P.H.A. - F. & A.M.
959 Baltimore & Annapolis Blvd.
Severna Park, MD 21146
(410)544-8446
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| Rising Sun Lodge No. 46 P.H.A. - F. & A.M. 959 Baltimore & Annapolis Blvd. Severna Park, MD 21146 (410)544-8446 |
In
the book of human history Freemasonry has a chapter of her own.
When you become a member of a lodge it is a chapter you will wish to
read, as much of its own fascination as for the light it will throw upon your
path as a Mason. A little of that
story will enable you better to understand the three steps of initiation which
lie before you.
In
all ages and in all lands man have formed secret societies, made use of
ceremonies of initiation, employed symbols, emblems, and means of recognition.
When Freemasonry came into existence – nobody knows how many centuries
ago – it inherited much from such societies, along your path of initiation you
will encounter ancient rites and symbols; their unspeakable antiquity makes them
more holy in our eyes.
The
oldest existing written record of our Craft is a manuscript written by some
unknown brother in England, about 1390, nearly six centuries ago; but the
document itself shows that even then Freemasonry was very old.
At
the time this document was written all Freemasons were operatives; that is, they
were workers engaged on buildings. There
were many kinds of Masons, but the evidence indicates that “Freemasons” were
those builders of the superior type who designed, supervised, and erected the
great cathedrals and other marvelous structures in the Gothic style of
architecture.
Operative
Freemasons designed the buildings, dressed the stone from the quarries and laid
it in the walls; setup arches, pillars, columns, and buttresses; laid the floor
and built the roof; carved out the decorations; made and fitted the
stained-glass windows, and produced the sculptures. Their work was difficult, called for a high degree of skill
and genius, and required much knowledge of mechanics and geometry as well, as of
stone-masonry. They were the great
artists of the Middle Ages.
Training
men for such work called for a long period of severe discipline.
Boys, sound in body, keen in mind and of good reputation, at the ages of
ten to twelve, were apprenticed to some Master Masons for a number of years,
usually seven; this Master Mason was such a boy’s tutor, his mentor, his
guide, who taught him both the theories and the practices of the Craft.
At the end of his apprenticeship the youth was required to submit to
exacting tests of his proficiency before being accepted into full membership in
the Craft.
When
a number of Freemasons worked together on a building over a period of years,
they organized a Lodge, which might meet in a temporary building or in one of
the rooms of the incomplete structure. Such
a lodge was governed by a Master assigned by Wardens; it had a Secretary to keep
its books, a Treasurer to keep and dispense its funds, a charity chest from
which to dispense relief to the members in accident, sickness, or distress, and
to widows, and orphans of Master Masons; in regular communication, divided its
membership, into grades, admitted members by initiation – in short, it was in
essential what a Masonic Lodge is today.
The
beginner in the builders’ art was called an Apprentice; after he had served as
such a sufficient time to give evidence of his fitness, his name was entered in
the Lodge’s books, after which he was called an Entered Apprentice.
At the end of his seven years of apprenticeship he was called into open
Lodge, his conduct was reported, and he then had to prove his skill by producing
what was called a “Master’s Piece.” Hitherto
he had been on probation; if he passed his test satisfactorily he was made a
full member of the Craft. Then he
stood on an equality of duty, rights, and privileges with all others, a Fellow
of the Craft – the word “Fellow” means full membership.
In the sense that he now mastered the theories, practices, rules,
secrets, and tools of his trade he was called a Master – Mason.
Completing
their work in one community, the Freemasons would move to another, setting up
their Lodge wherever they met. Other
types of Masons were compelled by laws to live and work in the same community
year in and year out, and under local restrictions. A number of our historians believe that it may have been
because they were free from such restrictions that the Gothic builders were
called “Freemasons.”
Such
was the Fraternity in its Operative period; and as such it flourished for
generations. Then came a great
change in its fortunes. Euclid’s
geometry was rediscovered and published, thereby giving to the public many of
the Masons’ trade secrets. The
Reformation came and the Gothic underwent a revolution, laws were changed; these
and other factors brought about a decline in the Craft.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Freemasons became so few
in number that only a small Lodge here and there clung to a precarious
existence.
To
recruit their numbers, Freemasons adopted a new practice; they began to accept
non-Operative members. In the old
days an Operative Mason in the literal sense could only become a member; but
during the two centuries of the transition period, gentleman with no intention
to become builders, and out of curiosity, for social reasons, or from interest
in the Craft’s ancient custom, were received “Accepted Masons.”
At first there were few of these, but as time passed their number
increased, until by the early part of the eighteenth century they were more
numerous than the Operatives and more influential.
The
Craft then took a step destined to revolutionize it and to set it on a path of
power and magnitude.
With
a few years of that date the Craft had completed the transformation of an
Operative Body into a Speculative Fraternity (by “Speculative” is meant
Masonry in a moral or symbolical sense), reorganized the two old degrees into
the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason;
collected and collated the old Masonic Manuscripts; produced the first book of
Constitutions, and was chartering Lodges in many countries; including our own,
to take care of the Fraternity’s membership, which began to increase rapidly.