| | | No one knows just how old Freemasonry is because the actual origins have been lost in time. Most scholars believe Masonry arose from the guilds of stonemasons who built the majestic castles and cathedrals of the middle ages. The first Grand Lodge of England was founded in 1717, marking the founding of the modern era of Freemasonry.
Freemasons can be traced back to medieval times when stonemasons formed guilds and unions, but some sources trace them back even further. Freemason legend dates their fraternity back to the building of King Solomon's temple in the Bible. The project, so legend has it, was so large that it required the stonemasons to organize themselves into groups and classes with distinct responsibilities. There is no concrete evidence of Masonry in ancient times, however. (Darrah, 63-4).
Scholars also speculate that Freemasonry has connections with the Greek and Roman mysteries, which were rites of entering their religions and kept secret upon penalty of death. It is suggested that the founders of the Masons had knowledge of the secrets of the Mysteries and used them to help form Freemasonry (Casavis, 53).
There is written evidence of the Masons dating back to the fourteenth century. In the Middle Ages stonemasons and architects were an elite class who could travel between countries, unlike serfs who had restrictions on their travel. They called themselves "free" because of this. The Masons were responsible for building beautiful structures across Europe, especially the cathedrals. Until the sixteenth century, Masons were simply craftsmen learning the operative art of masonry in guilds and unions (Mackey and McClennachan, 744-750).
In the beginning of the seventeenth century, union membership began to decline, and elite and prominent members of society were allowed in as "patrons of the Fraternity" and later as "accepted masons." (This is where the term "Free and Accepted Masons" comes from.) By the end of the seventeenth century a great change had occurred; the accepted masons outnumbered the actual stonemasons in the unions, and their discussion had turned from aspects of the actual trade to moral philosophy (Durrah, 90-92).
Masonry also borrowed a mystical aspect from the many mystical societies of medieval Europe, Many people were involved in these groups in Europe in the Middle Ages. When political freedom came to Europe, many of these groups were disbanded, but the esoteric interest in mysticism continued. Many people joined Freemasonry because of their interest in mysticism (Spence, 174-175).
In 1717, modern Masonry was founded with the first Grand Lodge in England. Early in its history this lodge was challenged by lodges that formed in other parts of the British Isles. They are called the Ancient Masons (Pick and Knight, 88). Although the two groups were fused together in the United Grand Lodge of England by 1813, the initial split caused the diversity of Lodges in the United States and beyond.
The first American Lodges were chartered by British Lodges, but as time went on American Lodges also began chartering new Lodges. The predominant form of Masonry in America today is Blue Lodge Masonry or the Craft (Dumenil, 9). There are discrepancies in the rituals and regulations of the different Lodges of the U. S. and around the world, but this report will focus on Blue Lodge Masonry, unless otherwise specified, since it is the most common in the U. S.
A Mason can travel to almost any country in the world and find a Masonic Lodge where he will be welcomed as a "Brother."
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