MASONS, . A secret fraternal organization
of worldwide celebrity, and one credited by
enthusiastic writers with great antiquity. The
Order, however, is now conceded to have been
instituted about the early part of the eighteenth
century — the pretensions put forth to a date
coeval with the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, with King Solomon as the first grand master, being considered by those who have thoroughly investigated the subject as not worthy of credit. The attempt also made to establish a connection between the fraternity and many of the secret cults and organizations, such as the Eleusinian mysteries, the Pythagoreans, the Rosicrucians and others, in the early stages of its existence, has also failed, the utmost accomplished in that direction being the detection of a certain similarity between the symbols and ceremonies of these older institutions and the system of ritual and rule observed by the Masonic Order — circumambulation, the use of aprons, the forty-seventh problem of Euclid, etc. Another consideration which tends to discredit any connection between these older associations and the Freemasons is the fact that the conception of Masonry implies a cosmopolitan brotherhood, which would have been impossible of realization in the earlier ages of the world's history. The more rational and the generally accepted theory regarding the origin of the society of Freemasons is, that it is the successor of the building associations of the Middle Ages of which the Steinmetzen or stonemasons of Germany were a representative. The term
has also been a puzzle to philologists, some
claiming that it is Norman French — Frère Maçon
(brother mason) — while others maintain the
second part of the title to have been derived from
the German word Metzen, having the same
signification. These early building societies, the
precursors of the Masons, are found to have
been grouped in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries for the most part around the Benedictine
monasteries, the abbots being the architects who
employed the masons on ecclesiastical buildings
and repairs. The development of architectural
taste and the acquisition of greater wealth by the
Church led to the erection of buildings on a
larger and more imposing scale, requiring the
association of craftsmen in the various branches
of construction for longer periods together. This
led to the formation of societies known as the
Bauhütten, so called from the wooden booths, where, during the continuance of the work on any particular building, the craftsmen kept their tools, took their meals, and held their meetings. By the latter part of the thirteenth century these societies had increased so in number that a general association of the Bauhütten was formed in Germany, governed by one code of craft laws, acknowledging one set of secret signs and ceremonies, and working under one central authority, the Haupthütte of Strassburg. That there is a certain connection admitted between this organization and the Masonic fraternity may be inferred from the fact that the trade customs and symbolic forms of the Bauhütten have been described by Masonic writers in Europe and America. (See Fort, Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry, Philadelphia, 1887). The requirement most rigidly enforced from the earliest period was secrecy, which was enjoined in the most solemn manner, both journeymen and apprentices being sworn, before initiation, on the Bible, Square and Compasses, to preserve inviolate the secrets of the brotherhood. Membership was at this early period confined strictly to the operative class, who were supposed to preserve the old secrets of Gothic Masonry, but later, in the seventeenth century, it no longer was deemed necessary to restrict membership to craftsmen alone, and, the bars being lowered, gentlemen became eligible. The Haupthütte went out of existence in 1731.