Walton Hannah

Walton Hannah was born in England, in 1913, to distinguished parents, Ian Hannah, a member of the British House of Commons, and Edith Brand, a painter of international repute. Hannah attended the University of Edinburgh and become an Anglican priest in 1938, and was presumably also a Mason. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1955, in some part due to the churches’ differing positions on freemasonry – Hannah, like the church in Rome, had come to consider freemasonry as irreconcilable with the Christian faith.

Following his conversion, Hannah went to Rome to study at the Pontifical Collegio Beda. He was then invited by Archbishop Paul-Émile Léger to move to Montreal, where he served as priest for the Church of the Ascension in Westmount, and St. Willibrord's parish in Verdun, while residing at Loyola College residence.

It is speculated that Hannah’s special knowledge of the Masons, and the church’s concern over the expanding influence of secret societies in Quebec, especially freemasonry, motivated his move to Montreal.

Freemasonry, or more precisely, The Order of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is indeed an ancient society. Manuscripts from the 14th Century record already well-established traditions. It was in 1717 in England that the modern organization of lodges was created. The United Grand Lodge of England describes freemasonry as “a society of men concerned with moral and spiritual values. Its members are taught its precepts by a series of ritual dramas, which follow ancient forms and use stonemasons' customs and tools as allegorical guides”.

Though not fundamentally secretive, freemasons have experienced considerable distrust and persecution. As a result, the printed works of freemasonry have not been readily available to non-masons. Throughout his life, Hannah worked to create a Masonic library that would bring the otherwise secret works of freemasonry into the light of scholarly criticism. He ultimately wrote two books about freemasonry: Darkness Visible: a revelation and interpretation of freemasonry, published by the Augustine Press in 1952, and Christian by Degrees: Masonic