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| | Amazon.ca: Books: The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590-1710 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04) |
 | | Stevenson bases his research on actual records of almost a hundred Scottish Masonic lodges that date from the 1600's, along with municipal records, other guilds' records, diaries, and royal statutes. |
 | | Stevenson's most important finding, established early in the book, is that both before and after the establishment of the Lodges, masons were also members of municipally chartered, or incorporated, building trades guilds along with carpenters, wrights, and the detested cowans or unskilled laborers. |
 | | Stevenson covers such topics as initiation practices (both Masonic and other), the "Mason Word", the number and names of the degrees, the development of the Master Mason degree, and the frequency, content, and location of meetings. |
| www.amazon.ca /exec/obidos/ASIN/0521396549 (1062 words) |
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