Male,
To answer the first two of your 3 questions is very difficult. In short, the answer is Yes and No to both. The answer to the third is No, but it depends on what is included in the term Masonry.
The history of Freemansonry, put at its briefest, according to the received wisdom, is that while we don’t really know for sure where or how it began, in the Middle Ages it was a craft guild consisting of the stonemasons who built the great cathedrals. With the cessation of cathedral building and the Reformation, there wasn’t nearly as much need or work for them, and they became more of a social, philosophical and philanthropical order. They also began admitting to their lodges men who were not working masons, but (primarily) intellectuals who were interested in the teachings and lessons the masons were known to have. These men were called “speculative masons” to differentiate them from the operative masons. As time went on, lodges began to consist more of speculative masons than operatives, and there began to be few purely operative lodges and more speculative lodges. The entire craft went into a nosedive after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Christopher Wren was the Grand Master of Masons at that time. When he was appointed Royal Surveyor and charged with the rebuilding of London, his task was so great that he had no time to spend on the Masons, which left them without the necessary head which governed the craft. It took more than 40 years for Wren to finish and he died in, I believe, 1713, with only a few lodges still in existence. In 1717, four old lodges in London established the Grand Lodge of England and elected a Grand Master. From there, Masonry took off like a rocket, guided by the GL of England, which required all lodges in England to have a charter from the GL and to conform to its rules, which had transformed the institution into a purely speculative one, but retaining most of the regulations of the operative era. Grand Lodges were established in Scotland and Ireland, and the new Freemasonry spread to the colonies and to Europe, especially to France. The lodges in the American colonies, working under the GLs of England, Scotland, and Ireland, practiced basically the same form of masonry as their superiors. But after the Revolution, when independent Grand Lodges were set up in each state, they felt free to make such variations as necessary to find a common ground among the various workings which American lodges then used. Around the beginning of the 19th century, the United GL of England approved a new ritual known as the “Emulation Working” which is now the most common work there, although the UGLE allows various workings and does not mandate the Emulation work. This set up a fairly striking difference between English and American masonry. Then, the Americans took greatly to additional working which was originally extra to the standard, and which ballooned into a system of additional degrees which we call the York Rite. The English version of these has never been really popular there. Lastly, a French working of 25 degrees called the Rite of Perfection was brought to America in 1801, reworked into a system of 33 degrees and became the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, which was not big at all until after WWI, when it suddenly became hugely popular. The Americans kept on inventing new organizations for masons, their ladies, and their young people, so that there are now a host of such in the US. The English and those following their traditions, such as Canadians, Australians, etc. have never embraced much of that.
So, in sum, yes there has been considerable evolution from trade guild, to mostly speculative society, almost to oblivion, renaissance in a new form and purely speculative, and in the USA with considerable additions and new bodies and organizations which require membership in a masonic lodge.
But it is important to note that all these additions are not part of the basic unit of masonry—the Symbolic, or Craft Lodge. While the whole of the Masonic landscape is vastly different, the Symbolic lodges have changed very little since the 18th century. And they continue to enforce regulations which have been around since they were engaged in building Salisbury Cathedral.
Freemasonry is probably the world’s most conservative organization. When a new Worshipful Master is installed, he has to give his assent to this proposition: “You admit that it is not in the power of any man or body of men to make innovations in the body of Masonry.” Many of the rules which applied in the 12th century are still in force. For example, a master could not take as an apprentice a boy who had any maim or defect in his body. It is still today the law in Maryland that the petition of a man who has a non-working limb, or is missing even the tip of a finger, can not be accepted unless the Grand Master gives the Lodge a dispensation to accept it. Up until WWII, this was practically never. But with injured and maimed veterans petitioning lodges, it became obvious to all that this rule was a manifest injustice, so ever since, no Grand Master will refuse to accept an injured serviceman or veteran, and the whole subject has just about gone away. But the rule is still on the books and probably will be forever; it’s the escape clause that makes the difference. There are many other instances of ancient rules which have to stay on the books, but which are worked around. So in a sense, Freemasonry has changed very little since the 18th century. And of course, the notion of new or additional secrets being added to the Symbolic or Craft Lodges would be called an innovation, which is masonically unthinkable.
