Masonry

Leaving aside many very old and obscure historical antecedents of Freemasonry, we will point out here that Freemasonry emerged from the corporations of construction workers of the Middle Ages. The German stonemasons and the English builders of those times did not only constitute trade associations ("guilds"), but true brotherhoods where a secret theory of their respective arts and crafts was taught and exercised. Many authors have proven that the Freemasons have not invented their liturgies or their symbols and that they have not copied them from other archaic secret societies, but that they have been transmitted to them by direct succession from the guild societies from which they come.