The Canon · No. 079
Freemasonry
The Craft
1717 CE – present · Esoteric / Occult · Living · Worldwide
VI. REFORMATION & EARLY MODERN — 1500 – 1800
How many
Roughly 2–6 million, and declining steadily in the West.
Who began it
No single founder. The United Grand Lodge of England dates organised Freemasonry to 24 June 1717, when four London lodges met at the Goose and Gridiron. Its descent from operative stonemasons' guilds is real in some respects and mythologised in others.
What it is for
Moral and civic improvement through allegory and ritual. Masonry's own formula is that it is a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.
What it worships
Members must profess belief in a Supreme Being, referred to as the Great Architect of the Universe. The term is deliberately neutral so that Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others can sit together, which was a radical proposition in the eighteenth century and is the root of most religious objections to it.
What it holds
Freemasonry states that it is not a religion and offers no doctrine of salvation. Its content is ethical: brotherly love, relief and truth. Discussion of religion and politics inside the lodge is forbidden precisely to keep the peace between members who disagree.
What it does
Initiation through three degrees — Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, Master Mason — using an allegorical drama built around the building of Solomon's Temple and the legend of Hiram Abiff. Symbols: the square and compasses, the level, the plumb, the all-seeing eye. Obligations sworn on a volume of sacred law, which is the Bible in most English lodges and may be another scripture. Charity is substantial; Masonic bodies fund hospitals and schools. Additional degree systems exist — the Scottish Rite's 33 degrees and the York Rite — which are supplementary, not superior.
After death
None taught. Masonic funeral rites refer to the Grand Lodge above, but the fraternity leaves the actual question to each member's religion.
Its texts
Anderson's Constitutions (1723). Ritual is largely memorised and unpublished, though exposures have been in print since the eighteenth century and most of it is now easily found.
Its branches
Regular (Anglo-American) and Liberal (Continental) Masonry; appendant bodies — Scottish Rite, York Rite, Shriners; Prince Hall Freemasonry; Co-Masonry and women's obediences, which regular Masonry does not recognise.
Of note
Included because it is repeatedly treated as a religion by both its enemies and popular culture. It has ritual, initiation, secrecy, symbolism and a required belief in God — and no theology, no salvation and no claim to truth. It is the clearest boundary case in the dossier.
Its timeline
- c.1390 CE The Regius Poem, the oldest Masonic document.
- 1598–1599 CE The Schaw Statutes organise Scottish lodges.
- 1717 CE Premier Grand Lodge of England.
- 1723 CE Anderson's Constitutions.
- <strong>1738 CE</strong> Pope Clement XII issues In Eminenti, forbidding Catholics to join on pain of excommunication. The Catholic prohibition has been reaffirmed repeatedly, most recently in 1983 and 2023.
- 1730s–1790s CE Spread across Europe and the American colonies; Washington, Franklin, Lafayette and Mozart are members. The Magic Flute (1791) is saturated with Masonic symbolism.
- 1826 CE The Morgan affair — a New York man disappears after threatening to publish the rituals. The resulting outrage produces the Anti-Masonic Party, the first third party in American politics.
- 1775 CE Prince Hall founds African Lodge No. 1 in Boston; Prince Hall Freemasonry becomes a central institution of Black American civil society during a century in which mainstream American lodges excluded Black men.
- 1877 CE The Grand Orient de France drops the requirement of belief in a Supreme Being; Anglo-American Masonry withdraws recognition, a split that persists.
- 1935–45 CE Freemasons persecuted and killed under Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Franco's Spain.
- 1950s–present Steep membership decline in the West; the fraternity becomes the standard furniture of conspiracy literature.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.