| Origin theories of speculative freemasonry
In its ritual context, Freemasonry employs an allegorical foundation
myth - the foundation of the fraternity by the builders of King
Solomon’s Temple.
Beyond myth, there is a distinct absence of documentation as to
Freemasonry’s origins, which has led to a great deal of speculation
among historians and pseudo-historians alike, both from within and
from outside the fraternity. Hundreds of books have been written on
the subject. Much of the content of these books is highly
speculative, and the precise origins of Freemasonry may very well be
permanently lost to history. Some believe the scant evidence that is
available points to the origins of Freemasonry as a fraternity that
simply evolved out of the lodges of operative stonemasons of the
Middle Ages. Others have disputed whether stone masons were ever
organized formally into guilds and have criticized the suggestion
that Freemasonry evolved out of such organizations as a trite myth,
stemming merely from the fact that the fraternity uses stone masonry
as the core allegory for the organization of its symbolism. In any
event, the matter of the origins of Freemasonry continues to puzzle
and mystify historians.
The origin of Freemasonry has variously been attributed to: King
Solomon and the construction of the Temple at Jerusalem, Euclid or
Pythagoras, Moses, the Essenes, the Culdees, the Druids, the Gypsies,
or the Rosicrucians, not to mention the intellectual descendants of
Noah. Some of the more popular theories include Freemasonry being an
offshoot of the ancient mystery schools, or that it is an
institutional outgrowth of the medieval guilds of stonemasons, or
that it is a direct descendant of the "Poor Fellow-Soldiers of
Christ and the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem" (the Knights Templar)
There are other lesser-known theories, such as:
• Freemasonry is an administrative arm of the Priory of Sion
• Freemasonry is the intellectual descendants of the Roman Collegia
• Freemasonry is the intellectual descendant of the Comacine masters
• Freemasonry had its beginnings particularly in the German
Steinmetzen, or the French Compagnonage
• Freemasonry was created by Oliver Cromwell, or the Stuart
Pretender to the British Crown; Lord Francis Bacon, Viscount St.
Alban, Baron Verulam
• It was a result of Sir Christopher Wren and the rebuilding of St.
Paul's Cathedral
Name origins
The medieval stonemasons were sometimes known as "freemasons."[
Historians have suggested several origins of the term:
• From the French term franc Maçon, a mason working in a Lodge that
has been granted a franchise by the Church to work on Church
property and free from taxation or regulation by the King or the
local Municipality.
• From the French "frere Macon" literally meaning "brother Mason"
• From Free Men, that is they were not serfs or indentured, and free
to travel from one work location to another.
• From working in "freestone," a type of quarry stone, and they were
therefore Freestone Masons.
• From historical foundation to 1717
The early development of Freemasonry has two distinct growth periods:
Stage 1. Operative Freemasonry - associated with the craft guilds.
Ritual elements are simple and there is no evidence beyond a
rudimentary philosophical outlook.
• Stage 2. Freemasonry of the late 16th Century and into the 17th
Century. Surviving Scottish Lodge records, as early as the 1630s,
show a gentrification process - a transition from Operative to
Speculative Freemasonry - evidenced by increasing non-operative
notable gentleman within the membership. Virtually no records of
English lodges survive prior to the, speculative, Grand Lodge period
of 1717 onwards. The purely speculative ritual and lectures of
William Preston (1742-1818) demonstrate an increasing use of a
ritual infusion of Enlightenment philosophy.
A credible historical source asserting the antiquity of Freemasonry
is the Halliwell Manuscript, or Regius Poem - believed to date from
ca. 1390. This makes reference to several concepts and phrases
similar to those found in Freemasonry The manuscript itself seems to
be an elaboration on an earlier document, to which it refers.
There is also the Cooke Manuscript, an undated manuscript
constitution from the mid-15th century, the oldest of the Gothic
Constitutions. The first statutory use of the word 'Freemason' in
England appears in the Statutes of the Realm enacted in 1495 under
Henry VI, although the archaic term "frank mason" had been used
fifty years earlier. Prior to that, the earliest use of the term "ffre
Masons" was in a 1376 reference to the "Company of ffre Masons," one
of the numerous craft guilds of London. By 1583, the date of the
Grand Lodge manuscript, the documentary evidence begins to grow. The
Schaw Statues of 1598-99 are the source used to declare the
precedence of Lodge Mother Kilwinning in Kilwinning, Ayrshire,
Scotland over Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) in Edinburgh. These
are described as Head and Principal respectively. As a side note,
following a dispute over numbering at the formation of the Grand
Lodge of Scotland (GLS) - Kilwinning is numbered as Lodge Mother
Kilwinning Number 0 (pronounced 'Nothing'), GLS. Quite soon
thereafter, a charter was granted to Sir William St. Clair (later
Sinclair) of Roslin (Rosslyn), allowing him to purchase jurisdiction
over a number of lodges in Edinburgh and environs. This may be the
basis of the Templar myth surrounding Rosslyn Chapel.
The Regius Poem and Cooke manuscript, about 1390 and 1410
respectively, are written in the dialects of the west and southwest
of England, and may have been written for the school of masonry
associated with Salisbury Cathedral.
Early operative Freemasons, unlike virtually all Europeans except
the Clergy, were Free - not bound to the land on which they were
born. The various skills required in building complex stone
structures, especially churches and cathedrals, allowed skilled
masons to travel and find work at will. They were lodged in a
temporary structure - either attached to, or near, the main stone
building. In this lodge, they ate, slept and received their work
assignments from the master of the work. To maintain the freedom
they enjoyed required exclusivity of skills, and thus, as an
apprentice was trained, his instructor attached moral values to the
tools of the trade, binding him to his fellows of the craft.
Freemasonry's transition from a craft guild of operative, working
stonemasons into a fraternity of speculative, accepted, gentleman
Freemasons began in Scottish lodges during the early 1600s. The
earliest record of a lodge accepting a non-operative member occurs
in the records of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel), 8 June
1600, where it is shown that John Boswell, Laird of Aucheinleck, was
present at a meeting. The first record of the initiation of a
non-operative mason in a lodge is contained in the minutes of the
Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) for 3 July 1634, when the Right
Honourable Lord Alexander was admitted a Fellowcraft. The first
record of the Initiation of a non-operative on English soil, was in
1641 when Sir Robert Moray was admitted to the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's
Chapel) at Newcastle.
From the early 1600s references are found to Freemasonry in personal
diaries and journals. Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), was made a Mason in
1646, and notes attending several Masonic meetings. There appears to
be a general spread of the Craft, between Ashmole's account and
1717, when four English Lodges meeting in London Taverns joined
together and founded the Grand Lodge of London (now known as the
United Grand Lodge of England). They had held meetings, respectively,
at the Cheshire Cheese Tavern, the Apple-Tree Tavern, the Crown
Ale-House near Drury Lane, the Goose and Gridiron in St. Paul's
Churchyard, and the Rummer and Grapes Tavern in WestminsterWith the
foundation of this first Grand Lodge, Freemasonry shifted from being
an obscure, relatively private, institution into the public eye. The
years following saw new Grand Lodges open throughout Europe. How
much of this growth was the spreading of Freemasonry itself, and how
much was due to the public organization of pre-existing private
Lodges, is uncertain.
Creation of the First Grand
Lodge in London
English Masonic historians place great importance on 24 June 1717 (St.
John the Baptist's day) when four London lodges came together at the
Goose and Gridiron Ale House in St Paul’s churchyard and formed what
they called The Grand Lodge of England. Although Freemasonry had
existed in England since at least the mid-1600s and in Scotland
since The Schaw Statutes were enacted in 1598 and 1599, the
establishment of a permanent Grand Lodge in London in 1717 is
traditionally considered the formation of organized Freemasonry in
its modern sense.
Anderson's Constitutions
In 1723, James Anderson wrote and published The Constitutions of the
Free-Masons, For the Use of the Lodges in London and Westminster.
This work was reprinted in Philadelphia in 1734 by Benjamin
Franklin, who was that year elected Grand Master of the Masons of
Pennsylvania.
In addition to clarifying the rules by which the fraternity was to
be governed, Anderson's Constitution contained a History of
Freemasonry which claimed that the Craft was very ancient. He traced
the fraternity's history from the Medieval guilds of operative stone
masons through various Roman and Greek builders and mathematicians,
all the way back to biblical roots. Almost as soon as it was
published, more knowledgeable historians began to pick apart
Anderson's tale, noting its glaring errors. For example: Anderson
states that there was an assembly of Masons at York in A.D. 926,
where the English King Athelsan granted them a charter - yet York
was under Danish control at that time. Anderson also has Pythagoras
living in Egypt at the time of the building of King Solomon's Temple,
hundreds of years before he was born.
It is now recognised that Dr. Anderson's Story of the Craft is based
on mythical tales and legendary traditions, and is quite
untrustworthy However, Anderson's claim that Freemasonry dates back
to ancient times continues to be repeated to this day.
Creation of the Third Degree
Sometime after 1725, a third degree, the Master Mason's degree,
began to be worked in London lodges. Its origins are unknown, and it
may be older than its recorded appearance indicates. But it does not
appear in the records of any lodge until April 1727, and its actual
conferral does not appear in the records of any lodge until March
1729. Exposures of Masonic ritual, which began to appear in 1723,
refer to only two degrees until the publication of Samuel
Pritchard's "Masonry Dissected" in 1730, which contained the work
for all three degrees. The Master Mason's degree was not official
until the Grand Lodge adopted Anderson's revised Constitutions of
1738.
The "Ancients" and "Moderns" Grand Lodges
Throughout the early years of the new Grand Lodge there were any
number of Masons and lodges that never affiliated with the new Grand
Lodge. These unaffiliated Masons and their Lodges were referred to
as "Old Masons," or "St. John Masons, and "St. John Lodges".In 1725
a lodge in York founded the rival "Grand Lodge of All England" as a
protest against the growing influence of the Grand Lodge of England
in London. During the 1730s and 1740s antipathy increased between
the London based Grand Lodge of England (hereafter referred to as
the Premier Grand Lodge) and the Grand Lodges of Ireland and
Scotland. Irish and Scots Masons visiting and living in London
considered the Premier Grand Lodge to have considerably deviated
from the ancient practices of the Craft. As a result, these Masons
felt a stronger kinship with the unaffiliated London Lodges. The
aristocratic nature of the Premier Grand Lodge and its members
alienated other Masons of the City causing them also to identify
with the unaffiliated Lodges.
On 17 July 1751, representatives of five Lodges gathered at the
Turk's Head Tavern, in Greek Street, Soho, London - forming a rival
Grand Lodge - The Most Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and
Accepted Masons. They believed that they practiced a more ancient
and therefore purer form of Masonry, and called their Grand Lodge
The Ancients' Grand Lodge. They called those affiliated to the
Premier Grand Lodge, by the pejorative epithet The Moderns. These
two unofficial names stuck.. Laurence Dermott wrote a new
constitution for the Antients, the Ahiman Rezon as an alternative
for the Constitution of the Moderns.
The Union of 1813
The Premier Grand Lodge of England and the Antient Grand Lodge of
England were amalgamated into the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE)
on 27 December 1813 (day of Saint John the Evangelist), by
twenty-one articles of "The Articles of Union" - specifying the
agreements made regarding the various points of contention. A
special lodge, The Lodge of Promulgation, was established by the
Moderns in 1809 to promulgate the ancient landmarks of the Order, as
well as instructing and negotiating with the members of the two
factions to include the discontinuation of any innovations or
changes introduced by the Moderns. The Union largely confirmed the
Ancients' forms and ceremonies, and therefore considerably revised
the Moderns' rituals. One of the most important changes was the
reference in Article Two to the Royal Arch Degree as included in
the, third, Master Masons' Degree - a practice that had always been
peculiar to the Ancients lodges. Following the union in 1813, a
Lodge of Reconciliation (1813-1816) was established to complete the
rationalisation of the ritual into a form acceptable to both parties
forming the newly constituted United Grand Lodge. In 1823 a
Emulation Lodge of Improvement was established.
Upon the union of Antients and Moderns, the UGLE also created a new
Constitution, based on the Constitution of Anderson of the Moderns
and the Ahiman Rezon of the Antients.
Both the Ancients and the Moderns had daughter Lodges throughout the
world, and because many of those Lodges still exist, there is a
great deal of variety in the ritual used today, even between
UGLE-recognized jurisdictions in amity. Most Private Lodges conduct
themselves in accordance with a single Rite.
The Morgan Affair and Decline in American Freemasonry (1826 - c.1850)
In 1826, William Morgan disappeared from Batavia, New York, after
threatening to expose Freemasonry's secrets, causing some to claim
that he had been murdered by Masons. What exactly occurred has never
been conclusively proven. However, Morgan's disappearance — and the
minimal punishment received by his kidnappers — sparked a series of
protests against Freemasons throughout the United States, especially
in New York and neighboring states.
Under the leadership of Thurlow Weed, an anti-Masonic and
anti-Andrew Jackson (Jackson was a Mason) movement grew to become
the political party and made the ballot for the presidency in 1828,
while gaining the support of such notable politicians as William H.
Seward. Its influence was such that other Jackson rivals, including
John Quincy Adams, denounced the Masons. In 1847, Adams wrote a
widely distributed book titled "Letters on the Masonic Institution"
that was highly critical of the Masons. In 1832, the party fielded
William Wirt as its presidential candidate. This was rather ironic
because he was, in fact, a Freemason, and even gave a speech at the
Anti-Masonic convention defending the organization. The party only
received seven electoral votes. Three years later, the party had
disbanded in every state save Pennsylvania, as other issues such as
slavery had become the focus of national attention.
Freemasons and the Paris Commune
According to Ernest Belfort Bax, Freemasons were responsible for the
last serious attempt at conciliation between Versailles and the
Commune on April 21, 1870. They were received coldly by Adolphe
Thiers, who assured them that, though Paris were given over to
destruction and slaughter, the law should be enforced, and he kept
his word. A few days after they decided in a public meeting to plant
their banner on the ramparts and throw in their lot with the Commune.
On the 29th, accordingly, 10,000 of the brethren met (55 lodges
being represented), and marched to the Hôtel de Ville, headed by the
Grand Masters in full insignia and the banners of the lodges.
Amongst them the new banner of Vincennes was conspicuous, bearing
the inscription in red letters on a white ground, “Love one another.”
A balloon was then sent up, which let fall at intervals, outside
Paris, a manifesto of the Freemasons. The procession then wended its
way through the boulevards and the Champs Elysées to the Arc de
Triomphe, where the banners were planted at various points along the
ramparts. On seeing the white flag on the Porte Maillot the
Versaillese ceased firing, and the commander, himself a Freemason,
received a deputation of brethren, and suggested a final appeal to
Versailles, which was agreed to. The “chief of the executive,” of
course, hardly listened to the envoys, and declined to further
discuss the question of peace with anyone. This last formal
challenge having been made and rejected, the Freemasons definitely
took their stand as combatants for the Commune.
The great schism of 1877
A great schism in Freemasonry occurred, between the English (UGLE)
and French (GOdF), in the years following 1877, when the Grand
Orient de France (GOdF) started unreservedly accepting atheists, and
recognized Women's Masonry and Co-Masonry. Also French Masons tended
to be more willing to discuss religion and politics in their Lodges;
unlike the English who banned such discussions outright.
The schism between the two branches was occasionally, (unofficially
or partially) breached, especially during the First World War when
American Masons overseas wished to visit French Lodges.
As to religious requirements, the oldest constitution found in
Freemasonry — Anderson's Constitutions of the Free-Masons, 1723 —
says that a Mason "will never be a stupid Atheist nor an irreligious
Libertine" if he "rightly understands the Art". The only religious
requirement was "that Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their
particular Opinions to themselves".Masons debate as to whether "stupid"
and "irreligious" are meant as necessary, or as accidental,
modifiers of "atheist" and "libertine". It is possible the ambiguity
is intentional.
In 1815, the newly amalgamated UGLE modified Anderson's
constitutions to include: "Let a man's religion or mode of worship
be what it may, he is not excluded from the Order, provided he
believes in the glorious Architect of Heaven and Earth, and
practices the sacred duties of morality."
In 1849, France (GOdF) followed the English (UGLE) lead by adopting
the "Supreme Being" requirement, but pressure from Latin countries
produced by 1875, the alternative phrase "Creative Principle". This
was ultimately not enough for the GOdF, and in 1877 it re-adopted
the original Anderson document of 1723. They also created an
alternative ritual that made no direct reference to any deity, with
the attribute of the Great Architect of the Universe. This new Rite
did not replace the older ones, but was added as an alternative, as
Continental European jurisdictions, generally, tend not to restrict
themselves to a single Rite — offering a menu of Rites, from which
their lodges may choose.
Taxil hoax
Between the years 1885 and 1897, Léo Taxil maintained a hoax against
both Freemasonry and the Roman Catholic Church, by making
increasingly outlandish claims regarding Freemasonry. On 19 April
1897, Taxil called a press conference at which he claimed he would
introduce the "author" of his books to the press. He instead
announced that his revelations about the Freemasons were fictitious.
Nevertheless, the material is still used on some anti-Masonic
websites today.
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