The Secret History of Freemasonry

Speculative Freemasonry 223

which made them seem even more dangerous in the eyes of the
crown.*
This means simply that the operative concerns of the trades were
always combined with concerns of a speculative nature. They were
inseparably joined, at least in their original forms, when it was difficult
to draw a line of demarcation between the temporal and the spiritual,
between the craft and the sacred. This fact was of vital importance to
the mason's craft because of the knowledge and skills it required and
because its purpose touched on matters of primordial importance con-
cerning life and human destiny.
This profound and truly initiatory teaching of masonry appeared in
the ritual for works and ceremonies that was practiced in the lodge and
in the analysis of the rites and symbols it gave as means of instruction.

The Ritual

For a long time there has been little at our disposal regarding the ritual
in masonry. The reason for this is easy to grasp: Rituals and instruc-
tional catechisms were not created to be written; their practice and
transmission were purely oral. It was strictly forbidden to put them into
writing, even as a memory aid. Fortunately, research undertaken by
English Freemasons at the beginning of the twentieth century has led to
the discovery of revealing documents. Douglas Knoop, G. P. Jones, and
Douglas Hamer have gathered together these texts in their book The
Early Masonic Catechisms, which first appeared in 1943. These works,
though few in number and sometimes incomplete, provide enough
information to show us the essential elements of the ritual followed by
operative masons. The word ritual in the singular is used here on pur-
pose, for all these documents, despite their varied origins, display iden-
tical elements that reveal a shared symbolism and esotericism.

• To get a sense of the political role played by corporations in France, it is enough to
  recall their interventions during the times of Etienne Marcel [the leader of a failed revolt
  against royal authority in Paris during the fourteenth century], the Caboche [members
  of the butcher and skinner guilds who briefly seized power in fifteenth-century Paris and
  undertook radical reforms before being ousted; their name comes from the word for
  skinner], and the League [the Holy League in France, which fought for Catholic inter-
  ests during the wars of religion that wracked France in the sixteenth century].