Craft Works

On Dec. 27, 1598, a Scottish architect named William Schaw, an advisor to King James VI of Scotland, gathered a group of stone masons at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh for, essentially, a sales pitch. 

The masons had been at the forefront of a building and construction boom in the country for several years, but Schaw wanted to take it further. He appealed to their knowledge and expertise and said their work could incorporate elements of both Classical architecture and thought. He envisioned them engaged in Renaissance-era advancement of building and ideals, which he assured them conformed to the king’s own grand vision. 

His appeal took hold and in the ensuing decades a couple dozen groups of organized masons emerged all over Scotland. From those modest roots sprang a worldwide movement that enlisted millions of members and influenced nations and politics and policy for the next 400 years. 

It’s all outlined in “The Craft: How The Freemasons Made The Modern World,” an interesting read that dives into Freemason history and key episodes and characters. Author John Dickie, a British university professor and researcher who also wrote a couple of well-regarded books on the Italian mafia, lays out how the Freemasons evolved from an artisan guild into a fraternal order bound by ritual and secrecy that provided a template for conduct and everyday life. Among Freemason members were 14 U.S. Presidents starting with George Washington, five English kings, Mozart, Henry Ford, Winston Churchill, Arnold Palmer, Rudyard Kipling, Duke Ellington, Walt Disney, South African diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes, astronauts John Glenn and Buzz Aldrin, Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, Harpo Marx, former Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, James Naismith, the founding father of the Ringling Brothers circus and all seven of his sons, 19th-century Italian patriot and national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, boxer Sugar Ray Robinson and chicken tycoon Col. Harland Sanders. 

Membership has dipped in recent decades, but estimates still peg the number of Masons worldwide at approximately six million, with 400,000 in Great Britain and 1.1 million in the U.S. Freemasonry’s broad appeal rests in the fact that it wasn’t limited simply to building and construction techniques. Though Masonic lodges sprang up all over the world, the order became more a hall of ideals and rested on a code of brotherhood, religious tolerance, democracy, equality before the law, and the striving for betterment among members, who often refer to it as “the Craft” and themselves as “Craftsmen,” hence the book title.  

It’s steeped in peculiar initiation and advancement rituals, a code of strict silence until very recently, and symbols out the wazzoo, some of which are traditional tools of the stone mason’s trade: squares and compasses, aprons, gloves, trowels. The most identifiable symbol is the square and compass surrounding the capital letter G – which stands for both God and Geometry – that signifies unity. 

There are only three levels of membership – apprentice, intermediate and advanced, basically – though the traditional Scottish Rites have 33 levels, and some lodges contain many more. Maybe the best explanation for that is a bunch of bros in a secret society already teeming with special handshakes and invocations and rituals can’t help themselves but to create even more arcane stuff. 

Members and advocates point to Freemasonry’s tenets for individual conduct and the group’s philanthropic and charitable ventures. Critics often say, if the fraternal order is so good and beneficial, why all the secrecy? 

Indeed, Freemasonry has had detractors almost since Day One. As it worked its way through Great Britain, Europe and by extension through the British Empire, it ran afoul of the Catholic Church and various monarchies, and later authoritarian regimes, who were suspicious or downright hostile, persecuting and even murdering those identified as members. The church was antagonistic because Freemasons were by and large faithful but didn’t adhere to one religion. A multi-national organization was dangerous, according to ruling powers. 

Mussolini’s Italy and Gen. Francisco Franco’s Spain were particularly harsh. Hitler was every bit as contemptuous, but he believed the Jews were a more easily identifiable target. Freemasonry has been tied to everything from the French Revolution, the unification of Italy, a Zionist plot to create a New World Order, either a front for or the driving force behind Communism, the Spanish defeat by the U.S. in 1898, and the 1985 NBA Draft Lottery that permitted the Knicks to land Patrick Ewing. 

OK, that last one I made up. But Freemasonry is viewed by some as a trigger for modern day conspiracy theories. Dickie writes that for all the good and progress within Freemasonry and its members, it also fed imperialism and the subjugation of entire populations, war, dictatorships, religious fanaticism and the building and breaking of states. He also points out the ethical and logical contradictions of a group that preaches brotherhood and tolerance that regularly excluded women, Jews, Blacks and non-Christians for membership. Women still aren’t permitted in some lodges. The U.S. has a branch of the Craft called Prince Hall Freemasonry, named for the abolitionist who founded the country’s first Black lodge in Boston in the late 1700s. Black Freemasons still aren’t recognized by some lodges, particularly in the South. 

I can’t necessarily recommend the book to everyone. Dickie goes into the weeds about some episodes and characters within the order that bog down sections, but overall it’s a pretty accessible read. He didn’t get into how the Freemasons and Paul Finebaum fueled the Alabama football dynasty for the past 15 years, but perhaps that’s for another book or an American author.