by Michael S. Romano

Created on: May 26, 2009

Freemasonry: Born From Construction or War

One of the oldest and most mysterious secret societies the world has ever known is The Ancient and Honorable Society of Freemasons, simply known as the Masons. No subject has been more widely written about, talked over, or made the center of inquiry than has Freemasonry, second only to the Holy Bible. Just who are the Masons, and where did such an origination get its start? Many people, mason and non-mason alike, believe that the Fraternity, as it is sometimes referred to, got its start from the surviving knights who escaped capture in the early 1300's, while still others believe the Fraternity dates back even further to a time in the middle ages and to the stonemason's guilds of Europe and throughout the Holy Land.

We are about to embark on a brief trip back in time some 700 years plus, and further, to see whether or not either theory is possible. Did Freemasonry as it is known today start with the renegade knights of the Crusades, or is it as old as the workman who toiled at the construction of Great pyramids of Egypt themselves? Either notion is impossible to prove beyond doubt, so when our journey is at an end you will have to judge for yourself what you believe.

Shortly after the First Crusades (1095-99) and the capture of the city of Jerusalem, a small group of surviving French knights, nine in number, decided to stay behind in the Holy Land and serve the Bishops and cannons of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Even though the battling Crusaders quickly conquered the city, the traveling routes between Europe and anywhere near the surviving Muslim lands were dangerous. It was this fear of pillage, capture, and death that prompted these nine French knights to take on the roll of guardian to the Christian pilgrims who traveled those roads.

One of those knights, Hugh de' Payne, sought permission from Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, to commission an order of monastic warrior monks to protect the travelers. In the year 1120 by papal approval and along with the support of Baldwin II, the holy order was formed with de' Payne being its first Grandmaster. Falsely believing that the ruins to which they claimed their headquarters at was the site of the Temple of Solomon the knights took on the name of The Poor Old Warriors of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon.

In 1128, Huge de' Payne traveled west to the city of Troyes in northern Gallia, about 90 miles southwest of Paris. It was here at a council that

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