign Prince of

the Rose Croix

Roy Jordaan, Peter Carey

Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 91,
Part 1, No. 314, June 2018, pp. 89-91 (Article)

Published by Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ras.2018.0005

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/698224

Access provided by Iowa State University (8 Jan 2019 07:28 GMT)

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Notes & Queries

The masonic system of time-reckoning in

Java and the elevation of Thomas Stamford
Raffles as Sovereign Prince of the Rose Croix

In a joint article on the masonic career of Thomas Stamford Raffles in Java

(Jordaan and Carey 2017: 1-34) an error was made in an explanatory footnote on
the time-reckoning system followed by Dutch Freemasons in Java. It was stated
that Masons in the Netherlands and its colonies had their time-reckoning in so-
called ‘Years of Light’ starting 4000 years before the Christian era. The year 1813
AD thus corresponds with The Year of Light 5813. Following this, it was said that
‘the masonic year does not begin on 1 January as in the Gregorian calendar, but
on 1 March as in the Julian calendar, which implies that the sixth Masonic month
corresponds to the eighth of the Gregorian calendar’. The statement about the
start of the masonic year on 1 March ‘as in the Julian calendar’, however, is wrong.
Indeed, in retrospect, it would have been better to avoid any reference to the Julian
and the Gregorian calendars. The new phrasing should read as follows:
‘Annus Lucis (A:.L:.) - ‘The Year of Light’, also known as ‘The Year of True
Light’. Masons have their time-reckoning starting 4000 years before the
Christian era. The year 1813 AD thus corresponds with The Year of True
Light 5813. Masons occasionally also refer to ‘The Year of the Great Light’,
the counting of which starts 6000 years before Christ. The year 1813 AD
then corresponds to The Year of the Great Light 7813.
The masonic year does not start on 1 January but on 1 March, which
implies that the sixth masonic month corresponds to the eight month
of the common Western calendar that is known among Masons as the
‘profane’ calendar. In the Dutch East Indies, specific masonic symbols
were put behind the number of the day (+) and the month (*) to
distinguish these from the numbers according to the common calendar.
The elevation of Raffles to the degree of Master-Mason on 5 July 1813 in
the Lodge De Vriendschap in Surabaya, for example, was thus rendered
as 5+5*5813 or as 5d:.5m:.5813. In the case of a memorable event taking
place in the months of January or February, the dating is given as in the
11th or 12th month of the previous year, thus 13 February 1815 was either
rendered as 13+12*5814 or 13d:.12m:.5814.’
We would also like to correct a current mistake in the historical literature
regarding Raffles’ elevation as Sovereign Prince of the Rose Croix, a title usually
abbreviated as SPR+. It concerns the numbering of the degree as the 18th degree
(see, for instance, Banner 1934: 118; Wurtzburg 1954: 398; Bastin 2014: 170-1, endnote
30) instead of the 7th degree practised in the Dutch East Indies at the time. The
90 | Notes & Queries

mistaken equation with the 18th degree appears to be an anachronistic adaptation

to the 33-degree system that originated in early 19th-century USA. This system was
disseminated to the rest of the world under the name of the ‘Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite’ (AASR). The 18th degree connected with the title of ‘Knight of the
Rose Croix’ appears in that 33-degree system. However, in England and Wales
this system was not accorded official recognition by the Grand Lodge, while in
the Netherlands and its overseas territories the AASR was adopted only in 1912
and officially renounced in 1990 (Bruijnesteijn 2014: 142-148). For the period under
review, the degree system followed in the Netherlands knew only seven degrees:
the three basic, symbolic or Blue lodge degrees, of (1) Entered Apprentice, (2) Fellow
of the Craft and (3) Master-Mason, and the four high or Red degrees, namely (4)
Élu or Chosen Master, (5) Scots Master, (6) Knight of the East, and (7) Sovereign
Prince of the Rose Croix.
Sometime after his 16 October 1813 voluntary registration as a member of the
Batavian Lodge La Vertueuse, and already having been endowed with the three
basic degrees, Raffles was elected as a member of the Chapter (Kapittel) for the
higher degrees. He then successively received each of the four aforementioned higher
degrees. This much is clear. The only question remaining with respect to Raffles’
elevation as SPR+ is the exact date of the event. The conventional interpretation
of the historiographical masonic dating of the event in terms of ‘Years of
Grandmastership’, namely ‘the second day of the fifth month of the first year of the
56th Grandmastership’, gives 25 April 1816, which cannot be reconciled with Raffles’
departure for England from Batavia on 25 March 1816. In our joint article we referred
to financial records in the archives of the Chapter La Vertueuse demonstrating that
the event happened in March before Raffles’ final departure on the Ganges at dawn
on 25 March 1816. We are, therefore, inclined to accept Mullan’s tentative conclusion
saying that Raffles’ elevation to SPR+ must have taken place sometime between 13-
22 March 1816, provided that Sunday 17 March is not excluded from consideration
as Mullan assumed. Further research is needed to establish the precise date within
this brief eight-day period.
We thank the JMBRAS editor for the opportunity to revise the explanatory note
on the masonic time-reckoning system.

Roy Jordaan,
Peter Carey

References
Banner, Hubert Steward
1934 These Men Were Masons. A Series of Biographies of Masonic Significance.
London: Chapman & Hall, pp. 119-136.
Bastin, John
2014 Raffles and Hastings. Private Exchanges Behind the Founding of Singapore.
Singapore: National Library Board/Marshall Cavendish.
Bruijnesteijn van Coppenraet, Willem
2014 De Ontwikkeling der Hoge Graden van de Moderne Ritus. n.p.: Ritus en
Tempelbouw.
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Mullan, Eidwin F.
[n.d.] The Most Advanced Outpost: A History of Freemasonry in Sumatra and Penang
1760 to 1862. [Kuala Kumpur; Author.]
Wurtzburg, Charles
1954 Raffles of the Eastern Isles. London: Hodder & Stoughton.