Some of the drug's effects in the body include: 1  Reducing anxiety. 2  Causing sleepiness. 3  Relaxing muscles. 4  Stopping seizures. 5  Impairing short-term memory.
As a result, they began to take in non-masons as patrons. This led, in the 17th century, to large numbers of. speculativeor non-working-masons entering the masonic âlodges.â By the end of that century, Masonic lodges. were almost wholly speculative, made up of Masons who never touched chisel to stone. Freemasons kept the old traditions.
The origins of the Masons or what is officially called freemasonry are hard to pinpoint. With the decline of cathedral building in the aftermath of the Protestant movement, mason guilds began accepting non-masons as members to bolster their dwindling membership.