freemasonry on now teach at university over blow as go it's a great almost for me to be also be to contribute to this remarkable initiative by the grand lote of indio no i'm done i would like to thank question where does freemasonry come from has since seven hundred seventeen been a subject of passionate consume almost every freemason there remain a mass of competing views and theories m this question has freemasonry has led to a neglect of its more recent history but nevertheless it's a question that will not go away so it's why i'd like to revisit out today freemasons consulting that imposing new reference work the oxford dictionary of national biography to find out more about the origins of freemasonry will perhaps be surprised to find that in the view of the oxford university press at least the problem origins of freemasonry derived from the researches of the eminent historian of scotland david stevenson who was the author of the entry on shore in the new dictionary of national biography stevenson describes in his book the origins towns which were removed from the jurisdiction and placed on the shoals direct control of the stall to keep regular minutes in which the initiation of entered apprentices and fellow crafts is recorded sure encourage members of the law to take an interest in the latest philosophical and esoteric movements such as aspects of rosa crucial fools these new logies attracted interest from members who were not working stone these gentlemen masons will to dominate the membership of the scottish masonic lodges so their roots in the sixteenth century croft would almost be forgotten in stevenson's view the ideologue's of english assembled by stevenson is very imposing and it's not surprising that his views have generally been accepted by academic historians but on the whole they have failed to find favor with english  as it was described stevenson fundamental has generally not been addressed by english masonic school those who will simply unwilling to accept a scottish origin for freemasonry stevenson points out that in scotland there's continuous and extensive documentary evidence for the operation of recognizably masonic from fifty nine in england during the seventeenth century we have only fragmentary references such as the however there is one major body of documentary evidence of seventeenth century english freemasonry the coffee's of masonic legends known as the old chaldees insofar as these provide direct evidence legend circulating among cross one from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries these are among the most extraordinary and fascinating historical documents of the primo period the oldest of these documents all the true fifteenth century manuscripts were also known in scotland by at least sixteen hundred and circulated separately there they represent a substantial documentary corpus and if we want to find out how the situation in england in the seventeenth century compared with that in scotland we tradition emerged well tony documentary discoveries to be made but the fact that there has been little recent scholarly work on the old child by new scripts means that many of the most widely held assumptions about these manuscripts to date and should be discounted for example it's been assumed since the time of the copy of the old chap in the british library lansdown manuscript ninety eight dates from about sixteen hundred handwriting that this copy of the dates from the end of the beginning of the seventeenth century significant difference likewise the regis manuscript has generally been dated to coca thirty ninety ascribed to the assembly of knowing two six the language of coke cannot be so precisely located but it probably also comes from the west midlands the stonemasons well unlikely to have compiled on the manuscript since they were thought to be illiterate england to the earliest days of christianity in britain it claims that the roman maltose and wins was the first so make regulations for the trade cook emphasizes that some enjoined the masons should be in cook the first regulation the masons should be properly paid is extended back to the time of athelstan is presented as confirming these ancient provisions and authorizing the assembly although there might be a germ of truth somewhere in those legendary stories fortunately it's difficult to sustain such a point of view confronted with the evident manipulation  don't have to look very far to find the reasons for this since thirteen fifty legislation had been introduced to control wages in the wake of labor shortages produced by the black death the prosecutions undertak under these statutes showed that the pressure was particularly acute in the building trades legislation continued to be introduced in a vain attempt to keep a lid on wages throughout the fifteenth century in the fourteen twenty five paula months the colemans presented a petition complaining that the annual congregation and confederacy made by the masons in their general chapters and assemblies were publicly violating undermining robert crucifix this manuscript is dated twenty fifth of december fifteenth eighty three just four days after the appointment of william shaw was master of the king's works in scotland whether or not this is simply a substantial elaboration of the medieval legendary history of masonry as presented in reduce and cook for example it extends in a very unlikely way the story opens connexion with masonry it