The Masonic square and compasses symbol is seen on the main floor wall at the headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Washington, D. They are used during Masonic ceremonies. While Freemasonry is not itself a religion, all its members believe in a Supreme Being , or "Grand Architect of the Universe.
The Catholic Church first condemned Freemasonry in , prompted by concern over Masonic temples and the secret rituals performed within them. In the 19th century, the Vatican even called the Masons "the Synagogue of Satan. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion. Not so with stonemasons. Particularly with the rush to build more and more massive, intricate churches throughout Britain in the Middle Ages, they would be called to specific — often huge — projects, often far from home.
They might labour there for months, even years. Thrown into that kind of situation, where you depended on strangers to have the same skills and to get along, how could you be sure everyone knew the trade and could be trusted? By forming an organisation.
How could you prove that you were a member of that organisation when you turned up? By creating a code known by insiders only — like a handshake. Edinburgh's Lodge of Journeyman Masons No. Even if lodges existed earlier, though, the effort to organise the Freemason movement dates back to the late s.
In , he sent these statutes out to every Scottish lodge in existence. One of his rules? Shortly after, lodges began to keep their first minutes. Masons profess a belief in equality, but there are no women and very few black faces. Such cynicism may be rare among the initiated, but it is more common among non-members. Could this not lead to corruption, they ask. Suspicion grew during the s after journalists began unearthing evidence that a handful of police officers and criminals were members of the same lodges.
The following decade, suspicion turned to paranoia after police in Italy began to investigate the notorious Propaganda Due lodge and its suspected links with a banking collapse and the murder of the banker and lodge member Roberto Calvi, who was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London in A number of officers responded by setting up a new lodge, the Manor of St James. At this point, according to a number of masons, many Scotland Yard officers quit the brotherhood.
By then, however, the Commons home affairs select committee had decided it should investigate the influence of Freemasonry in public life. The UGLE agreed to cooperate, but only after it had been warned it could be found in contempt of parliament if it did not. One of the main witnesses was Martin Short, a campaigning journalist who investigated Freemasonry and corrupt links between police and criminals, and whose book on the brotherhood was an 80s bestseller.
In the committee concluded that while it had no evidence that Freemasonry had played a role in police misconduct, it could not rule out the possibility. The solution, the committee said, was for public servants to be required to declare membership. For a while, newly appointed judges and magistrates were obliged to declare whether they were masons.
Along with other grand lodges around the world, the UGLE decided it was time to partly draw back the veil. Those outside the brotherhood cannot be sure what remains hidden, however, even in There are the known unknowns — the secret signs of recognition — but are there any unknown unknowns? Short remains suspicious. Who are these , men? We have the names of their ceremonial leaders, as listed in the Masonic year book, but almost all the brothers are unknown.
Another example comes from under Napoleon , who revived Freemasonry after the French Revolution and used it as an instrument of his regime. Masonic lodges became temples for his personality cult. Tons of his generals and top people in his regime were installed at the head of grand lodges in countries that were then incorporated into the French empire. So Freemasonry was a mechanism to control political culture; it was an instrument of the regime.
Many Freemasons were dedicated to trying to live by those ideals — enlightened principles of universal brotherhood and reason, as well as inclusiveness irrespective of race, creed, colour and background. But that universalism was paradoxical from the beginning.
It preached equal values for all, except if you were a woman. While it may have been formed with high ideals, it was ultimately victim to the same societal forces as everything else. Geography is a key qualification in any discussion about Freemasonry. Because very soon after it was created, the organisation was presented with a huge problem of brand control.
People were inventing different forms all over the place to suit their own interests. That said, in many contexts, it has had a lot of problems dealing with race. America has always had two Freemasonrys — one black and one white.
Imperialism is another huge blind spot in the way that Masons talk about themselves and their own past. In many ways, Masonry oiled the wheels of empire. As an imperial bureaucrat sent across the globe, you could walk into a lodge in Cape Town or Calcutta and instantly tap into a social life and support network.
It also provided a handy cover story for imperialism, by cloaking it in the ideals of brotherhood and universal cooperation. But what happened when the locals wanted to join? In some cases, like in 18th-century India, some were welcomed into lodges very early on because imperialists wanted to co-opt local rulers. But towards the end of the 19th century, when Indians wanted to be integrated into power structures, attitudes towards their membership became more complicated.
The Freemasons have inspired a lot of fear over the years. They were already worrying conservative Europe in the 18th century, when the French Revolution came along. A French priest in exile in London called Augustine Barruel wrote a book blaming it all on the Freemasons.
That really fired the starting gun on the conspiracy theories. From that point onwards, anti-Masonry became a feature of almost all rightwing thinking. The idea of a Masonic conspiracy — an infiltrating power hidden in the lodges, some weird Magus or homunculus pulling all the strings — became the template for a new incarnation of anti-Semitism based on the idea of an obscure financial elite controlling everything.
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