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Freemasonry in the United States is the history of Freemasonry as it was introduced from Britain and continues as a major secret society to the present day. It is a fraternal order that brings men together (and women through its auxiliaries) to gain friendship and opportunity for advancement and community progress.
Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) [1] [2] [3] or simply Masonry includes various fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 14th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients.
The history of Freemasonry encompasses the origins, evolution and defining events of the fraternal organisation known as Freemasonry.It covers three phases. Firstly, the emergence of organised lodges of operative masons during the Middle Ages, then the admission of lay members as "accepted" (a term reflecting the ceremonial "acception" process that made non-stone masons members of an operative ...
The Vatican has confirmed a ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons, a centuries-old secretive society that the Catholic Church has long viewed with hostility and has an estimated global membership ...
Common to all of Freemasonry is the three grade system of Craft or Blue Lodge freemasonry, whose allegory is centred on the building of the Temple of Solomon, and the story of the chief architect, Hiram Abiff. [3] Further degrees have different underlying allegories, often linked to the transmission of the story of Hiram.
The occultist Aleister Crowley, who called himself "The Great Beast 666" claimed to be a Freemason, and his association with Freemasonry is one major reason why some conservative Christians see it as an occult organization. According to Martin P. Starr, all of the lodges and organizations Crowley joined and founded were considered irregular.
Freemasonry was an important catalyst in the founding of the Knights of Columbus and the Knights of Peter Claver in the United States [131] and the Knights of the Southern Cross in Australia, because one of the attractions of Freemasonry was that it provided a number of social services unavailable to non-members (e.g., devout Catholics). [132]
The Anti-Masonic Party was the earliest third party in the United States. [11] Formally a single-issue party, it strongly opposed Freemasonry in the United States.It was active from the late 1820s, especially in the Northeast, and later attempted to become a major party by expanding its platform to take positions on other issues.