2 INTRODUCTION
This study of Freemasonry looks at both its specific history and the
influences and events that have left their imprint over time on its for-
mation and evolution. As such, it includes an examination of various
spheres—social, juridical, religious, and philosophical—that have con-
ditioned these events.
From a chronological perspective, the most certain sources of
Freemasonry have emerged as the following:
- The Roman collegia, the remnants of which remained in the
West following invasions and survived in the East as institutions
discovered by the Crusaders at the end of the eleventh century. - The ecclesiastical associations of builders formed by the bishops
of the early Middle Ages, especially the Benedictines, the
Cistercians, and the Templars. - Trade-based freemasonry, which was born under the aegis of
these associations and followed the form of lay brotherhoods or
guilds.
The history of Freemasonry and its origins will form the first part
of this book. In the second part, we will study the evolution of the pro-
fessional organization; its purposes, both operational and speculative;
its initiatory and spiritualist nature; its gradual transformation from an
8 Mason Corporations in France to the Art of Thinking
engaged in a stricto sensu art of thinking and living; and the creation of
modern Freemasonry under the influences of and in circumstances con-
nected to British history.
The greatest common denominator that we can distinguish across
the centuries, truly the millennia, is the coexistence and interdepend-
ence of masonic objectives and a sense of the sacred. In fact, it is the
sacred that is the effective and ultimate cause of these objectives, how-
ever different from one another they may appear in the various stages
of their evolution. This is an exemplary illustration of an important
truth: Faith lives only through works and works are worth only the
faith that moves them.