Today this word is found frequently, especially in newspapers calling themselves "patriotic". Masons are blamed for everything: for the collapse of the USSR, for the collapse of the economy, for the impoverishment of people, although it is worthwhile to seriously begin to understand everything, then no one will be able to detect even signs of "Masonic intrigues" anywhere. So who are these Masons? Where did they come from, what do they do and what do they strive for? Why is there so much gossip about their existence? Why, despite the most fantastic accusations against them, many famous people belonged to them.
The emergence of Freemasonry is closely related to the history of medieval craft guilds and brotherhoods. In England, from where, in fact, the history of modern Freemasonry is being conducted, the first guilds appeared in the 12th century, but the 15th century is considered the flourishing of the guild movement, when craft associations began to play an important role in the life of cities, and then the whole country. So the largest of them had the right to send their representatives to city councils and even participate in parliamentary elections. Members of the most honorable guilds wore uniforms and constituted the city nobility; they possessed broad rights and privileges, which partly competed with the landed aristocracy.
The kameshchik guilds were not the oldest or the most influential among other guilds, the first mention of them in official documents dates back to the end of the 14th century, when the builders' guild was assigned to the second category. But already in 1411 the London bricklayer's workshop was incorporated (i.e. included in the number of official institutions), and in 1472 it received its coat of arms. From 1481, by royal decree, the members of this association were given the right to wear a uniform, in other words, they received the entire scope of rights and privileges enjoyed by the largest and most influential artisan guilds.
One of the most important privileges of bricklayers is freedom of movement, which was necessary by the nature of the profession, since medieval builders had to move from city to city to participate in the construction of castles, houses of nobility, churches and cathedrals. In those days, all taxable strata of society were obliged to comply with strict laws on settlement. Bricklayers were the only taxable inhabitants of England who were allowed to move freely around the country. Therefore, they began to be called "free". This is how the current name "free mason" - "free mason" appeared.
The oldest documents telling about the life and work of English construction workers are artisan regulations dating back to the 14th and early 15th centuries. From them it is clear that their meetings were held in a special covered room called the lodge, in which the familyless workers also lived. The order of the work and the behavior of the masons were supervised by the senior master and overseers.
Joining an artel, workers took an oath "on the book" (obviously, on the charter). In the 15th century, not only the workshop, but also the artel itself began to be called a lodge.
In addition to guild organizations, artisans united in closer alliances - brotherhoods of mutual aid, which were of a church-religious nature. In them there was a cult of the patron saint of the guild (among the masons, as a rule, it was St. John), mutual care and assistance, as well as assistance in travel, played an important role in the activities of these brotherhoods, passwords and secret signs were used for it, according to which the brothers could get to know each other and provide support. Messages of passwords and oaths of allegiance formed an essential part of the admission ceremonies. On annual guild holidays, feasts were held, where the ritual was observed no less strictly than during ordinary meetings and conversations.
Passwords and secret signs existed not only among members of fraternities, but also among members of workshops, where they were closely related to qualifications. When moving from one building to another, with their help, bricklayers announced their belonging to the workshop and the level of skill.
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Since the second half of the 16th century, difficult times have come in the life of artisan masons' unions, new, less labor-intensive methods of construction appear, Gothic is replaced by new architectural styles, foreign builders appear in England - French, Germans, Dutch. With the beginning of the Reformation, persecutions began against all organizations of a church nature, and in 1547 in England they were all banned by an Act of Parliament.
Many artisan brotherhoods could not survive this and disappeared. However, the Masonic fraternity survived; it ceased to be Catholic, church rites and mysteries on biblical themes disappeared from their everyday life, but reception ceremonies, annual banquets and other old customs continued to persist, becoming a strong tradition.
From that time on, a noticeable division of workshops and brotherhoods began: the former were in charge of the purely professional side of the matter, the latter kept and developed the ethical traditions of fraternal communication and mutual assistance. Over time, an organizational division took place: it was already possible to be a member of the brotherhood without being in the shop, and vice versa.
The oldest documented case of participation in the Masonic work of a non-builder relates to the Edinburgh Lodge of Scotland: on June 3, 1600, Sir John Boswell, Lord of Ochinleck, was present at the meeting. Since then, the presence of the Scottish nobility in the lodges has become commonplace. True, at the end of the 17th century, there were lodges that consisted entirely of masons (for example, a lodge in Glasgow), but at the same time there were lodges like Aberdeen, where in 1670 out of 49 members only 12 were professional masons, the rest were pastors, merchants, representatives intelligent professions - scientists, writers or representatives of the nobility.
One can only guess about the reasons that pushed these people to join the Masonic brotherhoods. For some, the benefits and privileges that the building guilds continued to enjoy may have been attractive, but they could hardly have attracted the aristocrats and church leaders, who were the most privileged class of England and other European countries. Presumably, this could be a desire for antiquity and traditions, for ancient legends about the origin of Masonic brotherhoods, cheerful traditional feasts, or the opportunity to patronize the weak.
Some scholars of Masonic history suggest that the appearance of representatives of the upper strata of society in the lodges was caused by their desire to control the activities of the lodges, because there was a fear that the work carried out in them could be dangerous for the ruling class. There is no point in denying this completely, but, apparently, there is no point in denying that the aristocracy wanted to lead Freemasonry for political purposes in order to use its capabilities to their advantage.
The brotherhood and its patrons
But be that as it may, the Masonic brotherhood, continuing to remain in its mass a professional association of builders, received high patrons, thanks to whom, apparently, it survived when the craft guilds began to gradually decline and disappear.
At this time, representatives of the learned intelligentsia, philosophers and people of the reformist mindset, who, due to the reaction that followed the Reformation, were no longer able to freely express their views, entered the lodges. Freemasonry is penetrated by utopian ideas, claiming that it is possible to build a just society based on the achievements of science and reason. The development of these ideas was promoted as much as possible by the composition of construction corporations, which, along with representatives of hard manual labor, included creative people - artists, sculptors, architects. The Masonic workshop itself was a symbol of the fact that any large business requires the concerted efforts of all workers, no matter how low or high their knowledge and skill may be. This ancient ethics of builders became a fertile ground for the development of ideas of justice, equality and non-violent redistribution of society on a new one,more reasonable basis.
It was not safe to announce these ideas openly; hence the symbolic language of Freemasonry originates. Construction tools become signs that symbolize moral qualities, embody ethical laws of justice, the construction process itself becomes a symbol of building a new, perfect society. Freemasonry, thus, is gradually transforming from a corporate ideology of a craft brotherhood into an ethical doctrine that fosters the best human qualities in its adherents.
First Giant Lodge
As the number of lodges grew, it became necessary to coordinate their activities. Therefore, in London in 1717, four lodges united and created a kind of oversight body, the Grand Lodge, whose annual meetings attracted increased public attention and turned the order into a dynamically growing movement. Be that as it may, in England between 1737 and 1907 in the fraternity consisted of sixteen princes, and four of them later became kings.
With the unification of operative and recognized Freemasons into a single brotherhood, Freemasonry took the form in which it exists today. From operational Freemasonry, it adopted building tools, degrees reflecting the level of dedication of members of lodges to Masonic secrets, secret words and signs with which Freemasons recognize each other, the obligation to work and much more. Recognized Masons, who for the most part were people of intellectual labor, built on this foundation a slender building of Masonic symbolism, which reflected their understanding of the world, belief in the possibility of creating a just society through the improvement of each of its members and the relations between them. Masonic legends arose, the search for truth began in ancient beliefs and teachings.
It is believed that the last Grand Master of Operational Freemasonry was the English architect Christopher Wren, who built St Paul's Cathedral in London. For eighteen years while the temple was being built, he visited the nearby St. Paul's box.
The following story gives an idea of his skill as an architect. When the cathedral was almost built, the city authorities drew attention to the fact that in the central space of the temple there are no columns that would support the huge ceiling. Christopher Wren convinced that the columns were not needed and the ceiling would not collapse, and cited his calculations as proof. However, they did not believe him and ordered to support the ceiling of the cathedral with columns. Ren fulfilled this requirement, but … the columns he erected do not reach the ceiling, there is space between the capitals and the ceiling itself. These columns, not supporting the ceiling, still stand today, being a symbol of the highest skill of the architect and the usual mistrust of the authorities in the achievements of science.
Over the years, Freemasonry has improved its organization. In 1723 the Book of Rites was published in England, written by the Scottish priest James Anderson. This document proclaimed that representatives of various religious movements should be able to unite in a friendly atmosphere of the lodge to calmly discuss new ideas. “Although in ancient times the Masons accepted the religion of the country in which they were, now it seems expedient to force them to switch to that Religion, where all people will come to a mutual agreement, keeping their private opinion with them; that is, one should be virtuous and sincere people, noble and honest people, no matter how different their names and beliefs may be,”said the Book of Rule.
Since then, tolerance and open-mindedness have become a law sacredly observed in Masonic writings. The Statutes were printed in America in 1734 by Grand Master Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia.
Very quickly, the Masonic brotherhood took root throughout the European continent. In the late 30s of the 18th century, lodges existed in Belgium, Russia, Italy, Germany, Switzerland. In 1735, there were 5 lodges in Paris, by 1742 their number had increased to twenty-two, and forty-five years later, on the eve of the French Revolution, the number of Freemasons reached 100 thousand.
Freemasons and the Church
The Catholic Church watched the rapid spread of Freemasonry with suspicion and apprehension. Freemasons quickly created their own rituals, history, legends and hierarchy that are integral to the official religion. Already in 1738, Pope Clement XII issued the first and very violent denunciation of Freemasonry. In his encyclical, he commanded the excommunication of all Catholics who had passed the rite of initiation into the Masonic brotherhood. The Pope announced that the oath taken by the Freemasons to keep the secrets of brotherhood is a threat to the sacredness of confession and the authority of the church, and he opposed cooperation with people who professed beliefs different from the official church. Across Europe, civil authorities have begun to comply with regulations, imposing fines and even torture on Masons.
The persecution by the Catholic Church did not exhaust the persecution of the Freemasons. Almost immediately after the official opening of the Grand Lodge in London in 1717, “exposing” reports of Freemasonry began to appear regularly in the newspapers. The Freemasons were accused of an alliance with the Antichrist, they claimed that unbridled orgies were taking place at closed meetings. Political events, immoral actions of individual members of the brotherhood from time to time fueled anti-Masonic sentiments. In 1735, the gatherings of Dutch lodges were banned for fear that members of the fraternity were taking part in political intrigues. Similar bans followed in Sweden in 1738 and in 1745 in Switzerland.
But the persecution of the Freemasons that began could no longer lead to the destruction of the brotherhood, so strong were their ideas and patronage from influential people. However, under the influence of "revelations", public opinion at times became sharply hostile to Freemasonry.
Bricklayers go to science
The Masons' response was to go into the study of history. The scholars of the brotherhood sought to find the origins of the ideas of Freemasons about public morality in ancient ethical and religious teachings. They were among the first to notice the kinship of ancient religions and their ethical systems among themselves, they discovered a striking similarity of cosmogonic ideas about the world among different peoples. Thus, the idea of the Great Builder of the Universe, who embodied the features of the supreme deity of various peoples, began to take a modern form. They managed to establish the meaning of the ancient mysteries, initiatory rites of the priests of Ancient Egypt, decipher the secrets of the Tarot cards, read the legends of the Aryan peoples of Central Asia in a new way, see the deep kinship between the ethics of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism,Taoism and other religious and philosophical systems of the East with the ethics of the Old Testament and Christianity. Gradually, Freemasonry turned into a synthetic, universal ethical and philosophical doctrine, which gave it the opportunity to spread throughout the world, without conflict with religious systems other than the Christian religion.
Note that teaching is a special property: instead of formulations, instead of words to denote human qualities, moral, philosophical and ethical concepts, Masons use symbols, which have turned into building tools in the first place. However, the meaning of the concepts that represent these tools are revealed only to those who have passed initiation and have made a commitment to keep the secret. The secret is also the special words and signs by which the Masons recognize each other. Moving from degree to degree, the Mason learns new qualities of tools and the moral standards behind them, new words and signs with which he can no longer communicate not only about his belonging to the Masonic brotherhood, but also about the degree of his initiation.
Today, when many books have been published about Freemasonry, these secrets are no longer a secret, and nevertheless, ash masons continue to keep them. This paradox can be explained quite simply: the ability to keep a secret is one of the human virtues, and the education of this quality for oneself is one of the duties of a Mason. For him, the mystery remains so, no matter who revealed it and when.
The duty to keep secrecy stems from other considerations. Freemasonry is a philanthropic movement, i.e. one of its goals is to do good to others. But a good deed, which was announced publicly, serves not so much good as such, as the pride of the one who did it. This is a kind of sponsorship for the sake of advertising, it's not for the sake of good, but for the sake of profit. Such help corrupts the giver and hardly helps those to whom it is addressed. Genuine charity is possible only in secret, it must be anonymous, only then will help reach those who need it most. Therefore, Freemasons always remain silent about their charitable work.
Unfortunately, these secrets, sometimes, haunt suspicious people, forcing them to see in this secret intrigues of enemies or a worldwide conspiracy of villains, although Freemasonry has existed for more than 250 years in almost all countries of the world and so far no one has been able to notice traces or results "Villainous activities of the Freemasons."
Quite the opposite. Many outstanding figures of humanity belonged to Freemasonry. The Freemasons wrote the American Constitution, which for the first time in history made human rights the supreme state law. The Masonic fraternity included composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig vam Beethoven, Niccolo Paganini, Jacob Sibelius, writers and poets Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Rabindranath Tagore, Walter Scott, Oscar Twentieth Beer, Poet Alexander, Rudyard Kipling. Theodore Roosevelt and a number of other American presidents, Winston Churchill, were also fraternities. Masons were such famous people as John Jacob Astor and Henry Ford, aviator Charles Lindenberg, who made the first solo flight across the Atlantic, polar explorers Robert Peary, Matthew Henson, Admiral Richard Byrd,American astronaut Edwin Old-rin, who set foot on the lunar surface on July 21, 1969, carried a banner with Masonic emblems in his pocket.
Russian Masons were no less famous and outstanding people: Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, Mikhail Illyarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzoz - already these three names are enough to discard any idea of a "Masonic conspiracy against Russia." But the list can be continued: Sumarokov, Novikov, Bazhenov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Zhukovsky, Griboyedov, A. Grigoriev, Voloshin, Gumilyov, Aldanov, Osorgin, Adamovich, Gazdanov. Leo Tolstoy's philosophical and ethical views were very close to Freemasonry, which he himself admitted. One simple listing of these great names suggests that the Masonic lodges of Russia united the best people of the country, that an atmosphere of intense spiritual quest was concentrated in them.
Mikhail Osorgin, an outstanding Russian writer, who was expelled by the Bolsheviks from Russia in 1922, defined Freemasonry in one of his speeches: not a teaching. Ideal masonry is the state of mind of a person who actively strives for truth and knows that truth is unattainable … The Brotherhood of Freemasons is an organization of people who sincerely believe in the coming of a more perfect humanity. The path to the perfection of the human race lies through self-improvement through fraternal communication with the elect and bound by the promise of the same work on themselves. So - know yourself, work on yourself, help another work on yourself, use his help, multiply the ranks of supporters of this lofty goal. Otherwise - the union of moral mutual assistance."
Source: “Interesting newspaper. Secrets of history"