The Secret History of Freemasonry - Its Origins and Connection to the Knights Templar by Paul Naudon (2005).pdf - Templariusze - morefaya2006

Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

Part 1: The Origins of Freemasonry from

Ancient Times to the Middle Ages

1 The Ancient Corporations:

Colleges of Builders in Rome 4

2 The Collegia and the Barbarian Invasions

3 Ecclesiastical and Monastic Associations

4 Secular Brotherhoods:

The Germanic and Anglo-Saxon Guilds

5 The Crusades and the Templars

6 The Templars, the Francs Metiers, and Freemasonry

7 The Templars and the Parisian Builders

102

Part 2. From the Art of Building

to the Art of Thinking

8 Mason Corporations in France

146

9 Builders Corporations in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland 168

10 The Corporative Masonry of Great Britain

180

11 Universal Freemasonry

205

12 Speculative Freemasonry

221

13 The Grand Lodges and Modern Freemasonry

247

Conclusion 270

Notes 278

Index 293

Preface

I state with all modesty, and without presuming to underestimate

the value of preceding works on the subject, that to date there has been

no truly scientific history of the origins of Freemasonry and that such a

study is totally justified.

A number of valuable works on the history of Freemasonry have in

fact been published since the appearance of the grand lodges at the

beginning of the seventeenth century. Indeed, they have flourished in

such number since the end of the Second World War that we can now

hail the birth of a new discipline, which we might call masonology.

Nevertheless, operative freemasonry, which preceded this modern

Freemasonry* and which is its source, has not been the beneficiary of

such extensive examination. Those who have dealt with the origins of

* [The term operative freemasonry as used throughout this book refers to freemasonry

in its original form, as represented by brotherhoods of builders. It is opposed in this

study by the term speculative Freemasonry, having to do with those organizations that

emerged in the seventeenth century divorced from the worker and the meaning of his tra-

dition and made up of "accepted" Masons. Throughout this book and especially in part 2,

the author strives to make a strong distinction between speculative Freemasonry and the

operative freemasonry that is its origin and between more or less "accepted" Masons

and those craftsmen—masons—who actually practiced the building crafts. To make

these distinctions clearer, an upper case F and M are used to distinguish speculative and

modern Freemasonry and Freemasons/Masons and a lower case f and m are used to refer

to operative or original freemasonry/masonry and freemasons/masons. —Editor]

viii PREFACE

the order—for how can anyone claim to discuss this subject without

touching upon this question?—have largely contributed insights only to

the various fragmentary aspects their individual studies may have

addressed. Far too often these studies have consisted of only an iso-

lated, contemporary, and literal reading of documents with which most

students of this subject are already familiar. Symbolism, which is the

capital rule of Freemasonry, has often been either systematically over-

looked or cursorily addressed on the broader historical plane. Some

scholars have even believed Freemasonry's symbolism and history to be

two separate domains, while others, conversely, have confused symbol-

ism and history, boiling down both to a single reduction and seeking to

deduce the meaning of one from the other. The veil formed by these

symbols—words, figures, and signs— has concealed the structures and

realities from them.

We must hasten to pay a well-deserved homage to this research,

however, specifically to the remarkable works published since 1886 by

the London Study Lodge Quatuor Coronati no. 2076, which has

brought to light a significant number of old, specifically British docu-

ments. Myriad brilliant authors have applied themselves to the presen-

tation and analysis of these texts, including R. F. Gould, D. Knoop, G.

P. Jones, D. Hamer, Lionel Vibert, F. L. Pick, G. N. Knight. Harry Carr,

and John Hamil. Their works are quite valuable for their probity, the

precision of their notes, and their observations relevant to the factual

study of the beginnings of Freemasonry in Great Britain.

This intellectual harvest has encouraged me to intensify the search for

a way to better situate the masonic institution and its origins in their gen-

eral historical and structural context, especially given that the facts

related to the institution are inseparable from the social context, mind-

sets, and motivations surrounding it. Further, while modern Freemasonry

has grown directly from an exclusively British framework, its origins and

development extend far beyond Great Britain and that nation's history in

both time and space, a fact that deserves some exploration.

My investigations on this subject have been quite extensive. I have

made a point of attending to findings made in earlier works, incorpo-

rating those opinions whose premises were supported with proof.

Research based on historical sources in all their complexity has been my

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