Culdees, Freemasons and the quest for the Logos

 

There are significant entries about the Culdees in virtually every reference encyclopedia or dictionary on Freemasonry. These works always claim a Culdee connection to Freemasonry, but define it in relatively vague terms.

 

In Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry he describes the Culdees as a body of priests who "were distinguished for the pure and simple apostolic religion which they professed." He goes on to say that, "The chief seat of the Culdees was in the island of Iona, where Saint Columba, coming out of Ireland, with twelve Brethren, in the year 563 A.D., established their principal monastery." ¹

 

These entries generally go on to describe the Culdees as a sect that was persecuted by the Church of Rome and that their habits and practices were of a purer, simpler variety than the Roman church.

 

The Culdees are especially associated with the Royal Order of Scotland (ROS), a Masonic order which claims to have been originally established at Iona (also called I-colm-kill,) by Robert the Bruce.² The Culdees are also connected to the 17^th and 18^th degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite due to the superficial connection of those degrees to the ROS.

 

In discussing the degrees of the ROS, Mackey states, "the first may be briefly described as a Christianized form of the third degree, purified from the dross of paganism and even of Judaism by the Culdees, who introduced Christianity into Scotland."³

 

This article will explore the relationship between Freemasonry and the Culdees, and show in more specific ways how the Culdees were a font from which Masonic tradition flows.

 

Culdees

 

As stated previously, Culdees were a body of priests who "were distinguished for the pure and simple apostolic religion which they professed. The chief seat of the Culdees was in the island of Iona, where Saint Columba, coming out of Ireland, with twelve Brethren, in the year 563 A.D., established their principal monastery."

 

The name Culdee has been the subject of a great deal of speculation. Various writers have stated that it derives etymologically from the Gaelic, Celi De, meaning Spouse of God, or the Latin, Cultores Dei, meaning Worshippers of God, or Chaldean referring somehow to the Chaldean Astronomers. It is possible that all three speculations are correct due to the poetic influence of the Irish Bardism in which Saint Columba had been trained, and the methods of allusion and allegory that are ubiquitous in the writings of Scottish-Irish monks and their Gallic and Egyptian predecessors.

 

It is, for example, an interesting coincidence that the three proposed etymologies, Cultores Dei, Chaldee and Celi De, when brought together, accurately allude to the classical outline of the purgative, illuminative and unitive training methods of the Neo-Platonic Christian mystics which Celtic monks held in such high regard. Worshippers of God would correlate with the purgative training, the Chaldean Astronomers would allude to the illuminative training, and Spouse of God would allude to the unitive training that would bring the monk to the perfected state of Theosis or union with God.

 

The monasticism of Celtic Christianity is awash in allegory and symbol. The style of allegory and symbol used in Freemasonry for which Masonry is called a "beautiful system of allegory," was in use among Celtic monks and their Gallican and Egyptian predecessors at least since the first century when the Jewish Platonist, Philo of Alexandria, wrote The Allegorical Interpretation.

 

We find that Philo and this particular style of allegory and analogy was copied and paraphrased by a chain of Neo-Platonic Christian mystical writers. This chain includes writers like Gregory of Nyssa and John Cassian in the 4^th century, the Pseudo-Dionysius in the 5^th century, Saint Columba in the 6^th century, Adomnan in the 7^th century, and John Scottus Eriugena in the 9^th century. These writers followed Philo in the use of this allegorical system that pertains both to initiation ritual and the interpretation of myth and scripture.

 

An example of the use of a Masonic style analogy by a Columban monk is in the introduction of a medieval Irish telling of the life of Saint Columba called Betha Choluim Chille. The author's analogy illustrates that Columban monks may have referred to themselves as Culdees due to an analogy pertaining to the Hebrew patriarch, Abraham the Chaldee.

 

The anonymous biographer compares Saint Columba to Abraham the Chaldee by analogizing the Hebrew patriarch's departure from his kindred, home and country of Chaldea to the three types of pilgrimage of the Columban monk, and the pilgrimage of Saint Columba.

 

The first type of pilgrimage being that of the monk who leaves, "Chaldea," (symbolic of temporal affairs), in body only, by moving to another place like a monastery while retaining his longing for the things of his former life, the second pilgrimage being that of a monk who leaves "Chaldea" in spirit by practicing mental and spiritual detachment for temporal things, but remains bodily in his home precincts. The third type of pilgrimage being that of a monk like Saint Columba who leaves, "Chaldea," in both body and mental attachment to be a lover of God.⁴ The unknown biographer goes on to explain that the first type of pilgrimage will be of no use to the monk in his spiritual progress, because though the monk has left his former life physically, he is still a slave to it mentally. The author also explains that the second and third types of pilgrimage will both profit the monk because either way he will be leaving aside his temporal attachments in favor of a godly life. This analogy of the Columban monk as a Chaldee, due to following the example of the Chaldean Patriach Abraham, is not unlike the analogy of the Mason following the example of the Master Mason Hiram Abiff in building himself into a better man. Both are completely appropriate.

 

Dogma and Tolerance

 

One interesting feature of Culdee tradition that is consistent with Freemasonry was that it wasn't particularly dogmatic. It seemed to have followed the example of Pythagoras in making use of whatever was available to further the progress of the monks.

 

It was the Culdee monks who preserved the pagan Celtic myths for posterity. Saint Columba's famous poem, Altus Prosator reflects his knowledge of Hellenic myth and Chaldean astronomy. ⁵ They also held the pagan philosophers like Pythagoras and Plato in the highest regard and made liberal use of their examples in their writings.⁶ While Roman Christians avoided Pagan learning, the Culdees and their spiritual predecessors referred to it as, "the wealth of Egypt."⁷

 

Our available sources show us a few other things about the Culdees that pertain very specifically to Freemasonry.

 

Unlike more well know western monastic traditions like the Fransicans and Dominicans, the Culdees of Iona did not trace their traditions to the Roman Catholic Church and its founding bishop, Saint Peter. The Patron and apostolic lineage father of the monks of Iona was not Saint Peter, but Saint John.

 

The Holy Saints John

 

Freemasonry's patron saints are John the Evangelist, and John the Baptist. Newly initiated Freemasons are shown a symbol bordered by representations of the two Saint Johns and the Volume of Sacred Law. Few symbols could be more appropriate for describing the path of Masonry to the new initiate.

 

Saint John the Baptist was primarily known as a person who conducted an initiation ceremony called baptism. So, he is an appropriate symbol of the system of initiations that the new Freemason will undergo in his progress.

 

Saint John the Evangelist was the person who declared, "en arche en o logos kai o logos en pros ton theon kai theos en o logos," or "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

 

These two saints are completely appropriate for alluding to the Masonic themes of initiation and the search for the lost Word.

 

The Greek word Logos is translated into English as Word. The Word, or Logos represents an ancient philosophical concept taught by Heraclitus, the Stoics, and Philo of Alexandria, among others. This philosophical concept is called the Logos doctrine.

The Logos doctrine also pervades the Hindu scriptures and pertains directly to the primordial divine utterance they call AUM.⁸ Remarkably there is a Vedic verse that makes John 1:1 look like a paraphrase. "In the beginning was Prajapati, with Him was the Word, and the Word was truly the Supreme Brahman." ⁹

 

The Greek word Logos is pregnant with meaning. It is called the Divine Reason¹⁰ and represents God literally in the activity of The Grand Architect of the Universe.

The Logos in ancient Greek and Hindu philosophy was that divine power that gives warp and weave to all manifestation.

 

For the monks of Iona, Saint John held the preeminent position among the apostles due to his being the founder of their apostolic lineage, and because he was the revealer of the Word.

 

Older Christian Churches, like the Assyrian Church of the East, Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Ethiopian Church, the Chaldean Syrian Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church distinguish themselves primarily by their apostolic succession. Each of these most ancient Christian churches believes that after Jesus their tradition was founded by a specific apostle.

 

The Coptic Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Church trace their apostolic lineage to Saint Mark. The Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Syrian Church trace their lineage to Saint Thomas, The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches trace their lineage to Saint Peter.

 

We see from the 7^th century English historian Bede's account of the Synod of Whitby that the Iona Church traced its apostolic lineage and traditions to Saint John.¹¹ The contest of the Synod of Whitby was ultimately a contest of which apostle's tradition King Oswy of Northumbria would prefer, the tradition of Saint John that was represented by the monks of Iona, or the tradition of Saint Peter that was represented by the priests of Rome. The King chose Peter and Rome.

 

The Celtic monk, Eriugena, explains through analogy why Saint John held the pre-eminent position among the apostles.

 

In Eriugena's homily on the prologue to the Gospel of Saint John he writes, "Thus Peter, action practicing virtue, perceives, through the virtue of faith and action, the Son of God confined in the flesh in a wonderful and ineffable manner. But John, who is the highest contemplation of the truth, wonders at the Word of God in itself, before the flesh, in its principle or absolute and infinite origin."¹²

 

In the same homily Eriugena discusses John the Beloved introducing John the Baptist in the prologue to his gospel and shows how this Celtic monk viewed the two Johns as having an important symbolic relationship, "John introduces John into his theology. "Deep calleth unto deep" in the voice of the divine mysteries John, the Evangelist, narrates the history of John, the forerunner. The one, to whom it is given to know the Word in the beginning, commemorates the one to whom it is given to come before the incarnate Word."¹³

 

We also learn from Eriugena's commentary about an important Masonic relationship, that the quest for Light and the quest for the Word are ultimately the same quest, because according to John's prologue, the Word is Light.

 

A Coin, an Apron, and Wages.

 

Other points of contact between the Culdees and Freemasonry reveal the specific origin of certain elements of Masonic ritual.

 

Dr. Thomas Clancy of the University of Glasgow has shown that Saint Columba extensively paraphrased the works of John Cassian and Cassian's writings were part of the Iona library.¹⁴

 

John Cassian was a forth century Christian monastic writer who visited the monasteries of Syria and Egypt and studied their institutes and practices. Cassian later founded an Egyptian style monastery in Marseilles that would influence both Gallic and Celtic monasticism.

 

John Cassian begins his book, The Institutes, by discussing Hiram Abiff's involvement in the building of King Solomon's temple.¹⁵ Cassian goes on to make an analogy between the building of Solomon's temple and spiritually building and perfecting a man.

Cassian writes, "The history of the Old Testament tells us that the most wise Solomon received from heaven "wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart even as the sand that is on the seashore cannot be counted;" so that by the Lord's testimony we may say that no one either has arisen in time past equal to him or will arise after him: and afterward, when wishing to raise that magnificent temple to the Lord, we are told that he asked the help of a foreigner, the king of Tyre. And when there was sent to him one Hiram, the son of a widow woman, it was by his means and ministration that he executed all the glorious things which he devised by the suggestion of the Divine wisdom either for the temple of the Lord or for the sacred vessels. If, then, that power that was higher than all the kingdoms of the earth, and that noble and illustrious scion of the race of Israel, and that divinely inspired wisdom which excelled the training and customs of all the Easterns and Egyptians, by no means disdained the advice of a poor man and a foreigner, rightly also do you, most blessed Pope Castor, taught by these examples, deign to call in me, a worthless creature though I am, and in every respect as poor as possible, to share in so great a work. When you are planning to build a true and reasonable temple to God, not with inanimate stones but with a congregation of saints, and no temporal or corruptible building, but one that is eternal and cannot be shaken; and desiring also to consecrate to the Lord most precious vessels not forged of dumb metal, of gold or silver, which a Babylonish monarch may afterwards take and devote to the pleasures of his concubines and princes, but fashioned of holy souls which shine with the uprightness of innocence, righteousness, and purity, and bear about Christ abiding in themselves as King"¹⁶

 

This example from Cassian's book is remarkable as a precedent of the Masonic analogical model of comparing the building of Solomon's Temple to building good men.

In the same book Cassian describes an element of the reception of a new candidate for the monastery as follows: "One, then, who seeks to be admitted to the discipline of the monastery is never received before he gives, by lying outside the doors for ten days or even longer, an evidence of his perseverance and desire, as well as of humility and patience. And when, prostrate at the feet of all the brethren that pass by, and of set purpose repelled and scorned by all of them, as if he was wanting to enter the monastery not for the sake of religion but because he was obliged; and when, too, covered with many insults and affronts, he has given a practical proof of his steadfastness, and has shown what he will be like in temptations by the way he has borne the disgrace; and when, with the ardor of his soul thus ascertained, he is admitted, then they enquire with the utmost care whether he is contaminated by a single coin from his former possessions clinging to him. (emphasis added) For they know that he cannot stay for long under the discipline of the monastery, nor ever learn the virtue of humility and obedience, nor be content with the poverty and difficult life of the monastery, if he knows that ever so small a sum of money has been kept hid"¹⁷

 

These two very specific examples of precedence to Masonic ritual might be ignored as coincidence except that when Cassian begins his description of the symbolic clothing of the monks he begins by explaining that part of the monk's habit was a leather apron or girdle. Cassian explains, "A monk, then, as a soldier of Christ ever ready for battle, ought always to walk with his loins girded." Cassian continues by explaining the scriptural basis for the leather girdle by describing how in 2 Kings 1:1-8, Elijah was known for wearing a leather girdle, and how in the Gospel of Matthew, John the Baptist was describes as, "girt with a girdle of leather about his loins."

 

At the end of the sections describing the attire of the monks, Cassian demonstrates the preeminent importance of the leather girdle by including a de facto apron lecture which he titles, Of the Spiritual Girdle and its Mystical Meaning.

 

"Clothed, then, in these garments, the soldier of Christ should know first that he is protected by the girdle tied round him, not only that he may be ready in mind for all the work and business of the monastery, but also that he may always go without being hindered by his dress. For he will be proved to be the more ardent in purity of heart for spiritual progress and the knowledge of Divine things in proportion as he is the more earnest in his zeal for obedience and work. Secondly, he should realize that in the actual wearing of the girdle there is no small mystery declaring what is demanded of him. For the girding of the loins and binding them round with a dead skin signifies that he bears about the mortification of those members in which are contained the seeds of lust and lasciviousness, always knowing that the command of the gospel, which says, "Let your loins be girt about," Luke 12:35 is applied to him by the Apostle's interpretation; to wit, "Mortify your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence." Colossians 3:5."¹⁸

 

A final example of a Masonic ritual element in Iona monasticism comes from The Rule of Saint Columba. "Three labours in the day, viz., prayers, work, and reading.

The work to be divided into three parts, viz., thine own work, and the work of thy place, as regards its real wants; secondly, thy share of the brethen's work; lastly, to help the neighbours, viz., by instruction or writing, or sewing garments, or whatever labour they may be in want of, ut Dominus ait, "Non apparebis ante Me vacuus (as the Lord says, "You shall not appear before me empty.")¹⁹.

 

The specificity in the aforementioned ritual elements are a remarkable demonstration of the influence of Iona in Masonic ritual, but among the ruins of Iona we can also find elements that have been influential to Freemasonry in both the structure of the degrees, and the character of the rites.

 

Three Degrees

 

Saint Columba's de facto mentor, John Cassian, writes in the 11^th book of The Conferences about the three degrees of the monks. Cassian refers them to the progressive Christian virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity.²⁰ Faith (which he calls a type of fear), Hope which he ties to the payment of wages, and Love (Charity) to that power which, once obtained, brings a man irresistibly to union with God. In describing this threefold progress he describes in a nutshell the essential themes of the three degrees of Masonry. (Faith, Hope and Charity are also a major theme and method for discovering the True Word in the 18^th degree of the AASR)

 

Cassian writes, "If a person is tending to perfection, then, he will mount from that first degree of fear-which we have properly designated as servile and about which it is: ‘When you have done everything, say: We are useless slaves'-to the higher level of hope, progressing by a degree. Here the comparison is not with a slave but with a hireling, because now the person looks forward to the payment of a wage and is as it were untroubled by the absolution of his sins and the fear of punishment and is conscious of his own good works. Although he seems to strive for a reward for what is pleasing, still he is unable to attain to the disposition of a son who trusts in the generosity of his father's indulgence and who has no doubt that everything which belongs to his father is his… Hence we also, are mounting by the indissoluble grace of love the third degree of sons, who believe that everything which belongs to their father is theirs."²¹

 

Faith, hope and Charity, so described, are clearly major themes of the Masonic degrees. In the Apprentice degree, the Apprentice Mason is in servile state, his initiation dominated by fear.

 

The Fellowcraft degree is dominated by the hope of receiving a wage. Cassian's desert monks, among them Gregory of Nyssa, and their Culdee successors metaphorically called this wage, "the wealth of Egypt" and referred it to the Seven Liberal Arts.²² (The, "wealth of Egypt," metaphor was introduced by Philo of Alexandria who called "the wealth of Egypt" the wage that was due the Israelites, upon leaving Egyptian bondage in payment for all the works of masonry they had wrought as slaves²³.)

 

The Master's degree is dominated by the spirit of brotherly love and charity by which we come to a rebirth through fellowship and to knowledge of the Word.

 

Both the degrees of the monks and the degrees of Masonry follow this ancient purgative, illuminative, unitive method.²⁴

 

Death and Rebirth

 

John Scottus Eriugena, in his great work of mystical philosophy, Periphyseon, introduces his reader to another leading influence of Celtic, Gallic and Egyptian monasticism, the Christian Neo-Platonist, Dionysius the Areopagite. (Dionysius is also called the Pseudo-Dionysius due to scholarly consensus that the writer of the Dionysian works lived later than the Biblical Dionysius.)

 

In one of Dionysius' works, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, we are shown an example of an early Christian baptism that is so resonant with modern Masonic ritual that it could be called a, "Christianized form of the third degree."

 

In the ceremony described by Dionysius, the assembly for initiation is opened by a declaration of a "hierarch" who presides in the east over the assembled group.

A candidate, "fired by a love of transcendent reality," goes to one of the initiates and asks to be brought to the hierarch to be initiated. The hierarch then asks the brethren to assemble.

 

The hierarch asks the candidate why he has come. The candidate, "filled with the love of God," replies in accordance with instructions given him by his sponsor. The hierarch further admonishes and tests the candidate and finally has the priests enroll the candidate.

The hierarch and those assembled offer a prayer, then the candidate's sandals and clothing are removed and he is faced toward the west to repudiate his former life three times. The candidate is then faced toward the east. The hierarch then asks the candidate if he will submit to Christ and all divinely granted sacred lore. The candidate agrees and makes a profession of faith three times. The candidate is then escorted to a large font of water called, "the mother of all divine adoption." He is then immersed completely in the water three times amid sacred invocations. Attending priests then clothe the new initiate and he is brought back to his sponsor and the hierarch. The hierarch then anoints the man with the sign of the cross and declares him ready to participate in the, "sacredly initiating Eucharist."

 

Upon completion of the ceremony, the new initiate is given a lecture, that Dionysius calls, "a contemplation," which includes an explanation of the various allegorical symbols of the ceremony, and states, "To us death is not, as others imagine, a complete dissolution of being. It is, rather, the separation of two parts which had been linked together. It brings the soul into what for us is an invisible realm where it, in the loss of the body, becomes formless. And the body is hidden in the earth and undergoes a change from its corporeal shape and is withdrawn from its human appearance. Now because of this it is quite appropriate to hide the initiate completely in the water as an image of this death and this burial where form is dissolved."

 

We can see that the style, character and meaning of this ancient monastic initiation very much resembles Masonic initiation with its divesting candidates' of their former attire and clothing them anew, a sponsor's instructions and examination by the Master, its allegory of death and rebirth and final lecture which delivers much the same message as the Master Mason degree.

 

What Dionysius' baptism initiation lacks is an allegorical legend, but among the legends of Saint Columba such a story exists.

 

The Legend of Saint Oran

 

The legend of Saint Oran, (Odran in Gaelic), was first hinted at in The Life of Saint Columba written by Adomnan, a 7^th century abbott of Iona, and is still told as a highland legend.²⁵

 

The story goes generally that the monks of Iona were building the chapel that is now called Saint Oran's Chapel, but every night some demonic force would destroy their work. Saint Columba received a revelation that one of his monks would have to be buried in the ground beneath the footers of the Chapel as a sacrifice necessary to insure the success of the building of the Chapel. Oran, a Briton, was chosen to be the sacrifice. In some versions Oran was chosen by lot, and in others Oran volunteered. Either way Oran died and was buried. Three days later Columba opened the grave to see what had become of his friend. Oran raised his eyes and said,

 

"Nor is heaven as is alleged,
Nor is hell as is asserted,
Nor is the good eternally happy,
Nor is the bad eternally unhappy"

 

Saint Columba, startled, said, "Earth! earth on the eye of Oran."

 

This ancient story from Iona clearly reflects elements of the legend of Hiram Abiff and could just as easily be used in a, "Christianized form of the third degree."

Just as the workmen of King Solomon's temple were engaged in building, the monks of Iona were engaged in building the Chapel of Iona. Oran, like Hiram, was a foreigner. Oran was under the earth for three days in imitation of Christ, and upon being raised, Oran revealed important secrets.

The secrets that Oran reveals are interesting in that they allude to more than just the immortality of the soul, they suggest reincarnation. Oran's statement "Nor is the good eternally happy, nor is the bad eternally unhappy," could hardly imply anything else.

The doctrine of reincarnation would certainly not have been a new thing for a Saint who had been trained in Bardism. Nor would it have been alien to the Neo-Platonism of their favorite writers.

Either way, if the monks of Iona indeed held such a dogma, it would have certainly had to remain a secret.

 

We have seen that, like in Freemasonry, the monks of Iona had in their ideology and ritual the notions of allegory and symbol in both word and images. Often those words and symbols were identical with those used in Masonry. Their patron was Saint John. They used the symbolic analogies of the penny and the leather apron in a way identical to Masonic use. They also had three degrees, and the ultimate object of those degrees was to find the Word that is Light.

 

Some Masons might find it useful to study those writers like John Cassian, Eriugena and the Pseudo-Dionysius to discover those focused spiritual practices that this essay cannot explore in depth.

 

The Iona monks used the sacred words and divine names that we are given in the Craft as sacred mantras to exercise their minds and attain greater control of their thoughts.²⁶ They followed Plato and Pythagoras in using the Seven Liberal Arts, which are the foundations of science, to explore Nature in an effort to see the Creator through the creation.

 

Those writings that Saint Columba loved can serve to flesh out Masonry for more useful effect, and hopefully the reader will find it useful to explore the Craft in the older context of the Culdees.