THE VARIOUS RITUALS OF FREEMASONRY
BEGINNING IN THE TENTH CENTURY
Extracted in part from a Lecture delivered in
the Witham Lodge, Lincoln, England, 1863
by
THE REV. G. OLIVER, D.D.
PAST D.P.G.M. FOR LINCOLNSHIRE
with additions and modernizations by the webmaster.
During the last century, several revisions of the Ritual took place, each being an improvement on its predecessor, and all based on the primitive Masonic Lecture which was drawn up in the tenth century called the “Regius Manuscript” which is too long to recite here, but which can be found, both in its original form and also a translated version, on the www.masonicsites.org website. Most of our Ancient Landmarks were first introduced there.
The first catechism was introduced by Grand Master Sir Christopher Wren, about the year 1685, and was called an Examination. The Obligation was short and simple, and had no penalty. The foundation for what is now used as a penalty was a part of the Examination. Such as :
"Which is the point of your entry? “
“I hear and conceal under the penalty of having my throat cut, or my tongue pulled out of my head."
Sir Christopher's Ritual began in this way:
Q. Peace be to all here ...
A. I hope there will.
Q. What o'clock Is it? ...
A. It's going to six, or going to twelve.
Q. Are you very busy? ...
A. No-
Q. Will you give or take? ...
A. Both; or which you please,
Q. How go Squares? ...
A. Straight-
Q. Are you rich or poor? ...
A. Neither-
Q. Change me that? (the sign.) ...
A. I will-
Q. What is a Mason?...
A. A man begot by a man, born of a woman, brother to a king, fellow to a prince-
Q. In the name of the King and Holy Church, are you a Mason? ...
A. I am so received and accepted-
Q. Where were you made a Mason? ...
A. In a just and perfect Lodge-
Q. How many make a Lodge? ...
A. God, and the Square; with five or seven right and perfect Masons ; on the highest mountains or the lowest valleys in the world -
Q. Where is the Master's point? ...
A. At the east window, waiting the rising of the sun to set his men to work.
Q. How is the meridian found out? ...
A. When the sun leaves the south, and breaks in at the west end of the Lodge.
This is how the Brethren worked 180 years ago. The Craft at that time had a series of signs to make themselves known to each other as Masons, which are now obsolete. I will show them here as a matter of curiosity. When meeting in the street, they saluted each other by raising their hat with the thumb and two fingers only. Sometimes they would strike the inside of the little finger of the left hand three times with the forefinger of the right; or rub their right eye three times with two fingers; or they would take up a stone and ask, What it smells of? The correct answer to which was, Neither of brass, iron, or any other metal, but of a Mason.
Q. What is your name? ...
A. E.A. Lewis or Caution;
A. F.C. Geometry or Square;
A. M.M. Cassia or Gabaon
Q. How old are you? ...
A. E.A. Under seven years;
A. M.M. Above seven years."
When in a mixed company, the token was-to turn down their glass after drinking. And if any one saw a Brother misconduct himself, he exhibited his disgust by placing his open right hand on his upper lip, which served as a check to further indiscretion.
Anderson, about the year 1720; began the reform of the Ritual and mentions, for the first time, a "Master's Part” There was no Master's Part before 1720; and here also the Obligation is accompanied by the penalty but not one syllable is mentioned about a substituted word; on the contrary, it asserts that the lost word was actually found. It appears that the office of Deacon was then unknown.
ENTERED APPRENTICES DEGREE.
Q. "Where stands the senior E.A.? ...
A, In the south-
Q. What is his business ? ...
A. To hear and receive instructions, and welcome strange Brothers-
Q. Where stands the junior E.A.? ...
A. In the north-
Q. What is his business? ...
A. To keep out all cowans and eavesdroppers-
Q. If a cowan or a listener is catched, how is he to be punished? ...
A. To be placed under the eaves of the house in rainy weather, till the water runs in at his shoulders and out at his heels-
Q. What do you learn by being an operative Mason? ...
A. To hew, square, mould stone, lay a level, and raise a perpendicular
Q. What do you learn by being a gentleman Mason?
A. Secrecy, morality, and good-fellowship
Q. Have you seen a Master today ? ...
A. I have -
Q. How was he clothed? ...
A. In a yellow jacket and blue pair of breeches.
FELLOWCRAFTS DEGREE.
Q. How high was the door of the middle Chamber? ...
A. So high that a cowan could not reach to stick a pin into it -
Q. When you came to the Middle Chamber, what did you see? ...
A. The resemblance of the letter G-
Q. What did that G denote? ...
A. One that's greater than you.-
Q. Who is greater than I, that am a Free and Accepted Mason, and Master of a Lodge ?...
A. The Grand Architect and Builder of the Universe; or he that was taken up to the top of the pinnacle of the holy Temple.
MASTER MASON'S DEGREE.
Q. From whence came you? ...
A. From the east-
Q. Where are you going? ...
A. To the west-
Q. What are you going to do there? ...
A. To seek for that which was lost and is now found-
Q. What is that which was lost and is now found? ...
A. THE MASTER MASON'S WORD-
Q. What is the name of a Master Mason? ...
A. Cassia is my name;
from a just and perfect Lodge I came;
a Master Mason raised most rare,
from the diamond Ashlar to the Square." '
The next reviser of the Ritual was Martin Clare, a Deputy Grand Master, and he executed his task so much to the satisfaction of the Grand. Lodge, that his Lectures were ordered to be used by all the Brethren within the limits of its jurisdiction. In an old Minute-Book of a Lodge in Lincoln, dated 1734, Of which Sir Cecil Wray, the Deputy Provincial Master, was the Master, there are a series of entries through successive Lodge nights to the following effect :-"that two or more sections of Martin Clare's Lectures were read; when the Master gave an elegant charge, went through an examination, and the Lodge was closed with songs and decent merriment."
The following are extracts from these Lectures:
Q. What is the covering of a Masonic Lodge? ...
A. A celestial canopy of divers colours-
Q. How do we hope to arrive at It? ...
A. By the help of a ladder. -
Q. What Is it called in Scripture? ...
A. Jacob's Ladder. -
Q. How many rounds or staves in that Ladder?...
A. Rounds or staves innumerable, each indicating a moral virtue; but three principal ones, called Faith, Hope, and Charity
Q. Describe them? ...
A. Faith in Christ; Hope. in salvation, and to live in Charity with all mankind-
Q. Where does that Ladder reach to?..
A. To the heavens.-
Q. What does it rest upon? ...
A. The Holy Book
Thirty years after the great split breaking the Society into two divisions, conventionally distinguished as Ancient and Modern-, in 1770- Bro. Dunckerley was commissioned by the Grand Lodge to compile an improved Ritual in all the three degrees. The original hint at a circle and parallel lines, as important symbols of the Order, was first used here. Here, also, the doctrine of a substituted word was formally announced; for the true word had been transferred to the Royal Arch, which he introduced into the Grand Lodge as a legitimate degree of Masonry.
The following is an extract.-
Q. How do Masons know each other in the day?
A. By seeing a Brother and observing the sign. -
Q. How in the night? ...
A. By feeling the token and hearing the word.-
Q. How blows a Mason's wind? ...
A. Favourably; due east and west-
Q. For what purpose?...
A. To cool and refresh the men who go at, and from their labour-
Q. What does it further allude to? ...
A. To those miraculous winds which first blew east and then west, and proved so essential in working the happy deliverance of the children of Israel from their Egyptian bondage, and also the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host in their attempt to follow.-
Q. What time is it?...
A. High time.-
Q. Bro. J. W., what is to be done at high time? ...
A. To call the men from labour to refreshment ; to see that they keep within hail, and come on again in due time, that the Master may have pleasure and profit thereby.
In 1777, the Lodge of Antiquity, of which Bro. William Preston was a Past Master, seceded from the London Grand Lodge and avowed an alliance with the Grand Lodge at York. Besides which, Preston was initiated in a York Lodge, and therefore became thoroughly master of all the details, as practised by both sections of the Fraternity. His Ritual contained a lucid exemplification of the ceremonies, doctrines, legends, and symbolical machinery of all the three degrees, and it is to be regretted that some of its most valuable illustrations were omitted by Dr. Hemming and his associates when the Ritual was reconstructed by the Lodge of Reconciliation in 1814. For instance, the Prestonian Lecture gave the following. beautiful definition of Masonry, which is now lost to the Craft:-
Q. What is Masonry?
A. The study of science and the practice of virtue.
Q. What is its object? ...
A. To rectify our conduct by its sublime morality; to render us happy in ourseIves and useful to society-
Q. What is the ground or plan of Masonry? ...
A. Instruction.-
Q. Why do you consider it to be such? ...
A. Because men are never too wise to learn. -
Q. What will a wise man do to obtain it? ...
A. He will seek knowledge.-
Q. What will a wise Mason do? ...
A. He will do more, for he will never rest till he finds it.
Q. Where does he expect to find it? ...
A. In the east-
Q. Why does he expect to find it there? ...
A. Because man was there created in the image of his Maker; there also the holy Gospel originated; knowledge and learning were promulgated, and arts and sciences flourished.
The Prestonlan Ritual divided each degree into sections, and subdivided each section into clauses as a convenient help to memory. According to this plan, a portion of the Lecture was delivered each Lodge night.
The E. A. Lecture consists of six comprehensive clauses:
The FIRST CLAUSE, consisted of three questions and answers..
Q. Bro. S. W, where did you and I first meet?
A. On the Level
Q. Where do we hope to part? ...
A. On the square. -
Q. Why so? ...
A. As Masons, we ought always to do so with all mankind, but more particularly with obligated Brethren.
The SECOND CLAUSE runs thus :
Q. From whence come you?
A. From the West-
Q. Whither going?
A. To the East
Q. What Induced you to leave the West and go to the East?
A. In search of a Master, and of him to gain instruction,
Q. Who are you that want instruction? ...
A. A Free and Accepted Mason.
The THIRD CLAUSE.-
Q. What kind of man ought a Free and Accepted Mason to be? ...
A. A free man, born of a free woman, brother to kings and companion to princes, if Masons-
Q. Why free? ...
A. That the vicious habits of slavery might not contaminate the true principles on which Masonry is founded-
Q.. A second reason?
A. Because the Masons who were chosen to build King Solomon's Temple were declared free, and exempted from all imposts, duties, and taxes. Afterwards, when this temple had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the good-will of Cyrus gave them permission to erect a second temple; he having set them at liberty for that purpose. It is from this epoch that we bear the name of Free and Accepted Masons-
Q. Why brother to kings and companion to princes? ...
A. A king in the Lodge is reminded that although a crown may adorn his head and a sceptre his hand, the blood in his veins is derived from the common parent of mankind, and is no better than that of the meanest subject. The statesman, the senator and the artist are there taught that, equally with others, they are, by nature, exposed to infirmity and disease; and that an unforeseen misfortune, or a disordered frame, may impair their faculties, and level them with the most ignorant of their species. This cheeks pride, and incites courtesy of behavior. Men of inferior talents, who are not placed by fortune in such exalted stations, are instructed in the Lodge to regard their superiors with peculiar esteem; when they discover them voluntarily divested of the trappings of external grandeur, and condescending, in the badge of innocence and bond of friendship, to trace Wisdom, and follow virtue, assisted by those who are of a rank beneath them. Virtue is true nobility, and Wisdom is the channel by which Virtue 'is directed and conveyed; Wisdom and Virtue only, mark distinction among Masons.-
Q. Whence originated the phrase~ born of a free Woman? ...
A. At the grand festival which was given by Abraham at the weaning of his son Isaac. Afterwards, when Sarah, the wife of Abraham, beheld Ishmael, the son of Hagar the Egyptian bondwoman, teasing and perplexing her son, she remonstrated with Abraham, saying, Put away that bondwoman and her son, for such as they cannot inherit with the free-born. She spoke as being endowed with divine inspiration; well knowing that if the lads were brought up together, Isaac might Imbibe some of Ishmael's slavish principles; It being universally acknowledged that the minds of slaves are much more contaminated than those of the free-born.
Q. Why those equalities amongst Freemasons? ...
A. We are all equal by our creation, but much more so by the strength of our obligation.
The FOURTH CLAUSE:
Q. From what particular part of the world do you come? ...
A. From the Holy Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem.-
Q. What recommendation have you brought thence? ...
A. A recommendation from the W. M., Officers, and Brethren of that R. W. and Holy Lodge, who greet you thrice heartily." (After 1720, we find the passage expressed :- "Right Worshipful, the Master and Fellows of the Holy Lodge of St. John, from whence I come, greet you, greet you, greet you, thrice welcome Brothers.")
Q. Any other recommendation? ...
A. Hearty good wishes. -
Q. Since you brought no other recommendation, what came you here to do? ...
A. Not my own will and pleasure, but to learn to rule and govern my passions, to be obedient to the Master's will to keep a tongue of good report, to practice secrecy, and make further progress in the study of Freemasonry.
This clause, in the Examination of Sir Christopher Wren was expressed:
Q. What Lodge are you of? ...
A. The Lodge of St. John. symbolised by the Triangle and Cross
Q. How does it stand? ...
A. Perfect East and West, as all churches and chapels do. -
Q. How many angles in a St. John's Lodge? ...
A. Four, bordering on squares, each containing 90 degrees."
Anderson’s Ritual exhibits this variety :-
Q. From whence come you ?
A. From the Holy Lodge of St. John.-
Q. What recommendation brought you from thence? ...
A. The recommendation which I brought from the Right Worshipful and Worthy Brothers and Fellows of the Holy Lodge of St. John, from whence I came, was, to greet you thrice heartily well-
Q. What do you come here to do? ...
A. Not to do my proper will, but to subdue my passions still; the rules of Masonry in hand to take, and daily progress therein to make. -
Q. Are you a Mason? ...
A. I am so taken and accepted to be amongst Brothers and Fellows."
The FIFTH CLAUSE:-
Q. How do you know yourself to be a Mason? ...
A. By having been examined and approved, well reported of, and regularly initiated into the Order-
Q. How will you convince me that you are a Mason? ...
A. By signs, tokens, and perfect points of entrance-
Q. What are signs?
A. All squares, angles, levels and perpendiculars are good and sufficient signs to know Masons by-
Q. What purpose do they serve? ...
A. To distinguish a Mason in the light-
Q. What are tokens? ...
A. Certain friendly and brotherly words and grips, which distinguish a Mason in the dark as well as in the light. -
Q. Will you give me the points of entrance? ...
A. Give me the first and I will give you the second. -
Q. I hele.
A. I conceal ...
Q. What do you conceal?-
A. All secrets and mysteries belonging to Free Masons in Masonry,
except it be to a true and lawful Brother for his caution :
Q. But as I am the examiner, you may safely reveal to me the points of entrance...
A. Of, at, and on.
Q. Of, at, and on what? ...
A. Of my own free-will and accord, at the door of the Lodge, and on the point of a sharp implement.
Q. When were you made a Mason? ...
A. When the sun was at its due meridian.-
Q. How do you account for that, as Masons are generally made in the evening? ...
A. The earth being spherical, the sun is always at its due meridian in one part of the globe or another.-
Q. Where were you made a Mason? ...
A. In a just and perfect Lodge-
Q. What is a. Lodge? ...
A. An assemblage of Brethren well met to expatiate on the mysteries of the Craft, with the Book, Square, and Compasses, the Book of Constitutions, and a Warrant empowering them to act. -
Q. When met, what makes them just?...
A. The Holy Book
Q. What makes a Lodge perfect? ...
A. The number seven
Q. Under what denomination? ...
A. One Master, two Wardens, two Fellowcrafts, and the rest may be Entered Apprentices
Q. What makes it regular? ...
A. The Charter, the Warrant, and the Constitutions-
Q. Why so? ...
A. The first is the acknowledgment of our meetings, forms, and ceremonies by the laws of our country; the second is the ancient and legal authority of the Grand Master; and the third is the sanction of the Grand Lodge.
Q. By whom were you made a Mason?...
A. By the W. M., assisted by the Wardens and Brethren.
Q. How many original and perfect points have we in Masonry? ...
A. Twelve-
Q. Name them? ...
A. Opening, Preparing, Reporting, Entering, Prayer, Circumambulation, Advancing, Obligation, Intrusting, Investing, Situation, and Closing.
Q. Why are they called original and perfect points? ...
A. Because they constitute the basis of the whole system of Masonry, and without which, no one ever was, or ever can be, legally received into the Order. Every person who is made a Mason must go through all these twelve forms and ceremonies, not only in the first degree, but in all subsequent ones.
I now proceed to the SIXTH and last CLAUSE of the first section of the E.A. Lecture.---
Q. Have Masons any secrets? ...
A. They have; many valuable ones-
Q. Where do they keep them? ...
A. In their hearts. -
Q. To whom do they reveal them? ...
A. To none but Brothers and Fellows, known to be such on due trial, proof, and examination, or in the body of a just and lawful Lodge.-
Q. How do they reveal them? ...
A. By the help of a key
Q. Does that key hang or lie? ...
A. It hangs and does not lie.-
Q. Where does It hang? ...
A. Within an arch of bone-
Q. What does it hang by? ...
A. The thread of life, in the passage of entrance, nine inches or a span long-
Q. Why Is it so nearly connected with the heart? ...
A. The tongue being the index of the mind, it ought to utter nothing but what the heart truly dictates. -
Q. To solve this Masonic mystery, Can you tell me what manner of metal this key is composed of?
A. No metal at all; it is a tongue of good report which ought always to speak as well of a Brother In his absence as in his presence, and when that cannot be done with honour, justice, or propriety, that adopts the distinguishing virtue of a Mason
Q. What virtue is that? ...
A. Silence or Secrecy
The ancient Rituals exhibit some curious variations of this clause. In the Examination of Sir Christopher Wren, the illustration ran thus
Q. Have you the key of the Lodge? ...
A. Yes, I have-
Q. What Is its virtue? ...
A. To open and shut and to shut and open.
Q. Where do you keep it? ...
A. In an ivory box, between my tongue and my teeth, or within my heart, where all my secrets are kept-
Q. Have you a chain to the key? ...
A. Yes, I have-
Q. How long Is it? ...
A. From my tongue to my heart.
Desaguliers made a slight alteration, and exemplified it in this manner.
Q. What are the secrets of a Mason? ...
A. Signs, tokens and many words.-
Q. Where do you keep these secrets?
A. Under my left breast,
Q. Have you any key to these secrets?
A. Yes
Q. Where do you keep it? ...
A. In a bone box, that neither opens nor shuts but with ivory keys.-
Q. Does it hang or does it lie ?...
A. It hangs. -
Q. What does it hang by? ...
A. A tow-line, nine inches or a span. -
Q. What metal is it of? ...
A. No manner of metal at all. But a tongue of good report is as good behind his back as before his face.
VARIATIONS IN THE RITUAL
In the year 1720, the following questions and answers occur
Q.- Where does the M.M. stand?
A- In the W.
Q- Where does the F.C. ?
A- In the S.
Q.- Why so?
A .- To hele and conceal, give instruction, and welcome strange Brothers.
Q .- Where does the E.A. P. stand?
A.- In the N.
Q.- Why so?
A.- To hele and conceal, to receive Instruction and to strengthen the Lodge.
Q.- What is the form of the Lodge?
A.- An oblong square
Q- Why so?
A.- The manner of our great Master Hiram's grave.