an plotters, neither Catholic nor Lutheran fanatics, neither
alchemists nor magicians, nor can it be supposed that they were simply
revellers. If they were political, they were certainly not supporters of
the Stuarts; on the contrary, they were generally reported to have been
Hanoverian in their sympathies, indeed Dr. Bussell goes so far as to say
that Grand Lodge was instituted to support the Hanoverian dynasty.[347]
It would be perhaps nearer the truth to conclude that if they were
Hanoverian it was because they were constitutional, and the Hanoverian
dynasty having now been established they wished to avoid further
changes. In a word, then, they were simply men of peace, anxious to put
an end to dissensions, who, seeing the system of Masonry utilized for
the purpose of promoting discord, determined to wrest it from the hands
of political intriguers and restore it to its original character of
brotherhood, though not of brotherhood between working masons only, but
between men drawn from all classes and professions. By founding a Grand
Lodge in London and drawing up a ritual and "Constitutions," they hoped
to prevent the perversion of their signs and symbols and to establish
the Order on a settled basis.

According to Nicolai this pacific purpose had already animated English
Freemasons under the Grand Mastership of Sir Christopher Wren: "Its
principal object from this period was to moderate the religious hatreds
so terrible in England during the reign of James II and to try and
establish some kind of concord or fraternity, by weakening as far as
possible the antagonisms arising from the differences of religions,
ranks, and interests." An eighteenth-century manuscript of the Prince of
Hesse quoted by Lecouteulx de Canteleu expresses the view that in 1717
"_the mysteries of Freemasonry were reformed and purified in England of
all political tendencies_."

In the matter of religion, Craft Masonry adopted an equally
non-sectarian attitude. The first "Constitutions" of the Order, drawn up
by Dr. Anderson in 1723, contain the following paragraph:

Concerning God 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, 'tis now thought more exped