John
Winthrop vs. John Mason
Battle Sub Rosa
By Michael Callis
John Winthrop is embraced as a founding father in a recently published book on his papers. The fundamentalists in the Republican party recite his vision of a city on the hill. Anyone that would compare Winthrop to Ronald Reagan is doing Reagan a great disservice. Winthrop was a vampire who should have been left locked in his coffin. Now that Winthrop is embraced by certain ideologues, he should be exposed to the sun so the reader can judge for themselves.
Engraving from Robert Fludd, Summum bonum, Frankfurt 1629.
To read Winthrop's Papers by themselves without an understanding of New Hampshire history or the early NH court records and more importantly without reading The Golden Fleece published in 1626 by Thomas Vaughn, is not a complete undertaking. I would argue that Winthrop is the primary reason that the church was separated from government and the courts. He stood for everything that America would eventually discard in their march for liberty.
" A Rose by any other name" is part of a famous line written by Shakespeare. Shakespeare's works and the King James bible are considered two monumental literary works for all time. The same period produced a scientific work equally important, Novum Organum by Sir Francis Bacon. King James was Scottish and the first King of England that wasn't English and Bacon was the chancellor of England and promoting a strong parliament. Freestone Masonry and the order of the Rosie cross were revitalized during this period and Shakespeare's a Midsummers Night dream played an important part in their rituals.
Bacon promoted the settling of colonies for free trade and religious toleration was an important ingredient. Capt. John Mason[1] was implementing Bacon's vision when he settled colonies in Ireland and Newfoundland and in 1619 he set up two colonies or plantations in New Hampshire in New England. The term New England was used to describe the grant to Mason and company. Mason and company received a grant from King James that started at the Charles river to north of the Saco in Maine.
In 1625 King Charles 1 replaced King James and the Golden Fleece[2] chronicles the first year of his reign, the author Vaughn was part of the Privy court of the King. The Golden Fleece is inscribed "the fraternity of the Rosie Cross" and the book makes clear that they are Catholic but not of the Roman order of Bishops and a Pope. The end of the book has King Charles ordering that the new world would be for Protestants and no Catholics would be allowed to settle or travel to the New World. Mason was not allowed to return to New Hampshire to retire as was his plan.
The freestone Masons were Protestant and the order of the Rose Cross was based on the Catholic church before the installation of a pope around 350 AD. By 1628 Mason was working on a plan with King Charle's closest aid the Duke of Buckingham. In the letters of John Mason, Mason writes to the Duke of Buckingham that their undertaking is dangerous and that lodgings were arranged for him at Mason's residence. Mason also mentions the completion of a spy ship named the Spy. Within two months of the letter the Duke of Buckingham is assassinated at Mason's residence. This time period is filled with secret societies and the spies that would carry out the mandates of their respective secret institutions. [3]
Gov.Winthrop arrived in 1630 and was made governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company (MBC). Winthrop ordered the imprisonment of two spies working on behalf of the interests of Capt. John Mason and the New Hampshire Rose Cross Catholics. The accused agents were Thomas Moreton associated with the Maypole celebration and Sir Christopher Gardiner knight of the golden melice. Morton and Gardiner were deported to England by 1632. [4],[5]
Their complaints were heard by King Charles the first in 1633. A trial was held and prominent members of the MBC were present in England, but were allowed to return from England to the MBC after the trial.[6] Winthrop records that Charles was not going to interfere with their religious determination. After the return of MBC officials Winthrop continues his resistance and determination to control New England, the named coined originally for Mason and company for their grant in 1623. By 1629 Mason was granted NH bordered by the Merimac river to the south. The area north of the Pisqataqau river was subdivided and became the boundary between NH and Maine, these are the same borders for NH today. After the trial in 1633, John Cotton[7] a Protestant had to leave in secret and Mason[8] was made vice admiral for the New England fleet. Coinciding with these events is the arrival of George Vaughn[9] sent over by Capt. Mason to replace Capt. Walter Neale a Protestant soldier of fortune.
Capt. Walter Neale's departure is recorded in Winthrops journal, Winthrop infers a claim that Neale did not intentionally give him letters that exposed Morton and Gardiner as spies.[10] In Winthrop's same entry he invokes the memory of Mary Queen of Scots also known as Bloody Mary to her Protestant detractors. Capt. Neale was well known for a duel that took place in 1630, just before Winthrop came in possession of the Morton and Gardiner letters. The duel is recorded in the Historical records of NH as the battle of bloody Point.[11] Capt. Neale drew a line in the sand and stood to defend the original settlers of NH and Thomas Wiggen a great supporter of Winthrop was the challenger. The story goes that after throwing epitaphs at each other the two Protestants walked off the field of battle as friends. Although the reason for the name bloody is said to be because of what didn't happen ( a bloody battle), it seems more likely that they were outdoing each other with bloody Mary epitaphs, and Capt. Neale would have been in the awkward position of defending Catholics. There are also reports in Great Britain of men being released from prison and from death sentences because of their being a Free Stone Mason.
Vaughn, the name sake of the author of the Golden Fleece is an important name in New Hampshire's early history. In 1708 the name of William Vaughn appears as the recorder of deeds on the Wheelwright -Indian deed, an important document shrouded in mystery.
The deed is central for the control of New Hampshire's when it is discovered and recorded then disappears only to be challenged 100 years later. Today, no one can explain the deeds origins although many have tried and much of central NH was conveyed to Irish Scottish immigrants and given the name of Londonderry using this deed. The key to the deeds origins lies with the events surrounding the conflict of the Rose and Winthrop. Vaughn being a Rose Cross sympathizer, is consistent with the namesake of the Golden Fleece and the timing, 1633 following the trial, is a time when the order of the Rose cross are shown favors by King Charles and allowed to go to the New World. It is more likely the alliance was necessary for Charles because he was in desperate need of allies and not the merits of the trial.
Winthrop records news of the trial on the arrival of Capt. Rose and his ship the Mary and Jane.[12] Winthrop enters in his journals a note of the ship sinking on departure in 1633. Two years later in 1635 Winthrop records an update of what happened to Capt. Rose and his adventure after his ship was lost[13]. In the same entry is recent description of Capt. Mason and Mason's ship being broken in two. Capt. Mason had been made Vice admiral of the New England fleet and was to take the charter allowing the MBC to exist. According to a letter written by Thomas Moreton in 1634 inscribed to "My very good gossip" this letter fell into the hands of Winthrop.[14] The letter is recorded in 1644 in Winthrop's journals, and gives Winthrop a heads up as to the plans of King Charles. In 1634 Winthrop leads a campaign to remove the red cross from the colors and defend the MBC from any sent by the King to remove their charter.[15]
Winthrop enters in his journal that Capt. Mason died, the entry is dated 1636. It does not mention that Masons cousin also died around the same time as Capt. Mason. The Capt.'s cousin bearing the namesake of Mason was the tutor for the second King Charles who was restored to the throne after a lapse of ten years of a non royal Great Britain, referred to as the Restoration. Winthrop mentions that with the death of Mason the concerns they had of Mason prosecuting the orders of King Charles were put to sleep. Immediately following this entry is an account of the turmoil being caused by the cross not being included in the colors, and it was decided to put the cross back.
The red cross and St. George the dragon slayer were symbols important
to the order of the Rose Cross. In 1637 King Charles made another attempt
to revoke the MBC charter, and about the same time three ships were ordered
to show their colors one was named the Rose, a warning shot was fired
and one of the men on the ship was killed, according to Winthrop's account
it was the providence of God.[16] Winthrop thought the sign of the cross
was idolatry, the chalice that he used did not have the cross but rather
pagan symbols. To Winthrop the trinity and moral dictums were to be defined
by the church elders, to the Rose cross the sign of the cross indicated
that the trinity and holy spirit were within the individual and inferred
individual liberty with the moral responsibility that went with it. Removing
the cross from the official flag of Great Britain the colors required
to be flown by the MBC was a major bone of contention with those supporting
religious and political freedom, not to mention King Charles. A proposal
was made to replace the red cross of St. George, ( St. George was the
dragon slaying patron saint of Jews Christians and Muslims, although Winthrop
claimed it was the cross of the pope.), with the red and white rose cross,
before Mason's death. Charles the first was reacting to civil war and
constant uprisings and plots against him since he dissolved the Parliament
in 1629, and that is when and why Winthrop came to the MBC, and that is
why Winthrop was able to thwart Charles the first's attempts to oust him
for so many years.
In 1640, Winthrop furnishes more information on the death of Capt. Mason
which occurred five years earlier and is recorded in 1636 in Winthrops
journal. Mason died in 1635 after his war ship broke in half, just before
its mission to seize the MBC charter in Winthrop's possession. The second
account of Mason's death is in the journal entry dated 1640 and follows
an entry of a more recent disaster, about a ship named the Mary Rose that
was to take the charter from the MBC.[17] The Mary Rose, according to
Winthrop and his allies, was blown up by the wonderful providence of God.
This was the second war ship sunk on the eve of a mission to take the
charter from Winthrop and the MBC. The name rose appears with regularity
in events courting disaster for the secret order of the Rose-Cross in
Winthrop's Journals. Winthrop's entries immediately preceding and following
incidents involving the word Rose, are telling of a battle under the Rose.
The name rose was not just a name but was a symbol of a movement for
free trade, freedom of religious expression and liberty.
Winthrop's city on a hill, in practice, involved the church, courts and
government united during the times when Winthrop held the governor ship.
Winthrop was building his city with the blood and bones of those seeking
liberty. The issue of the charter was resolved in 1649 when Charles lost
his head to the Protestant Parliament and Winthrop died after a short
illness.
A cross that had powers, the power to excommunicate, could be argued as
being Idolatrous. The Rose Cross was a symbol of the individuals capacity
for experiencing the light of knowledge within each individual, their
cross had no powers outside of this metaphor. With this definition a vampire
could not be defeated by simply holding up a cross but it could be defeated
with the light of knowledge. Amen.
The Rose cross was based on the writings of Rosenkreutz written in 1250 in Germany and the writings of the 16th century alchemist Paracelsus. Paracelsus is credited with identifying that diseases could be caused by foreign agents, his body of work is considered the beginning of modern medicine. His work is also considered observation and experiment. Sir Frances Bacon's Novum Organum is considered a breakthrough for observation and experimentation, also the precursor to inductive reasoning. Induct is a word that describes the beginning of a play by Shakespeare, the secret induction ceremony of the Freemason's, and the powerful knowledge conveyed when applying inductive reasoning which Novum Oraganum by Bacon is credited with describing. This word induct would fit the description of the Mason secret word. Inductive reasoning uses statistics to foretell the future not magic. In The Golden Fleece written in 1626 statistics are used and explained to King Charles by the Rosicrucian's. They also explain the state of the economy and the effects of former actions in the devaluation of their money. The Golden Fleece is a lightly allegorical manifest for the order of the Rose Cross.
[1] Capt. Mason commanded tradesmen in sailing, ship building, and settling
colonies in foreign locations crossing the seas. For his service to King
James he along with Thomas Gorges received the Grant for New England in
1623.
[2] The
Golden Fleece was written in 1626 by William Vaughan. ( In the Golden
Fleece Orpheus Junior is the Author and Apollo is King Charles 1. It is
helpful to use the edit feature to "Find word on this page"
, use key words like "Rosie Cross, Bullinger, and mason".).
The Golden Fleece is a lightly allegorical manifest for the order of the
Rose Cross.
[3] Mason papers published by the Prince society
[4] The Journal of John Winthrop 1630-1649, Edt.Dunn,Savage,Yeandle =
(JW), JW pg.39 Tho:Moreton and footnote 47
[5] JW pg.51, Sir Christopher Gardiner and footnote 4.
[6] JW 87-88
[7] JW pg. 95
[8] JW pg.177
[9] Provincial Papers, Nathanial Bouton, 1867 Pub. State of N.H.
[10] JW pg. 93
[11] Provincial Papers pg.65
[12] JW pg.89
[13] JW pg. 149
[14] JW pg. 536-538
[15] JW pgs. 132, 142, 146, 177-78
[16] JW pg.222
[17] JW pg. 331-333, 493-494
1656 Document on
the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross
Copyright Michael Callis 2003