St. Alban

Francis Bacon was created Viscount St. Alban on 3rd February 1621, shortly after his sixtieth birthday. Thanking King James, Bacon told him that:-

‘The eight in music,’ Bacon wrote elsewhere^[1], ‘is the sweetest concord’; but perhaps he had a premonition of what lay ahead, for he also noted that ‘Swans are said at the approach of their own death to chant sweet melancholy dirges’.^[2] Within a few weeks, without notice, he was falsely accused in Parliament of taking bribes, impeached, stripped of his office and sentenced to a crushing fine. Obeying the command of the King, as demanded by his oath, Bacon did not defend himself but pleaded guilty to the empty charges. In the notes of his interview with the King he refers to himself as being both as innocent as any born upon St. Innocent’s Day and an oblation or sacrifice to his Majesty.

Interestingly the original St. Alban, who lived at Verulamium, had been martyred by his Emperor. Bacon’s country (and family) estate, Gorhambury, stretched over the site of the Roman town of Verulamium, after which Bacon had been given his first title, Baron Verulam of Verulam. But it was in reference to the saint that Bacon was given his second, higher title, and from that time on he commonly signed himself Francis St. Alban or Fr. St. Alban. It was a unique title, referring to a person (saint) rather than a place, and has profound implications.

St. Alban (Albanus), besides being reputed by the Church as the first Christian martyr in Britain, is claimed by Freemasonry in their Legend of the Craft as the founder of Freemasonry in England. He was reputedly born in the 3rd century ad, in Hertfordshire, near Verulamium, went to Rome as a young man where he served as a soldier under the Emperor Diocletian, and then returned to Verulamium in the company of Amphibalus, a Christian, by whom he was taught. When the persecution of Christians commenced, Amphibalus was sought after but was helped to escape by Albanus, who donned his preceptor’s cloak and gave himself up to the soldiers instead. After being imprisoned and tortured, Albanus’ real identity was discovered. Amphibalus was also found, and both suffered martyrdom for being Christians. The Abbey church of St. Albans was later erected over the site where St. Alban’s body had been interred.

Freemasonry adds to this story. Its legend, collected from several sources and embellished over the course of several centuries, declares that Masonry flourished in Britain since before the time of the Druids, and that during the Roman rule lodges and conventions were regularly held. However, continual wars reduced Masonry to a low ebb. It was then that Masonry was reintroduced into England by St. Amphibal, a Christian monk, and first communicated to St. Alban, who was a knight.

The story goes that when Carausius revolted from the Roman Emperor Maximilian and set himself up as the Emperor of Britain, he employed St. Alban to environ the city of Verulam with a wall and to build for him a splendid palace. To reward his diligence in executing these works, the Emperor Carausius appointed St. Alban as Steward of his household and chief ruler, after himself, of the realm. He also made St. Alban the paymaster and Governor of the King’s (Emperor’s) works. Then, in order to make himself and his government acceptable to the people of Britain, Carausius assumed the character of a Mason and raised the Masons to the first rank as his favourites, appointing St. Alban as the Principal Superintendent of their assemblies. St. Alban gave the fraternity the Charges and Manners as St. Amphibal had taught him (i.e. framed for them a constitution), assisted them in making Masons, treated them with great kindness and increased their pay. Later on, in the year AD 287, Carausius granted the Masons a charter and commanded Albanus to preside over them as Grand Master.

According to the Masonic record, which until recently has been largely accepted as historically accurate, St. Alban was martyred in the year AD 303. Modern scholarship, however, has convincingly shown that the historical St. Alban was martyred on 22nd June 209 by Geta, eldest son of the Emperor Severus, when they visited Britain AD 208-9. It is also clear that St. Alban was certainly never a knight (knighthood was a chivalric honour invented much later in history), nor the steward of an emperor’s household and chief ruler (after the emperor) of the realm, and that Amphibalus is a personification of the ecclesiastical cloak, amphibalum, which St. Alban donned (just as St. Veronica is a personification of Christ’s true image imprinted on the handkerchief which covered his face).

However, the strange elements of the story, when applied allegorically to the later St. Alban—Viscount St. Alban—fit like a glove. Sir Francis Bacon was a knight and he was also St. Alban—Viscount St. Alban, who wore the cloak or ‘vestment’ (amphibalum) of St. Alban. He served a King, James Stewart of Scotland, who was considered by many Englishmen to be a usurper of the throne of England, and who was the first to bear the title of Emperor of Great Britain. Lord St. Alban was his faithful ‘steward’ and proxy chief ruler of the realm. The ‘continual wars’ which reduced Masonry to a low ebb were the many centuries of foreign wars, the civil wars (romantically named the Wars of the Roses) and religious persecution. Moreover, King James did support the Masons in the manner described, and it was in his reign that Freemasonry became established (or revived) in Britain. The ‘palace’ which St. Alban (Bacon) built for him was a temple of learning, a temple of light, constructed by Bacon’s ‘fraternity in learning and illumination’:-

Such a temple is a temple of the Holy Spirit, the ‘house Sanctus Spiritus’, his method the ‘perfect Method of all Arts’, his Natural History the Librum Naturae, and his fraternity in learning and illumination the ‘Fraternity of the Rosie Cross’ mentioned in the famous Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis, or Discovery of the Brotherhood of the most laudable Order of the Rosie Cross. In his New Atlantis Bacon, who was called ‘Solomon’, calls his temple the House of Solomon or College of the Six Days’ Work (i.e. of Creation), founded by Solamona (Solomon) and comprised of a society of philosopher-priests whose badge is a red cross and who maintained a secrecy or invisibility from the world at large. Robert Boyle, writing in 1646-7, referred to the College as the ‘Invisible College’ or ‘Philosophical College’.

According to the Freemason’s Guide and Compendium, the modern history of English Freemasonry starts with the record of Elias Ashmole’s admittance into Freemasonry in 1646, although it is recognised that speculative as well as operative Freemasonry existed in England long before this. Moreover, artefacts exist showing that the Royal Arch Degree as well as the basic Craft Degrees existed in the time of Queen Elizabeth I.

The legendary dates of St. Alban, given so precisely as if factual, are part of the allegory. In the Kaye Cipher 287 = Fra. Rosi Crosse. The mythical year of 303 is likewise a cipher, which reduces to 33 since 0 is traditionally counted as a null. In Simple Cipher 33 = Bacon. The number is also the count of the word ‘Free’, the meaning of ‘Francis’, as well as signifying the Thirty-Third degree of initiation. (See FBRT essay on ‘Ciphers’.)

The Shakespeare plays, besides being authored by Francis Bacon and signed with the above two cipher signatures, are full of Masonic symbolism, meanings and words. The founding (or refounding) of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons took place in 1716, the centenary of the actor William Shakspere’s death. In 1723, the centenary of the publication of the Shakespeare Folio of plays, modern Freemasonry emerged into the open with the publication of The Book of Constitutions of the Free-masons. Also in the same year was published the Benson Medley edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets, the title page headpiece of which depicts the symbols of the higher degrees of Freemasonry. 100 is the cabalistic cipher of ‘Francis Bacon’.

© Peter Dawkins, FBRT, 1999

Refs:

¹ Francis Bacon, Natural History.

² Francis Bacon, Wisdom of the Ancients, ‘Diomedes or Zeal’.

The Francis Bacon Research Trust