MASONS, FREE. A secret frat(Tuntl organiza tion of worldwide celebrity, and one credited by enthusiastic writers with great antiquity. The I /rder, however, is how conceded to have been instituted about the early part of the eighteenth century—the pretensions put forth to a date coeval With the building of the Temple at Jerusa lem. With Ding Solomon as the first grand master, being considered by those who have thor oughly inve,tignted the sabjcet as not worthy of credit. The attempt also made to establish a connection between the fraternity and many of the secret cults and organizations. such as the Eleusinian mysteries, the Pythagoreans. the llosi erucians and others, ill t he early stages of its existeime, has also failed, the utmost ae complished in that direction being the detec tion of a certain similarity between the sylltbOIS and ceremonies of these older institlItions and the system of ritual and rule observed by the Masonie Itrder—eireitinanibulatimi, the use of aprons, the forty-seventh problem of Eu clid. etc. Another consider:1 1 ion which tends to discredit any connection between thee older associations and the Freemasons is the fact that the conception of .lasonry implies a eosmopol it an brOlhcrbuo(1, Which wolild ha ye been impos sible of realization in the earlier ages of the worbrs history. The more rational and the gen erally accented theory regarding the origin of the society of Vreemasons is, that it is the successor of the building assoeiations of the 'Middle „\ges of which the Steinmetz:en or St0nolllasois of Ger many were a representative. The term Free mason has also been a puzzle to philologists, some claiming that it is Norman French—Frirc Macon (brother mason)—while others maintain the second part of the title to have been derived from the German word Metzen, having the same sig nification. These early building societies, the precursors of the Masons. are found to have been grouped in the eleventh and twelfth cen turies for the most part around the Benedictine monasteries, the abbots being the architects who employed the masons on ecclesiastical buildings and repairs. The development of architectural taste and the acquisition of greater wealth by the Church led to the erection of buildings on a larger and more imposing scale. requiring the association of craftsmen in the various branches of construction for longer periods together. This led to the formation of societies known as the Banhutten, so called from the wooden booths, where, during the continuance of the work cm any particular building, the craftsmen kept their tools, took their meals, and held their meetings.
By. the latter part of the thirteenth century these societies had increased so in number that a gen eral association of the BauhiHien was formed in Germany, governed by one code of craft laws, acknowledging one set of secret signs and cere monies, and working under one central authority, the Hannthiittc of Strassburg. That there is a certain connection admitted between this organi zation and the Masonic fraternity may be in ferred from the fact that the trade customs and symbolic forms of the Baultiitten have been de scribed by Masonic writers in Europe and Amer ica. (See Fort, Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry, Philadelphia, 1SS7 1. The ment most rigidly enforced from the earliest period was secrecy. which was enjoined in the most solemn manner, both journeymen and ap prentices being sworn, before initiation. on the Bible. Square and Compasses, to preserve invio late the secrets of the brotherhood. Membership was at this early period confined strictly to the operative class. who were supposed to preserve the old secrets of Gothic Masonry, lint later, in the seventeenth century. it no longer was deemed necessary to restrict. membership to craftsmen alone, and, the bars being lowered. gentlemen be came eligible. The /Thuptiiiitte went out of existence in 1731.
From the Continent if Europe England derived much of her lodge org,anization. The earlier English associations of operative builders were first called Freemasons in the fourteenth and fif teenth centuries, because of the freedom granted them to carry on their occupation. From 1607 to 161S Inigo Jones, under the patronage of Lord Pembroke, was actively engaged in Masonic work. but the civil wars and the agitation caused by the Reformation so materially broke up the \lasonie connection that it was not until 1663 that definite steps were taken to put the fraternity on a permanent basis. A general as sembly of :Masons was held in London in that year. new rules were formulated and statutes enacted, and it formal resolution was passed that Masonic privileges should he no longer confined to the operative Masons. Professional and literary men. those learned in astrolog,v, or alchemy, as well as theoretic geometricians and architects, now identified themselves with the fraternity. This class of membership it first was honorary, whence the term Free and 'Accepted' Masons.