The Master's Jewel - Masonic Education - The Master Mason; The Laws of Freemasonry.

The Master Mason;

The Laws of Freemasonry.

Every Master Mason is obliged to abide by the laws, regulations and edicts of his Grand Lodge, the By-Laws of the particular Lodge of which he is a member, and to maintain and support the Landmarks and “ancient usages and customs of the Fraternity.”

The laws of Masonry, like the laws of nations, are both unwritten – the “common law” – and written. The written laws, based on the “General Regulations” and the “Old Charges”, are the Constitution and Ordinances of his own Grand Lodge, it regulations and edicts, and the By-Laws of his particular lodge. The ancient Landmarks are a part of the unwritten law.

The “General Regulations” as set forth in Anderson’s Constitutions of 1723”, have a curious history, into which it is not now necessary to go; suffice it that they were adopted shortly after the formation in 1717 of the Grand Lodge in London. The work was first published under the date of 1723. Unquestionably it embodied the laws of Masonry as they were then known to the members of the four old lodges, which formed the first London Grand Lodge, and hence have the authority of an antiquity much greater than their printed life of over two hundred years.

In general, it may be said that the “Old Charges” are concerned with the individual Brother, and his relations to his lodge and his Brethren; the General Regulations with the conduct of the Craft as a whole. The General Regulations permit their own alteration by Grand Lodges – the Old Charges do not.

Most civil laws are provided with measures of enforcement and penalties for infringement; California Masonic law knows but three penalties; reprimand, suspension and expulsion. These Masonic penalties for serious infractions of Masonic law may be inflicted after Masonic trials with a verdict of guilty, but the punishment is usually made to fit the offense, and mercy is much more a part of Masonic than of civil law. Infractions of Masonic law resulting in trial and punishment are rare, compared to the number of Masons, the vast majority of whom are so willing and anxious to obey the laws that “enforcement” is seldom required.

There is no complete uniformity in the Masonic law of the various Grand Jurisdictions. Different latitudes, different characteristics, and ideas have left their impress upon our 51 Grand Lodges in the United States. In the majority of essentials, they are one; in some particulars that hold divergent views.

The “Ancient Landmarks” as we customarily call them, may be briefly defined as those fundamental laws of Masonry, which are not subject to change. Many Masons want to know what these landmarks are. The great Masonic student, Albert Gallatin Mackey, formulated a list of twenty-five which have been adopted by many Grand Lodges while others have adopted a different list, varying all the way from seven in Massachusetts, to fifty-four in Kentucky. California has not adopted any of the Ancient Landmarks, commonly referred to as “The Foundation of Masonic Law”, however, the powers of our Grand Lodge are limited only by a strict adherence to them and by the provisions of its own Constitution and Regulations.

The twenty-five as formulated by Mackey are as follows:

I. The modes of recognition.
II. The division of symbolic Masonry into three degrees.
III. The legend of the Third Degree.
IV. The government of the Fraternity by a presiding officer called a Grand Master, who is elected from the body of the Craft.
V. The prerogative of the Grand Master to preside over every assembly of the Craft, wheresoever and whensoever held.
VI. The prerogative of the Grand Master to grant dispensations for conferring degrees at irregular times.
VII. The prerogative of the Grand Master to grant dispensations for opening and holding lodges.
VIII. The prerogative of the Grand Master to make Masons at sight.
IX. The necessity for Masons to congregate in Lodges.
X. The government of every Lodge by a Master and two Wardens.
XI. The necessity that every Lodge, when congregated, should be duly tiled.
XII. The right of every Mason to be represented in all general meetings of the Craft, and to instruct his representatives.
XIII. The right of every Mason to appeal from the decision of his brethren in Lodge convened to the Grand Lodge or General Assembly of Masons.
XIV. The right of every Mason to visit and sit in every regular Lodge.
XV. That no visitor not known to some brother present as a Mason can enter a Lodge without undergoing an examination.
XVI. That no Lodge can interfere in the business or labor of another Lodge.
XVII. That every Freemason is amenable to the laws and regulations of the Masonic jurisdiction in which he resides.
XVIII. That every candidate for initiation must be a man, free born, and of lawful age.
XIX. That every Mason must believe in the existence of God as the Grand Architect of the Universe.
XX. That every Mason must believe in a resurrection to a future life.
XXI. That a book of the law of God must constitute an indispensable part of the furniture of every Lodge.
XXII. That all men in the sight of God are equal, and meet in the lodge on one common level.
XXIII. That Freemasonry is a secret society, in possession of secrets that cannot be divulged.
XXIV. That freemasonry consists of a speculative science founded on an operative art.
XXV. That the landmarks of Masonry can never be changed.

We may liken the Masonic landmarks to the fundamental principles of character building, which you will understand more fully as you advance in Masonry, but do not be disturbed if you cannot make a list of all those principles.

With the “Old Charges” for precedent, the first “General Regulations” for organic law, Grand Lodges write and adopt their Constitutions and Ordinances and particular Lodges write and adopt their By-Laws, subject to the approval of the Grand Master and Grand Lodge in our Jurisdiction. Grand Masters, ad interim, formulate and issue edicts and make decisions; often these are later incorporated by the Grand Lodge into the written law of the jurisdiction. All of these together, except where they conflict (as some of the earlier “General Regulations” necessarily conflict with later enactments made to supercede them), form the legal structure of Freemasonry.

Excerpted from “The Masonic Scholar: A Manual of Masonic Education for Candidates” Printed by the Grand Lodge F.&A.M. of California.