hanzosbm
Premium Member
It dawned on me recently that while we know that Freemasonry predates the Grand Lodge formation of 1717 by at least a few hundred years, for that time prior it was much more secretive regarding who its members were and their meetings. Sometime between the purely operative times and 1717, you had speculative Masons come into the mix. It has often been said that this happened due to the Lodge being a safe(r) place for free thinking which would not have been openly tolerated. With that in mind, it stands to reason that a brother, especially a respected member of the community, would not want to advertise his involvement.
While rings and lapel pins are common place today and could be easily hidden, an apron is pretty recognizable. Operative Masons could probably get away it, but what about speculative Masons? It seems hard to believe that people who were so concerned with keeping their identities secret would identify themselves by owning, much less wearing, an apron. So, this begs the question, when did aprons come into use for speculative Masons?
While rings and lapel pins are common place today and could be easily hidden, an apron is pretty recognizable. Operative Masons could probably get away it, but what about speculative Masons? It seems hard to believe that people who were so concerned with keeping their identities secret would identify themselves by owning, much less wearing, an apron. So, this begs the question, when did aprons come into use for speculative Masons?