As Freemasonry is a secret society it is difficult to verify documents and authorities claiming to reveal the secrets or even describe the structure and symbolism. There are however a number of acknowledged sources recommended by Freemasons. Albert Mackey, in his highly regarded Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, states that “It is the opprobrium of Freemasonry that its history has never yet been written in a spirit of critical truth; that credulity . . . has been the foundation on which all masonic historical investigations have been built, . . . that the missing links of a chain of evidence have been frequently supplied by gratuitous invention and that statements of vast importance have been carelessly sustained by the testimony of documents whose authenticity has not been proved.”
Mackey writing in The Freemason’s Chronicle, claims that “The historical portion of old records as written by Anderson, Preston, Smith, Calcott and other writers of that generation, was little more than a collection of fables, so absurd as to excite the smile of every reader.”
Many of the fantastic theories originate in James Anderson’s The Constitutions of Freemasons (1723, 1738) that insinuates that God (the Grand Architect of the Universe) founded Freemasonry, and Adam, the Patriarchs and kings of history were the patrons. Anderson even included Jesus Christ as Grand Master of the Christian Church. Freemasons were credited with the building of the Tower of Babel, Noah’s Ark, and even the Pyramids of Egypt.
Since Anderson, various authorities claim that Freemasonry’s origins can be found in the Egyptian, Dionysiac, Eleusinian, Mithraic, and Druidic mysteries and in schools and sects such as the Culdees, Essenes, Gnostics, Pythagoreans, and Zoroastrians. The various orders of knighthood (such as the Knights Templar), the alchemists, Rosicrucians, Cabbalists, and even the Chinese and Arabic secret societies are also cited as the origins of the Masons. One of the more outrageous claims is that Freemasonry “existed before the creation of this globe, diffused amidst the numerous systems with which the grand empyreum of universal space is furnished.”
While many knowledgeable Masons know that these claims as unfounded, the majority of the craft blindly accept the claim from their initiation, where they are told that Freemasonry is “ancient no doubt it is, having subsisted from time immemorial. In every age monarchs have been promoters of the art, have not thought it derogatory to their dignity to exchange the sceptre for the trowel, have participated in our mysteries and joined in our assemblies.”
Modern Freemasonry is a systematic method of teaching morality using the principles of symbols codified since 1723 A.D. Speculative Masonry truly began when Grand Lodge of England was founded on 24 June, 1717 A.D. The main organization of modern Freemasonry was completed in 1722 when the new Book of Constitutions was adopted, along with the three degrees: Enter Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master. By 1717 A.D., most of the old lodges had ceased to exist and through the new lodges the characteristic Masonic spirit slowly developed. The new constitutions are primarily in contradiction to that motivations of earlier Freemasons. Therefore, some authorities contend that modern Freemasonry is not a revival of the older system and has only existed, in its modern form, since the eighteenth century.
