Thomas Paine

 Thomas Paine, Deism, and the Masonic Fraternity

Journal of the American Revolution, Annual Volume 2018 (Yardley: Westholme, 2018), pp. 343–354

Thomas Paine’s close associations with famous Freemasons in America, England, and France have not only frequently been taken as evidence that he was a Freemason himself, but have also been seen as explaining his sudden rise to literary and political prominence after arriving in the American colonies from England. Paine’s writing of an essay “On the Origin of Free-Masonry” several years before his death has similarly been interpreted as proof that he was a committed member of the fraternity.

However, a careful reading of his “On the Origin of Free-Masonry” shows that Paine was not a Freemason at the time of its composition and that the essay’s purpose is to attack organized religion as much as to explicate Freemasonry’s beginnings. “On the Origin of Free-Masonry,” which posits a druid origin to the Masonic fraternity, is of a piece with the confrontational religious approach Paine embraced in his later works, where he denounced revealed religion and endorsed deism.

An earlier version of this article is available online:

Thomas Paine, Deism, and the Masonic Fraternity, Journal of the American Revolution, November 7, 2016