Freemasonry - History

History

The origins and early development of Freemasonry are a matter of some debate and conjecture. A poem known as the "Regius Manuscript" has been dated to approximately 1390 and is the oldest known Masonic text. The poem begins by with a history of the "Craft" of Masonry, describing Euclid as the inventor of geometry and then tracing the spread of the art of geometry through "divers lands", ending up in England. This is followed by fifteen articles for the master concerning both moral behaviour (do not harbour thieves, do not take bribes, attend church regularly, etc.) and the operation of work on a building site (do not make your masons labour at night, teach apprentices properly, do not take on jobs that you cannot do etc.). There are then fifteen points for craftsmen which follow a similar pattern.

In his commentary on the poem, James Halliwell, who discovered it, notes 'the recent use of the term freemason to those who practice the actual trade. In the year 1506, John Hylmer and William Vertue, freemasons were engaged to "vault or doo or bee vawlted with free-stone the roof of the quere of the College Roiall of our Lady and Saint George, within the castell of Wyndsore"'.

There is evidence to suggest that there were Masonic lodges in existence in Scotland as early as the late 16th century (for example the Lodge at Kilwinning, Scotland, has records that date to the late 16th century, and is mentioned in the Second Schaw Statutes (1599) which specified that "ye warden of ye lug of Kilwynning tak tryall of ye airt of memorie and science yrof, of everie fellowe of craft and everie prenteiss according to ayr of yr vocations"). There are clear references to the existence of lodges in England by the mid-17th century.

The first Grand Lodge, the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster (later called the Grand Lodge of England (GLE)), was founded on 24 June 1717, when four existing London Lodges met for a joint dinner. Many English Lodges joined.the new regulatory body, which itself entered a period of self-publicity and expansion. However, many lodges could not endorse changes which the GLE made to the ritual in the wake of printed exposures, and formed a rival Grand Lodge on 17 July 1751, which they called the "Most Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons according to the Old Institutions", better known as the "Antient Grand Lodge of England." The two competing Grand Lodges vied for supremacy – the "Moderns" (GLE) and the "Antients" (or "Ancients") – until they united on 25 November 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE).

The Grand Lodge of Ireland and The Grand Lodge of Scotland were formed in 1725 and 1736 respectively. Freemasonry was exported to the British Colonies in North America by the 1730s – with both the "Antients" and the "Moderns" (as well as the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland) chartering offspring, or "daughter," Lodges, and organising various Provincial Grand Lodges.

The earliest known American lodges were in Pennsylvania. In December 1730, Benjamin Franklin’s Gazzette states that “there were several Lodges of Freemasons erected in this Province.” After the American Revolution, independent U.S. Grand Lodges formed themselves within each state. Some thought was briefly given to organising an overarching "Grand Lodge of the United States," with George Washington (who was a member of a Virginian lodge) as the first Grand Master, but the idea was short-lived. The various state Grand Lodges did not wish to diminish their own authority by agreeing to such a body.

The oldest jurisdiction on the continent of Europe, the Grand Orient de France (GOdF), was founded in 1733. However, most English-speaking jurisdictions cut formal relations with the GOdF around 1877, when (following the Lausanne Congress of 1875) the GOdF removed the requirement that its members have a belief in a Deity. The Grande Loge Nationale Française (GLNF) was the last French Grand Lodge to be in regular amity with the UGLE, until UGLE withdrew recognition on 12 September 2012.

Due to the above history, Freemasonry is often said to consist of two branches not in mutual regular amity:

• the UGLE and concordant tradition of jurisdictions (mostly termed Grand Lodges) in amity, and
• the GOdF, European Continental, tradition of jurisdictions (often termed Grand Orients) in amity.

In most Latin countries, the GOdF-style of European Continental Freemasonry predominates, although in most of these Latin countries there are also Grand Lodges that are in regular amity with the UGLE and the worldwide community of Grand Lodges that share regular "fraternal relations" with the UGLE. The rest of the world, accounting for the bulk of Freemasonry, tends to follow more closely to the UGLE style, although minor variations exist.

The Order of the Freemasons of the Swedish Rite is a somewhat distinct order, in that it is exclusively open for confessors of the Christian faith. For 200 years, until 1997 the title of grand master was the Swedish king, who from then on is entitled high protector.