The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions

The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions

ISBN-10:
0812219880
ISBN-13:
9780812219883
Pub. Date:
01/24/2007
Publisher:
University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
ISBN-10:
0812219880
ISBN-13:
9780812219883
Pub. Date:
01/24/2007
Publisher:
University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions

The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions

by Margaret C. Jacob

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Overview

Can the ancestry of freemasonry really be traced back to the Knights Templar? Is the image of the eye in a triangle on the back of the dollar bill one of its cryptic signs? Is there a conspiracy that stretches through centuries and generations to align this shadow organization and its secret rituals to world governments and religions? Myths persist and abound about the freemasons, Margaret C. Jacob notes. But what are their origins? How has an early modern organization of bricklayers and stonemasons aroused so much public interest? In The Origins of Freemasonry, Jacob throws back the veil from a secret society that turns out not to have been very secret at all.

What factors contributed to the extraordinarily rapid spread of freemasonry over the course of the eighteenth century, and why were so many of the era's most influential figures drawn to it? Using material from the archives of leading masonic libraries in Europe, Jacob examines masonic almanacs and pocket diaries to get closer to what living as a freemason might have meant on a daily basis. She explores the persistent connections between masons and nascent democratic movements, as each lodge set up a polity where an individual's standing was meant to be based on merit, rather than on birth or wealth, and she demonstrates, beyond any doubt, how active a role women played in the masonic movement.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780812219883
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication date: 01/24/2007
Pages: 176
Sales rank: 968,255
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 2.40(d)
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