Masonry
(or Freemasonry) is the oldest fraternity in the world. No one knows just how
old it is because the actual origins have been lost in time. Probably, it arose
from the guilds of stonemasons who built the castles and cathedrals of the
Middle Ages. Possibly, they were influenced by the Knights Templar, a group of
Christian warrior monks formed in 1118 to help protect pilgrims making trips to
the Holy Land.
In
1717, Masonry created a formal organization in England when the first Grand
Lodge was formed. A Grand Lodge is the administrative body in charge of Masonry
in some geographical area. In the United States, there is a Grand Lodge in each
state and the District of Columbia. In Canada, there is a Grand Lodge in each
province. Local organizations of Masons are called lodges. There are lodges in
most towns, and large cities usually have several. There are about 13,200 lodges
in the United States. In a time when travel was by horseback and sailing ship,
Masonry spread with amazing speed. By 1731, when Benjamin Franklin joined the
fraternity, there were already several lodges in the Colonies, and Masonry
spread rapidly as America expanded west. In addition to Franklin, many of the
Founding Fathers -- men such as George Washington, Paul Revere, Joseph Warren,
and John Hancock -- were Masons. Masons and Masonry played an important part in
the Revolutionary War and an even more important part in the Constitutional
Convention and the debates surrounding the ratification of the Bill of Rights.
Many of those debates were held in Masonic lodges.