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Freemasonry

Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 14th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. Modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups: Regular Freemasonry, which insists that a volume of scripture be open in a working lodge, that every member professes belief in a Supreme Being, that no women be admitted, and that the discussion of religion and politics do not take place within the lodge; and Continental Freemasonry, which consists of the jurisdictions that have removed some, or all, of these restrictions.

"Masonic" and "Freemason" redirect here. For the ghost town, see Masonic, California. For other uses, see Freemason (disambiguation).

The basic, local organisational unit of Freemasonry is the Lodge. These private Lodges are usually supervised at the regional level (usually coterminous with a state, province, or national border) by a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient. There is no international, worldwide Grand Lodge that supervises all of Freemasonry; each Grand Lodge is independent, and they do not necessarily recognise each other as being legitimate.


The degrees of Freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Entered Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow (now called Fellowcraft), and Master Mason. The candidate of these three degrees is progressively taught the meanings of the symbols of Freemasonry and entrusted with grips, signs, and words to signify to other members that he has been so initiated. The degrees are part allegorical morality play and part lecture. These three degrees form Craft (or Blue Lodge) Freemasonry, and members of any of these degrees are known as Freemasons or Masons. Once the Craft degrees have been conferred upon a Mason, he is qualified to join various "Concordant bodies" which offer additional degrees. These organisations are usually administered separately from the Grand Lodges who administer the Craft degrees. The extra degrees vary with locality and jurisdiction. In addition to these bodies, there are further organizations outside of the more traditional Rites of Freemasonry, that require an individual to be a Master Mason before they can join (such as the Rosicrucian Society of England).

The Grand Lodge should be established by an existing regular Grand Lodge, or by at least three regular Lodges.

A belief in a supreme being and scripture is a condition of membership.

Initiates should take their vows on that scripture.

Only men can be admitted, and no relationship exists with mixed Lodges.

The Grand Lodge has complete control over the first three degrees and is not subject to another body.

All Lodges shall display a volume of scripture with the square and compasses while in session.

There is no discussion of politics or religion.

"Ancient landmarks, customs and usages" observed.

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Liberal, also called adogmatic or progressive – Principles of liberty of conscience, and laicity, particularly the separation of the Church and State.

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Traditional – Old French ritual with a requirement for a belief in a Supreme Being. (This strand is typified by the Grande Loge de France).

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Regular – Standard Anglo-American ritual, mandatory belief in Supreme Being.

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 – Lists of Notable Freemasons

List of Freemasons

List of general fraternities

 – Fraternity organized as an order

Fraternal order

Secret society

Co-Freemasonry

Freemasonry under the Second French Empire

Belton, John L., et al. Freemasonry in context: history, ritual, controversy (Lexington Books, 2004) .

online

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Fozdar, Vahid. " 'That Grand Primeval and Fundamental Religion': The Transformation of Freemasonry into a British Imperial Cult." Journal of World History 22#3 (2011), pp. 493–525.

online

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Jacob, Margaret C. Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (1991)

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Jacob, Margaret, and Matthew Crow. "Freemasonry and the Enlightenment." in Handbook of Freemasonry (Brill, 2014) pp. 100–116.

online

Loiselle, Kenneth. "Freemasonry and the Catholic Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century France." Journal of Modern History 94.3 (2022): 499–536.

online

Önnerfors, Andreas. Freemasonry: a very short introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017) .

excerpt

Racine, Karen. "Freemasonry" in Michael S. Werner, ed. Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society, and Culture (Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997) 1:538–540.

Ridley, Jasper. The Freemasons (1999), wide-ranging global popular history.

Snoek Jan A.M. and Henrik Bogdan. "The History of Freemasonry: An Overview" in Bogdan and Snoek, eds. Handbook of Freemasonry (Brill, 2014) ch. 2 pp 13–32.

online

Stevenson, David. "Four Hundred Years of Freemasonry in Scotland." Scottish Historical Review, 90#230 (2011), pp. 280–295.

online

Stevenson, David. The First Freemasons. Scotland's Early Lodges and Their Members (1988)

Weisberger, R. William et al. Freemasonry on Both Sides of the Atlantic: Essays concerning the Craft in the British Isles, Europe, the United States, and Mexico (2002), 969 pp

Weisberger, R. William. Speculative Freemasonry and the Enlightenment: A Study of the Craft in London, Paris, Prague and Vienna (Columbia University Press, 1993) 243 pp.

. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.

"Freemasonry" 

Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine at the University of Bradford. A database of donated Masonic material.

Web of Hiram

of the Pietre-Stones Review of Freemasonry

Masonic Books Online

(1734), James Anderson, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Royster. Hosted by the Libraries at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The Constitutions of the Free-Masons

by William Morgan, from Project Gutenberg

The Mysteries of Free Masonry

at the Internet Archive, OCLC 1560509

A Legislative Investigation into Masonry (1832)

Archived 27 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine, London

The United Grand Lodge of England's Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Articles on Judaism and Freemasonry

Archived 19 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine – Edward L. King's Masonic website

Anti-Masonry: Points of View

The International Order of Co-Freemasonry Le Droit Humain