To find the origins of Freemasonry, it is important to first isolate its individual characteristics, which can be found in the institutions from which it appeared to emerge:


1.  It was a professional builders -or, more precisely, construction -organization; the long-ago vocation of mason does not correspond directly to the modern specialization, but included an extensive knowledge of architecture.  The organization was represented hierarchically.

2.  The organization extended beyond a strictly professional frame-work.  Its members considered themselves brothers and provided mutual assistance.

3.  The association, in both its operations and assistance, followed traditional rites.  Members were accepted into it through an initiation and the brothers were united by sacred practices that were illustrative of an asceticism, an indispensable condition for the realization of the work.

4.  The association accepted members who were not practitioners of the trade.

5.  The association displayed and highlighted its character of universalism. 


Any study into Freemasonry should look both at its specific history and at the influences and events that have left their imprint over time on its formation and evolution.  As such, it should include an examination of various spheres -social, juridical, religious, and philosophical- that have conditioned these events.

The greatest common dominator that we can distinguish across the centuries, truly through the millienia, is the co-existence and interdependence of masonic objectives and a sense of the sacred.  In fact, it is the sacred that is the effective and ultimate cause of these objectives -however different from one and other they may appear at the various stages of evolution.  This is an exemplary illustration of an important truth:  Faith lives only through works and works are worth only the faith that moves them.



[Adapted from The Secret History of Freemasonry:  Its origins and connection to the Knights Templar by Freemason Paul Naudon.  Naudon as far as I am aware was the first to suggest the term 'Masonology' as a blanket reference to the serious study of the organization.  I gladly accept this and adopt it myself for the title of this board.  I feel there is much we can learn about ourselves as Freemasons -and the opinions of those who are not- by looking at where we've come from as an accurate illustration of what we are now and where we might be going]