| Undutiful Valentine |
[Sep. 16th, 2018|07:42 pm] |
A less heinous crime is failing to pay Lodge subscriptions. Surely only obstinacy can account for brethren who allow this practice to lead to their exclusion. A prominent mason who was guilty of this was Bro Oscar Wilde who was initiated into Apollo Lodge No. 357 at Oxford on 23rd February 1875. For some years he was an enthusiastic mason, being perfected in Apollo Rose Croix Chapter and advanced in the University Mark Lodge. But his enthusiasm waned and he drifted away, unpaid. His later notoriety would in any event have ensured his expulsion from the Craft as it did from the Ancient and Accepted Right.
The Minute Book of the Supreme Council records on 9 th July 1895:
‘The erasure from the Golden Book of the name of Oscar Wilde, who has been sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour’.
The erasure of Wilde’s name probably reflected the deviant nature of his crime – homosexuality between consenting adults was then illegal – as mere adulterers usually managed to escape any Masonic punishment. In 1882 the Revd Alfred Cummings of Truro, who had ‘deserted his wife and family and run off with another man’s wife’ was advised not to come to London to receive the 30 th degree until the Supreme Council had investigated the matter. They discovered that his Chapter (Cornwall No 61) had excluded him not for immoral conduct but for failure to pay his dues. This led to an even more heinous sin on the part of the Recorder of another Chapter who had accepted him as a joining member without first obtaining a clearance certificate – a demit as we call it. Brethren, there are some things that a freemason should not do and that is one of them. It is negligent conduct on the part of any Secretary who fails to obtain a demit from every Lodge of which the applicant for joining membership is or was a member!
MASONIC ROGUES AND VAGABONDS BY WBRO KEN WALTON PAGDC
(A paper presented to Lyceum Lodge of Research 8682on 15th October 2008) |
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| Date: | September 17th, 2018 - 09:43 am |
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