Masonry is very old.  No one knows how old it is.  I believe this subject can be best presented if divided into three periods.  The first period begins in the obscure past and comes down to the twelfth or thirteenth century.  In this period Masonic students will find evidence of societies that held the same principles, taught the same lessons, and used similar methods; yet were not called Masonic, that is, they had names other than Masonic lodges.

 

The second period begins with the twelfth century and comes down to 1717 A.D.  It is impossible to find an exact, definite starting point for this middle period such as may be found for the modern period; but out of the Middle Ages have come certain important manuscripts and lodge records now preserved in the British Museum, the libraries of the Grand Lodge of England and Scotland, and in private libraries. 

 

The third period extends from June 24,1717 A. D., when the first grand lodge was organized in London, to the present day.  This is a period of well kept records, also of extensive literature. 

 

Each of these periods invites the student of Freemasonry and the last two offer rich rewards for his labors.  He will find in the Ancient Mysteries of Egypt, India, Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, and the Orient, many of the principles, lessons, and methods with which the Mason of today is familiar. 

 

The oldest of all written records of our Craft is a manuscript called the "Halliwell" or "Regius" manuscript, written by some unknown brother in England before 1390 A.D., nearly six hundred years ago. The document itself shows that even then Freemasonry was already very old. 

 

At the time this document was written all Freemasons were operatives; that is, they were workman engaged on buildings.  Such a builder was called a "Mason."  There were many kinds of masons, but those builders of a superior type who designed, supervised, and erected those great cathedrals and other marvelous structures in the Gothic style of architecture.  These operative Masons designed such buildings as a whole and in each detail; dressed the stone from the quarries and laid it in the walls; set up arches, pillars, columns, and buttresses; laid the floor; built the roof; carved the decorations; made and fitted the stained glass windows; and produced the sculptures.  Their work was difficult to perform, called for a high degree of mechanics and geometry as well as of stone-masonry.  They were the great artists of the Middle Ages. 

 

Where a number of Freemasons worked together on a building over a period of years, they organized a lodge which probably met in a temporary structure or in one of the rooms of the uncompleted building.  Such a lodge was governed by a Worshipful Master assisted by Wardens; it had a Secretary to keep its books; a Treasurer to keep and to disburse its funds, a charity fund from which to dispense relief to the members in accident, sickness, or distress and to widows and orphans of Master Masons; it met in stated communications, divided its membership into grades, admitted members by initiation- in short it was in all essentials what a Masonic lodge is today. 

 

Completing their work in one community, these Freemasons would move to another, setting up their lodges wherever they worked.  Other types of Masons were required by law to live and work in the same community year in and year out and under local restrictions.  Some of our Masonic historians believe it may have been because they were free of such restrictions that the Gothic builders were called "Freemasons."  Such was the Fraternity in its "operative" period; and as such it flourished for generations.  Then came a great change in its circumstances. 

 

The Religious Reformation of the sixteenth century brought to an end the extensive ecclesiastical building program, especially in the Gothic style of architecture, resulting in disaster to the building trade.  Social conditions underwent a revolution, and laws were changed bringing about a decline in the Craft.  In England and Scotland, however, the Craft maintained its existence; and as already indicated, very important Masonic manuscripts dating from 1390 A.D. to 1693 are still preserved.  These sources indicate that the lodges were then made up of operative Masons only. 

 

The transition period from operative to speculative Freemasonry was largely caused by the Reformation.  Then too, Euclid's geometry was rediscovered and published, thereby giving to the public many of the Mason's old trade secrets.  The Craft declined as an operative institution. 

 

Owing to these conditions the Freemasons, to build up their membership, adopted a new practice- they began to accept non-operative members. 

 

In the old days only an operative Mason in the literal sense could become a member; but during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries gentlemen with no intention of becoming builders, probably from interest in the ancient customs of the Craft, or for many other reasons, applied for admission and were received; because they were thus accepted, they were called "Accepted Masons."   There were a few of these at first; but as time passed, their number increased until, by the early part of the eighteenth century, they outnumbered the operative Masons and exerted more influence. 

 

As a result of this condition the Craft took a revolutionary step which set it on a new path of power and importance.  On St. John the Baptist's Day, June 24, 1717, four or more old lodges of London and Westminster met in London and organized a grand lodge.  This was the beginning of the modern period of Masonic history.  Not all the lodges in the British Isles acknowledged the authority of this grand lodge, because it was believed that this body had altered some of the Ancient Landmarks. However, in 1751 A.D. another grand lodge was organized in England.  In 1813 these two grand lodges adjusted their differences and united under the present organization.  Prior to 1751 grand lodges had been set up in Scotland, Ireland, and on the European continent. 

 

American lodges were under the government of provincial Grand Lodges, which were ruled by provincial Grand Masters appointed by the Grand Lodge of England, or Scotland, or Ireland. 

 

The oldest existing record of an American lodge is in the minute book of St. John's Lodge, in Philadelphia.  The first entry is dated June 24, 1731.  The contents of the entry indicate that the lodge had been in existence earlier, at least as far back as 1730. 

 

In 1733 Henry Price received a written deputation to be a Provincial Grand Master with authority to organize lodges anywhere in America.  The lodge he organized in Boston in 1733 was the first American Masonic body to be organized on the authority of a written document from the Mother Grand Lodge. 

 

As one of the results of the successful termination of the War of the Revolution, American grand lodges became sovereign and independent.  It was questioned at that time whether or not there should be one grand lodge for the whole United States.  But the wisdom of the Craft prevailed, and a grand lodge was created in each state and was sovereign in its own jurisdiction.  Today there are 49 Grand Lodges in the contiguous United States.  Alaska operates under authority of the Grand Lodge of Washington.  Hawaiian Masonry is under the Grand Lodge of California.  The District of Columbia has its own Grand Lodge. 

 

The first lodge in the territory of Iowa was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Missouri in 1841.  It was Des Moines Loge No. 41, located at Burlington.  (Today it is Des Moines Lodge No.1.)  The Grand Lodge of Iowa was organized in 1844. 

 

It has been my purpose to try to make it clear to you that speculative Freemasonry did not spring full-formed out of nothing in 1717 but came as a gradual growth out of operative Masonry and from the distant past.  Through an unbroken line we can trace our origin back to those builders of the early Middle Ages; we are Masons too, except that where they erected buildings, we try to build manhood; their working tools we have transformed into emblems of moral and spiritual laws and forces; their practices and secrets we have embodied in the Royal Art of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth; their rituals, mellowed, enriched, and more beautiful with the passing of time, we employ in the Initiating, Passing, and Raising of our candidates.  All that was living and permanent in the ancient Craft, we have preserved; and we use it in behalf of goodwill, kindliness, charity, and brotherhood among men.  Such is our heritage; and as you enter into it, you will discover it inexhaustible in interest and lifelong in appeal, a power in your life to enrich, to ennoble, and to inspire you.

 

( lecture from the "Lodge System of Masonic Education")