Freemasonry

5 Pages 1246 Words

The Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons is the oldest, largest and most widely known fraternal organization in the world.

Volumes have been written about it. Yet, to many people, Freemasonry remains a mystery.

This summary is an attempt to relate some of the facts of Freemasonry that may be of interest to all.

HISTORY
Freemasonry traces its ancestry to the operative crafts, which, records indicate, were introduced into England as early as 674 A.D.

Freemasonry is directly descended from those associations of operative craftsmen, primarily the Cathedral Builders, of the middle Ages. These men, because of their special knowledge and skills, were permitted special travel privileges and traveled from country to country employing the secrets and skills of their craft. These Master Craftsmen developed means of recognition and identification of their work.

In the Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Century, as Cathedral Building came to an end, numbers of these operative stone Mason guilds or Lodges began to accept as members good men who were not stone Masons or directly connected with the builders' craft. These were called Accepted or Speculative Masons. Gradually, the Lodges came to be composed almost entirely of these Accepted or Speculative Masons. From these groups, the Freemasonry of today had its beginning.

GRAND LODGES
In 1717, four Lodges of Freemasons, meeting in London, England, formed the first Grand Lodge of Freemasons in the world.

The Grand Lodge chartered Symbolic Lodges and Provincial Grand Lodges in many countries, including America, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and others.

Today, there are more than 150 Grand Lodges in free countries of the world with a membership of more than six million Masons.

The Grand Lodge is the administrative authority in its territory, known as a jurisdiction.

MASONIC LODGES
The basic unit of all Grand Lodges is the Masonic Lodge, somet...