It may be a startling declaration, but it is well authenticated, that there is no other Freemasonry, as the term is now understood, than what which has been so derived. In other words, the lodges and Grand Lodges in both hemispheres trace their origin and authority back to England for working what are known as the Three Degrees, controlled by regular Grand Lodges. That being so, a history of modern Freemasonry, the direct offspring of the British parents aforesaid, should first of all establish the descent of the three Grand Lodges from the Freemasonry of earlier days; such continuity, of five centuries or more, being a sine qua non of antiquity and regularity.

It will be found that from the early part of the 18th century back to the 16th century existing records testify to the assemblies of lodges, mainly operative, but partly speculative, in Great Britain, whose guiding stars and common heritage were the Old Charges, and that when their actual minutes and transactions cease to be traced by reason of their loss, these same MS. Constitutions furnish testimony of the still older working of such combinations of freemasons or masons, without the assistance, countenance or authority of any other masonic body; consequently such documents still preserved, of the 14th and later centuries (numbering about seventy, mostly in form of rolls), with the existing lodge minutes referred to of the 16th century, down to the establishment of the premier Grand Lodge in 1717, prove the continuity of the society. Indeed so universally has this claim been admitted, that in popular usage the term Freemason is only now applied to those who belong to this particular fraternity, that of mason being applicable to one who follows that trade, or honourable calling, as a builder.

There is no evidence that during this long period any other organization of any kind, religious, philosophical, mystical or otherwise, materially or even slightly influenced the customs of the fraternity, though they may have done so; but so far as is known the lodges were of much the same character throughout, and consisted really of operatives (who enjoyed practically a monopoly for some time of the trade as masons or freemasons), and, in part, of “speculatives,” i.e. noblemen, gentlemen and men of other trades, who were admitted as honorary members.

Assuming then that the freemasons of the present day are the sole inheritors of the system arranged at the so-called “Revival of 1717,” which was a development from an operative body to one partly speculative, and that, so far back as the MS. Records extend and furnish any light, they must have worked in Lodges in secret throughout the period noted, a history of Freemasonry should be mainly devoted to giving particulars, as far as possible, of the lodges, their traditions, customs and laws, based upon actual documents which can be tested and verified by members and non-members alike.

It has been the rule to treat, more or less fully, of the influence exerted on the fraternity by the Ancient Mysteries, the Essenes, Roman Colleges, Culdees, Hermeticism, Fehm-Gerichte et hoc genus omne, especially the Steinmetzen, the Craft Gilds and the Companionage of France, &c.; but in view of the separate and independent character of the freemasons, it appears to be quite unnecessary, and the time so employed would be better devoted to a more thorough search after additional evidences of the activity of the craft, especially during the crucial period overlapping the second decade of the 18th century, so as to discover information as to the transmitted secrets of the medieval masons, which, after all, may simply have been what Gaspard Monge felicitously entitles “Descriptive Geometry, or the Art and Science of Masonic Symbolism.”

The rules and regulations of the masons were embodied in what are known as the Old Charges; the senior known copy being the Regius MS. (British Museum Bibl. Reg. 17 A, i.), which, however, is not so exclusively devoted to masonry as the later copies. David Casley, in his catalogue of the MSS. in the King’s Library (1734), unfortunately styled the little gem A Poem of Moral Duties; and owing to this misdescription its true character was not recognized until the year 1839, and then by a non-mason (Mr Halliwell-Phillipps), who had it reproduced in 1840 and brought out an improved edition in 1844. Its date has been approximately fixed at 1390 by Casley and other authorities.

The curious legend of the craft, therein made known, deals first of all with the number of unemployed in early days and the necessity of finding work, “that they myght gete here lyvynge therby.” Euclid was consulted, and recommended the “onest craft of good masonry,” and the genesis of the society is found “yn Egypte lande.” By a rapid transition, but “mony erys afterwarde,” we are told that the “Craft com ynto England yn tyme of good kynge Adelstonus (Æthelstan) day,” who called an assembly of the masons, when fifteen articles and as many more points were agreed to for the government of the craft, each being duly described. Each brother was instructed that—

“He must love wel God, and holy Churche algate And hys mayster also, that he ys wythe.” “The thrydde poynt must be severle. With the prentes knowe hyt wele, Hys mayster cownsel he kepe and close, And hys felows by hys goode purpose; The prevetyse of the chamber telle he no mon, Ny yn the logge whatsever they done, Whatsever thou heryst, or syste hem do, Telle hyt no mon, whersever thou go.”

The rules generally, besides referring to trade regulations, are as a whole suggestive of the Ten Commandments in an extended form, winding up with the legend of the Ars quatuor coronatorum, as an incentive to a faithful discharge of the numerous obligations. A second part introduces a more lengthy account of the origin of masonry, in which Noah’s flood and the Tower of Babylon are mentioned as well as the great skill of Euclid, who—

“Through hye grace of Crist yn heven, He commensed yn the syens seven”;