Darren Lorente-Bull

The French Revolution is possibly one of the most important and defining moments in recent European history, and alongside the industrial revolution and the advancement in science, it is not far fetched to state that it gave birth to the modern age.  But, how influential was Freemasonry in the French Revolution? Many of the leaders and notable figures of the Revolution were Freemasons. The Marquiss de Lafayette, who had helped the Americans in their Revolution against the British, was a Freemason to put but one example. And the American Revolution was in great measure a Masonic Revolution. Many of the signatories of the new American Constitution were Freemasons, and the Masonic spirit of the American Constitution cannot be denied. But in France, things were different.  The truth is that between 1793 and 1796, which  were the more turbulent years of the French Revolution,  the Grand Orient de France suspended all Masonic activities. Although there are som...

Freemasonry started off as the domain of skilled working men, the operative builders of cathedrals, churches and castles in the Middle Ages. These were men - rarely but on a few odd occasions women too- who without being members of the royal household or the nobility, enjoyed certain privileges and mobility in a time when most people lived and died in the same village or hamlet where they had been born and rarely would ever set foot outside of it. These Master Builders were the forerunners of the Freemasons and celebrated the new apprentices and members of the guild in ritual ceremonies such as the ones described in the Halliwell Manuscript, where references to Sacred Geometry, Euclid and Ancient Egypt are made in relation to the building trade. Eventually, with the advent of the Renaissance, these operative lodges opened up and started to accept non operative masons such as Elias Ashmole for example, who was initiated in 1646 attracted by the discreet atmosphere and fr...