Freemasonry Origins

Possibly… 

Freemasons created lodges near their places of work while they worked on a temporary project. These communal living places fostered a close connection between the ‘brothers’. 

The Scottish version of the Old Charges was founded by the sons of Lamech who had written their craft secrets on old pillars. Then after The Flood of Noah’s time, Hermarius, a grandson of Noah, found the secrets of geometry and masonry and other sciences on the pillars and taught them to the builders of the Tower of Babel. Then Abraham when he lived in Egypt, taught the geometry to a student named Euclid, who took the knowledge to Greece. When the masons came to Jerusalem, they built the first temple for Solomon. When that was completed, the went different ways to find work. One ended up in France and hired Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne. Another, named Alban, brought the craft to Britain. Masons were sponsored by the son of King Athelstan whose name was Edwin and he became a mason himself, and wrote the charges down. 

 

In another legend, whilst building Solomon’s Temple, Hiram of Tyre, a master builder, supervised the construction and made two brass pillars that he named, Joachim and Boaz. Other masons wanted his knowledge that he refused to give, and he was murdered. 

In 1598, William Schaw set down statutes relating to master masons, mostly admissions of apprentices and chains of authority but the system of recognition was included the Mason Word. He expanded this to include duties and rote lessons and a remembering system. He suggested they needed a patron and selected William Sinclair, Lord of Roslin, to be patron of the masons. There is a copy of this charter in the Chapel.  Y 1720 Freemasonry had spread to France, then Germany and the rest of Europe. 

During the Middle Ages, noble families in Europe constructed mythological genealogies for themselves based on crests and mottos. These were entirely fictitious but gave them a sense of hierarchy and domination which suited their fabulous wealth and splendid living style. 

The first person to mention a connection between the Freemasons and the Knights Templar was the Scot, Andrew Michael Ramsey (1696-1743). He was Chancellor of the Grand Lodge in France. 

 Childebert I brought back from his expedition to Toledo the tunic of St Vincent and a number of chalices from the ‘Treasure of Solomon’. 

Article by Wendy Stokes   https://Wendystokes.co.uk