The Masonic calendar traditionally dated from 4004 BCE; the creation of the universe, Anno Mundi, as computed by Archbishop James Ussher in 1650-54, This was inserted by Bishop William Lloyd of Winchester as a marginal note in the Great (1701) Edition of the English Bible, where it remained without explanation until 1900 when Cambridge University Press removed it from further editions. By the mid-eighteenth century, masonic usage had shifted to the year of light, Anno Lucis, which dated from 4000 BCE. There is no masonic significance to either date, other than a desire by early masonic writers to create as ancient a lineage for Freemasonry as their imaginations would allow. By using the 4000 date, they could claim that their usage predated Ussher’s promotion of the theory that Jesus had been born four years earlier than claimed by Dionysius Exiguus, the sixth century creator of the BC-AD time system.
