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The Masonic Lodge.
THE MASONIC LODGE .
BY BROTHER T . B . WHYTEHEAD P . M . ( Head before the Eboracum Lodge , No . 1611 ) . MANY Masonic writers have written pages upon pages to explain the meaninr of the term " Lodge . " I am rather inclined to think that these authors are liko the
housemaid in tho Spanish fable who with a stump of broom made futile endeavours to sweep a dusty room , " for , dropping piecemeal on the floor , it only littered it the
more . " To argue as to the meaning of the term Lodge appears to bo only creating a mystery whore none need appear , or to be attempting to revive the common-place idea of setting up a bottle to shoot afc .
The nse from the earliest dates to the present of the word " Lodge" points out at once the derivation of the term . In the Book of the Sacred Law Ave find allusion made to a Lodge in the sense of a small or temporary building , thus : " a lodge in a garden of cucumbers , "
manifestly a shelter fro . 1 the sun for the watcher who guarded his crops from marauders of all kinds , and in the present day we have the same term as applied to the cottage or small habitation placed at the gateway or entrance to a park for the shelter of the gatekeeper . The
original meaning of the term then , I take it , was a temporary shelter , and its derivation is from the French loge , brought over by tbe Abbey Builders of Medioeval times no doubt . As applied amongst operative masons , of course the word Lodge meant the temporary house or hut
erected for their convenience in the neighbourhood of the works upon which they happened to be engaged . In point of fact our operative brethren lodged in such a building and there held their assemblies and executed their fine work in bad weather .
In this , I think , we have another tiny link connecting us with these operative guilds . It is from these associations thafc the terra lodge has descended to us to be nsed in the sense of a place of meeting for working masons .
One fantastic author tells us that the term is derived from the Greek word logos ( a discourse ) , because of the conversation that is usually held in Lodges , bnfc this seems terribly far-fetched and moreover useless , when so simple a derivation is offered on the very surface .
Only a short time since I was visiting a brother who was very busily engaged in restoring his church . I arrived there at night , and on looking out of my window before breakfast upon the works of rebuilding , in progress , I was afc once struck with the obvious meaning of the word
Lodge , for there at a few yards distance from the rising structure stood a large substantial wooden building in which the masons took their meals and in which they worked in bad weather on the finer portions of the carving —precisely a repetition of the days of old—there was the lodge from which comes the title of our places of meeting .
The College of Cardinals , when in session , hold their proceedings in " logia , " and I am prepared to admit thafc this term may be an outcome of the Greek , since the dead languages are universally used by these leaders in the Roman Church .
The German mediaeval builders called their temporary dwelling places hutten , a term of exactly similar import to our old word " lodge , " thus corroborating my opinion .
At present a German masonic Lodge is termed loge , showing the descent of German . Freemasonry , as distinct from operative masonry , from this country , whence indeed all Freemasonry of the present day has its origin .
The present acceptation of the meaning of the word Lodge in Masonry is not of any very great antiquity , and it was not until the revival of Masonry in 1717 that the Craffc were divided into "lodges" at all—I mean that there were no such things before that date as warrants or
authorities for holding Lodges , or certificates , issued to members of the Craft . Indeed we know very little about the working of the Craffc at all , and it is only from one or two allusions in the journals of Elias Ashmole , and from an attack on the Order by Dr . Plot , in his History of
Staffordshire , both dating about the middle of the seventeenth century , that we can prove that speculative masonry was then in existence throughout England . Not that
I thmk this at all a weak point in our history , far from it . When we consider how meagre are the records of important national events of the period , and how jealous , up to within a very late period , were members of onr Order of the
The Masonic Lodge.
slightest publicity being given to Masonic writings of any kind , we can hardly find any ground for surprise in the fact thafc we have so little to show for ourselves until the era of the formation of the Grand Lodge of England in London .
Tho meetings of the Freemasons at York , referred to in somo of the old documents , were called assemblies , but these , mind you , were not gatherings for purposes of building , but for the transaction of business affecting the entire craft—iu other words for esoteric and not exoteric Avork .
Before the issue of warrants it would seem to have been the practice for any number of brethren—probably nofc less than three—to meet at any convenient place , open a Lodge , and receive candidates . Ashmole was made a Mason .
according to his own account , at Warrington , in Cheshire , in 1646 , and thirty-six years afterwards he speaks of having been " admitted into the fellowship of Freemasons , at Masons Hall , in London , " and he speaks of the " Master of the Masons Company " then present .
The York Masons met promiscuously at one anothers houses in rotation , and admitted persons to the Order in apparently ' a loose method very different to onr present mode of procedure . Our present divisions into lodges with strict regulations are evidently necessary both for convenience of organisation and for our mutual protection .
A Lodge then in the sense of which I am treating is , in England , an organised assemblage of brethren acting under authority from Grand Lodge . Without such an authority a Lodge conld not legally exist , because at tbe time of the formation , or rather union , of Grand Lodge the Fraternity
agreed to vest all power in that body , and hence from thab body we derive our force . The method of forming a Lodge is for seven regularly registered Master Masons to petition Grand Lodge for a warrant . The petition must be recommended by a
neighbouring Lodge and by the rulers of the Masonic Province in which it is proposed to hold the Lodge , and it is then forwarded to the Board of General Purposes of the Grand Lodge . If it is passed as regular and in form by the Board , a
Warrant issues in due course , and the Lodge is constituted , and sets to work . It is a Lodge of Master Masons . In the earlier days of Masonry—that is at the revival—the Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craffc degrees only were
conferred in private Lodges , and the Master Mason ' s degree was given in Grand Lodge , bat the inconvenience of this soon becoming apparent , power was given to private Lodges to raise brethren .
The word Lodge then is nsed in three senses —( 1 ) An organisation of Freemasons , of which I have been speaking : ( 2 ) As the place of meeting of Freemasons , and ( 3 ) in a symbolic sense . As a place of meeting a Lodge should be held if possible on private premises . This is universally
agreed , and it is scarcely necessary to point out the advantages of this over tbe frequent practice of meeting on licensed premises , or even in a building used for miscellaneous purposes . Every Masonic authority has his own ideas as to the structure and arrangement of Lodge rooms , but ifc .
is generally accepted thafc the room for meetings should be in an upper storey , isolated from ofcher buildings , and with no other apartment over it . If possible , it should be of parallelogramic form , ancl be situated East and West . In Dr . Oliver ' s very interesting '' Book of the Lodge , " latel y
reprinted , that learned author treats at great length of the Lodge and its arrangements , going into the most minute details as to the construction , fixtures , and embellishments . To go into this subject in this short paper would occupy far too much of onr time .
In a symbolic sense , the Lodge may be said to represent the world , and much of its symbolic teaching is to be found in the lectures on the tracing boards . Its form is a double sqnare , which was in ancient times believed to be the shape of the world , its covering is the cloudy canopy of heaven .
Ifc is ruled by the sun , the moon , and the master , and it contains the revealed Word of God , and the Ladder of the Three Virtues which reaches from Earth to Heaven . It
contains every grade of mankind , and it exists at the will of the Grand Master . Thus in all its great points ifc contains resemblances to the world , and is indeed a little world in itself .
I have thus only very cursorily touched upon a few salient points of a subject concerning which whole volumes have been written , but it was not my intention to enter laboriously into a long disquisition on dry details . To us the Lodge should mean a holy spot of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Masonic Lodge.
THE MASONIC LODGE .
BY BROTHER T . B . WHYTEHEAD P . M . ( Head before the Eboracum Lodge , No . 1611 ) . MANY Masonic writers have written pages upon pages to explain the meaninr of the term " Lodge . " I am rather inclined to think that these authors are liko the
housemaid in tho Spanish fable who with a stump of broom made futile endeavours to sweep a dusty room , " for , dropping piecemeal on the floor , it only littered it the
more . " To argue as to the meaning of the term Lodge appears to bo only creating a mystery whore none need appear , or to be attempting to revive the common-place idea of setting up a bottle to shoot afc .
The nse from the earliest dates to the present of the word " Lodge" points out at once the derivation of the term . In the Book of the Sacred Law Ave find allusion made to a Lodge in the sense of a small or temporary building , thus : " a lodge in a garden of cucumbers , "
manifestly a shelter fro . 1 the sun for the watcher who guarded his crops from marauders of all kinds , and in the present day we have the same term as applied to the cottage or small habitation placed at the gateway or entrance to a park for the shelter of the gatekeeper . The
original meaning of the term then , I take it , was a temporary shelter , and its derivation is from the French loge , brought over by tbe Abbey Builders of Medioeval times no doubt . As applied amongst operative masons , of course the word Lodge meant the temporary house or hut
erected for their convenience in the neighbourhood of the works upon which they happened to be engaged . In point of fact our operative brethren lodged in such a building and there held their assemblies and executed their fine work in bad weather .
In this , I think , we have another tiny link connecting us with these operative guilds . It is from these associations thafc the terra lodge has descended to us to be nsed in the sense of a place of meeting for working masons .
One fantastic author tells us that the term is derived from the Greek word logos ( a discourse ) , because of the conversation that is usually held in Lodges , bnfc this seems terribly far-fetched and moreover useless , when so simple a derivation is offered on the very surface .
Only a short time since I was visiting a brother who was very busily engaged in restoring his church . I arrived there at night , and on looking out of my window before breakfast upon the works of rebuilding , in progress , I was afc once struck with the obvious meaning of the word
Lodge , for there at a few yards distance from the rising structure stood a large substantial wooden building in which the masons took their meals and in which they worked in bad weather on the finer portions of the carving —precisely a repetition of the days of old—there was the lodge from which comes the title of our places of meeting .
The College of Cardinals , when in session , hold their proceedings in " logia , " and I am prepared to admit thafc this term may be an outcome of the Greek , since the dead languages are universally used by these leaders in the Roman Church .
The German mediaeval builders called their temporary dwelling places hutten , a term of exactly similar import to our old word " lodge , " thus corroborating my opinion .
At present a German masonic Lodge is termed loge , showing the descent of German . Freemasonry , as distinct from operative masonry , from this country , whence indeed all Freemasonry of the present day has its origin .
The present acceptation of the meaning of the word Lodge in Masonry is not of any very great antiquity , and it was not until the revival of Masonry in 1717 that the Craffc were divided into "lodges" at all—I mean that there were no such things before that date as warrants or
authorities for holding Lodges , or certificates , issued to members of the Craft . Indeed we know very little about the working of the Craffc at all , and it is only from one or two allusions in the journals of Elias Ashmole , and from an attack on the Order by Dr . Plot , in his History of
Staffordshire , both dating about the middle of the seventeenth century , that we can prove that speculative masonry was then in existence throughout England . Not that
I thmk this at all a weak point in our history , far from it . When we consider how meagre are the records of important national events of the period , and how jealous , up to within a very late period , were members of onr Order of the
The Masonic Lodge.
slightest publicity being given to Masonic writings of any kind , we can hardly find any ground for surprise in the fact thafc we have so little to show for ourselves until the era of the formation of the Grand Lodge of England in London .
Tho meetings of the Freemasons at York , referred to in somo of the old documents , were called assemblies , but these , mind you , were not gatherings for purposes of building , but for the transaction of business affecting the entire craft—iu other words for esoteric and not exoteric Avork .
Before the issue of warrants it would seem to have been the practice for any number of brethren—probably nofc less than three—to meet at any convenient place , open a Lodge , and receive candidates . Ashmole was made a Mason .
according to his own account , at Warrington , in Cheshire , in 1646 , and thirty-six years afterwards he speaks of having been " admitted into the fellowship of Freemasons , at Masons Hall , in London , " and he speaks of the " Master of the Masons Company " then present .
The York Masons met promiscuously at one anothers houses in rotation , and admitted persons to the Order in apparently ' a loose method very different to onr present mode of procedure . Our present divisions into lodges with strict regulations are evidently necessary both for convenience of organisation and for our mutual protection .
A Lodge then in the sense of which I am treating is , in England , an organised assemblage of brethren acting under authority from Grand Lodge . Without such an authority a Lodge conld not legally exist , because at tbe time of the formation , or rather union , of Grand Lodge the Fraternity
agreed to vest all power in that body , and hence from thab body we derive our force . The method of forming a Lodge is for seven regularly registered Master Masons to petition Grand Lodge for a warrant . The petition must be recommended by a
neighbouring Lodge and by the rulers of the Masonic Province in which it is proposed to hold the Lodge , and it is then forwarded to the Board of General Purposes of the Grand Lodge . If it is passed as regular and in form by the Board , a
Warrant issues in due course , and the Lodge is constituted , and sets to work . It is a Lodge of Master Masons . In the earlier days of Masonry—that is at the revival—the Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craffc degrees only were
conferred in private Lodges , and the Master Mason ' s degree was given in Grand Lodge , bat the inconvenience of this soon becoming apparent , power was given to private Lodges to raise brethren .
The word Lodge then is nsed in three senses —( 1 ) An organisation of Freemasons , of which I have been speaking : ( 2 ) As the place of meeting of Freemasons , and ( 3 ) in a symbolic sense . As a place of meeting a Lodge should be held if possible on private premises . This is universally
agreed , and it is scarcely necessary to point out the advantages of this over tbe frequent practice of meeting on licensed premises , or even in a building used for miscellaneous purposes . Every Masonic authority has his own ideas as to the structure and arrangement of Lodge rooms , but ifc .
is generally accepted thafc the room for meetings should be in an upper storey , isolated from ofcher buildings , and with no other apartment over it . If possible , it should be of parallelogramic form , ancl be situated East and West . In Dr . Oliver ' s very interesting '' Book of the Lodge , " latel y
reprinted , that learned author treats at great length of the Lodge and its arrangements , going into the most minute details as to the construction , fixtures , and embellishments . To go into this subject in this short paper would occupy far too much of onr time .
In a symbolic sense , the Lodge may be said to represent the world , and much of its symbolic teaching is to be found in the lectures on the tracing boards . Its form is a double sqnare , which was in ancient times believed to be the shape of the world , its covering is the cloudy canopy of heaven .
Ifc is ruled by the sun , the moon , and the master , and it contains the revealed Word of God , and the Ladder of the Three Virtues which reaches from Earth to Heaven . It
contains every grade of mankind , and it exists at the will of the Grand Master . Thus in all its great points ifc contains resemblances to the world , and is indeed a little world in itself .
I have thus only very cursorily touched upon a few salient points of a subject concerning which whole volumes have been written , but it was not my intention to enter laboriously into a long disquisition on dry details . To us the Lodge should mean a holy spot of