The half century preceeding the outbreak of the French Revolution was, especially in England and Germany, a period of philosophical, religious, and political skepticism and unrest. In Germany, Freemasonry gradually developed itself from a survival of the medieval guilds of Steinmezen, or "Free Masons," as they were called. The symbolical rites and ceremonies of the Masonic Order, the aprons, passwords, signs, etc. which now seem so puerile had a practical origin and were designed to prevent the intrusion of the "scabs," or "black legs" of that age. The claims to high antiquity put forward by some writers on behalf of the order, who assert that it was instituted by Solomon, who, himself, officiated as first Grand Master, will not bear investigation. The historic period of the order in England begins with what is known as the Premier Masonic Grand Lodge of the World, in London, 1717. Lodges of the Scotch rite were organized in France by the Earl of Derwentwater in 1725. In 1766 the title was altered to that of the Grand Orient.
German speculation and the writings of Rousseau, Voltaire, the encyclopedists, and a host of others of less note represented the destructive tendencies, the deification of pure reason, the moral enthusiasm, and the lofty hopes which characterized the initial stages of the French Revolution. The enthusiasts of the period hoped to build a new world out of the ruins of the past; to demolish all existing instutuions, and to create new forms of society, in which truth, freedom, and justice should prevail. They rejected all that was positive and traditional in society and the State, in religion and morality, while they deified individual freedom. There were many honest enthusiasts, but they and the great mass of the deluded multitude were pawns in the hands of the leaders of the Masonic lodges, whose sole object and animating principle it was to extirpate the Christian faith. Favored by the political and religious polemics which agitated the last years of the reign of Louis XV, the membership of the lodges had grown to enormous proportions, and in them were prepared and organized the assaults which finally swept away the altar and the throne.
It is well known that most of the prominent actors in the drama were Freemasons, and adepts of the order ruled in the clubs of the Jacobins, Feuillants, and Cordeliers.
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