It seems probable
that leading members of the old masonic guilds had connections with the Knights
Templar. What is not known is whether the Freemasons of today are in any real
sense connected to the old guild of stone masons of the Middle Ages.
The Cathedral of
Notre Dame was the work of a guild of masons under the leadership of the
Cistercian Order. St Bernard of that order was said to have knowledge of the
secret geometry of King Solomon’s masons. The master mason of this guild, and
skilled in sacred geometry, was Hiram Abiff, who was to become a central
symbolic figure in the Freemasonry movement of the early 18th century.
There were various
masonic guilds or brotherhoods during the Middle Ages, and when King Philip IV
of France began to persecute the Knights Templar in the early 14th century, the
masonic guilds in France were also placed in danger. Like the Knights Templar,
they were secretive and therefore suspect.
It was believed that
the masons had knowledge of the sacred geometry of the ancients, and it was
only one step from this to see them as possibly having maps that indicated the
sites of ancient documents and treasures.
They had three
degrees of membership, the highest being that of Master mason. The Master
masons were the ones most likely to be privy to any secrets. It was those of
the ‘third degree’ among the secret societies who were subjected to interrogation.
This is the derivation of our modern term, subjecting someone to ‘the third
degree’, meaning a ruthless interrogation to force the person to divulge
information.
When an apprentice
joined one of the old guilds, he had to swear not to reveal the secrets of the
craft, and the masons might at that stage have introduced some form of secret
communication by which they could recognise one another.
During the Middle
Ages, masons worked on the building sites of the great cathedrals and other
Gothic structures. The work required a high degree of skill, and a secret code,
recognisable only to other masons, would have ensured that no one who was not
properly qualified would be employed on such projects.
Masonic groups
formed groups in towns, but lodges also provided meeting-places for masons who
were working away from home. These lodges kept masons in constant touch with
one another and with the society.
It was quite usual
for noble European families of the day to invent mythical genealogical records
for themselves so that they could claim bloodlines going back to some
illustrious figure of the distant past. Some of the guilds did the same and
claimed fascinating but highly unlikely origins for themselves.
The first English
Freemason lodges were formed around the beginning of the 18th century. Although
they adopted many of the rituals and symbols of the old masonic guilds of the
Middle Ages and added more of their own devising, they were quite different
organisations.
Within a decade or
so, Freemasonry had spread to France and then to Germany and elsewhere in
Europe. Freemasons were not required to have practised the trade of masonry,
but tended to be drawn from a wide range of occupations and included many of
illustrious reputation.
From what has been
written in the last decades about Freemasonry today, it seems that modern
Freemasons know little or nothing about the need to protect ancient great
secrets, although this might well be part of the ritualistic role of the higher
echelons. Even then, however, sacerdotalism is no longer claimed.
Decisions about the
advancement of ordinary members are taken by this rather shadowy higher
echelon, and one assumes therefore, that some kind of ‘enlightenment’ takes
place, but the role of Freemasonry today is largely one of service and mutual
support. It seems, however, that rituals and symbols remain very much part of
their ceremonies.
Freemasonry accepts
members of all religion, or no religion at all. Some lodges now include women.
When a society
operates in terms of secrecy and has initiation rites and esoteric levels of
membership, it is inevitable that conspiracy theories will arise regarding its
activities, including accusations of subversive finagling. There is little
doubt that Freemasons do indeed look after one another’s interests where
possible, but the impressive number of famous and justifiably renowned
Freemasons over the past couple of centuries suggests that most of the
accusations are somewhat flimsy.
The very fact that
the society has endured through the centuries and has counted some of history’s
most illustrious figures among its members suggests that it has a powerful pull
on the imagination of those who belong to it and that they find their
connection with it fulfilling. There are thousands of Freemason lodges
throughout the world.
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