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Masons or Freemasonry

WHY DO WE call ourselves Free and Accepted Masons? Why Free? Why Accepted? Why Masons? Some Jurisdictions call themselves Ancient Free and Accepted Masons? Why Ancient? How do they differ from ourselves? From whence came we? ……these are just a few of the questions that come to mind when we investigate our origins.

If we consult older histories of Freemasonry, we may read that the modern Craft is like a mighty river produced by the confluence of two separate streams. The source of one is found in the Roman Colleges of Artisans (Collegia Artificum) established by Numa, King of Rome from 715 to 673 B.C. They had several grades of membership, and various officers not unlike our Master and Wardens. Besides their industrial functions, they carried out certain religious observances. As the Roman legions conquered Europe the College of Builders went with them. Then, when barbarian invasions shattered the empire in the fifth century of our era, the mystic art lingered on in the Lombard community of Como, Italy, where it was nursed through the Dark Ages by the famous Comacine masters. When order finally returned after centuries of turmoil, the masters ventured forth from Como with the Pope's blessing as "travelling masons", and proceeded to fill Europe with majestic Gothic cathedrals. They implanted Masonry in England, and engendered the craft guilds, the eventual parent of Freemasonry. At some stage in its long career, the builders' craft absorbed the tenets and methods of the ancient mystery religions. The latter, no matter where they were established, had certain moral philosophical truths, which they communicated to their initiates by means of symbols. At the center of their ritual was often a legend recounting how some hero or divinity was raised from the dead.

Such, in bare outline, is the history that has often been taught in the past. Now the truth of the matter is that there have been stonemasons all over the world from the dawn of time, even before the great pyramids of Egypt. In like manner, from an early period there have been innumerable fellowships which have inculcated lessons of morality by means of allegory. In some sense both can be called forbears of Masonry, but no conclusive link has been traced. Indeed, one could argue that both types of institution are merely recurrent responses to permanent human needs, and that their resemblances to Masonry are purely fortuitous. We can say with certainty that modern speculative lodges descend in an unbroken line from British craft masons of six hundred years ago. Earlier than that we cannot go. That unbroken line we propose to trace in the following pages.

In the course of its evolution, Masonry has passed through several stages. The sequence is clearest in the London Masons' Company, which goes back to 1376, and which gave rise to a "lodge" including non-operatives in 1682; and in the Lodge at Edinburgh (Mary’s Chapel), No. 1 in the Scottish Constitution, which has an unbroken run of minutes going back to 1599.