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  Not one of them was ever organized as the result of any Masonic missionary enterprise, because Freemasonry has no such enterprise; or for the purpose of making money, or as the result of a bargain with the political and ecclesiastical ruling powers. Each lodge came into existence of itself, and because a few Masons desired to have it so.

  Freemasonry has spread over the earth as gradually, as silently, and as naturally as the light of dawn. So also has it moved down the long roads of time. There were lodges a thousand years ago. Long before that date, and as far back as the Ancient World, there had been other organizations, called gilds and col-legia, so similar to Masonic lodges that historians are unable to tell where one left off and the other began. Few things still existing in the world are as old as Freemasonry.

  During the long period from the time of Charlemagne (about 800) until the Reformation any man engaged in the building crafts was called a mason, and of these were many kinds including quarrymen, dike builders, wallers, paviors, tilers, and all who could build cottages or barns. Among them all there was a special class of builders who could both design and construct monumental and public buildings such as cathedrals, chapels, churches, mansions, borough halls, etc. These latter were called Freemasons. The name had much the same meaning then that architect has now.

  When one of the great public buildings was undertaken, Freemasons were called in from all parts of the kingdom and often from foreign countries. As soon as a sufficient number had signed the rolls, their first step was to erect a building of their own, called the lodge; their next step was to construct cottages for themselves and their families. Each day, all the workmen received instructions in their lodge room.

  Because these Freemasons came from so many different places, and even from other countries, they could not have a permanent local organization of their own, as other craftsmen did; instead, they had what we should now call a society, or a fraternity. There was no single ruler of it; it had no one capital; the members were held together by their general observance of a few rules, regulations, and customs. Modern Freemasonry, such as is practiced in lodges across America, is the direct descendant of that early fraternity.