History of Emulation Lodge No. 67

The Duke of Wharton, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England (1722–1723), set up the first Masonic Lodge in Spain in 1728. It was the French Arms Lodge No. 50 — the first lodge on foreign soil registered in the records of the Grand Lodge of England — and was located in San Bernardo Street, Madrid. It was consequently the first English-speaking lodge in Spain.

He died in 1731 at the age of 33 and was buried in a monastery called La Basílica de Poblet in the Catalonian Province of Tarragona, a traditional resting place for Catalonian nobility. However, on the instructions of General Francisco Franco the Duke's remains were removed from the Basilica and buried in a public cemetery because of his Masonic antecedents.

During General Franco's dictatorship, Regular Freemasonry all but disappeared. It was not generally known that the American Chief of Staff at the time of the American bases being set up in Spain, Brigadier General Caldera, was a prominent Freemason. The General served in Spain from 1961 to 1963 and personally obtained permission from Franco to set up Masonic Lodges in the American bases — the only condition being that no Spaniard could join them. Liberty Lodge No. 70 and the George Washington Lodge met 30 kilometres from Madrid in the Torrejón airbase.

On 6th November 1982 the Grande Loge Nationale Française consecrated the Grand Lodge of Spain. In 1992 a number of the brethren of Arthur T. Weed felt that, as they were living and working in Spain, it was time to join the Grand Lodge of Spain. Emulation Madrid Lodge N.º 67 was formed on 25th November 1992 in conjunction with brethren from various Spanish lodges. It was decided that the language of the new lodge would be English, just like its predecessor of the eighteenth century.

R. W. Bro. José Antonio Bello, a Galician who had lived for many years in Venezuela, was deeply involved in its constitution, and from his own pocket bought all the regalia needed for its working. He is responsible for the name of our Lodge: several name proposals had been put forward, amongst others Discovery Lodge, but his intention was to emulate the workings of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement ritual in London. Subsequently the Grand Master of Spain, M. W. Bro. Luis Salat i Gusils, authorised our Lodge to use the Emulation Ritual as approved by that Lodge in London.

This was quite an international group, as the founding brethren came from eight different countries. M. W. Bro. Luis Salat i Gusils, Grand Master, and his Deputy Grand Master Juan Crozet were made honorary members of the newly formed lodge. The Provincial Grand Master of Castile at the time of the consecration of the lodge was R. W. Bro. Jacob Pariente.

The lodge temple in 1992 was situated at number 80 of López de Hoyos Street, which was the address of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Castile. It was decided to have four meetings per year on the first Friday of February, May, September and November. The lodge had many founding members, but many of these were from other lodges and returned to them. This left the brethren of Emulation with the problem that has accompanied them to this day: numbers. The Provincial Grand Lodge moved to a much bigger temple in 1997 situated at number six of Juan Ramón Jiménez Street and, of course, so did Emulation 67.

As stated before, one of the recurring problems of the lodge was, and has always been, numbers. During the first decade of the new century the lodge numbers never rose above twenty and at times were very much lower. However, the lack of numbers has been alleviated to a certain degree by the much appreciated help of visitors from other lodges within Spain and two foreign lodges in particular.

St. Barnabas Lodge N.º 3771 from England is one of these lodges. In the past it had problems with lack of brethren and was about to tender its Charter when it obtained the support of many brethren from Spain, including one of our members, R. W. Bro. Gabriel López. He took the Chair of this lodge in 2012 and organized a Ladies' Night in Madrid the following year, to which 66 visitors came from the UK. It was then decided to change the Emulation timetable to facilitate the visit of foreign lodges to our meetings. This change has proved very successful indeed. A relationship was established which culminated in 2017 with both lodges voting for our Twinning.

Another lodge from abroad which has helped us enormously is Kilsyth St. John N.º 39 from Scotland, which celebrated its 275th constitution anniversary. Our lately departed and dearly loved V. W. Bro. Alex Grant became a member of this lodge along with other brethren and attended lodge there whenever possible. Kilsyth Lodge had their Centenary Re-dedication Ceremony in March 2001 and brethren from our lodge visited and were looked after in a very brotherly fashion indeed. The Depute Master at that time, R. W. Bro. Neil Mitchell, along with fellow members of his lodge, has helped us over the years with their presence and assistance in our ceremonies.

There have been various other visits to and from lodges both in Spain and abroad. In 2008, for example, we held a meeting in Erandio, Bilbao, with the Tolerancia No. 16 Lodge, where we were accompanied by the Campbell Lodge of Instruction, whose members are very active as members of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement in London. Later in the same year we visited Kilsyth St. John N.º 39 accompanied by brethren from a Catalan lodge, Fidelitas No. 5.

It is worth mentioning that, as a homage to the name of our Lodge, several brethren have been members of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement, which meets every Friday at 6.15 pm at Freemasons' Hall in London since 1823 — in particular the strong effort made by a Past Master of our Lodge, W. Bro. Andrés López, who on two occasions missed by a mere two and three objections the famous Silver Match Box at two demonstrations at the ELOI in two different degrees: a strong and very appreciated effort by a Spanish-speaking brother for an achievement reserved to a very few — delivering the ritual without any mistakes in either words or actions.

Our lodge has always been active in the District Grand Lodge of Castile and in the Grand Lodge of Spain. Over the years we have had Brethren who have held high offices in both. In Grand Lodge we have had a Grand Master, a Deputy Grand Master, Grand Treasurers and more. Long may it continue!