Table of Contents
Foreword Gordon Echlin vii
Introduction 1
1 The Origins of Freemasonry 7
A Peculiar System of Morality 10
The First Recorded Lodge 13
2 The Organization of Freemasonry 19
Rank Structure 22
Grand and Provincial Grand Lodges 25
3 The Rituals of Freemasonry 29
The First Degree 36
The Second Degree 40
The Third Degree 43
4 The Symbols of Freemasonry 49
Types of Symbols 51
The Masonic Symbols 53
Understanding Symbols 55
The Symbols of Science 62
Masonry's Platonic View of Symbols 70
5 Freemasonry and Religion 73
Your Supreme Being 74
The Philosophy of Freemasonry 82
Initiation 85
Freedom of Belief 92
6 Scottish Roots 95
William Schaw and the Schaw Statutes 97
William the Wastrel 106
Sir Robert Moray 112
Elias Ashmole 117
7 The First Grand Lodges 125
The Grand Lodge of York 129
The Grand Lodge of England in London 132
Andersons Constitutions 142
Grand Lodges in Scotland and Ireland 146
8 The Spread of Freemasonry 149
Freemasonry in France 150
Freemasonry in the British Empire 153
Freemasonry in Germany 157
The Spread of the Scottish Rite 159
9 The Growth of Fraternalism in the United States and Beyond 163
The Military Lodges 163
The Boston Tea Party 166
The War of Independence 172
The First Masonic President 178
The Prince Hall Masonic Lodges 183
Masonry on the Moon 189
Further Reading 194
About the Author 197
About the Illustrator 197
