This document summarizes the origins and evolution of certain Masonic traditions and rituals involving toasting procedures. It discusses the earliest known descriptions of "firing" rituals from the 1730s, which involved carrying a glass in specific motions before drinking. While unclear, this may have represented the first appearance in print of what became known as the Point-Left-Right motions. The article also explores various theories about the symbolic meanings behind the PLR, though finds it most likely derived from early modes of recognition between Masons. Over time, the rituals and gestures have changed, yet aspects like the prohibition on firing outside a tyled room acknowledge the origins in early Masonic practice.

1. So man on man got talkin',
An' not a Brother stirred
Till mornin' waked the parrots
An' that dam' brain-fever-bird.
We'd say 'twas 'ighly curious,
An' we'd all ride 'ome to bed,
With Mo'ammed, God, an' Shiva
Changin' pickets in our 'ead.
Full oft on Guv'ment service
This rovin' foot 'ath pressed,
An' bore fraternal greetin's
To the Lodges east an' west,
Accordin' as commanded.
From Kohat to Singapore,
But I wish that I might see them
In my Mother-Lodge once more!
I wish that I might see them,
My Brethren black an' brown,
With the trichies smellin' pleasant
An' the hog-darn passin' down;1.
An' the old khansamah snorin' 2.
On the bottle-khana floor, 3.
Like a Master in good standing
With my Mother-Lodge once more.
Outside - Sergeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam!'
Inside- Brother," an' it doesn't do no 'arm.
We met upon the Level an' we parted on the Square,
An' I was Junior Deacon in my Mother-Lodge out there!
Kipling’s Mother Lodge
The Lodge of Hope and Perseverance, No. 782,
English Constitution in Lahore, Punjab, India
1. Cigar-lighter
2. Butler
3. Pantry
Masonic Booklet
By Bro. Alec Hall
T.G.A.O.T.U
Anno Lucis
Masonic Fire

2. Foreword.
The target audience for this series of little booklets is the new Freemason in the first year
or two of his Masonic career. It is in these early years that they will be most curious about
the organisation they have just joined.
These booklets will provide the ‘flavour’ of Craft history and enable the curious to ascend
the first rung in making their daily advance in Masonic knowledge. The booklets may be
of some use to Lodge Mentors as a teaching aid as they guide the new Mason through the
degrees. You may be able to use the content of these pages to prepare a talk to for your
Lodge. You don’t have to ask my permission. You are free to use the booklets in any way
you wish.
Everything in these booklets is freely available either in books or on the World Wide
Web. You may not have the time to carry out an extensive search so these booklets have
done the hard, time consuming work for you. You can do your own research when you
have the time.
If any senior member of the Lodge disagrees with these notes, he is most probably right
and I am wrong.
You don’t have to know much about the history and symbolism of Freemasonry to be a
good Freemason. However, if you are interested and take the time to learn a little, you
may become a better Freemason.
Have fun.
Bro Alec Hall
Contact me at:-
alec@tlsl.demon.co.uk
or
crusty@philbrick2255.org.uk
More booklets available at..
http://www.philbrick2255.org.uk
The Mother Lodge
By Bro. Rudyard Kipling
THERE was Rundle, Station Master,
An' Beazeley of the Rail,
An' 'Ackman, Commissariat,
An' Donkin' o' the Jail;
An' Blake, Conductor-Sergeant,
Our Master twice was 'e,
With im that kept the Europe-shop,
Old Framjee Eduljee.
Outside - " Sergeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam!
Inside - 'Brother," an' it doesn't do no 'arm.
We met upon the Level an' we parted on the Square,
An' I was junior Deacon in my Mother-Lodge out there!
We'd Bola Nath, Accountant,
An' Saul the Aden Jew,
An' Din Mohammed, draughtsman
Of the Survey Office too;
There was Babu Chuckerbutty,
An' Amir Singh the Sikh,
An' Castro from the fittin'-sheds,
The Roman Catholick!
We 'adn't good regalia,
An' our Lodge was old an' bare,
But we knew the Ancient Landmarks,
An' we kep' 'em to a hair;
An' lookin' on it backwards
It often strikes me thus,
There ain't such things as infidels,
Excep', per'aps, it's us.
For monthly, after Labour,
We'd all sit down and smoke
(We dursn't give no banquits,
Lest a Brother's caste were broke),
An' man on man got talkin'
Religion an' the rest,
An' every man comparin'
Of the God 'e knew the best.

3. is an interesting example of this. At the completion of their First Lecture (Seventh
Section) the in-| structions are printed as follows:—
P.L.R....... P.L.R....... P.L.R.
1 2 3
Sn.l23......Sn.l23......Sn.l23
In practice, the Brethren follow the "Caller" through the P.L.R.'s with three "finger-tip j
triangles"; the Caller continues, "One, Two, Three", all the Brethren clapping only on the i
word "Three". This should be followed by the "E.A. Sn. with three claps, E.A. Sn. with
three claps, E.A. Sn. with three claps".
Those three E.A. Signs have now virtually disappeared. Indeed, it is unusual, even
among Lodges that claim to practice Emulation working^ to find the procedure being
followed precisely as described above. Discussing the matter with several members of
the Emulation Committee, I was assured that they follow the practice regularly, although
many of the Brethren present at their demonstrations fail to incorporate the Signs. It
seems possible that, except in the Emulation Lodge of Improvement itself, those three
Signs may largely disappear, even though books in which we find the Lectures printed
may still prescribe them.
VARIATIONS AND ABERRATIONS
Despite the seeming uniformity which had apparently been established in "Firing"
practices towards the end of the 18th century, the Masonic traveller cannot but be amazed
at the many variations in the Fire that are to be found in different parts of the country, and
abroad. Even in London, where the practice is virtually standardized, some Lodges take
the Fire quite slowly, while others take it at breakneck speed.
Perhaps the most important change, and one that seems to have been adopted almost
everywhere, is the very sketchy "finger-tip delineation of a triangle" in place of the three
distinct movements of hand and arm in the original P.L.R. I suspect that the real reason for
this "debasement" is the speed with which the movements are often carried out nowadays,
to such an extent that all trace of the original movements has been lost and ninety-nine
Brethren in every hundred have no idea of the origin of the "triangle".
Acknowledgements and references.
I acknowledge the help given by the following:-
ARS Quatuor Coronatorum, Lodge No 2076, our premier Lodge of Research, and their
Transactions from whose articles, many quotations are taken.
The Grand Lodge of British Columbia and the Yukon who have kindly given permission
to copy articles from their web site.
Many other Brothers and organisation to numerous to mention here but who will be
acknowledged in these booklets as appropriate.
John Calvin, Theologian
Great Architect of the Universe
coined by John Calvin
We have been criticized by some Christians for using our name The Great Architect of the
Universe to refer to God.. One of these attacks on Freemasonry claims that it “ makes
God seem like an abstract being.”. The other stated that it this was the name of a false God
‘that Masons worshiped at their altar’
That just isn’t true of course and we should be aware of the origin of the term.
Part of From McLeod, Letter, AQC V101 p 146
. . . this phrase entered Freemasonry by way of the first Book of Constitutions, printed in
1723. The compiler was Rev. Dr. James Anderson, a graduate of Aberdeen University,
and minister of the Scottish Presbyterian church in Swallow Street, Piccadilly, London,
from 1710 to 1734. He did not invent the phrase, but took it over from John Calvin, who
used it, for example, in his Commentary on Psalm 19; the heavens 'were wonderfully
founded by the Great Architect' again, according to the same paragraph, 'when once we
recognize God as the Architect of the Universe', we are bound to marvel at his Wisdom,
Strength, and Goodness. In fact, Calvin repeatedly calls God 'the Architect of the
Universe,' and refers to His works in nature as 'Architecture of the Universe' ten times in
the Institutes of the Christian Religion alone .
To refresh your memory..
John Calvin. Theologian
Born: 10 July 1509
Birthplace: Noyon, France.
Died : 27 May 1564.
Best known as: Geneva based leader of the Protestant Reformation.
Name at birth: Jean Calvin.
When John Calvin was a boy in France, Martin Luther launched the Protestant
Reformation in Germany (see Luther). Two decades later Calvin became the second of the
great 16th-century reformers. His work and teachings had a profound impact on the
development of Christianity.
John Calvin was born in Noyon, France, on July 10, 1509. His father, Gerard, was
procurator-fiscal of the Noyon district and secretary of the diocese
Calvin's teachings are the basis of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches. They spread
among the Huguenots of France, the Protestants of the Netherlands and Scotland, and the
Puritans of England. The English Calvinists, unable to practice their religion at home,
came to the New World in the 17th century. They laid the foundation for Calvinism in the
United States
Excerpt from The Complete Reference Collection. Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

4. I have a suspicion that the phrase also arises in the Hermetic Tradition but I can’t find a
source for my suspicion.
So, despite what you may hear to the contrary, The Great Architect has a Christian
origin Except perhaps in the interest of brevity, I have no idea why we usually use the
abbreviation T.G.A.O.T.U. It’s hardly a masonic secret is it?
Anno Lucis et al.
Article taken from AQS Vol 95
[For the sake of brevity I have abridged this excellent article. I recommend that you
read it in its’ entirety when you have the time.]
By Bro. Harry Mendoza (13 November 1980)
YOU ARE ALL familiar with the term 'Anno Lucls'. But where did it come from? When
was it first used? And how widely is it used? I was surprised to find that there was no
ready answer to these questions when I first asked them. Hence this paper.
To set the scene, as it were, one must make some reference to our present-day chronology.
The current year is 1980, i.e. 1980 years after the Nativity, but there seems to be some
evidence that the Roman monk who first used the terms 'Before Christ' and 'Anno Domini'
was not as accurate as he might have been. There are some, including the Venerable Bede,
who put the date of the Nativity four years earlier than the date commonly ascribed,
though there are variants - e.g. three or even six years earlier. And here let me quote a
rhyming couplet:
How strange it is for us to see
That Christ was born in 4 B.C.
So much for Anno Domini. Now let's look at B.C. Here, of course, we work backwards.
Dates nearer the Nativity would be reasonably easy to determine; assigning dates to events
described in the early books of the Old Testament becomes exceedingly difficult - indeed
impossible in the early books. As one encyclopedia puts it: 'The eras of the creation of the
world are purely conventional and arbitrary.' It might be worth mentioning that one
encyclopedia says that the age of the solar system is variously estimated between 4,700
million years and 6,000 million years. So do not let us take the 'Anno Lucis' dates too
seriously!
The chronology appearing, without authority, in many English Bibles dates from an
edition printed in 1701. The date therein of the Nativity is taken as the central event in
history and, apparently for the first time in any English Bible, the years are reckoned as
either 'Before Christ' or 'Anno Domini'. The chronology was based on a work by James
Ussher, Bishop of Armagh, who gives the date of the Nativity as 'Anno Mundi' 4004, i.e.,
4,004 years after the Creation of the World.
It has been said that Ussher's chronology was not solely based on information given in the
Old Testament, but was subjected to a Messianic or apocalyptic view of history according
of putting the Craft to ridicule. Contemporary letters indicate that he had obtained this
material from a Mile. Carton, a dancer at the Paris Opera, who, in the role of Delilah, had
acquired the information in exchange for her favours. We are not concerned here with the
accuracy of the ritual, which is, in any case, quite interesting^ but only with the "toasting
routine". At the end of the initiation, we read3:—
". . . after which they sit down and, with the Grand Master's Leave [i.e. the W.M.]
drink the new Brother's Health; every Body has his Bottle. When they have a mind
to drink they say, Give some Powder, viz. fill the Glass.
The Grand Master says, Lay your Hands to your Firelocks; then they drink
the Brother's Health, and the Glass is carried in three different Motions to the Mouth;
before they set it down on the Table they lay it to their left Pap, then to the right
and then forwards, and in three other Pauses they lay the Glass perpendicular upon
the Table; clap their Hands three Times, and cry three Times Vivat.
The text was translated into English, German and Dutch, and was published several times
during 1737/8. It is rather doubtful if this version is to be trusted, and its description of the
procedure is not at all clear. As I read it, the "Fire routine" in this, its first appearance in
print, was as follows:—
Toast.
Carry Glass in three movements to the mouth (P.L.R?).
Drink.
Carry glass to L.R & Forwards (L.R.P. instead of P L R ?)
Set glass on table in three movements (L.R.P. or P.L.R. again ?)
Three hand claps and three cries of Vivat.
1 In the 2nd Edition of the B. of C., c. 1738.
2 SeeAQ.C., Vol. 77, pp. 172-193.
3 I quote from an English translation, included with text The Secrets of Masonry . . .
published by Torbuck, in 1737.
THE ORIGIN OF THE Point.Left.Right.
There has always been some doubt, apparently, on the derivation of the P.L.R.
movements, and the reasons why this peculiar custom survives. It has been suggested that
they are related to the Sign of the Cross, which a clergyman might make in benediction,
over food or drink. Another view is that they are related to the "Hammer of Thor" sign, in
somewhat similar movements, supposed to have been made in olden times in the
Scandinavian countries, in order to placate the great god. Some believe that the P.L.R. has
come down to us from "operative" times, and that it represents the motions of a mason or
bricklayer as he lifts cement with his trowel, lays it first to the left and smoothes it across
to the right. It is extremely doubtful if credence can be given to any of these supposed
origins. An examination of the earliest descriptions of the Firing procedure seems to show
beyond all doubt that in practice the movements were derived originally from one of the
early modes of recognition, and though the P.L.R. at Table is nowadays no more than a
shadow of those early movements, its origins are tacitly acknowledged in the rule that
"Firing" may only be executed in a tyled room.
It is not always possible to follow old customs through their different stages of change.
We find them in practice at a particular period and then, decades later perhaps, we find
them altered or modified in certain details, but without trace of what the intermediate
stages may have been. The Firing procedure under the Emulation Lodge of Improvement

5. had to resort to taverns and to hiring halls for their general meetings. He refers to - and
describes in detail - the Banqueting Hall belonging to the Lodge of St. John in Marseilles,
over a door of which there is an inscription which includes the date 'Anno Lucis 5765'-
the earliest use so far discovered.
............. Section deleted .........................
What conclusions do I draw from my study? First I would suggest that the abbreviation
'A. L.' - when first used - stood for one of the Latin phrases meaning 'in the Year of
Masonry' probably 'Anno Latomorum'. Secondly I suggest that 'Anno Lucls' came from
the Continent and that its origin may well stem from the higher degrees. The phrase has
now been adopted not only by our own United Grand Lodge but also by Freemasonry
throughout the world.
Finally, brethren, let me say that although the title of this paper could be construed as
embracing masonic eras of other Orders, such was not my intention. My aim has been to
deal with 'Anno Lucls' and its variants.
Coronati Lodge No. 2076, UGLE in Volume 95 for the year 1980. [p. 1.]
MASONIC FIRE (Abridged)
BY BRO. HARRY CARR
On this subject I can do no better than reproduce a heavily abridged version of the
detailed paper by Bro. Harry Carr and published in Vol 79 p273 of the Transactions
of AQC. Of course, the complete paper should be read if you wish to find more detail
on this fascinating subject.
The origins of our "Firing" practices are a constant source of enquiry and although it will
not be possible to furnish answers to all the questions that arise, it is hoped that this little
essay may help to trace the evolution of one of our ancient customs, whose beginnings are
lost in the mists of time.
It is generally agreed that our Craft Fire is an adaptation, or a survival of the custom of
firing salutes of guns after toasts.
Dr. Kuerden, the antiquary who compiled, between 1682 and 1686, his Brief Description
of the Burrough and Town of Preston, described a celebration of the Preston Gild
Merchant, in which the Mayor accompanied by his guard of soldiers, with representatives
of the Trade Companies, went in procession to the principal gate of the city where the
party was welcomed in a speech by one of the chief scholars of the School; then:—
"... a Barrel or Hogshead of nappy Ale ... is broached, and a glass offered to the Mayor,
who begins a good prosperous health to the King, afterwards to the Queen, the Nobility
and Gentry ... at each health begun by Mr. Mayor, it is attended with a volley of shott
from the musketiers attending ... the country people there present drinking the remainder".
The toasting and the "volley of shott" was apparently repeated at the other "gates" and in
the Market Place. (Misc. Lat. XX, pp. 43/4).
THE EARLIEST DESCRIPTION OF MASONIC FIRE
The earliest description of the procedure which may be counted as the ancestor of our
"Fire" appeared in a French Exposure, Reception d'un Frey-Mafon, which was published
at Paris in 1737, by authority of Herault, Lieutenant General of Police, with the intention
to which the Messiah would come about 4,000 years after the Creation. This apparently
tallied with Ussher's totalling as 4,004 of various dates mentioned in the Old Testament.
However, although this 1701 edition may have been the first Bible to have used the terms
'B.C.' and 'A.D.', it was not the first edition of the Bible which had dates in the margin.
That honour probably belongs to a Bible printed in Oxford in 1679. An interesting point in
this is that the date of the Nativity is given as 'Anno Mundi' 4000.
...................... Section deleted ............
So much for background information. Before turning to the masonic references it is as
well to point out that, despite a careful check of encyclopedias and other books of
reference, I have been unable to find any mention of the term 'Anno Lucis' outside
Freemasonry.
Now for the masonic side. The earliest mention of 'Anno Lucis' in England that I have
found so far is in 1777. I am referring to the phrase in full and not to its abbreviation, A.L.
These initials can be found as early as in 1725, and frequently in the years afterwards. But
it does not follow that these letters stood for 'Anno Lucls'. Indeed, as I will explain later, I
do not think that they did.
Where is this 1777 reference to 'Anno Lucis' found? It is in a rather unusual certificate
issued by the premier Grand Lodge. Briefly, the Lodge of Alfred (which was erased in
about 1790) had, by diploma, made six well-known Grand Officers members of their
lodge. A little later, because a candidate (possibly a relation of one of the Grand Officers)
was prevented by army duties from attending the lodge where he was to be made, the
Alfred Lodge gave these Grand Officers a 'Deputation' to make, pass and raise the
candidate '...in their usual place of making, passing and raising masons, as if he were
made in our presence, and within our said lodge...' The Grand Officers duly did so at
Freemasons' Hall and issued a certificate recording the event. The certificate is dated '15th
Day of February Anno Lucis 5777'.
Until that date references in England to Craft masonic eras had usually been either to the
Year of Masonry or by the abbreviation 'A.L.'
In both the first and second editions of our Constitutions (printed in 1723 and 1738
respectively), the author uses the English phrase 'Year of Masonry'. The same phrase is
found in some later editions, though not all. Throughout the Historical Section, Anderson
frequently quotes Ussher's dates but there are only a few references to the Year of
Masonry. Occasionally he uses 'A.M.', which could mean Anno Masonry' or ''Anno
Mundi'', i.e. in the Year of the World. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the
phrase ''Anno Mundi'' came into popular use about the 9th century A.D.
....................Section deleted ...........................
The abbreviation 'A.L.' is first found in Pine's List of Lodges of 1725. The letters appear
under the armorial bearings of the Grand Master. Pine continued to use this abbreviation
in subsequent editions of his List. So did Cole who produced them after Pine. The
abbreviation is also found under the armorial bearings of the 8th Duke of Norfolk,
Grand Master 1730-1, which were included in the second Minute Book of the premier
Grand Lodge.
Throughout the 18th century the abbreviation 'A.L.' was used on various documents such
as Warrants and Constitutions. It is seen more frequently after the formation of United
Grand Lodge in 1813 but, as I indicated earlier, it did not necessarily stand for 'Anno

6. Lucls'. I very much doubt if it did during the early years. There were other terms which
could be abbreviated as 'A.L.'
The first such term so far discovered is on a set of three jewels presented in 1732 to Dr.
Richard Rawlinson of the Castle Lodge. There is a Latin inscription on each jewel; this
includes the date 'Anno Lat. 5732'. The abbreviation 'Lat.' almost certainly stands for
'Latomorum' , a word regularly seen in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum as the title of the
Supplement - Miscellanea Latomorum. Latomorum is the genitive plural case of the Latin
word 'Latomus' (or in its more usual form 'Lautomus') itself derived from Greek, and
means 'of stone-cutters'. First seen in 14th-century Fabric Rolls it came to represent 'of
freemasons'. Thus 'Anno Latomorum' can be read as 'in the Year of Freemasons' and, not
unreasonably, 'of Freemasonry'.
................ [Section removed] ..............
The abbreviation 'A.L.' can apply also to 'Anno Lithotomorum,' which is found in 1735 in
the Minutes of a lodge at Salisbury. The prefix 'litho' derives from the Greek and has
reference to stone. The Oxford English Dictionary defines 'lithotomic' as meaning
'stonecutting, a mason'. So perhaps the l8th-century writer of those Minutes intended the
words to mean 'the Year of Masonry'.
A few years later we find the phrase 'Anno Laotomiae'. It appears both on banners and
certificates. One such certificate was issued in the Beaufort Lodge No. 167, Bristol; it is a
printed document, the date and name being inserted by hand. It is printed in English on the
right and in Latin on the left. The former refers to 'the Year of Masonry 5814' and the
latter has 'Anno Laotomiae' which must be taken as a direct translation.
In 1752 we have the first List of lodges published by the Grand Lodge of the Antients and
engraved by Ellis. He uses 'Anno Lap'. This could safely be assumed to mean 'Anno
Lapidariorum' 'in the Year of the Stonecutters' and, by definition, 'of Freemasonry'. 'Anno
Lap' was again used by the Antients in 1753 and in 1757, in each case 4,000 being added
to the date. Surely we have yet another variant of the 'Year of Masonry' used by Anderson
in 1723 and found on various documents in every year for decades thereafter.
So we have four phrases - all beginning with the letters 'A.L.' During the whole of the 18th
Century and indeed, the early part of the 19th there is only one instance in England so far
discovered of the Latin term 'Anno Lucis'. I submit, however, that there is a strong
possibility even a probability that the abbreviation 'A.L.' originally stood for a Latin
phrase (more than one seems likely) signifying 'in the Year of Masonry'.
In the latter half of the 18th century and up to the Union of the two Grand Lodges, the
most commonly used designations in England were 'the Year of Masonry' and the
abbreviation 'A.L.' The words 'Anno Laotomiae' appears a few times, usually in those
lodges owing allegiance to the Grand Lodge of the Antients.
During the 1790s and into the 1830s we find 'Artis' (or occasionally 'Aerae')
'Architectonicae' and 'Artis Aedificatoriae', such phrases being found on both Craft and
Royal Arch certificates. They are also found in Scotland on foundation stones that had
been laid with full masonic ceremonial.
But when do we next find 'Anno Lucls', bearing in mind that the only date so far recorded
in England is 1777? The next occasion is on a copy of a Knights Templar 'Patent of
Constitution' granted by Dunckerley in 1791. There are four dates given on the document,
but we are interested in only the first two. These are 'Anno Lucis 5795' and 'Anno Domini
1791'. Unfortunately, the original patent has disappeared and we have to rely on a copy.
One can only assume that the original did have the words 'Anno Lucls' in full, and not just
the abbreviation 'A.L.'
Still in England, our next find is in the writings of Carlile, a non-mason, but the author and
publisher of (amongst other things) The Manual of Freemasonry. A letter printed in
another of his publications (and bearing his temporary address Dorchester Jail), has the
date 'July 8 A.D. 1825. Anno Lucis to Freemasons'. Another letter has 'July 14 Anno
Tenebrae 1825. Anno Lucis (to masons).' 'Anno Tenebrae' can be translated as 'in the Year
of Darkness' - presumably some joke of Carlile's. It would seem that by 1825 Carlile was
of the opinion that the words 'Anno Lucis' were known (and presumably used) by
freemasons. Furthermore one can assume that, according to Carlile, the abbreviation 'A.L.'
had by then come to mean 'Anno Lucis'.
Three years later we find the words again this time on a bi-lingual certificate issued by the
Portuguese Lodge Fidelity at Plymouth in 1828. The Portuguese side of the certificate
refers to 'Anno do Verd Luz 5828'; the Latin side has the words 'Lucis Anno 5828'.
..................... Section deleted ................
Although I have not been able to find 'Anno Lucis' on any Craft certificate issued by the
United Grand Lodge, the words do appear on certificates issued by Supreme Grand
Chapter, and have done so since the 1840s. To the best of my knowledge they do not
occur in any other official document issued by either authority.
It would, of course, be helpful if we had some guidance from one of the Grand Lodges
pre-Union or today, regarding the abbreviation. The United Grand Lodge obviously
considers it to stand for 'Anno Lucls'. But is there anything in the Articles of Union to
confirm this? No. The date given is '25th day of November, in the Year of our Lord, 1813,
and of Masonry, 5 813'. No 'Anno Lucls'- and indeed no 'A. L.'
As for the premier Grand Lodge and the Grand Lodge of the Antients, we have seen that
they used both the phrase 'in the Year of Masonry' and the abbreviation 'A.L.' but not
'Anno Lucis'.
There remains one other source of information and that is in the drafts of the inscription
that was to be used on the brass plate to be placed in the north-east corner of the first
Freemasons' Hall. There are two drafts. The first has the phrase 'In the Year of the World
(or of Light) 5779. 1775'. (Note, incidentally, the addition of 4,004 years, not 4,000.) The
second draft has two dates ' each of which is preceded by an abbreviation 'A.L., and 'A.C.',
the latter presumably standing for 'Anno Christo'. In fact neither draft was used. The
wording actually used is recorded in Grand Lodge Minutes (and reprinted in full by
Noorthouck in the 1768 Constitutions). The English version reads: 'In the fifteenth year of
the reign of George III and the seventeen hundred and seventy fifth of human salvation.'
There is no reference to 'the Year of Masonry', 'A.L.'or 'Anno Lucis'.
So no guidance there, either in the original drafts or in the wording finally adopted. Or is
there? Perhaps there is. You will recall that the first draft had 'In the Year of the World (or
of Light) 5779. 1775'. The words are in English, but, the Latin word for light is 'Lux' from
which is derived the genitive 'Lucis'.
Now I would suggest that this may take us to the Continent. There is evidence that 'the
Year of Light' was being used on official documents, Charters and masonic certificates
and in masonic inscriptions in France and other European countries not in English, but in
the language of the country (mainly French) and occasionally in Latin. Furthermore it is in
France that we first find 'Anno Lucis'.
In his 1772 edition of Illustrations of Masonry, Preston laments the fact that freemasons