History
of Freemasonry
In any discussion of history,
it is traditional to start at the “beginning”. From a Masonic
perceptive the “beginning” of all things is thought by many Masons
to have to started about six thousand years ago, but regardless of
your position on that topic, all Masons know the “beginning” to
have started as described in the Book of Genesis in
The Holy Bible,
“Genesis
1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.
The Holy Bible in speaking
about the “beginning” also tells us at
John 1:1, that “In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was
God.”
When masonry asks a
prospective candidate, who has requested an application, if he has
a belief in a “supreme being”, the above should clearly be taken
into account.
Speaking of Masonic
history, any Master Mason with an interest in scripture should
also find
Revelation 22:16
to be of interest
16"I,
Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a]
this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring
of David, and the bright Morning Star".
The Bible is open and
prominently displayed at the meetings of Kempenfeldt Lodge, and it
governs the faith of each man present.
Unfortunately we do not have
a start date for Freemasonry itself.
Origin of Freemasonry
The exact origin of the Masonic
Fraternity continues to be a topic of discussion, and many books
are devoted to the subject, so we will only touch on it briefly in
this website.
One theory popular among many
scholars is that it arose from the stonemasons’ guilds during the
Middle Ages. Part of the language and symbols used in the
fraternity’s rituals are borrowed from this era, (though
Freemasonry may pre-date those additions).
Others such as
John Robinson, in his 1989 book
Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of
Freemasonry, attempted among other
things, to find evidence for the stone guild origin theory, but
was not able to find such evidence. That author advances the
theory that Freemasonry may have it’s origins in the
Knights Templar
who were “on the run” after the brutal suppression of that
military order of Catholic monks by the King of France which began
on Friday the 13th of Oct 1307, on false charges, in
order to avoid repaying the huge debts he owned them. While there
have been various romantic attempts over the centuries to make
such a connection, he was a non-mason who had set out to write a
book about an historical event unrelated to both the Knights
Templar or Freemasonry, but end up writing a serious book about
both. A very interesting read for the Non-Mason and the Freemason.
Regardless of how Freemasonry actually began, we all
agree that we exist today!
The oldest known document
that makes reference to Masons is the Regius Poem, printed about
1390, which was a copy of an earlier work.
Freemasonry & The
British Empire
The first
documented
making of an English Freemason, was Elias Ashmole,
at Warrington, England in 1646, and that from the 1660s more
evidence
exists of gentlemen being made Masons in non-operative
Lodges.
It is a well documented
fact that on St John the Baptist Day, 24 June 1717, four lodges in
London formed the first Grand Lodge of England, and records from
that point on are more complete. Within thirty years, the
fraternity had spread throughout the British Empire, and Europe,
especially France.
Freemasonry became very
popular in British North American colonies, which were to form the
basis of the Canada and the United States.
Freemasonry & Canada
Canada has a strong historical connection to the United Kingdom,
and the British Monarchy, which is continues to this day, as the
Crown is not just of the
UK,
but many other countries as well, including Canada. On the
British/Canadian side of things, Freemasonry has continued to be
intertwined with the social fabric of the British Empire, which later became the “British
Commonwealth” or as it now
commonly called “The Commonwealth”. To this very day Freemasonry
continues to be a vibrant part of the fabric of Canadian society,
though an often overlooked, often misunderstood part of the
fabric. Freemasonry in
Canada is firmly loyal to Canada as a constitutional monarchy, as
evidenced by the presence of the Canadian flag and the Queen’s
portrait in the Lodge rooms.
Despite the fact that thirteen of the British North American
colonies rebelled over tax issues or the day and formed the USA,
the remaining British North American colonies stayed loyal to the
Crown and starting in 1867 chose to join together as a self
governing entity (within the British Empire) called the “Dominion
of Canada”, and today is simply know as “Canada”. There are
several websites which list famous Canadians who are said to have
been Freemasons, including
Eureka Lodge,
Grand Lodge of BC & Yukon,
Crafty Mason,
Famous Masons,
Baseline Lodge, and many more. These list
several Prime Ministers of Canada and other notable Canadians such
as Tim Horton, John Molson,
Dr. James Naismith, Sir Sanford Fleming, and a great many more. It
should be noted that the
United Grand Lodge of England
lists at least six Kings and one Archbishop of Canterbury as
having been Freemasons.
In On Saint John the Baptist Day, the 24th
of June 1717, four lodges in London formed the first Grand Lodge
of England, and records from that point on are more complete.
In what is now Canada, Masonry quickly spread from
Great Britain over the whole country, and is now represented in
all ten provinces and three territories by ten
Grand Lodges,
and many important political, historical and business leaders have
been members. In part, Freemasonry came to North America through
military Lodges in the British Army.
In what is now the Province of Ontario, many settlers
were already Masons prior to their arrival in Canada. Masonic
Lodges are often as old as the communities in which they are
located. Kempenfeldt Lodge is the youngest of the three Masonic
Lodge in the City of Barrie, having been formed with permission of
Grand Lodge, by a group of Ontario Hydro workers. The membership in this Lodge now includes good men
from all walks of life, and from both Barrie and surrounding
communities.
Over the centuries,
Freemasonry has developed into a worldwide fraternity emphasizing
personal study, self-improvement, and social betterment via
individual involvement and philanthropy.
During the 1800s and early
1900s, Freemasonry grew dramatically. At that time, the government
had provided no social "safety net". The Masonic tradition of
founding orphanages, homes for widows, and homes for the aged
provided the only security many people knew.
On 14 June 1967 the 250th anniversary of the
United Grand Lodge of England
was celebrated at the Royal Albert Hall, in England. Centrepiece
of the celebrations was the installation as Grand Master of the
United Grand Lodge of England, of His Royal Highness The Duke of
Kent, who still holds that office today, and this fact is a
reflection of the centuries old links between the Monarchy and
Freemasonry. Even to this day the Monarch’s picture hangs on the
Lodge room wall in Kempenfeldt Lodge, along with the Canadian and
provincial flags.
Today in North America, the
Masonic Fraternity continues this tradition by giving almost $1.5
million each day to causes that range from operating children’s
hospitals, providing treatment for childhood language disorders,
treating eye diseases, funding medical research, contributing to
local community service, and providing care to Masons and their
families at Masonic Homes.
The five million Masons
worldwide continue to help men and women face the problems of the
21st century by building bridges of brotherhood and instilling in
the hearts of men ideals for a better tomorrow.
There have been those over the last three
hundred years who have attacked Freemasonry. We will not explain
their motives or arguments here, better to let them speak for
themselves in that regard. Such misrepresentations or
misunderstandings, of Freemasonry are also easily found on the
internet. It should be noted that several Masonic scholars have
actually taken the time to catalogue such attacks, and to
objectively produce well researched written responses to them.
For instance Christopher Haffner a former
District Grand Master for Hong Kong and the Far East (under the
United Grand Lodge of England),
who later earned a Masters in Religious Theology. He is a
"Licensed Reader", a (lay person who has been selected, trained,
and authorised by a Bishop in his Church to preach and teach the
faith, give pastoral care and lead public worship in the Anglican
Church in England). In his very scholarly book:
Workman Unashamed
(Second Edition 2005)
(written for both Masons and non-masons) covers all such attacks
on both Freemasonry and Royal Arch Masonry, and skilfully rebuts
each one.
John Robinson, in 1992, in his third book
A Pilgrim's Path: Freemasonry and the
Religious Right, similarly takes aim at the
critics of Freemasonry, by well researched examination of the
basis of their arguments, effectively refuting them, with special
emphasis on the Church politics surrounding the 1992 Southern
Baptist Convention in the Southern USA. In the conclusion of this
book he speaks so highly of Masonry that he mentions his intent to
become a Freemason.
Freemasons For Dummies
is a 2005 book by Christopher Hodapp (a Freemason) which provides
a good explanation of Masonry and the various concordant bodies,
as well as a catalogue of the various criticism of it over time,
and a balanced examination of each.
