Page 11 - ASHLAR - Oct-Dec 2019

N A L G R
I O
G E AND LODGE
The Ashlar R Vol. XV Issue III
THE ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY THE POCKET HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
By FRED L. PICK and G. NORMAN KNIGHT
An immense amount of ingenuity has been Druids, Culdees and Rosicrucians.
expended on the exploration of possible First come certain bodies such as the Druids
origins of Freemasonry, a good deal of which and the Culdees, of whom we know nothing,
is now fairly generally admitted to have been or next to nothing, as to what rites or
wasted. ceremonies they may have practised; and
In a system, fundamentally ethical, which who thus provide admirable opportunities
makes a wide use of symbolism in its for guesswork as to any possible or probable
manner of imparting instruction, it would be ancestorship. Of both these it need only be
surprising if there were not many points of said that they certainly existed and
contact with a variety of religions, old and functioned in the British Isles, but that our
new, in addition to the classical "Mysteries," knowledge of neither justifies any attempt at
and even ancient Chinese philosophy, in establishing a relationship to Freemasonry.
which, for example, the Square is known to Again the Rosicrucians, no less mysterious,
have been employed as an illustration or have been claimed as among our ancestors.
emblem of morality. But, whether there ever was such a body at
Many of the doctrines or tenets inculcated in all, and, if so, whether it possessed any
Freemasonry belong to the vast traditions of peculiar ritual or secrets, are extremely
humanity of all ages and all parts of the doubtful; and in any case there can have
world. Nevertheless, not only has no scarcely have been such a fraternity until
convincing evidence yet been brought after the beginning of the seventeenth
forward to prove the lineal descent of our century, and by that date Freemasonry was
Craft from any ancient organization which is widely distributed over Scotland, and
known to have, or even suspected of having, probably over England.
taught any similar system of morality, but The Essenes and the Ancient Mysteries.
also, from what we know of the Craft in the Next must come the "esoteric" moral
few centuries prior to the formation of the systems of the past, such as that of the
first Grand Lodge in 1717, it is excessively Essenes (who flourished from an early date
unlikely that there was any such parentage. in brew history until well into our era), the
Indeed, it can be very plausibly argued that a ancient Mysteries of Egypt and Greece, and
great deal of the symbolism which we find in the Mithraic cult. These, undoubtedly taught
the Craft today is actually a comparatively morality through symbolism, used elaborate
modern feature and that some was not rituals and inculcated such doctrines as that
introduced until after the beginning of the of the immortality of the soul.
eighteenth century. Here we do in some cases know rather more
Without attempting to give an exhaustive list regarding their tenets and practices; but the
of ancient bodies or organizations which differences are more pronounced than the
have at various times been claimed as the resemblances, and the latter are in such
ancestors of Freemasonry, it may be said details as might well have developed quite
that, roughly, they fall into three groups, independently in widely separated places or
which will be shortly reviewed in what ages.
appears to be the order of increasing The Collegia, Travelling Architects and
plausibility. Comacine Masters.

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