For example, Noble Frankland’s 1993 biography of the Duke of Connaught, who as Grand Master from 1901 to 1939 was one of the dominant figures in modern English freemasonry, makes no mention of the Duke’s masonic career.14 The picture is of course different in Europe and America where there is a long-standing scholarly interest in freemasonry, but even here there is no overall consensus on the importance and significance of freemasonry. Trevor Stewart’s bibliography illustrates how freemasonry is relevant to an enormous range of subjects from garden history to theatre studies, but broader connecting themes are not immediately evident. Scholars frequently use masonic evidence simply to confirm and further illustrate established themes and ideas. Pierre Chevallier’s history of French freemasonry is one of the great achievements of masonic scholarship, but ultimately it simply reinforces traditional French republican historiography. 15 The limitations of current scholarly research into freemasonry are epitomised by William Weisberger’s recent study of the role of Prague and Viennese freemasonry in Enlightenment.16While the essay carefully documents the activities of the Czech and Austrian lodges, the value of the study is limited by its stereotyped and hackneyed view of the Enlightenment.17Work such as that of Margaret Jacob, which uses masonic evidence as a springboard for the development of new perspectives which alter our view of an entire period, is extremely rare. As the exploration of masonic archives by scholars continues, what kind of


broader themes will emerge? If research into freemasonry claims to be a new and emerging academic discipline, what will be its distinguishing features? I can only briefly sketch some of the possibilities here, and I hope you will forgive me if I confine my remarks to Britain, since this has been the focus of my own research.


Historical and Social Data in Masonic Archives


14 Noble Frankland, Witness of a Century, the Life and Times of Prince Arthur Duke of Connaught, London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1993. For details of the Duke of Connaught’s masonic career, see Sir George Aston and Evelyn Graham, His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn: A life and Intimate Study, London: George C. Harrap 1929, pp. 335-9; A. R. Hewitt, “Biographical Lists of Grand Masters”, in: A. S. Frere (ed.), Grand


Lodge 1717-1967, Oxford: United Grand Lodge of England, p. 277. 15 Pierre Chevallier, Histoire de la franc-maçonnerie française, Paris: Fayard 1974-5. Compare Chevallier’s interpretation of events under the Second Empire and Third Republic with the more challenging analysis offered by Phillip Nord, The Republican Moment: Struggles for Democracy in Nineteenth-Century France, Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press 1999, pp. 15-30, which suggests that support by freemasonry for the Third Republic reflected not only the harsh treatment of freemasonry under the Second Empire, but also the influence of significant


groups of “seekers of the absolute, legatees of utopian socialism, radical republicans”. 16 R. William Weisberger, “Prague and Viennese Freemasonry, the Enlightenment, and the Operations of the True


Harmony Lodge of Vienna”, in: Weisberger, McLeod and Morris, op. cit., pp. 375-420. 17 For example, Weisberger arbitrarily categorises people as “enlighteners” and refers to enlightenment ideas as if they were an accepted and defined doctrinal canon, so that, on p. 375, it is stated that masonry served as a vehicle for the promotion of the enlightenment, and on p. 393, a journal is described as concerned with the propagation of masonic and enlightenment ideas, both assuming that the enlightenment was a very simplistic phenomenon. All recent research on the enlightenment has stressed its multi-faceted and complex character.


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