60 Fun Facts About Freemasons

Freemasonry traces its origins to medieval guilds of which trade?

It is generally considered the oldest existing secular fraternal organisation, with documents going back to the 14th century.

How many degrees make up Craft or 'Blue Lodge' Freemasonry?

They mirror the medieval guild grades of apprentice, journeyman and master.

What is the first degree a candidate receives in Freemasonry?

He is later passed to the second degree and then to the third.

A Mason is 'initiated' into the first degree, 'passed' to the second, and what to the third?

At each step he is entrusted with passwords, signs and grips confined to that rank.

What is the officer called who stands guard outside the door of a working lodge?

He may be paid for the job; every lodge also has a Master, two Wardens, a treasurer and a secretary.

How many Wardens does every Masonic lodge have?

Almost all lodge officers are elected or appointed annually.

What is the formal dinner sometimes held after a lodge meeting called?

It is also known as an Agape, and may involve toasting and song.

What is the single most identifiable symbol of Freemasonry?

Both are architect's tools; one 1866 monitor says the square teaches you to square your actions.

In English-speaking countries the Masonic emblem often carries which letter at its centre?

It is most commonly said to stand for God, and alternatively for Geometry.

Freemasonry describes itself as a 'beautiful system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by' what?

The imagery is drawn mainly from builders' tools: the level, plumb rule, trowel, and rough and smooth ashlars.

The Craft degree ceremonies revolve around the building of which structure?

The central legend concerns the artistry and death of its chief architect.

Which legendary chief architect's death is the subject of the Masonic third-degree ritual?

Many versions of the legend exist, but each is recognisable to a Freemason from any jurisdiction.

In most lodges, on what is the Masonic oath taken?

That means whichever scripture suits the candidate; in the Anglo-American tradition it is usually the Bible.

What are the painted depictions used in some lodges to illustrate the themes of each degree called?

They are shown according to which degree is being worked and explained to the candidate.

The first Grand Lodge was founded in London on St John's Day of which year?

Over the next decade most existing English lodges joined it, and it began a period of self-publicity and expansion.

The rival 1751 Grand Lodge, the 'Antients', coined which insulting label for the original body?

The two bodies competed for supremacy for over sixty years before compromising on a shared ritual.

In which year did the two rival English Grand Lodges finally reunite?

The union struck all US-based lodges from the rolls, largely because of the War of 1812.

The Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) No. 1 has minutes running continuously from which year?

It shows a continuity from an operative lodge to a modern speculative one and is reputed to be the world's oldest.

The oldest of the Masonic 'Old Charges', a manuscript from about 1425, is known as what?

The Old Charges relate a mythologised history of the craft and how oaths of fidelity are to be taken.

Which two Grand Lodges were founded in 1725 and 1736 respectively?

Neither persuaded all the existing lodges in its country to join for many years.

Which is the largest single Masonic jurisdiction by membership, with an estimated 175,000 members?

There is no worldwide governing body; the United States has no national Grand Lodge, only state ones.

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is a system of how many degrees?

That count includes the three Blue Lodge degrees; it is run by a Supreme Council rather than a Grand Lodge.

In America, the York Rite administers the Royal Arch, Cryptic Masonry and which knightly order?

In Britain separate bodies run each order; the English Templars share Mark Masons' Hall in London.

Which Masonic tradition is dominant in the Nordic countries?

A variation of it is also used in parts of Germany.

Which royal was installed as Grand Master of English Craft Masonry in 1967?

Installed in 1967, he became the longest-serving Grand Master; in England the Royal Arch is closely tied to the Craft and shares many Grand Officers with it.

By 1789 France had how many Freemasons, making it the most popular of all Enlightenment associations?

French lodges' initiation rites included the line 'As the means to be enlightened I search for the enlightened'.

Which composer is listed among prominent 18th-century Freemasons alongside Voltaire and Goethe?

The list also includes Montesquieu, Robert Walpole and Benjamin Franklin.

As Emperor of the French, whom did Napoleon select as Grand Master of France?

In the same era Prussian lodges were headed by Frederick the Great and English ones by the Prince of Wales.

The Grand Orient de France was reconstituted in 1773 under which Grand Master?

His predecessor at the Grande Loge de France had exercised only nominal authority.

In 1877 the Grand Orient de France dropped which requirement, losing English Grand Lodge recognition?

It followed the Lausanne Congress of 1875 and a report by a Protestant pastor arguing Freemasonry was not a religion.

Which US Grand Lodge withdrew recognition after the Grand Orient de France opened Masonry to all races in 1869?

The dispute began when a Scottish Rite Supreme Council in that state admitted Black members.

Where were the earliest known American lodges, attended by port collector John Moore as early as 1715?

That was two years before the first Grand Lodge was formed in London.

The first US president took his 1789 oath of office on a Bible belonging to which Masonic body?

The oath was administered by Robert Livingston, first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York.

Which founding father was proposed as first Grand Master of a never-formed 'Grand Lodge of the United States'?

The state Grand Lodges refused to give up their own authority, and the idea died quickly.

In 1775 Prince Hall and 14 other African Americans joined a lodge attached to what body?

They had been refused by Boston's other lodges; the military lodge held a warrant from the Grand Lodge of Ireland.

What number did African Lodge receive when it obtained an English warrant in 1784?

After the English union struck it off, it renamed itself African Lodge No. 1 and became a de facto Grand Lodge.

Who founded the first Masonic lodge in Canada, at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia?

He had become a Mason while resolving boundaries in New England and became provincial Grand Master in 1739.

Kingston Freemasons Wellwood and Maxwell Hyslop bankrolled which Latin American liberator?

He was a Mason himself, but banned all secret societies, including the Freemasons, in 1828.

The pro-US faction of Mexican Freemasons backed by ambassador Joel Poinsett were known by what name?

Mexican presidents who were Masons ranged from Guadalupe Victoria and Benito Juárez to Lázaro Cárdenas.

The first Masonic lodge in China, Amity Lodge, was constituted in 1767 in which city?

Freemasonry is outlawed in mainland China today; the Grand Lodge of China is based in Taipei.

Which pope's 1738 bull In eminenti apostolatus first banned Catholics from Freemasonry?

The Vatican reaffirmed in 2023 that membership was still forbidden for Catholics.

Which former Mason's 1826 disappearance, before exposing the rituals, sparked American anti-Masonry?

Many believed Masons had murdered him, and churches and civic groups condemned the fraternity.

The Anti-Masonic Party pioneered which practice in 1831, later adopted by all major parties?

It was also the earliest third party in the United States; most members later joined the Whigs.

Which former US attorney general was the Anti-Masonic candidate in 1832, carrying Vermont?

Ironically he was himself a former Mason; he won 7.8 percent of the popular vote.

Which Italian dictator outlawed Freemasonry in the mid-1920s?

The lodges had hailed fascism as Italy's saviour from Bolshevism, but he wanted to come to terms with the Catholic Church.

Which Russian revolutionary leader of 1917 was a Freemason?

Russian Masonry collapsed and was outlawed again once the Bolsheviks took power.

Who composed the first printed Masonic constitutions in the 1720s, which excluded women?

They became the basis for most later constitutions.

Which Frenchwoman co-founded the first mixed Masonic lodge with Georges Martin?

She resigned after her initiation so her lodge could rejoin its Grand Lodge, then started her own movement.

Which theosophist spread mixed-gender Co-Freemasonry to the English-speaking world?

Disagreements over ritual then led to exclusively female Masonic bodies forming in England.

Freemasons' Hall, the headquarters of English Freemasonry, stands on which London thoroughfare?

It has been a Masonic meeting place since 1775 and sits between Holborn and Covent Garden.

The Freemasons' Hall in London finished in 1933 was built in which architectural style?

It was built as a memorial to the 3,225 Freemasons who died in the First World War and is a popular film location.

Before 1939, what was the 1933 Freemasons' Hall in London known as?

The name was changed at the outbreak of the Second World War; the building covers two and a quarter acres.

Early 21st-century estimates of worldwide Masonic membership range from about 2,000,000 to more than what?

The Masonic Service Association puts US membership at around 875,000.

In 1803 German professor J. G. Buhle proposed that Freemasonry grew out of which esoteric movement?

The idea was later taken up by the essayist Thomas De Quincey.

Which two subjects are traditionally off-limits for discussion in Anglo-American lodge meetings?

That tradition also requires belief in a supreme being and a holy book open in the lodge.

What is Masonry's usual term for the divine being who created a scientifically ordered universe?

Many 18th-century lodges praised this figure in explicitly Enlightenment terms.

How many existing London lodges met for the joint dinner that founded the first Grand Lodge in 1717?

Over the following decade most existing English lodges joined the new regulatory body, later called the Grand Lodge of England.

Roughly how many members did Italy's two main Masonic bodies have in the early 20th century?

Spread across some 500 lodges, the Grand Orient and Grand Lodge of Italy promoted nationalism and unification against the Catholic Church.

Where did the Grand Lodge of China relocate after Freemasonry was banned on the mainland?

After 1949 some lodges moved to Hong Kong, where the Craft was still permitted at the time, or closed for lack of candidates.

Which Latin American liberator, besides Bolívar, is named as a Freemason Grand Master in the independence era?

Spain had outlawed the Craft in its overseas empire, but San Martín and O'Higgins were also members, and Brazilian Masons later led the abolition of slavery.