Quatuor Coronati Lodge: Our Next Meeting

Quatuor Coronati Lodge meets five times a year on the second Thursday in November (Installation); third Thursday in February; second Thursday in May; fourth Thursday in June; and second Thursday in September. Lodge meetings are usually held at Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London, and open at 4.00pm.

The United Grand Lodge of England requires those attending QC Lodge meetings, whether members of QCCC or otherwise, to be a member of a lodge under UGLE’s jurisdiction or members of lodges in Masonic jurisdictions recognised by UGLE. We wear undress regalia (Craft), dark suit and tie. Where we host non-masonic speakers or open the lodge to non-Masons, we close or call the Lodge off for the lecture and at that point welcome everyone to attend. There is no formal dress code for visitors on such occasions.

Thursday, 10 September 2026
Daniel Johnson
Solomon’s Temple in Myth & Ritual
The 2026 Prestonian Lecture

King Solomon’s Temple is a recurring image in our Masonic ritual. It was also, once, a real building in Jerusalem. Both aspects have been the subject of speculation since its destruction, in Masonic and non-Masonic contexts and the lecture will examine the various ways in which it has been used by writers in a primarily English context,  touching on topics from ancient history to Dan Brown.

The building of King Solomon’s Temple is one of the central allegories of the craft degrees as they have been worked in England and Wales since the eighteenth century. With a slightly different aspect, it is also a crucial element of the narrative of the Royal Arch degree. Freemasonry is, however, by no means unique in assigning symbolic importance to this building erected in Jerusalem. Despite it only being described in passing in the Old Testament, King Solomon’s Temple acquired an importance over the course of the Middle Ages and into the Enlightenment and beyond which far exceeded its original Biblical import: as a model for the future Messianic Kingdom, a source of worldly power and secrets, and as an allegory for mankind itself. In English culture, the allegorical application of building to moral improvement is one that is already present in the seventeenth century, as set out most explicitly in John Bunyan’s ‘Solomon’s Temple Spiritualized’, but also in other Biblical commentaries and sermons of the period, including some of Newton’s more esoteric works, as well as works such as David Fordyce’s ‘The Temple of Virtue: A Dream’.

In the eighteenth century, this theme becomes more widespread in Masonic writings; Anderson devotes a significant portion of the historical introduction to his Constitutions to the foundation of architecture as a skill. It is also present in the works of other writers such as Thomas Wright (1711-1786), Batty Langley (1696-1751), and others. This corresponds to a wider interest in the use of architecture as allegorical of man’s search for self-improvement. The evidence for such an increase in attention to this is varied, from early Staffordshire stoneware models of the Temple itself, the antiquarian analyses of the relationship between monuments such as Stonehenge to ancient wisdom, treatises on the new approaches to garden design, and theoretical works by authors such as Hogarth, Wren, and Addison.

The paper will be available here prior to the meeting

The Speaker

Daniel Johnson studied Classics as an undergraduate and Tudor Church History as a post-graduate at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. While a student, he was initiated into freemasonry in Apollo University Lodge, where he was Worshipful Master in 2006-7. He was subsequently Deputy Chairman of the UGLE Universities Scheme for a number of years. He was appointed AGStB in 2015, PAGDC in 2023, is a past Grand Steward and is currently Deputy Grand Treasurer. He lives and works in London and is a Tax Director at a Big Four accountancy firm specialising in financial services.

The Summons will be available here prior to the Meeting

Please notify the Lodge Secretary if you will be attending: secretary@quatuorcoronati.com. It is sufficient to give your name, rank and Lodge. Everyone is entitled to attend, from EA onwards.

Delivery papers (with the exception of the Installation paper), are available to members of QCCC prior to each meeting. Papers are copyright and may not be reproduced.
Comments and questions on delivery papers should be sent via email to editor@quatuorcoronati.com for publication in AQC.

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