Freemasonry

Freemasonry 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 freemasonry, lodge, masonry, lodges, masons, members, mason, grand, men, masonic, world, teaches, family, been, society, religion, order, one, membership, mankind, love, good, become, through, should, seeks, religious, own, operative, nor, means, man, known, high, friend, craft