On the edge of the village of Rushton, in the heart of the Northamptonshire countryside stands a mysterious stone edifice. Three stories high and illuminated by three windows on each side of each story, the building forms a perfect equilateral triangle. Each face has three gables rising to three pinnacles constructed from three stone triangles, and the roof is crowned with a three-sided chimneystack: the whole building is based around the number three.
    The triangular lodge was the brainchild of Sir Thomas Tresham, a Catholic recusant in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was born into a landed Northamptonshire family in the mid sixteenth-century, and was only fifteen years old when, in 1559, he succeeded his grandfather to the family estates. Significantly, his grandfather had been one of the first magnates to proclaim Catholic Queen Mary on her succession to the throne on the 18 July 1553, and guarded her on her march to London.
    When Mary resolved to restore the Order of St. John in England, suppressed by her father, King Henry VIII, Tresham was appointed as grand prior. However his appointment was short lived, for he died within two years, to be succeeded by his grandson of the same name.
    The young Sir Thomas Tresham was raised as a Protestant, but in 1580 was converted to Roman Catholicism by a Jesuit, Robert Parsons, thereafter he received numerous visitations from missionary priests. On 18 August 1581, he was arrested, charged with harbouring Jesuit, Edmund Campion, and imprisoned. He remained in confinement for almost seven years. In 1586 many believed he would join the Babington conspirators as the ground was being prepared for a Spanish invasion, but though staunchly Catholic, he did not care for Spanish aggression. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Tresham was finally released on bail on the 29 November 1588, after swearing his allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, though her wily spymaster, Sir Thomas Walsingham, kept him under constant surveillance. He was correct to do so for Tresham’s son was later involved with Guy Fawkes in the Gunpowder Plot; it is said that the conspirators met in the triangular lodge.
    Over the next few years, Tresham used his freedom to concentrate on a number of building projects, including the market-house at neighbouring Rothwell, alterations to the family home of Rushton Hall, and a cruciform house at Lyveden New Bield. Yet it was the triangular lodge at Rushton that was to prove his most remarkable architectural legacy.
    Built between 1593-5, it stands as a testimony to Tresham's stubborn adherence to the old Catholic faith, and the repetitious use of the number three emphasised his devotion to the Trinity. Each side of the lodge measures exactly thirty-three feet in length, and just below the gables, a frieze carries an inscription consisting of thirty-three letters. Entrance to the lodge is from the southeast and relates to the Old Testament. It carries
    the appropriate inscription: APERIATUR TERRA ET GERMINET SALVATOREM - 'Let the Earth open and bring forth a Saviour'. (Isaiah, XLV, v 8). Above the door is the strange code 5555, which, appears to allude to Bede's calculation of the date of Creation, 3962 BC: if this is added to the starting date of the Lodge, 1593, it gives 5555. Above this are the Jewish seven-branched Menora and a hexagon containing the seven eyes of God.
    The entablature on the north reads: QUIS SEPARABIT NOS A CHARITATE CHRISTI? - 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?' (Romans, VIII, v 35), and on the gables are the Pelican in its piety and the Raven, both associated with Christ as they bring spiritually nourishing food. A Raven is typically associated with bringing a loaf of bread to holy men in the desert, such as Elijah or St. Anthony.
    In medieval alchemy it symbolised the death or beginning of the work called the "nigredo". The contemporaneous English alchemist, Edward Kelly (1555 - 1599) wrote, 'The beginning of our work is the Black Raven, which like all things that are to grow and receive life, must first putrefy'. The reference here is to a spiritual death of the former self, and the accompanying sacrificial symbol of the Pelican echoes this. From the early Christian centuries, the Pelican was believed to gouge blood from herself which she then gave to her offspring. Consequently medieval theologians, philosophers and alchemists likened the bird to Christ, and the alchemical stage was said to issue like 'a fountain of blood from the white stone'. Even St. Augustine had earlier stated that the Pelican had 'a great likeness to the body of Christ, whose blood nourishes us'. Today this symbol is associated with the 'high' degrees of modern Freemasonry.
    Following in thematic sequence, the southwest side proclaims, CONSIDERAVI OPERA TUA DOMINE ET EXPAVI - 'I have considered thy works, O Lord, and been afraid' - (Habbakuk, III, v 2), words which derive from the Good Friday Mass. They are accompanied with the symbols of a Dove upon a coiled serpent (Uroborus) with a hand issuing forth from a Sun Appropriately, on the chimney above, a Tau cross rises out of a chalice which is enclosed within a pentagon, and the Tau also features on each corner of the lodge.
    Evidently this mystical cross was of importance to Tresham, as he also had it carved in verse relating to the Crucifixion upon the walls of the Oratory of Rushton Hall. Once again there is no need to speculate upon its meaning as the verse reads: ECCE SALUTIFERUM SIGNUM THAU NOBILE LIGNUM - 'Behold the salvation-bearing symbol Thau, the noble Tree of Life'. On the north side of the chimney is the Agnus Dei or lamb of God with the inscription, ECCE - 'Look', while on the southwest is the sacred monogram IHS under a cross, with three nails contained inside an octagon, signifying rebirth and regeneration - themes which once again echo modern Freemasonry.

The Builders

One might easily think that the story ends there, except that this strange edifice offers yet more surprises. Examination of the extant accounts relating to Tresham's building endeavours, reveals that he employed a number of 'ffreemasons' to execute his extraordinary projects. The term 'freemason' was a corruption of 'free-stone mason', and is first recorded in England towards the end of the fourteenth century as 'lathomos vocatus ffre maceons'. All the great fifteenth and early sixteenth century examples of English perpendicular architecture, were the result of these ingenious craftsmen, and the master who vaulted the magnificent ceiling at King's College Chapel, Cambridge, bound himself to 'kepe continually 60 fre-masons workyng'. Great changes took place as a result of the Reformation, when most craftsmen began to rely upon the patronage of rich merchants or the landed aristocracy, working on their country houses and monumental tombs. In spite of these changes, the term survived. In 1578, Sir Thomas Tresham contracted with the local 'freemason' William Grumbold to undertake 'certaine workes to be done at Rothwell Crosse' market-house, and the craftsmen also employed on the building of Rushton Hall, Liveden, and the triangular Lodge itself are all recorded as being 'freemasons'.
    Clearly these craftsmen would have been familiar with the symbolism used to adorn the Lodge, however the key question remains: did they have symbolic ceremonies to accompany their ancient tradition? Many arguments have been advanced as to why symbolic or ceremonial Freemasonry cannot have existed at this time. John Hamill and R. A. Gilbert state in Freemasonry, A Celebration of the Craft, .. 'there is as yet no evidence of operative lodges in England after 1500.'1 Contrary to this assertion, at Westminster in 1532 it is recorded that a lock and 'shutting plate' were, 'set upon a dore belonging to one of the lodgies wherein certein of the masons worke.' In 1582, a new timber bridge is recorded as on the channel at Westminster against the end of 'the masons’ lodge', and five years later some tiling was done on 'the Masons Lodge next to Charing Crosse'. In 1602, the rooms adjoining the Masons' lodge in Westminster were also rendered with lime and hair. Masonic manuscripts of the period, known as 'Old Charges', also refer to lodges and contain a traditional apocryphal history of the craft that typically embraces biblical and classical antecedents, including the sons of Noah, Euclid, Pythagoras and Solomon. Clearly Sir Thomas Tresham and the craftsmen he employed were both extremely interested in biblical themes. However, deciding who exactly influenced who is one of those enduring mysteries that still surround the origins of our modern craft.

1. J.M. Hamill & R.A. Gilbert, Freemasonry - A Celebration of the Craft (Herts, 1992), p. 22

Text © Matthew Scanlan, May, 2001.

Matthew Scanlan MA is a doctoral student currently completing a book on the Origins of Freemasonry and the related Templar legends. He is a member of the Duke of Wharton Research Lodge, No.18, Barcelona, and the Centro Estudios Historicos de la Masoneria Espanola (CEHME) based at Zaragoza, Spain. He is also International Editor of Freemasonry Today and editor of the Canonbury Masonic Research Centre's forthcoming transactions, The Canonbury Papers.