Abstract:

The Hobsbawm-Ranger framework of invented traditions is a suitable perspective from which to examine masonic traditions. Examples from early Dutch lodges show how they strove to gain primacy by anchoring their origins as far back in the past as reasonably possible. Though the formal establishment of a Dutch grand lodge in 1756 appeared to consolidate positions, the final act of this struggle for masonic pre-eminence played out as late as the 1930s.

Author: Joost Jonker