Little can be said with certainty about the early history of Freemasonry. The connection with the original English and Scottish stonemasons' guilds, who protected their profession with agreements and gestures, is well known. These same stonemasons already used the reference to Noah's Ark and the Temple of Solomon. Later, men from outside the profession were also admitted, the old customs remained and were supplemented with contributions from, among others, Christianity and Judaism. Only from the beginning of the 18th century, and in any case from about 1717, can the history of Freemasonry be outlined with some objectivity.
Before 1717
At the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, a number of associations arose in England and Scotland that met regularly for meetings. This was especially popular in Scotland because after the Scottish Reformation, all forms of conviviality and association life had been banished from religious experience. These associations have a social and convivial character. On the other hand, these clubs also have a substantive or philosophical character. People come together around a certain substantive theme. Citizens and notables with time and money wish to profile and develop themselves in this way.
These gatherings are also linked to formal elements. Freemasonry uses forms of the operative man who, as an architect and stonemason, has built from the earliest times and often refers to the building and stonemasonry symbolism, such as that which grew in the Middle Ages. This is called speculative (reflective) because of its application outside the actual scope of construction; this creates an 'opposition' between operative and speculative Freemasonry. At the same time, however, equivalent associations were active around other symbolic themes, such as all kinds of craftsmen such as confectioners and carpenters. In the Low Countries, it was also the guilds that had such an existence. These organisations no longer exist today, or are much less well known.
That this speculative Freemasonry is in continuity with the medieval builders' guilds is disputed because the thread is very thin and was regularly interrupted. Proponents of this proposition rely on the existence of Scottish documents, which would prove this conclusively. Opponents have critical remarks about the evidential value and impact of these scarce documents. Speculations encouraged by pseudo-historians, however, are rife. Thus, in the best case, it can only be stated for Scotland that speculative Freemasonry is truly descended from operative Freemasonry. The guild system had disappeared much earlier on the European continent and was even in disrepute in the eighteenth century.
The year 1717 and beyond
On 24 June 1717, four speculative Masonic lodges, all of which had their field of activity in London, decided to unite in an umbrella organisation, the Grand Lodge of London. The French Huguenot John Theophilus Desaguliers played an important role in this. A few years later, the rules were standardised and codified. Freemasonry gained success and grew steadily.
In 1723, the British clergyman James Anderson established the fundamental rules in his book The Constitutions of Freemasonry. These fundamental rules are based on the so-called Old Charges and are a compilation of old constitutions and rules of operative lodges. The constitution was thus a fusion of the Gothic constitution from 1390, the Cooke constitution from 1410, the Inigo Jones constitution from 1607 and the Wood constitution from 1610. These quickly became the bible of Freemasonry. Now the spread of Freemasonry across England (1717), Ireland (1725), Scotland (1736), the British colonies and the European continent can begin. For Europe, this begins in France (1726) and the Netherlands (informally from about 1723, certainly from 1734).
The Netherlands
Freemasonry also took root in the Netherlands from the early 1720s, and more specifically in the province of Holland; the first contacts were made through merchants who visited England or Scotland from Holland; there are known registrations there of Dutch-speaking members.
In 1731 there is an official report from The Hague to the Grand Lodge in London about the admission as a Freemason of Francis III Stephen, reigning Duke of Lorraine, the later husband of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and from 1745 Emperor of Germany, organised in a private lodge. This took place at the home of the ambassador of the United Kingdom in The Hague, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, in the presence of the 3rd Grand Master John Theophilus Desaguliers (who was touring Holland for lectures) and a number of other Brethren, including one 'Dutchman', probably Vincent La Chapelle, chef de cuisine and major domus of Stanhope in England and The Hague, later in the same roles for William IV; La Chapelle had become a Freemason in London.
A striking detail is that Stanhope had negotiated in Vienna about an Anglo-Austrian cooperation treaty that was concluded in 1731 and after which Francis Stephen, who was already destined to marry Maria Theresa, was masonically admitted in The Hague, and that shortly afterwards, at Stanhope's instigation, negotiations were opened to have Anne of Hanover, the Princess Royal, marry William IV of Orange-Nassau; this marriage was concluded in 1733.
Afterwards, lodge L'Union Royale was founded in The Hague on 19 November 1734 as the first Dutch workshop under the name "Loge du Grand-Maître des Provinces Unies et du ressort de la Généralité". The first meeting took place in the inn Lion d'Or on the Hofstraat in The Hague withVincent la Chapelle as its Worshipful Master..
The second lodge was founded on 24 October 1735 with the name Le Véritable Zèle. Louis Dragan, a draper from The Hague of French origin, became its first Worshipful Master. The meetings were held in the Nieuwe (or St. Sebastian's) Doelen in The Hague (now the building of the Haags Historisch Museum on the Korte Vijverberg). The founding of these first lodges was proudly reported in the most important newspapers of the time.
Unfortunately, the States of Holland were not convinced of the values of Freemasonry and saw it as a secret society, which led to a ban. Moreover, the members were mainly connected to the court of the Prince of Orange or known as his supporters, while the country was governed by the States-General without a stadtholder. There was quite a bit to do about this in London as the cradle of Freemasonry as we know it today, and a number of pamphlets and publications are devoted to the Dutch situation in this period. Freemasonry in Holland went underground, continued to exist and resurfaced after the Second Stadtholderless Period after 1747. The founding of its own organisation (usually called a grand lodge) took place on 26 December 1756. As a result, Dutch Freemasonry is organised as one of the oldest independent grand lodges in the world and has been able to work uninterruptedly. Only in the dark period 1940-1945 were all activities forbidden by the German occupier and the organisation completely dissolved.
[Image: Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau as Grand Master in 1817.
He remained in office until his death in 1881. Photo by Paul Mellaart]
Opposition
In the first half of the 18th century, the Roman Catholic Church also condemned Freemasonry. It forbade Catholics to become members of Freemasonry under penalty of excommunication. This ban has officially remained in force to this day. Despite this ban, Roman Catholic clergy were also active in Freemasonry for a long time
because the ecclesiastical ban was not enforced secularly.
During the French Revolution, Freemasons found themselves in different camps: Jean-Paul Marat was a Freemason, Maximilien de Robespierre was not. Lafayette, initially a supporter of the revolution, later no longer, was also a Freemason and survived everything, but Condorcet and the Grand Master of the Grand Orient de France were guillotined. Edmund Burke, an Irish statesman, conservative philosopher and Freemason, opposed the French Revolution. Thomas Paine, an important thinker of liberalism, was initially a supporter of the French Revolution but narrowly escaped the guillotine.
In all totalitarian regimes, the lodges were closed and the members persecuted. As late as 1951, Freemasons were executed by communists in Romania for their convictions. This also happened under National Socialism in Germany, where Freemasonry was discredited as an anti-national element; it was added that it was a secret Jewish conspiracy against the German people (1933-1945).
After the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the coup by military dictator Francisco Franco, the Special Court for the Repression of Freemasonry and Communism was established; until its abolition in 1964, it conducted more than 60,000 trials, the majority against Freemasons. After the dismantling of the dictatorship in Spain, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the Iron Curtain, new Freemason organisations were quickly established and allowed in those countries, usually supported by brethren who had previously fled the regime.
Freemasons have been active on all fronts since 1717. Not only were some of the Founding Fathers Freemasons at the founding of the United States, but later royal persons and their male family members also became active, for example in Scandinavia and in the United Kingdom. Writers, poets, artists, composers and politicians were active. If you would like to know more, the internet can certainly help you further.
A lot of nonsense has also been said about Freemasonry; after all, it is a kind of secret society and this has also led to excesses, sometimes within its own ranks, but also because others used the language of Freemasonry for other sinister purposes. Freemasonry exists by the grace of free men of good repute who are engaged in the search for truth, who strive to become better men and who like to meet each other and others in a harmonious gathering.
If you are interested in more literature, Wikipedia (from which part of the above has been taken) can help you further with finding texts and sources.
You can also Link the lodge.Link)