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of lodges considered the lodge at Edinburgh to be for all time, the first and principal lodge in Scotland. Schaw established permanent lodges for particular towns under his direct control. These lodges started to keep regular minutes, in which the initiation of entered apprentices and fellow crafts is recorded. The earliest available Lodge minutes are the those of Mother Kilwinning (1642), and Aberdeen (1670). Schaw encouraged members of the lodges to take an interest in the latest philosophical and esoteric movements. These new lodges attracted interest from men who were not working stonemasons, and intellectuals joined Scottish Masonic lodges. Eventually, these “gentleman Masons” began to dominate the membership of the Scottish Masonic lodges. The Grand Lodge of Antient, Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland was founded in 1736 The Ancient Grand Lodge: During the 1730s and 1740s antipathy increased between the Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland who considered the London Grand Lodge to have deviated from the ancient practices of the Craft. From 1717 to 1750, there were a number of Masons and lodges that never affiliated with the Grand Lodge of England. These unaffiliated Masons and their Lodges were referred to as “Old Masons”, or “St. John Masons”, and “St. John Lodges”. In 1751, five lodges, comprising mainly of Irish freemasons, who were dissatisfied with the way freemasonry was practiced by the Grand Lodge of England, gathered at the Turk’s Head Tavern, in Greek Street, Soho, London, and formed a rival “Grand Lodge of England According to the Old Institution”, also known as the Ancient Grand Lodge (as opposed to the Modern Grand Lodge). Laurence Dermott compiled the constitution of the Ancient Grand Lodge borrowing heavily from the Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of Ireland which had been published in 1751. His work was titled “Ahiman Rezon; or a Help to a Brother; showing the Excellency of Secrecy, and the first cause or motive of the Institution of Masonry; The Principles of the Craft; and the benefits from a Strict Observance thereof, etc., etc.; Also the Old and New Regulations; etc. To which is added the greatest collection of Masons’ Songs, etc.”. and published in 1754.
banned Freemasonry, for political reasons. The first lodge whose existence is historically certain was founded by some Irishmen in Paris around the year 1725 and met “in the manner of English societies”. In 1728, the Freemasons decided to recognize the 1st Duke of Wharton (Philip Wharton), Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of London, as “grand-master of the Freemasons in France”. In 1732 the Lodge received official patents from the Grand Lodge of London under the name “Saint Thomas”. But it was only in 1738 that an assembly of representatives from all the “English” and “Scottish” lodges formed the first Grande Loge de France, which gave birth to the French Masonic jurisdictions which exists today. In 1743 the Grand Lodge of England is said to have warranted the “Grande Loge Anglaise De France” (Grand English Lodge of France), which in 1756 was changed to the National Grand Lodge of France. However, disputes and poor management led to its demise and the formation of the “Grand Orient”, which held its first meeting on March 5, 1773. In 1871 the Grand Orient abolished the office of Grand Master, since which time the duties of that office have been performed by the President of the Council. A new Grand Body, known as The National Grand Lodge, was organized in 1914 to erect lodges practicing Ancient Craft Masonry on the same principles as those adhered to by the Ancient Grand Lodge of England, but to date it remains small in size and influence. Grand Lodges in Germany: There is no record of a Freemasons Lodge in Germany prior to 1737 when a Lodge was possibly formed in Hamburg. It is believed that Freemasonry was introduced into Germany from England. Freemasonry in Germany has been fragmented and undergone many transformations with differing Rites and degrees. In 1740 the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg was warranted, based on Schroeder’s Rite which is closest to the English Rite, and a Provincial Grand Master was appointed. To date there exist eight Grand Lodges in Germany.
The United Grand Lodge of England: In 1809 the Ancient and Modern Grand Lodges appointed Commissioners to negotiate an equitable Union. Over a period of four years the articles of Union were negotiated and agreed and a ritual developed reconciling those worked by the two Grand Lodges. On 27 December 1813 a ceremony was held at Freemasons’ Hall, London forming the United Grand Lodge of England with the Duke of Sussex, as the Grand Master. The combined ritual was termed the Emulation Ritual and adopted as a standard ritual by the United Grand Lodge of England, although other rituals continue to be used in many lodges.
Grand Lodges in Italy: In 1733 the English Freemason Charles Sackville, formed a Lodge in Florence that accepted Italian members. In 1736 the Lodge was investigated by the Inquisition, and condemned in 1737 leading to the first Papal ban in 1738. “Now it has come to Our ears, and common gossip has made clear, that certain Societies, Companies, Assemblies, Meetings, Congregations or Conventicles called in the popular tongue Liberi Muratori or Francs Massons or by other names according to the various languages, are spreading far and wide and daily growing in strength; and men of any Religion or sect, satisfied with the appearance of natural probity, are joined together, according to their laws and the statutes laid down for them, by a strict and unbreakable bond which obliges them, both by an oath upon the Holy Bible and by a host of grievous punishment, to an inviolable silence about all that they do in secret together.”
Grand Lodges in France: Tradition has it that the first lodge was founded at Paris in 1725 by the Earl of Derwentwater and his fellow Jacobites, who had fled from England upon the fall of the Stuart dynasty, but there is no evidence to support this. It is most probable that Freemasonry was introduced into France and Germany from England. Though Perdiguier fixes the introduction of Freemasonry into France at 1715, there is no record of a Freemasons Lodge in France prior to 1728, though there are several unconfirmed accounts. In the 18th century, the Pope
However there were constant changes in Italian ecclesiastical and political affairs and therefore in the enforcement of this ban. Italian Freemasonry therefore developed a variety of confusing forms. In 1859 a movement was developed culminating in 1861 when twenty-two lodges assembled at Turin and formed the Grand Orient of Italy which united most Lodges in 1873. The 1917 Code of Canon Law explicitly declared that joining Freemasonry entailed automatic excommunication. In 1919 a breakaway faction from the Grand Orient, formed themselves into the Most Serene
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