Who are the Freemasons? Find out the answer here

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A great number of myths and stories have arisen around the masonry, a society that, based on common values ​​such as brotherhood and tolerance, emerged imitating the structure of the old medieval builders' guilds. Next, in this lesson from unPROFESOR.com, discover here the answer about who are the masons to banish myths that may exist in relation to this society and learn more about its history.

Much has been written about who the Freemasons are, with a large number of myths, legends and stories. It must therefore be emphasized that Freemasonry is neither a sect, nor a religion, nor a philosophy, but rather societies, with rituals whose main objectives have been to unite man and humanity around common values ​​of fraternity Y tolerance.

Its historical origins are connected with the medieval cathedral builders, which constituted guilds organized in lodges, which were labor offices and courts where the master mason maintained discipline, based on a few statutes whose foundations were to achieve a basic fraternal harmony at the time of work and finish a great building.

The denomination 'freemason' appears for the first time in England, in the fourteenth century, derived from the term free-stone-mason, which made reference to the mason whose activity was to work the ornamental stone, differentiating it from the rough-mason, which was the simple stonemason.

We do not have to confuse the Freemasons with the Templars because they were not the same.

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The evolution of this medieval to modern Freemasonry, also known as operative, occurs in the century XVIII with the Grand Lodge of Edinburgh, in which, in addition to stone workers, other members of this society appear with other occupations as members honoraria, including lawyers, doctors, physicists, teachers, etc., with a high social extraction and who sponsored the guilds.

When the construction of the great cathedrals is finished, the lodges will be made up of these honorary members, emerging above all after the Anderson Constitutions, in 1723, which is the official text of regular or Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry. In this it is indicated that the cathedral will no longer be a stone building, but that now the construction that will have to rise in honor and glory of the ‘Great Architect of the Universe’ will be the same Humanity.

This writing is made by Protestant pastors John T. Desaguliers Y James Anderson, and it constitutes Freemasonry as a meeting place for men who want to work for humanism and fraternity and against the European sectarianism of the moment after the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.

Is formed then Freemasonry as an association with a ritualistic mystique, influenced by the medieval tradition that brought together monotheistic religions, and which tried to erase social differences in search of brotherhood. This spirit of brotherhood, freedom and tolerance will also provoke their persecution. Already in the 18th century the Catholic Church will attack Freemasonry, pointing out the incompatibility of being a Catholic and a Freemason.

For example, the pope Clement XII (1730-1740) he will conduct a first anti-masonic bull in 1738, called ‘In Ementi’, in which it will indicate that both Freemasons and collaborators would fall into the penalty of excommunication for heretics. Another pope, Leo XII, will also qualify the Masons as the firstborn sons of the devil, and Pius VIII will identify them as declared enemies of God.

In this other lesson we will discover the situation of the Church in the Middle Ages.

Freemasonry takes shape throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, establishing a fundamental division between obediences regular and irregular.

The regular masonry, represented by the Grand Lodge of England, will be distinguished by:

• Being dependent on Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry.
• Strictly follow the Anderson Constitutions.
• Prohibit speaking in lodges on political and religious topics.
• Only admit men.
• Believe in the immortality of the soul and in God.

For its part, irregular masonry is distinguished by:

• Follow the Belgian and French trend, called Latin Freemasonry.
• Allow political and religious debate in the lodges, and that both atheists and agnostics belong to them.
• Accept the entry of women.

Currently, there are Masonic branches with very different ideological tendencies that go from the most traditional to those of free and rational thought.

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It is important when discovering who the Masons are to know their inner workings. Within its organization and symbols it is necessary to distinguish first of all the lodge, which is identified by:

• It is the stem cell of Freemasonry where the master brothers meet, who must be at least seven. This has its own autonomy, and its foundation is the training of its members and their improvement.
• It is also a physical enclosure, in the form of rectangle, with double length than width, which imitates the historical builders' lodges.
• Among these characteristics, it stands out that the door must be symbolically oriented towards the West, with the ‘Venerable Master’, the most important Freemason, located in the east, where the light comes from, the apprentices in the north, a less illuminated place, and the rest of his companions to the south. The loggia symbolizes the cosmos and the soul of man.
• Three candles They are located in the middle of the lodge and every act must follow a rigid protocol to avoid friction between the members.

In order to Enterokay in freemasonry you have to be sponsored by a Mason, investigating the personal background. It is accepted after the vote of the members of the lodge present in session, and if the vote is positive, an initiation ritual is carried out, the new member being instructed as a brother mason.

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