A member of an international fraternity called `Free and Accepted Masons’, which declares itself to be based on brotherly love, faith, and charity, and is characterized by elaborate rituals and systems of secret signs, passwords, and handshakes. The rituals are based largely on Old Testament anecdotes and moralities and are illustrated by the tools of a mason, the square and compasses. The original `free masons’ were probably skilled itinerant stonemasons who (in and after the 14th century) found work wherever important buildings were being erected, all of whom recognized their fellow craftsmen by secret signs. The ‘accepted masons’ were honorary members (originally supposed to be eminent for architectural or antiquarian learning) who began to be admitted early in the 17th century. The distinction of being an ‘accepted mason’ became a fashionable aspiration; before the end of the 17th century the purpose of the fraternities seems to have been chiefly social. In 1717 four of these societies or ‘lodges’ in London united to form a Grand Lodge, with a new constitution and ritual. The Masonic Order is forbidden to Roman Catholics, as the Church regards certain masonic principles as incompatible with its doctrines.