By Mark Robinson
Cougar News Editor
Nobody likes a secret. Actually, nobody likes a secret they are not in on.
This statement basically summarizes the entire existence of the Freemasons, so says Jasper Ridley in his book, “The Freemasons.”
Wing your way through the 300 pages of world history and you realize that according to Ridley nobody likes the Freemasons, except for fellow Freemasons, and not necessarily because some of the brethren have had their hands in the cookie jars of the most major of historical events like every revolution from the American and French to South America and the Norman Conquest.
The Freemasons throughout history have drawn the ire of everyone from the Catholic Church, the Nazis, communists, fascists, monarchs, dictators to the Protestants and law enforcement agencies.
Why? Because they have secrets.
The Freemasons are a secret, fraternal organization and the one thing that scares people – mainly those in authority – more is the unknown.
Many individuals in history have believed the Freemasons’ secret is that they have no secret. Others – including the Nazis, Catholic Church and more than a few monarchs – individuals believe the Freemasons are a discreet, progressive, liberal façade for world domination by everyone from the Jewish population to atheists.
Ridley, however, indicates that both assumptions are wrong, particularly, the latter being ridiculous.
The Freemasons began in Medieval England when being a mason or “free stone mason” was about as good of a job other than king, queen or duke. Monarchs needed places to live and ways to get there and stone was the means for both. Bridges, castles and fortifications were erected posthaste and masons were in high demand. They organized in order to secure higher wages, despite royal decrees that capped their potential profit.
Because they were defying the king, they had to meet in secret.
That tends to be the pattern for the next 500 years.
The Catholic Church, according to Ridley, is the Freemasons biggest foe, based solely on hearsay. Rumors of satanic practices and giving oaths to any organization other than the church were admonished by the church. Pope Clement XII decreed the first Papal Bull in 1738 declaring that if the Freemasons were doing no wrong, why did they need to keep it a secret. Several more Papal Bulls were issued through the 19th century.
The other theme that runs throughout Ridley’s work is the Freemasons’ affect in the historical events that have shaped where we are today.
Ridley does not write about Freemasons as much as he writes about world history, flowing from general replay to how individuals who were Freemasons etched their own name into politics and revolution. However, the reader does not correlate world-altering events with Freemasonry, just to the individuals who happened to be Freemasons.
We are led to believe that George Washington would have led the American Revolution whether he was a Freemason or not.
But on the same note, one must not ignore the Freemason’s alleged oath to “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” or the coincidence that so many Freemasons in so many different countries were involved in a number of revolutions, disposing of kings, queens, dictators and emperors. But this probably has as little to do with a worldwide conspiracy of the Freemasons to just schedule revolutions when they get the itch.
It probably has more to do with having a collection of upper-class and royalty mixed with blue collar workers and professionals meeting in discreet fashion talking issues. It is the pack mentality – a canine by itself can be friendly, but dogs with some domestication when put together with other dogs can become vicious hunters.
Freemasons may be the same way. Freemasonry did not put Marie Antoinette under the guillotine, but it definitely sharpened the blade.
Ridley does not bother with the many conspiracy theories, hierarchal establishments and “secrets” of Freemasonry. He obviously loves history and outlines the Freemasons’ interaction with it.
