History of Freemasonry
Historiography of Freemasonry
For a long time, the study of Freemasonry was left to unrigorous approaches and was abandoned by professional sociologists and historians. Freemasonry became an object of scientific research from 1950‑1960 in France, where it began to be approached with academic methodology. Between 1970 and 1980, Spanish, Portuguese, British, Dutch, and American academics reinforced this dynamic, expanding the field of study. From the 2000s onward, French and Spanish influences converged towards Latin America, generating scientific publications and international congresses that consolidated Freemasonry as a legitimate object of social and cultural history.
The Debate on Origins
There is a central debate on the origins of Freemasonry, which has generated apocryphal legends and a “folklore” that hinders historical knowledge. Current specialists uphold the “invention theory”: the emergence of Freemasonry was a consequence of the associative fervor and the public space independent of the Crown and the Church generated in Europe from the Age of Enlightenment, the scientific revolution, and the associational revolution. According to author Dévrig Mollès, it was the first expression of an “international civil society.”
Foundational Neo-Traditions
The First Neo-Tradition: Ancient Origins
The founding text The Constitutions of Freemasons (Anderson’s Constitutions) was written by the Scottish Presbyterian pastor James Anderson and the French Protestant exile Jean Théophile Désaguliers. The English edition of 1723 was modified and printed four times between 1723 and 1784. In Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin printed and disseminated the text for the first time in 1734. According to Anderson’s Constitutions, the introduction claimed to present “a faithful and exact relation of masonry from the beginning of the world,” set in the year 4003 BC according to the biblical account. The mythical account spanned centuries from East to West, passing through Africa, Assyria, Egypt, Jerusalem, Greece, Sicily, Rome, France, England, and Scotland.
The Second Neo-Tradition: Medieval Origins
The neo-medieval account was generated by the Scottish Catholic emigrant to France Andrew Michael Ramsay, who spoke of “our ancestors the crusaders.” Ramsay presented his discourse to a minister of King Louis XIV, who subsequently banned these meetings, considering them a threat to the political order. Ramsay permanently withdrew from Freemasonry, but his discourse popularized the idea that Freemasonry descended from the crusaders.
Early Masonic Sources
The oldest known manuscript, the Halliwell Manuscript or Regius Poem, dates from between 1390 and 1425. This document claims that the “craft of masonry” began with Euclid in Egypt and arrived in England during the reign of King Athelstan (924‑939). The Matthew Cooke Manuscript traces masonry back to Jubal, son of Lamech (Genesis 4:20‑22), and from him to Euclid, then to the Children of Israel in Egypt, and finally to Athelstan. Following the formation of the Premier Grand Lodge of England, James Anderson was commissioned to summarize these “Gothic Constitutions.” Anderson fixes the first grand assembly of English masons in York, under Athelstan’s son, Edwin (a historically undocumented figure). Anderson’s Constitutions of 1738 listed the Grand Masters from Augustine of Canterbury. William Preston expanded this foundational myth in Illustrations of Freemasonry. In France, the 1737 conference of Chevalier Ramsay added the crusaders to the lineage, under the patronage of the Knights Hospitaller.
Documented Institutional Evolution
The evolution of Freemasonry covers three documented phases. The first corresponds to the emergence of organized lodges of operative masons during the Middle Ages. The second phase involves the admission of lay members as “accepted” or “speculative.” The third phase is the evolution of purely speculative lodges and the emergence of Grand Lodges to govern them. The foundational milestone of modern speculative Masonry is the formation of the first Grand Lodge in London on June 24, 1717 (Gregorian calendar). From this moment, the institution spread across Europe and America, adopting various organizational forms and rituals.
Historical Speculations and Later Myths
According to Masonic tradition, the oldest known ritual places the first Masonic lodge in the porch of Solomon’s Temple. Attempts have been made to trace Freemasonry back to Euclid, Pythagoras, Moses, the Essenes, and the Culdees. Preston began his history with the Druids. Anderson described Masons as “Noachides,” extrapolated by Albert Mackey to include Noah. The Knights Templar became involved in the myth from the Rite of Strict Observance of Karl Gotthelf von Hund, also linked to the exiled House of Stuart. The murder of Hiram Abiff was taken as an allegory for the death of Charles I of England. Oliver Cromwell appears as a founder of Freemasonry in an anonymous anti-Masonic work of 1745, attributed to Abbé Larudan. Mackey characterizes Larudan’s propositions as “absolutely independent of all historical authority.” The anti-Masonic writings of Christoph Friedrich Nicolai implicated Francis Bacon and the Rosicrucians. Christopher Wren’s connection to Freemasonry was omitted from Anderson’s first Book of Constitutions but appeared in the second, after Wren had already died. The claim that Charles II was made a Mason in the Netherlands during his exile (1649‑1660) is a statement without documentary support, made by John Noorthouk in 1784. John Robison, in his 1797 work Proofs of a Conspiracy, accused Freemasonry of being infiltrated by Weishaupt’s Order of the Illuminati. The Encyclopædia Britannica denounced Robison’s lack of scholarship. A German bookseller and Freemason in Paris, under the pseudonym C. Lenning, embellished the history in a manuscript titled “Encyclopedia of Freemasonry” (probably 1822‑1828), revised and published by Friedrich Mossdorf (1757‑1830).
Context and Significance
The history of Freemasonry illustrates the tension between foundational myth and rigorous historical research. For centuries, the institution constructed origin narratives linking it to biblical antiquity, medieval builders, or the crusaders, narratives that served identity and legitimizing functions. However, academic historiography, developed mainly since the mid-20th century, has made it possible to distinguish between legend and documented fact, situating the birth of modern speculative Masonry within the context of the Enlightenment and the European associational revolution. Freemasonry thus constitutes a privileged object of study for understanding the formation of international civil society, networks of Enlightenment sociability, and processes of identity construction in modernity.