It's Masonic shit.
Making things Square & Level was a huge deal to them.
Operative Masons were the men actually did the hands-on stuff; they were okay.
It's the Speculative Masons fucked things up; they took over in England after the dissolution of the Monasteries & the Civil War.
The Operative Masons always knew that a stone was a stone & a tool was a tool, but a Man was neither...
The Speculative Masons went further & started treating Men the same as stones & tools...
They kinda sucked.
Here's some good, but low-level, info that should help you see what their game is:
http://www.hamiltondistrictcmasons.org/upload/lecture_file87.pdfThis is important masonic shit from the same era too:
http://www.fullbooks.com/Leviathan.htmlAs is this:
http://www.paradiselost.org/8-Search-All.htmlIt's a proper rabbit-hole though; caveat emptor!