WORLD

The history of Freemasonry in the world

The History of Freemasonry in the World

The history of Freemasonry in the world may be divided into two periods – before and after the founding of the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster in 1717. The earlier period embraces the rise, during the Middle Ages, of the organised guilds and lodges of operative masons (stonemasons), and the time when the operative masons began to admit into their guilds craftsmen of other trades, whom they called “speculative”. To become members of a lodge, these speculative masons had to undergo an initiation in order to be “accepted”. In time, lodges were formed which no longer included any operative masons at all, their members being drawn exclusively from other trades and professions. This was the step towards the creation of Masonic Lodges as we know them today. Today’s speculative Freemasons concern themselves with philosophical matters rather than with actual building, and in their work they make use, among other things, of the symbols of the ancient masons’ guilds.

The First Grand Lodge in the World

On the Feast of St John, 24 June 1717, four London Lodges met at the Goose and Gridiron tavern in St Paul’s Churchyard and proclaimed the founding of the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster. This is accepted as the first historically documented beginning of organised Freemasonry anywhere in the world. The second landmark year in the history of the Craft is 1723, when Anderson’s Constitutions – the foundational document of Freemasons throughout the world – were published for the first time.

In 1734 the Constitutions were printed in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin, who was elected Grand Master of Pennsylvania that same year; they thereby became the first Masonic document to be printed in America.

Although no exact record of its foundation survives, the Grand Lodge of Ireland observes 1725 as the year of its founding, which makes it the second-oldest Grand Lodge of Freemasons in the world.
The Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland was established in 1736.

The Grand Lodge of France was formed from the earliest Parisian Lodges, which appeared between 1725 and 1730. The distinctive name “Grand Lodge of France” (Grande Loge de France) was adopted in 1743. The Grand Orient of France (Grand Orient de France, GODF) was founded on 24 June 1773 as the outcome of a thoroughgoing reorganisation of the first Grand Lodge of France, and that year is regarded as the year in which most of the French Grand Lodges were united under a single Obedience.

It is worth noting that the English Masonic Obediences were not truly united until 1813, when the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) came into being.

Disputes over the Origins of the First Private Lodges

There is much dispute over the origins of individual private Lodges, particularly among English, French and Scottish Freemasons. According to French sources, the first Masonic Lodge in France, “La Parfaite Égalité”, was founded in 1688 by the Royal Irish Regiment of Foot, which had followed James II of England into exile in France. English sources record that one Elias Ashmole wrote of his initiation into a Lodge at Warrington in 1646 – which, according to those sources, is the earliest recorded evidence of the initiation of an English speculative Freemason into a Lodge.

Scottish sources go further still, maintaining that Freemasonry in Scotland is older than in any other part of the world. In their view, a direct line between the stonemason’s craft and modern Freemasonry can be traced through the oldest written Masonic records in existence, which are held by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in Edinburgh. Those records include the minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary’s Chapel) No. 1, dating from 1599. Yet it is Lodge Mother Kilwinning that bears the number 0 on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and it is presumed to be the oldest Lodge not only in Scotland but in the world.

The Enlightenment and the Freemasons

There is no doubt that Masonic Lodges arose chiefly in the course of the 18th century. This was the period in which Freemasonry flourished in Europe, and it is closely bound up with the birth and growth of the Enlightenment. The ubiquity of the Freemasons, like their ideas, was inseparable from the Enlightenment itself.

The Enlightenment was an intellectual, cultural and philosophical movement that developed in Europe during the 18th century. Its leading writers – Voltaire, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant among them – played a significant part in shaping and spreading Enlightenment ideas.

The Enlightenment reached its height in France, where its span is conventionally bounded by the death of Louis XIV (1715) and the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789); throughout that period the French language, spirit, taste and manners served as models for Europe as a whole.

The chief emphasis of the Enlightenment lay in promoting reason, science, education, tolerance, liberty and human rights as the fundamental values and principles by which society ought to be guided. Enlightenment philosophers and writers championed critical thinking in the face of traditional authority, rationality, the rejection of intolerance and absolute power, and the pursuit of social reform. The Enlightenment encouraged scientific enquiry, technological progress and the understanding of nature as the key to the advancement of humanity.

Through its political ideas it laid the foundations of the modern liberal democracy of the 20th century, and it came to be seen as the wellspring of the critical ideas that placed the concepts of liberty, democracy, tolerance and reason at the centre of public life. Together with the importance of labouring at one’s own development, expressed in the maxim “Know thyself”, these are precisely the principles and ideas by which Freemasons have been guided, and are guided still.

The Freemasons and the Church

Given that the ideas and principles the Freemasons advanced were frequently at odds with the doctrines of the Church of the day, it is hardly surprising that conflict arose between the Catholic Church and the Freemasons. In 1738 Pope Clement XII issued the bull “In eminenti apostolatus specula”, forbidding the Catholic faithful to join the Freemasons. The document marked the first step towards the Church’s condemnation of Freemasonry, and many later popes and ecclesiastical documents followed its example in the centuries that followed. It is important to note that many within the Church rejected such condemnations, and that a number of eminent priests and bishops were members of Masonic Lodges across the world – Croatia not excepted. Relations between the Church and the Freemasons were never simple, and they varied greatly according to local conditions and circumstances.

After protracted deliberation (from 1970 to 1980), the new Code of Canon Law of 1983 introduced changes with respect to the previous Code of 1917. Unlike the old Code, which named Freemasonry explicitly, the new Code does not use the term at all, speaking instead in more general language of “associations which plot against the Church” (canon 1374).

Despite this change, on 26 November 1983 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then under the prefecture of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), issued its “Declaration on Masonic Associations”, making clear that the Church continued to condemn Freemasonry.

The Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici – CIC) has the force of law and is the universal legal code of the Catholic Church. It governs the norms that order the internal life of the Church and is binding not only upon the clergy but upon all Catholics – it is de facto the Church’s constitutional law. The documents of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, by contrast, consist for the most part of instructions and interpretations of a theological nature. Such documents carry doctrinal weight, but not necessarily legal force.

Freemasonry as such is neither a faith nor a religion. By that very fact it stands in no conflict with the documents of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whatever the separate interpretation placed upon the Code of Canon Law.

The Origins of Freemasonry

Concerning the origins of Freemasonry there is a whole series of hypotheses whose historical basis is difficult to establish. The oldest document to mention the “craft of Freemasonry” is the Regius Poem (also known as the Halliwell Manuscript), said to date from 1390. It relates that the mason’s craft began with Euclid in Egypt and came to England in the reign of King Athelstan (924–939). Anderson’s Constitutions set out at length a history of Freemasonry that begins with Adam and has biblical roots – more allegory than anything founded on sound historical sources.

Several authors have sought to link the Knights Templar directly with the Freemasons through the imagery carved in stone at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, where the Templars sought refuge after the dissolution of their Order.

According to some, the Freemasons were also influenced by the Rosicrucians (German: Rosenkreuzer), a philosophical, esoteric and mystical society whose beginnings are recorded in 17th-century Germany and England. Their teaching is a blend of Egyptian Hermeticism, Gnosis, esoteric Christianity, alchemy and Kabbalah. They were organised in secret brotherhoods and are thought to have influenced the appearance and founding of Masonic Lodges and Theosophical societies. It is far more probable, however, that the Freemasons influenced the formation of such secret societies than the reverse. What is beyond doubt is that, from their first appearance to the present day, the Freemasons have inspired the rise of many fraternities throughout the world.

The Medieval Stonemasons and the Freemasons

Among Freemasons the world over it is generally accepted that the medieval stonemasons and their guilds exerted the greatest influence on the formation of today’s Masonic organisations. Although claims of a direct historical succession are made, what is really being invoked is a tradition – the manner in which the guilds and lodges of the medieval builders were organised and the way they functioned.

The influence of the Order of the Knights Templar upon Masonic ideas is likewise evident.

The medieval stonemasons had an extraordinary influence on the architecture and building of the Middle Ages. It is worth noting – and it is a point often passed over in silence – that Gothic architecture then held sway in Western and Central Europe, especially in the Catholic lands. The Gothic style arose in France, spread first to the Rhineland in Germany and thence across Central and Western Europe. From the French franc-maçon, meaning a free mason and applied to the medieval stonemasons of the day, came the term Freemason, which remains in use today. Owing to the sheer dominance of the English language, however, it is commonly supposed that the term originated in England and derives from free mason, the English name for such a craftsman.

  1. Masons’ guilds and lodges: The building of the monumental Gothic cathedrals demanded highly specialised masonry skills and techniques. The stonemasons, or operative free masons, who worked on these projects were commonly organised in guilds, lodges and brotherhoods that protected their interests, their rights and their techniques. These early brotherhoods and guilds laid, in part, the foundations for the later development of Freemasonry.
  2. Symbols and rituals: Freemasonry, like the masons’ guilds, employs symbols, rituals and initiations. In their work the medieval masons used a variety of tools – the chisel, the square, the compasses and so on – which remain important Masonic symbols to this day. Certain masons’ guilds had their own distinctive dress, signs and symbols by which members could recognise one another.
  3. Stone: Before the coming of Gothic architecture, building in the Middle Ages was predominantly in timber, which was more readily available and cheaper. Skilled stonemasons changed that, and stone became the principal building material. Stone is a symbol of great importance in Masonic ritual.
  4. A system of progression: The masons of the Middle Ages learned their craft through an informal system of apprenticeship. They had three grades of progression: apprentice, journeyman and master. Freemasons today likewise have three fundamental Degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason.
  5. The name “free mason”: It is supposed that the medieval stonemasons earned the name on account of their free way of life – they enjoyed a freedom of movement that was unusual in the Middle Ages, and were often exempt from taxes and dues. Master free masons were highly esteemed and respected. To this day, the first condition for admission to any Masonic Lodge in the world is that the candidate be a free man of good report.
  6. Geographical connection: The early medieval masons’ guilds developed in the same regions as the first Masonic Lodges.

The Templars and the Freemasons

The Knights Templar – in full, the “Order of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon” – were a Christian military order founded in 1118 or, more probably, 1119, in the wake of the First Crusade.

The Order’s founders were the French noblemen Hugues de Payens and Geoffroy de Saint-Omer, together with five other knights (two more joined them later). King Baldwin II of Jerusalem granted the Templars the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, reputedly built upon the remains of Solomon’s Temple. The conjecture that they spent their first nine years excavating beneath the supposed Temple of Solomon suggests that, besides protecting pilgrims, they may have had other aims – the search for treasure, relics, or secret writings and knowledge.

In 1127 the Templars returned to France, where they soon secured the support of the Church and the formal recognition of their Order. An important part in this was played by one of the Order’s founders, André de Montbard, uncle of Bernard of Clairvaux, the influential abbot of the Cistercian Order and later a saint of the Catholic Church (St Bernard). At the Council of Troyes in 1129 the Order was formally recognised, and Abbot Bernard drew up the so-called Latin Rule, which defined the life and duties of the Templars with its emphasis on poverty, chastity and obedience. The Order was divided into knights (soldiers of noble birth), priests, serving brothers – soldiers without knightly rank – and brothers of the crafts, among whom were the stonemasons, that is to say the builders. Hugues de Payens was elected the first Grand Master.

The great papal privileges and the meteoric rise of the Templars after their return to Europe have fuelled speculation that they found something of value in Jerusalem – treasure, relics or secret knowledge – which won them the favour of Church and nobility alike. Their return to France also coincided with the beginning of the building of the Gothic cathedrals, and some therefore credit them with certain of the architectural innovations found in those cathedrals.

At the height of their power the Templars commanded a formidable military force and considerable financial resources, and they built numerous fortresses, monasteries and estates across Europe and the Middle East. During the 12th and 13th centuries they played an important role in the Crusades, distinguishing themselves as an elite fighting force. Their economic role was no less impressive. They developed a reliable and efficient financial system that may be regarded as the forerunner of banking, issuing bills of exchange and letters of credit which enabled pilgrims and noblemen to draw money at different locations. In Paris and London they established treasuries for the safekeeping of money and other valuables, and they extended credit to secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries. They administered their own extensive estates, and those of noblemen too, keeping meticulous records of income and expenditure in what is regarded as a precursor of double-entry bookkeeping. They advanced trade, building and many of the crafts. In Croatia, too, they held numerous estates; interestingly, among other things, they held strategic port towns which were independent communes under their protection.

The fall of the Templars began on 13 October 1307 (a date remembered as “Black Friday”), when King Philip IV of France, “the Fair” – heavily indebted to the Templars and uneasy at their power – ordered their mass arrest on charges of heresy, idolatry and immorality. The Chinon Parchment, discovered only in 2001, shows that as early as 1308 Pope Clement V had granted the Templars absolution; but since he was under Philip’s sway (and at that time was indeed seated at Avignon, in France), the knights were persecuted and condemned, and many were put to death. In 1312 the Pope dissolved the Order by the bull Vox in excelso, and the Templars’ property passed for the most part to the Order of St John (later the Order of Malta). The serving brothers who escaped persecution carried on their activities, it is presumed, under other names and within secret societies. The Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burnt at the stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. Before he died he cursed King Philip and Pope Clement, foretelling their imminent deaths – and both died that same year.
After the dissolution of the Order the surviving Templars found refuge in various parts of Europe. In Scotland, it is supposed, they were sheltered by King Robert the Bruce, whom the Church had already excommunicated. In Portugal King Dinis I founded the Order of Christ (Ordem de Cristo) in 1317 and endowed it with the Templar property; in 1319 Pope John XXII recognised the new order, whereby the Order of Christ became the legitimate heir of the Templars, at least in Portugal. The Order became central to Portuguese maritime exploration, discovery and conquest. It exists still, though now as a civil and state honour. Portugal preserves an impressive Templar heritage of fortresses, churches and monasteries – Tomar, Almourol, Soure, Pombal…

Intriguing, too, is the suggestion that the Templars had a hand in the founding of Switzerland. Some of the Templars ended up in England, which did not recognise the Inquisition and so did not greatly persecute them, and in most other countries there was likewise no major persecution of the Templars.

The myths surrounding the Templars are legion – that in Jerusalem they unearthed the Ark of the Covenant; that they found the Holy Grail; that they possessed secret knowledge, including writings on the true origins of Jesus; even that they discovered America centuries before Columbus…

Although we know that the Order was suppressed and that, as such, it ceased to exist after the burning of de Molay, the Knights Templar unquestionably left an indelible mark – and not only on the past. Their spirit lives on in their unattainably high ideals of courage, loyalty, brotherhood and the defence of the weak, and in the symbols, stories and institutions they inspired.

The Connection between Gothic Architecture, the Medieval Stonemasons, the Templars and the Freemasons

Gothic architecture bequeathed to the world a legacy of monumental buildings, cathedrals above all. Some of them still rank among the largest and most imposing structures in the world: Chartres Cathedral and Notre-Dame in France, Milan Cathedral (Ital. “Duomo di Milano”) in Italy, the Cathedral of St Peter and the Virgin Mary in Cologne, Germany, and Christ Church Cathedral in Canterbury, England. The Cathedral of Our Lady in Seville is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world (Christopher Columbus lies buried there) and the third-largest cathedral of any kind. Notable monuments with elements of Gothic architecture in Croatia include Zagreb Cathedral and St Mark’s Church in Zagreb, and the Church of St John the Baptist in Pula.

The first Gothic cathedral arose at Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, where Abbot Suger rebuilt parts of the abbey church using innovative structural techniques and new decorative forms that would later become the defining features of the new Gothic style, whose principal elements are the rib vault, the pointed arch, stained glass, height and openness.

How the terms “Gothic” and “Gothic architecture” came about is not entirely clear. The medieval Germans described the style as opus Francigenum, meaning “French work” or “Frankish work”. Fulcanelli, a French alchemist and author about whose identity little is known, derives the term “Gothic art” in his cult work “The Mystery of the Cathedrals” from art goth – that is, from argot, the special coded language of a particular social group. In his view it is as though the medieval builders employed a secret language, that is to say secret alchemical processes, in order to build the cathedrals and to convey mystical messages in allegorical form. That is why the sculptural ornament and the stained glass of the medieval cathedrals carry allegorical meaning and esoteric symbolism; to many of them he gave an allegorical reading in the alchemical sense.

The Frenchman Louis Charpentier, in his book “The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral”, connects the building of the Gothic cathedrals with the legacy of the ancient builders of the Egyptian pyramids, of Solomon’s Temple and of the temples of antiquity. According to legend, King Solomon built the Temple with the help of King Hiram, following instructions found in the Ark of the Covenant, where the Tablets of Moses were kept. As already mentioned, the Knights Templar chose as their seat in Jerusalem a palace built upon the remains of Solomon’s Temple. There they remained for nine years and there, it is presumed, they discovered certain knowledge among the ruins of the Temple. They also came into contact with other cultures, the Persian in particular. A distinctive feature of the Gothic cathedrals is their stained glass (Fr. vitrail), the origins of which are to be sought in the Persian alchemical workshops of the 11th century. The transmission of the technique of stained glass is attributed to the Templars, who on their return to France passed this knowledge to the Cistercian and Benedictine orders of the Catholic Church – the orders most responsible for the beginnings of Gothic cathedral building.

Little is known of the building history of Zagreb Cathedral; for the most part there are only hypotheses. Its beginnings date from the 12th century and are associated with Bishop Prodan, who was buried in the cathedral (then still a church) around 1175. It is thought to have been built originally in the early Gothic style under the influence of French stonemasons, as excavations and the discovered remains of buttresses – a feature first seen in France in the mid-12th century – suggest. Bishop Prodan is also remembered for bringing or receiving the Knights Templar in Zagreb, granting them an estate at Glogovnica near Križevci, and building them a monastery and church at Nova Ves in Zagreb, dedicated to St Zachary (the father of St John the Baptist), on the site now occupied by the Church of St John the Baptist. Zagreb Cathedral was consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary – to the Assumption of Mary into Heaven – in 1217, on the occasion of King Andrew II’s departure for the Fifth Crusade.

Charpentier states that the fundamental structure of every Gothic cathedral consists of archetypal geometric forms: the circle, the square and the rectangle. He describes in detail the precise mathematical relationships between these forms in the cathedrals, worked out according to the postulates of the mathematics of the Pythagorean school, which studied numbers, shapes and figures (geometry and the relationships between geometric bodies). Pythagoras held that the whole universe is governed by an order of numbers by which all things move and which most faithfully expresses the essence of things and beings. It is well known that cathedrals possess their own particular acoustic resonance, and that their proportions embody musical scales, intervals, fifths and fourths. It is equally well known that it was Pythagoras who contributed so greatly to the mathematical theory of music, harmony and the tonal system.

Remarkable, too, is the connection between the sites of the French cathedrals and a knowledge of astronomy. When lines are drawn on a map between the towns of France in which cathedrals were built, the resulting figure is identical to that obtained by joining the stars of the constellation of the Virgin (Lat. Virgo). Interestingly, most Gothic cathedrals are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary – Our Lady (Fr. Notre-Dame).

There are many reasons why the medieval Gothic cathedrals are so exceptionally important and fascinating. Architectural and engineering masterpieces though they are, they conceal a great deal more besides. Many of the authors who have studied the subject connect the building of the cathedrals not only with mathematics, geometry and architecture but also with astrology, astronomy, alchemy and, of course, theology – all in the service of conveying allegorical messages which to this day carry a mystical yet profound meaning concerning the essence of our being in the universe.
For Charpentier, after all, the cathedrals are far more than mere church buildings: they have a metaphysical significance that bears upon the spiritual development of man and of civilisation.

Some go a step further, holding that the cathedrals represent a kind of bridge between man, as the microcosm, and the Creator, as the macrocosm. The fundamental purpose of the whole of the ritual performed in Masonic Lodges is defined as the union of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm, the Microcosm being an extraordinarily faithful representation of the Macrocosm. It is therefore no accident that the rules and regulations governing the work of masons and Freemasons were called the Gothic Constitutions – the documents which later served as the foundation for Anderson’s Constitutions.

When the cathedrals were being built they seemed unreal, almost illusory. Given the conditions of the age, its technological limitations and the so-called “dark” Middle Ages, it is still not entirely clear how they were built – the more so when we know that within a span of some 120 years the building of around 150 cathedrals was begun across European soil. For some, the answer lies in secret knowledge, transmitted by Divine Providence. For others, the decisive part was played by knowledge accumulated over the centuries, embracing the achievements of other cultures – ancient Greece, Persia and the Arab world.

In any event, the credit for the building belongs to the stonemasons, their system of apprenticeship and their guild organisation. At the centre of the story stand the master “free masons” – architects of the impossible. Their work embraced architecture, construction, craftsmanship, design and engineering. Many master masons devoted their whole lives to the building of a single cathedral; many never lived to see it finished. They were visionaries, ahead of their time, devoted to the last to their mission, drawing the utmost from themselves and from their apprentices and journeymen to create wondrous works for the good of their community and of all mankind – for many of the cathedrals remain in use today, and their works of art are open to us and serve us still, so that we may learn and grow, and through that growth contribute to the betterment of the world around us. It is understandable, therefore, that Masonic organisations ground their philosophy of life in this tradition – to labour unceasingly at one’s own spiritual and moral development, and at the perfecting of all one’s skills, for the good of one’s neighbour, one’s community and the whole of humanity.

Finally, it should be stressed that Gothic architecture, the early masons’ guilds and the beginnings of present-day Freemasonry are bound to the same geographical regions of Europe – to the Catholic lands – and are absent from the Byzantine, Orthodox territories. This is especially true of France, which we associate with the beginnings of the Gothic style and of medieval stonemasonry, and hence with the very name Freemason (French: franc-maçon). The Order of the Knights Templar is firmly woven into the history of France, where the Enlightenment, too, began.

In conclusion, the decisive influences upon the formation and work of Masonic organisations throughout the world were the guilds of the medieval stonemasons, the Templars and the Enlightenment movement of the 18th century. The cardinal ideas of the Enlightenment were the promotion of science, education, tolerance, liberty and human rights as the fundamental values and principles by which society ought to be guided. These remain the foundations upon which the free, democratic states of the Western world were built. To this the Freemasons contributed in great measure, and they continue to promote those ideas, insisting that labour upon the spiritual and ethical development of every individual is the path to the love of truth and the love of humanity, without which there can be no peace, no liberty and no flourishing society in the world. The key role in this belongs to the Masonic Brotherhoods, whose guiding thread is contained in the motto “Liberty – Equality – Fraternity”.