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Freemasonry is the
oldest fraternity in the world. No one knows just how
old it is because the actual origins have been lost in
time. Probably, it arose from the guilds of stonemasons
who built the castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages.
Possibly, they were influenced by the Knights Templar, a
group of Christian warrior monks formed in 1118 to help
protect pilgrims making trips to the Holy Land.
In 1717, Masonry created a formal organization in
England when the first Grand Lodge was formed. A Grand
Lodge is the administrative body in charge of Masonry in
some geographical area. In the United States, there is a
Grand Lodge in each state and the District of Columbia.
In Canada, there is a Grand Lodge in each province.
Local organizations of Masons are called lodges. There
are lodges in most towns, and large cities usually have
several. There are about 13,200 lodges in the United
States. In a time when travel was by horseback and
sailing ship, Masonry spread with amazing speed. By
1731, when Benjamin Franklin joined the fraternity,
there were already several lodges in the Colonies, and
Masonry spread rapidly as America expanded west. In
addition to Franklin, many of the Founding Fathers --
men such as George Washington, Paul Revere, Joseph
Warren, and John Hancock -- were Masons. Masons and
Masonry played an important part in the Revolutionary
War and an even more important part in the
Constitutional Convention and the debates surrounding
the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Many of those
debates were held in Masonic lodges. |
