 |
On St. John Baptist's Day, in the 3d Year
of King George I, A.D. 1717, the Assembly and Feast of the Free and Accepted
Masons was held at the foresaid Goose and Gridiron Alehouse (left). |
A Short History Of The Craft
Freemasonry is one of those human institutions around which swirls noble history, great legends, and honored traditions; separating them is no mean task. It is generally agreed that the modern Masonic Fraternity dates from 1717 with the election of the first Grand Master of the first Grand Lodge in London. This action was recounted by Reverend John Anderson in his 1738 Constitutions of the Freemasons.
|
On St. John Baptist's Day, in the 3d Year
of King George I, A.D. 1717, the Assembly and Feast of the Free and Accepted
Masons was held at the foresaid Goose and Gridiron Alehouse (left). |
While Anderson's account may seem straightforward, there are nagging
worries about the historical accuracy of his book since it attributes Masonic
membership to every historically prominent male back to Adam. Nonetheless,
1717 is a watershed year; factual knowledge of Freemasonry increases or decreases
dramatically as one moves forward or backwards in time from the first meeting
of the premier Grand Lodge in
1717.
The most
popular and widely accepted theory of origin is that of direct descent from
the cathedral building guilds. According to this premise, the stonemasons
who built the cathedrals of England and Europe developed a system of moral
instruction and mutual support that they passed on from member to member.
The original "Secrets of Masonry" were probably nothing more than building
trade secrets and passwords that took the place of union dues cards. Sometime
in the late 1500s and 1600s, lodges (the word used by stonemasons for their
workshops or meeting places) began "accepting" honorary members and evolved
into "Free and Accepted Masons." Eventually the accepted Masons came to dominate,
and the transition from an operative, practical craft into a speculative
or philosophical and social fraternity was completed. Masons then ceased
building in stone and began the task of fitting themselves as better men
in their communities and, symbolically, "as living stones for that house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
The Old Charges of the cathedral builders, going back to the Regius Manuscript, written about 1390, generally conform to the rules and regulations of the modern fraternity some 300 years later. Wallace McLeod has shown that by about the year 1520, when the "Standard Original of the Old Charges" appeared, the Masonic custom of mutual support and charity had been codified into a written regulation.
19. And also that every Mason shall receive and cherish strange Fellows when they come over the country, and set them to work, as the manner is; that is to say, if they have mould stones in place, he shall set him a fortnight at the least on work, and give him his pay; and if he have no stones for him, he shall refresh him with money to the next Lodge.
Scottish lodge records from the transitional period definitely support the evolution of stonemasons' guilds into gentlemen's clubs, though similar English records are completely lacking. The early lodges encouraged convivial banquets, philosophical debates, and scientific discourses. Only two topics of discussion were forbidden in lodge then (as they continue to be forbidden today): religion and politics.
Some Masons, more enthusiastic than discerning, have traced Freemasonry directly to King Solomon's Temple and from there to Egyptian pyramids and on back to any civilization that built with stones. Masonic origins also have been sought in other groups, like the Knights Templar or the Rosicrucians or the Bavarian Illuminati (or sometimes even Secret Adepts from Atlantis!).
John Hamill presents an excellent summary of the various theories of
origins in his 1994 book, The History of English Freemasonry. He suggests
"the possibility that the originators of speculative Masonry clothed themselves
in the appearance of an operative organization or guild to cloak activities
and ideas which, at that time, it was impossible to practice openly." (p.
20) These activities could have been opposition to the intolerance of state
politics and religion.
He also offers the hypothesis of Andrew Durr which approaches the origins
from the charitable rather than the philosophical aspect.
This sees Freemasonry as a development of the growing self-help movement in the seventeenth century. With no State Welfare system, those who fell sick or on hard times had to rely on local charity and the rigid working of the Poor Law. Different groups of trades began to make their own arrangements. Meeting convivially in inns and taverns, they kept a box into which members paid "dues" at each meeting and from which members could draw money in times of need. From this practice they became known as Box Clubs. Initially they were reserved to members of a particular trade, and there is evidence that they used primitive initiatory rites. It also seems that, like Scottish operative lodges, the Box Clubs began to admit members not connected with their particular trade. The possibility has been raised that Freemasonry originated as just such a Box Club for operative masons which later began to admit members of other trades. (p. 25)
While there is no agreement on the actual origins of Freemasonry, the end results are clear: a worldwide fraternity teaching borderless brotherhood, moral improvement, mutual support, religious toleration, civic betterment, freedom of thought, and universal charity. This volume will concentrate on the latter aspect of the Ancient, Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons.
Every Member shall pay at Least two shillings more per Quarter to be applied as Charity Towards the Relief of poor Brethren.
Bylaws, First Lodge of Boston, 1733
The Beginnings of Freemasonry in America, p. 106
Melvin M. Johnson, 1924This is believed to be the earliest record of an American Masonic lodge establishing a charity fund.