Masonic History

We are not sure at what point in time our craft was born. Hundreds of Masons have investigated this question, but no conclusive answer has been found, and perhaps never will be.
We know that the earliest written record of the term “Master Mason” appears in the Regius manuscript, written about 1390 and now kept in the British Museum.
Its mention of the “Master Mason” refers to the stone masons of the Middle Ages. The tools of the stonemason date back, of course, to the earliest periods of history and are lost in the mists of time. This is also true of the geometry and geometric symbols used in the craft of building. There are other theories concerning the development of Freemasonry.
Some are so absurd that they will not be mentioned here. The most favored, after the one above, is that Freemasonry was developed by the Order of the Christian Knights Templar when they were disbanded by a Papal Bull and forced to flee from France.
Brother John J. Robinson was one, but not the first, who presented this theory in his excellent book “Born in Blood”.
Over the ages Freemasonry, as we now know it, slowly took form. It has evolved into a comprehensive and effective form of fraternal teaching of basic morals, truths and personal fulfilment.
It ranks the development of the individual’s reasoning capabilities highly and encourages the questioning mind.
We have gathered a collection of documents listed in the table below which may throw more light on the history and origins of Freemasonry.

These documents are in PDF Format.
You can download the Free Adobe Reader from http://www.adobe.com