WISHAW TRUE BLUES
LOL No. 208
BACKGROUND TO THE FORMATION OF THE ORANGE ORDER
One would need to review the complete history of the Protestant Reformation and the history of Britain before they could appreciate the necessity of why the Loyal Orange Association came into being.
A brief sketch would reveal that when James II ascended to the English Throne in 1688, he made a concerted effort to reestablish Roman Catholicism as supreme in Church and State. After he had sent the Archbishop of Canterbury and six bishops to the Tower for failing to comply with his order to read a "Declaration of Indulgences" in their churches, the Bishops were charged with "false, malicious and seditious libel"; but, in the public image they were popular martyrs. Tried on June 29th, 1688, the Seven Bishops were acquitted, much to the rejoicing of their supporters.
History records that an English Admiral, disguised as a sailor, left London with a message signed by a coalition of English political parties, inviting William, Prince of Orange, to come to England and defend the cause of Protestantism and Liberty. As a result, William left Holland on October 16th in 1688 in defence of the Protestant Religion. At the ship's masthead were the Arms of Nassau, quartered with those of England. The words "I will Maintain" remain to this day the motto of Holland and to these were added the words: "The Protestant Religion and the Liberty of England." On Nov. 5th, 1688, William landed at Torbay, Devonshire, England - the 83rd Anniversary of the infamous Gunpowder Plot.
Orange Societies, in one form or another, have been in existence in various parts of the world since 1688, when Prince William of Orange came to England, at the request of a coalition of parties, to defend "the liberties of Englishmen and the Protestant Religion". These Societies were organized so that people of like mind might join together to support and maintain those principles, and the democratic concepts that were established by the Act of Settlement. The Terms of that Act placed William and Mary on the Throne of England, and were enhanced by William's wise and intelligent use of the Parliament that placed them there. Thus, the Constitutional Monarchy was born, securing the principle of freedom of worship, and spelling out all the basic principles of a Constitutional Government that was to be the model for all Western democracies to follow.
William and his army defeated James II at the Boyne River in Ireland when James attempted to regain the throne of England with an army he had raised in Spain and France. The "Battle of the Boyne", as it is called, is widely recognized for securing the widest measures of civil and religious liberty for all inheritors of this first great step toward the 'democratization' of the western world.
The progress of William and his army from his landing in England at Torbay until his arrival in London, is an interesting story in itself and a very important event in the history of the world's continuing journey to "democracy". Suffice to say that historians dubbed it the "Glorious Revolution" because the throne of England was taken without a drop of blood being shed.
The eventual showdown for civil and religious freedom of expression came on July 12, 1690 (July 1st - old calendar) when William and his army defeated King James II at the Boyne River in Ireland.
THE FIRST ORANGE LODGE
The first Orange lodge was established at the Diamond in the north of Ireland in 1795 and the first general meeting of the Society in Ireland is recorded as taking place on July 12th, 1796, at Portadown. When religious terror broke out afresh that same year, it is said that some 20,000 Orangemen were called to assist the civil authorities, and were subsequently armed to establish peace and order.
The Orange movement rapidly spread all over Ireland and subsequently later into other jurisdictions around the world such as England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Togo and Ghana, West Africa, the U.S.A. and Canada. The seeds of active Protestantism had, at one time, sprouted Orange Lodges in Cuba, British Honduras, Bermuda, Hong Kong and South Africa.
QUALIFICATIONS OF AN ORANGEMAN
An Orangeman should have a sincere love and veneration for his Heavenly Father; a humble and steadfast faith in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, believing in Him as the only Mediator between God and man. He should cultivate truth and justice, brotherly kindness and charity, devotion and piety, concord and unity and obedience to the laws; his deportment should be gentle and compassionate, kind and courteous; he should seek the society of the virtuous and avoid that of the evil.
He should honour and diligently study the Holy Scriptures, and make them the rule of his faith and practice. He should uphold and defend the protestant religion and sincerely desire and endeavour to propagate its doctrines and precepts. He should strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome, and scrupulously avoid countenancing (by his presence or otherwise) any act or ceremony of Popish Worship. He should by all lawful means resist the ascendancy of that Church, its encroachments and the extension of its power, ever abstaining from all uncharitable words, actions or sentiments towards Roman Catholics.
He should remember to keep holy the Sabbath day, and attend the public worship of God, and diligently train up his offspring and all under under his control, in the fear of God, and in the Protestant faith. He should never take the name of God in vain, but abstain from all cursing and profane language, and use every opportunity of discouraging those, and all other sinful practices in others.
His conduct should be guided by wisdom and prudence, and marked by honesty, temperance and sobriety. The glory of God and the welfare of man, the honour of his Sovereign, and the god of his country should be the motives of his actions
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