by Richard Allan Wagner
July 4, 2026
Prologue
Before there was such a thing as Freemasonry there was the Order of Operative Masons—these were the craft stone masons who built the magnificent cathedrals and castles of Europe, and were the first labor force to organize as a guild. As a condition of payment, Operative Masons were obliged to carve personal, identifying marks into the structures on which they labored.
