Masonic lodges are called both the premises where the "free masons" gather, and the associations of these people themselves, and the second of these meanings is much more common than the first. In a broad sense, the Masonic lodge is a kind of society with its own hierarchy, secret symbols and ideology.
Freemasonry appeared in the Middle Ages, and the first lodges - in the 17th century. The term "freemason" itself means "free mason", and at first such people really belonged to the representatives of the working English guilds of masons, who in the 15th century received a huge number of privileges, although they were not considered influential before. The word "free" was added to the name of their profession, as they were the only English workers who were officially allowed free movement around the country.
Over time, Masonic lodges began to emerge, and the "free masons" began to take into their ranks not only workers, but also representatives of the intelligentsia, and also created their own ideology. The ancient idea that a building is built only through the joint efforts of all workers has become the main one. Freemasons, who knew firsthand about the building ethics and equality among all workers, accepted literary men, philosophers and other representatives of the intelligentsia into their ranks, who told them about a utopian society built on the principle of justice, reason and science. The Masons decided to start creating such a society, and since it was very dangerous to talk about such things openly, they created their own language, incomprehensible to those who did not belong to the lodges.
The number of Masonic lodges and the number of their members grew, and this badly affected the hierarchy. To coordinate the actions of all these disparate societies, the decision was made to create a Grand Lodge. She appeared in London in 1717. The activities of the Grand Lodge were so successful that the number of Freemasons increased many times over, and even English princes, some of whom later ascended the royal throne, were among them.
According to the ideology of Freemasonry, the lodges were created so that representatives of different nationalities and even different religions could get together and in a friendly atmosphere discuss their views, ask for help from others, make certain decisions, etc. Later, the lodges have changed somewhat: in particular, ceremonies of initiation and transition to new stages of Freemasonry appeared, and the hierarchy of lodges became more clear.
