Freemasonry and Friendly Societies

Abstract

This chapter considers the similarities in the nineteenth century between the attitudes of Freemasonry and the societies towards rituals and charity, as are the diversion from one another in the early twentieth century and the subsequent further shifts in their alignments. In the nineteenth century the Freemasons and many of the larger British friendly societies, notably the Independent Order of Oddfellows, Manchester Unity (IOOFMU) and the Ancient Order of Foresters (AOF) had similar interests, associational forms, systems of connected lodges and esoteric, universalist rituals which blended beliefs from Christianity and science. Although the IOOFMU and the AOF acknowledged their ancestry in the guilds they shared an interest with the Freemasons in invented traditions. Ritual was a means to check the status of a stranger, to unite those who had been initiated and remind them of their promises of fraternal fidelity. Keywords: ancient order of foresters (AOF); British friendly societies; Christianity; fraternal charity; Freemasonry; independent order of oddfellows, manchester unity (IOOFMU)