Freemasonry consists of fraternal organizations that trace their origins to the local fraternities of stonemasons, which from the end of the fourteenth century regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients.

The degrees of freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow (now called Fellowcraft), and Master Mason.

These are the degrees offered by Craft (or Blue Lodge) Freemasonry.

Members of these organizations are known as Freemasons or Masons.

There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, and are usually administered by different bodies than the craft degrees.Since the middle of the nineteenth century, Masonic historians have sought the origins of the movement in a series of similar documents known as the Old Charges, dating from the Regius Poem in about 1425 to the beginning of the eighteenth century.

Alluding to the membership of a lodge of operative masons, they relate a mythologzed history of the craft, the duties of its grades, and the manner in which oaths of fidelity are to be taken on joining The fifteenth century also sees the first evidence of ceremonial regalia.