The Entered Apprentice;

The Meaning of the Term

You are now an Entered Apprentice. The first step in your journey to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason has been taken. Doubtless you found your initiation an experience you will never wish to forget. A Degree of Masonry is not an isolated experience, but an ever-enduring privilege. Always you may sit in your own lodge when open on the Entered Apprentice Degree; always you can return to observe, to participate in, and to study its ceremonies.

Doubtless you have an eager curiosity to learn more about this remarkable Degree before you receive that of Fellow Craft. Perhaps its ceremonies seemed strange to you; its language fell on your ears with unaccustomed accents; and at its end, you may have been somewhat bewildered. It is our function to help you interpret it by giving you a brief explanation of the term “Entered Apprentice”.

The builders of those remarkable structures in Europe and Great Britain, from six hundred to nine hundred years ago we call operative masons, because they were builders in the literal sense.

It was necessary for the Operative Masons to recruit new members to replace those lost through removal, accident, illness, or death. To do this, they used the apprenticeship system, which was in vogue in all crafts for many centuries.

The word “apprentice” means “learner” or beginner, one who is taking his first steps I mastering a trade, art or profession. The operative apprentice was a boy, usually from ten to fifteen years of age. He was required to be sound in body, in order to do work requiring physical strength and endurance. He had to be of good habits, obedient and willing to learn, and of unquestioned reputation, and be well recommended by Masons already members of the craft.

When such a boy was chosen as an apprentice, he was called into the lodge where all the members could assure themselves of his mental, moral and physical qualifications. If they voted to receive him, he was given much information about the Craft, what it required of its members, something of its early history and tradition, and what his duties would be. He gave a solemn promise to obey his superiors, to work diligently, to observe the laws and rules and to keep the secrets.

After being thus obligated, he was bound over, or indentured, to one of the more experienced Master Masons. As a rule, he lived with this Master Mason, and from him, day by day, learned the methods and secrets of the trade. This apprenticeship lasted usually seven years.

            After thisyoung man had “gone to school” in this manner long enough to give assurance ofhis fitness to master the art and to become a acceptable member of the Society,his name was entered on the books of the Lodge and he was given a recognizedplace in the Craft organization and, because of this official entering of hisname, he was given the title “Entered Apprentice”. All those of the same degreeof advancement constituted the rank or grade of Apprentice Masons.

            It isdifficult to appreciate the care our Operative Masonic forebears devoted tothese learners.  The Intender, as theMaster Mason to whom the Apprentice was indentured was called, was obliged bylaw to teach him theory as well as practice. Not until the Apprentice, after manyyears, could prove his proficiency by meeting the most rigid tests of skill,was he permitted to advance to a higher rank in the Craft. Other Master Masonswith whom he was set at work at the simpler tasks also were his teachers. Hewas given Moral instruction; his conduct was carefully scrutinized; many ruleswere laid down to control his manner of life. When we read the Old Charges and ancient documents that have come downto us, we are impressed by the amount of space devoted to apprentices. The OperativeMasons knew that the Apprentice of today made the Master Mason of the future.

            As timepassed, therefore, there grew up about the rank and duties and regulations ofthe Apprentice an organized set of customs, ceremonies, rules, traditions, etc.These at last crystallized into a well-defined unit, which we may describe asthe Operative Entered Apprentice Degree. When, after the Reformation, OperativeMasonry was transformed into Speculative Masonry, the Entered Apprentice Degreewas retained as one of the Degrees of the Speculative Lodge, modified, ofcourse, to meet the needs of the Speculative Fraternity.

            As anEntered Apprentice you are a learner, a beginner in Speculative Masonry. Youhave taken the first steps in the mastery of our art. And it is because youhave this rank that certain things are expected of you.

            First, youmust learn certain portions of the Degree, so as to prove your proficiency inopen Lodge. But you are to learn these parts not merely to pass this test; youshould master them so thoroughly that they will remain with you throughoutlife, because you will have need of them many times in the future.

            Second, youmust learn the laws, rules, and regulations; by which, an Entered Apprentice isgoverned.

            As youstood in the northeast corner of the Lodge during your initiation, you weretaught a certain lesson concerning a cornerstone. The meaning of that lessonshould now be clear to you. You are a cornerstone of the Craft. The day willprobably come when, into your hands, will fall your share of theresponsibilities of the Lodge. You are a cornerstone on which the fraternity isbeing erected. It is our hope and expectation that you will prove a solidfoundation, true and tried, set foursquare on which our great Fraternity maysafely build.

Excerpted from “The Masonic Scholar: A Manual of MasonicEducation for Candidates”

Printed by the Grand Lodge F.&A.M. of California.