The Freemasons

Secret Societies · Updated August 15, 2026

Overview

Freemasonry's three rival global traditions all call themselves regular and label the others irregular, meaning there is no single authority that decides what counts as legitimate Freemasonry. The split dates back to medieval stonemason guilds of the 14th century, the oldest existing secular fraternal organization. Those early craft guilds in England evolved into a philosophical society that formally organized in 1717, when the Premier Grand Lodge of England was founded in London. Anthony Sayer became the first Grand Master of that original body, establishing a structure of local Lodges supervised regionally by a Grand Lodge that still defines the organization today.

The fracture came in 1877, when the Grand Orient of France removed the requirement for belief in a supreme being. That decision split Freemasonry into two hostile camps. The Anglo-American tradition requires members to believe in a higher power and keeps a volume of sacred law open in every working lodge, whether a Bible, Quran, or other text. Discussion of religion and politics is strictly banned. The Continental or Liberal tradition discarded those restrictions, permitting political debate inside lodges and dropping the religious belief requirement entirely. A third tradition emerged in 1893, when French journalist Maria Deraismes and physician Georges Martin co-founded Le Droit Humain in Paris, the first major Co-Masonic obedience to admit both men and women. Women's Freemasonry now includes exclusively female groups like the UK-based Order of Women Freemasons alongside mixed-gender organizations like Le Droit Humain and Universal Co-Masonry.

Each of these traditions operates independently today, with its own Grand Lodges or Grand Orients setting policy for the local Lodges beneath them. The women's branches compound the complexity, since each Grand Orient independently decides whether to require religious belief, regardless of admitting women. A conservative women's lodge may align with Anglo-American requirements, while a liberal one follows Continental practice. No global body reconciles these differences, and mutual recognition between the traditions remains selective and contested.

Freemasonry's three rival global traditions all call themselves regular and label the others irregular, meaning there is no single authority that decides what counts as legitimate Freemasonry.

The Freemasons (stakes)

The Catholic Church did not condemn The Freemasons because of secret handshakes or hidden rituals. The real fight was over salvation. Freemasonry took the biblical command to love your neighbor and do good works in God's name, then severed it from explicit Christian confession and repackaged it as a universalist morality open to Jews, Muslims, and deists alike. The Church recognized this immediately as a rival soteriology,a competing framework for salvation and virtue that bypassed Christ entirely while borrowing his words. A fraternity that taught moral living and charity without requiring faith in Jesus threatened the Church's core claim that grace comes through Christ alone.

The breaking point came in 1738, when Pope Clement XII issued the papal bull In Eminenti, the first formal Vatican condemnation of Freemasonry. Clement excommunicated any Catholic who joined or promoted the fraternity, citing its oath-bound secrecy and religious universalism. The Vatican stood to defend its doctrinal monopoly on salvation and moral authority. Anglo-American Freemasonry, shaped by Presbyterian minister James Anderson, fought to preserve fraternal charity and moral fellowship while appearing non-threatening to religious authorities by requiring belief in a Supreme Being and banning religious debate inside the lodge. Continental Liberal Freemasonry, driven by thinkers like Philippe Bonneville, took a sharper path,dropping religious requirements entirely, embracing secularism and republican ideals, and directly challenging clerical authority wherever Church and state were intertwined. Someone had to lose. The Church could not tolerate a parallel moral authority that operated outside its chain of command, and Freemasonry could not abandon the universalist brotherhood that defined it.

The conflict persists because Freemasonry's core structure,a morality of brotherly love and good works drawn partly from biblical language but stripped of denominational commitment,is precisely what the Church cannot tolerate and what Freemasons will not surrender. Neither side can compromise without dissolving its own foundational claim to authority. The ban Clement XII enacted in 1738 was reaffirmed by at least seven subsequent popes through 1983, making Freemasonry the longest-condemned organization in modern Catholic history.

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Source: Wikimedia Commons · CC0

Key facts

Freemasonry traces its origins to medieval stonemason guilds.: Documents and traditions date back to the 14th century, making it the oldest existing secular fraternal organisation.
Anglo-American Freemasonry requires belief in a supreme being.: A volume of sacred law (Bible, Quran, or other text) must be open in a working lodge; religion and politics are banned from discussion.
Continental or Liberal Freemasonry removed religious and political restrictions.: This tradition evolved beyond requiring belief in a supreme being and permits political discussion within lodges.
Women's Freemasonry includes both exclusively female and mixed-gender organisations.: The Order of Women Freemasons and the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Masons are UK-based female-only groups; Le Droit Humain and Universal Co-Masonry accept both men and women.
The Lodge is the basic local organisational unit of Freemasonry.: Private Lodges are supervised at the regional level by a Grand Lodge or a Grand Orient, depending on the tradition.
Women's Freemasonry groups can be either conservative or liberal.: Each Grand Orient or Obedience independently decides whether to require religious belief, regardless of admitting women.

Context

Freemasonry grew out of medieval stonemason guilds and evolved into a global fraternal network with three main traditions that disagree on requirements for religious belief, political discussion, and gender inclusion. Each tradition claims legitimacy and disputes the regularity of the others. The local Lodge, supervised regionally by a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient, remains the fundamental unit across all branches.