The unknown origins

Logghe’s book From Times Immemorial… The Unknown Origins Of Freemasonry (2010) spans 500+ pages on A4 format. The book is self-published and only sold to regular Freemasons.

Logghe builds mostly on Farwerck and Fort, but he expands their findings with some very interesting angles.

Following the named investigators, Logghe starts with the guilds, gildi, after showing them as continuations of Northern initiation bonds. There were different kinds guilds, but the focus lays on practical guilds. The transition from operative masons to Freemasonry is not so large.

Logghe lists a great many characteristics of guilds. These points can often be found at other authors too, but you can see Logghe’s own (Traditionalist) angle and he found other again other sources. Quite like Farwerck’s Noord Europa een der bronnen van de Maçonnieke Symboliek (‘Northern Europe, one of the sources of Masonic Symbolism’), Logghe works thematically. Initiation and subjects within this subject, Fellowcraft and its characteristics, Master Mason. For the table of content see here.

Like Farwerck, Logghe follows the men-bonds to guilds to pre-Masonic organisations with many details. Within this time-line, he also made room for Medieval mystery plays (very interesting), student organisations, folk traditions and groups, early Christian monastic organisations such as the Benedictine order and other men-bonds.

Towards the end there are a few sidesteps to the Grail mysteries, the Hermetic tradition and the Rosicrucians.

Like I said, the book reminds a lot of Farwerck, but Logghe lays extra stress on some elements that are largely unknown. I missed the very interesting “Rederijkers” (‘chambers of rhetoric’) who had (have!) many things in common with Freemasonry, but let us regard From Times Immemorial as an update of available information.