The English Emulation Style, or Emulation Rite

Relatively little known on the Continent, the Emulation Rite intrigues as much as it baffles. Presented as a rite in its own right, it does not, however, match what European Freemasons usually mean by that term. The Emulation Rite is not a structured system like the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite or the French Rite, but a way of working inherited from the particular history of English Freemasonry. Should we then speak of the Emulation Rite, or correct this label? And what does the Emulation Rite really reveal about Masonic practice across the Channel?

1. Is the Emulation Rite really a rite?

This is no doubt the first difficulty, and a considerable one: the Emulation Rite is not, strictly speaking, a rite. The expression itself is misleading, because it projects onto English Freemasonry a continental reading grid that does not fit it. In England, people do not speak of rites in the sense European Freemasons give the word, but of “workings”, that is, ways of working in Lodge within a common framework.

The Emulation Rite, or more accurately Emulation Working, therefore refers to a particular way of practising the rituals of English Freemasonry, and not to an autonomous system with its own degrees, its own symbolic variants or its own specific regalia. At the United Grand Lodge of England there is no plurality of competing rites as on the Continent, but a unity of principle: working “according to the English Constitutions”.

It is precisely this point that baffles. Where a Freemason trained in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite or the French Rite expects a structured, coherent and clearly identified corpus, in England he finds only a diversity of practices very close to one another, all derived from the same matrix. The Emulation Rite is therefore not a rite in the continental sense of the term, but one of the most widespread expressions of a single tradition.

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2. Why did English Freemasonry split in the eighteenth century?

The birth of modern Freemasonry is traditionally dated to the founding of the Grand Lodge of London in 1717, or more probably in 1721. This date is often presented as a clear and consensual starting point. Yet it is not. Far from rallying all the English Lodges, this new body met with resistance very early on.

Some Lodges considered that the customs developing within it were altering older practices. In particular, they objected to the disappearance of certain ritual elements, such as the invocations, the suppression of offices such as that of the Deacons, and changes in the symbolic arrangement, notably the inversion of the pillars and of the words in the first two degrees. These criticisms were not a matter of mere conservative attachment: they expressed a genuine disagreement about how the ritual should be transmitted and practised.

A first form of organised opposition appeared in the north of England with the Lodge at York, which in 1725 proclaimed itself the “Grand Lodge of All England”. Although this Grand Lodge remained marginal and had an intermittent existence, it nevertheless bears witness to an essential fact: from its very beginnings, English Freemasonry was not unified, but was riven by deep tensions over the legitimacy of ritual practices.

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3. The “Antients” versus the “Moderns”: a founding rift

The real fault line, however, lay not in York but in London, with the lasting opposition between those who would be called the “Moderns” and those who would describe themselves as the “Ancients” — “Antients”, with a deliberate t, as if to signal an avowed loyalty to an older tradition.

During the 1730s and 1740s, relations between the Grand Lodge of London and the Grand Lodges of Ireland (1725) and Scotland (1736) gradually deteriorated. Many Irish and Scottish Freemasons living in London refused to join the so-called “Modern” Lodges, which they considered remote from their own customs. The influx of Irish refugees after the famine of 1740-1741 further accentuated this phenomenon: many Freemasons among them founded their own Lodges, faithful to their original practices.

In 1751, six of these Lodges formed a new Grand Lodge with a telling name: the “Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons according to the Old Constitutions”. Behind this name lay a clear intention: to assert the legitimacy of a tradition distinct from that of the “Moderns”. The central figure of this movement was Laurence Dermott (1720-1791), an Irish merchant and Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge, author of the Constitutions known under the title Ahiman Rezon.

Title page of the Ahiman Rezon by Laurence Dermott (1764 edition), the founding text of the Grand Lodge of the “Antients”

The Lodges of the “Antients” practised rituals marked by Irish influence, traces of which can be found in certain eighteenth-century exposures, such as The Three Distinct Knocks (1760). Facing them, the “Moderns” continued to develop, notably on the European continent. But in the English-speaking world, and particularly in America, the tradition of the “Antients” largely prevailed, carried in particular by the Irish and Scottish regiments of the British army.

This opposition between “Antients” and “Moderns” was not a mere quarrel between schools: it profoundly shaped the development of English Freemasonry and, implicitly, prepared the conditions for the future union — of which the Emulation Rite would be one of the indirect heirs.

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4. 1813: the union… and the birth of a new way of working

After more than half a century of rivalry, the tensions between “Antients” and “Moderns” began to ease at the turn of the nineteenth century. A movement towards rapprochement got under way, driven by a shared wish to end a division that had become hard to sustain. This process did not happen without preparation.

As early as 1809, the “Moderns” created a dedicated Lodge, the Lodge of Promulgation, tasked with re-examining ritual practices and bringing them closer to the old customs. The aim was clear: to make reconciliation possible with the “Antients”, as well as with the Irish and Scottish traditions. At the same time, commissioners were appointed on both sides to prepare an act of union.

The circumstances became favourable in 1813, when two sons of King George III became Grand Masters of the two rival Grand Lodges: the Duke of Sussex for the “Moderns”, the Duke of Kent for the “Antients”. Their shared resolve eased the negotiations. On 27 December 1813, the United Grand Lodge of England was officially constituted, under the authority of the Duke of Sussex.

Temple of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement in London, a key place for handing down the Emulation Style

To unify practices, a Lodge of Reconciliation was set up. Its mission was to define a common ritual capable of reconciling the traditions involved. The result leaned clearly towards the customs of the “Antients”, whose influence became dominant. It was not, however, a matter of creating a new rite in the continental sense of the term, but of establishing a common basis for working, in keeping with the English Constitutions.

It was within this framework that various Lodges of Instruction developed, tasked with handing down and stabilising these customs. Among them, the Emulation Lodge of Improvement would play a decisive role. It did not create a rite, but it is from this Lodge that the name of the Emulation Rite comes, as it would later be understood — or misunderstood.

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5. Emulation: one working among others

This is where the misunderstanding becomes obvious. The Emulation Rite, as it is called on the Continent, is in reality only one working among others, that is, a specific way of putting into practice the customs defined after the union of 1813. It has neither doctrinal autonomy nor a distinct structure of its own: it belongs to a coherent whole that the United Grand Lodge of England has never sought to break up into competing rites.

The Emulation Lodge of Improvement, founded in the early nineteenth century, established itself as one of the main Lodges of Instruction entrusted with handing down these customs. Through the rigour of its teaching and the prestige it enjoyed, it did much to spread its way of working, to the point that its name became, by simplification, that of a supposed rite. But this is merely the effect of its wide spread, not of any official recognition.

Other workings do exist, however, stemming from other Lodges of Instruction: Stability, Oxford, Taylor, Standard, South London, West End. Their differences are real but minimal, and concern not the structure of the ritual but nuances of performance, wording or gesture. All of them derive from the same matrix, that of the practices established after the union.

The United Grand Lodge of England has never decreed that any one working should prevail as the reference. On the contrary, it regards this internal diversity as a strength, provided it remains within the framework of the Constitutions. There is therefore no Emulation Rite in the strict sense, but one way, among others, of working according to the English tradition.

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6. What are the distinctive features of the Emulation Rite?

For a Freemason trained on the Continent, the Emulation Rite is surprising less for its texts than for the way they are put into practice. What strikes one first is not any particular doctrinal content, but a demand for form carried to a degree rarely reached in the continental rites.

A fully memorised practice

The Emulation Rite is traditionally worked without any written aid. The Officers must know their parts by heart and deliver the rituals with precision. This requirement can be daunting, but it is not peculiar to the Emulation Rite: it is found throughout English-speaking practice. It reflects a particular conception of transmission, based on living memory rather than on the text.

Gestures that give structure

This is undoubtedly the most distinctive point. The Emulation Rite attaches considerable importance to gesture, posture and movement. Every movement is codified, every position meaningful. The ritual is not merely spoken: it is embodied. This rigour may seem formal, even constraining, but in this context it is in fact the very heart of Masonic work.

A Lodge without papers

Another major difference: the absence of papers (planches) as they are known in the continental rites. Work in Lodge is not based on presentations followed by discussion, but on a precise ritual sequence repeated at every meeting: the Lodge is opened successively in the first, second and then third degree, before being closed in reverse order. Apart from ceremonies of initiation and advancement, this sequence makes up the bulk of the activity. The ritual is not a setting for some other work: it is the work itself. Lectures, where there are any, take place outside the meeting, most often at the festive board.

Teaching through the body rather than through speech

The Emulation Rite favours a form of learning through repetition and the gradual assimilation of gestures. The point is not to explain, but to do. This approach can be likened, in a way, to certain practices found in the Asian martial arts, where codified sequences allow principles to be internalised without going through any explicit theoretical formulation. The ritual then becomes an exercise in itself, a discipline that engages the body as much as the mind.

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7. Is the Emulation Rite closer to the operative tradition?

To continental eyes, the Emulation Rite sometimes gives the impression of a return to an older form of practice, in which gesture takes precedence over speech. This impression deserves to be qualified, but it is not without foundation. The central place given to repetition, to precision of movement and to the rigorous performance of the ritual suggests a logic of learning that is reminiscent of the old crafts.

Among operative Masons, transmission did not come first through theoretical explanation, but through imitation and the correction of gesture. One learned by doing, under the eye of those who knew. From this point of view, the Emulation Rite seems to preserve something of that spirit, not in its historical forms, but in its way of approaching initiatic work.

This is obviously not to claim a direct continuity, which would be hard to establish with certainty. But the comparison helps bring to light a difference in sensibility: whereas the continental rites have largely developed a discursive approach, built around reflection and exchange, the Emulation Rite favours gradual internalisation, grounded in practice.

This orientation is neither superior nor inferior. It offers another path. And that is perhaps where the value of the Emulation Rite lies for European Freemasons: not as a model to imitate, but as a reminder that the ritual can be something more than a mere framework, and can once again become a genuine tool of transformation.

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Conclusion – The Emulation Rite, another way of working

The Emulation Rite, despite its common name, is not a rite in the sense in which Freemasons on the Continent understand it. It refers to a way of working that arose from the particular history of English Freemasonry, inherited from the union of 1813 and handed down by various Lodges of Instruction. To understand the Emulation Rite is therefore to accept leaving a logic of classification behind and entering a logic of practice.

This difference in perspective largely explains the misunderstandings surrounding the Emulation Rite. Where one looks for a structured system, one finds not a rite, but a way of working “according to the English Constitutions”, of which the Emulation Rite is only one of the possible forms. Where one expects explicit teaching, one discovers a pedagogy based on repetition and the gradual assimilation of the ritual. The Emulation Rite does not offer a discourse about Freemasonry: it draws those who practise it into an experience.

By reminding us that the ritual can be an end in itself, the Emulation Rite invites us to reconsider certain habits formed in continental practice, where the ritual is sometimes reduced to a mere preliminary framework. The aim is not to rank the approaches, but to recognise that there are several paths, some of which pass less through commentary than through performance.

By Ion Rajolescu, editor-in-chief of Nos Colonnes — in the service of a Masonic voice that is sound, rigorous and alive

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Discover our collection of regalia for the Emulation Rite.

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Here you will find the full transcript of the podcast, for those who prefer reading or wish to explore the discussion in more depth.

Podcast – The Emulation Rite, another way of working

The Emulation Rite often intrigues Freemasons on the Continent. It is presented as a rite and compared with the great well-known systems, such as the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite or the French Rite, and yet, as soon as one looks at it closely, something resists. The Emulation Rite is not a rite in the sense we usually give the word. It is a way of working, stemming from the English tradition, and that is precisely what makes it hard to grasp.

To understand this particularity, we must go back to the origins of modern Freemasonry in England. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the founding of the Grand Lodge of London was far from unanimously accepted. Some Lodges contested the ritual changes developing within it. They saw them as alterations of older practices, notably in the suppression of certain offices or in the modification of symbolic landmarks.

This dispute took a structured form with the opposition between the “Moderns” and those who called themselves the “Antients”. The latter claimed loyalty to customs they regarded as more authentic, often influenced by the Irish and Scottish traditions. For several decades, these two currents would coexist, develop and at times clash.

It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that a rapprochement took place. In eighteen thirteen, the two Grand Lodges united to form the United Grand Lodge of England. This union did not give birth to a new rite, but to a will to unify practices. A dedicated Lodge, the Lodge of Reconciliation, was tasked with defining a common framework.

It was in this context that the Lodges of Instruction developed, intended to hand down these customs. Among them, the Emulation Lodge of Improvement would play a major role. Its influence was such that its name eventually came to designate, by simplification, a way of working. This is how what we now call the Emulation Rite came into being.

But we must be precise. The Emulation Rite is only one form among others of a single English model. The United Grand Lodge of England does not recognise several rites, but one way of working according to its Constitutions. Different workings exist, with nuances, but all follow the same logic.

What sets the Emulation Rite apart is not any particular doctrinal content, but a way of doing things. The ritual is learned by heart. Gestures are codified with great precision. And above all, work in Lodge is not based on presentations or discussions. The Lodge is opened successively in the three degrees, then closed, in a strict order. The ritual is not a setting for some other work. It is the work.

This approach may surprise continental Freemasons, used to the practice of papers and to exchanges in Lodge. Yet it offers another path. A quieter, more embodied path, where one learns by doing, by repeating, by gradually assimilating gestures and forms.

In a way, this practice is reminiscent of that of the old operative Masons. Not that there is a direct continuity, but one finds a logic of learning based on gesture rather than on speech. One learns by watching, by reproducing, by adjusting.

The Emulation Rite therefore does not offer teaching in the discursive sense of the term. It draws those who practise it into an experience. It reminds us that the ritual can be an end in itself, and not merely a preliminary. And that is perhaps why it deserves to be understood, not as a model to imitate, but as another way of inhabiting Freemasonry.