Barebones Chronological Outline of Masonic History
Pre-Masonic History
1118 Knights Templar formed by Hugh de Payen, Godfrey de St. Aldemar, 7 others, w/ support of (St.) Bernard Clairvaux
Templar wealth and power, building projects, Near Eastern and Arab influences, archeological excavations
March 1, 1244 Montsegur falls; end of Albigensian Crusade; Templars appear to quietly aid the Cathars; many Templars from Cathar families
Templar power and leniency towards dangerous heresy challenges authority of Church and State
October 13, 1307 Philip the Fair
and Pope Clement V conspire to arrest Templars, many of whom
escape
Great wealth never recovered Fleet at la Rochelle disappears
June 24, 1314 Bannockburn (w/Templar Cavalry?)
Proto/Early Masonry
1390 (earliest) Regius
manuscript describes proto-Masonic lore; England; one first two
versions of the Old Charges
1446-1486 Rosslyn Chapel and Masonic emblems;
sacred geometry
1475 Incorporation of Masons and Wrights of
Edinburgh (this and the following dates of incorporations
culminations of generations of organization)
1483 an Aberdeen "luge" (lodge)
15th C. In Germany, the Steinmetzen of the
lodges associated with the great cathedrals evidently maintain
some sort of contact to regulate the trade
1500 A second English Old Charge?
1527 Aberdeen: masons, wrights, coopers,
incorporate
1537 Dundee: first mention of the lodge as an
institution outside a specific building project
1551 Glasgow: masons, wrights, coopers,
incorporate
By 1550's confidential methods of recognition,
greeting and grip exist in Germany
1550-1600 English Old Charges proliferate
1590's Scottish Lodges, under Wm Schaw as much
concerned w/ritual and symbol as operative practices of stonemasons;
obviously aware of Old Charges
1601 Sinclair family made hereditary patrons of
at least five lodges
1640-1641 Scottish armies in north England
October 16, 1642 Elias Ashmole writes of being
initiated into some sort of Masonic "lodge;" Warrington
1644-1647 Scottish armies again in north England
1690's First catechisms, detailing secret
rituals of initiation; Scotland
The Modern Period
1717 The Mother Grand Lodge of England
1723 Andersen's constitutions
by 1737 Grande Loge de Paris
1737 speech of Chevalier Ramsey popularizes mythologies of Templar and Scottish origins
1740's "Scottish" Masonry on the rise in
France
1740-1743 ? Royal Arch degrees
1750's "Scottish Masonry" spreads in Germany
1753 Schism in The Mother Grand Lodge of England
The Grand Lodge of the "Ancients" - R.A. "the Root, Heart and marrow of Masonry"
The Grand Lodge of the "Moderns" - Definite repudiation of R.A. in 1792
1754 "Rectified masonry" introduced by Baron Karl Von Hund; takes name Strict Observance in 1764 (Ger.)
1760-1799 crisis in French Masonry
1767 Duc de Clermont adjourns the Grande Loge de Paris
The first Lodge of Perfection in USA (Albany, New York)
1773 The Grand Orient emerges from the ruins of the troubled Paris Grande Loge; it quickly dominates French lodges; resistors set up a Grande Loge de France
1799 Reconciliation between the Grand Orient and the
rival Grande Loge de France
1801 Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Supreme Council
(Charleston, SC)
1813 The United Grand Lodge of England reconciles
schism between Ancients and Moderns
Northern Supreme Council (Scottish Rite) established