By Bro. Lionel Vibert, P.A.G.D.C.
The Prestonian Lecture for 1925
Prepared in this format by Bro. Mike Lawrence
A consideration of the phraseology used by Anderson in Regulation XIII, and by the Grand Lodge two years later, when they repealed the rule there laid down as to the Master’s Part, makes it certain that when Anderson drew up the Regulations of 1723 there were only two degrees.
There was the admission or acceptance, which made the candidate an apprentice, or as the phrase now became, Entered Apprentice. There was a further degree, the Master’s Part, which conferred on the candidate the rank of Fellow and Master. In order to qualify to be a Master of a Lodge the brother had to be “among the Fellow Craft”.
Of the nature of this further degree in 1723 we have no evidence; the disclosure that was printed in the Flying Post in that year merely refers to the further degree, by the title ‘entered Fellow’, and says that the two test questions are: to an Entered Apprentice, “Have you been in the Kitchen?” and to the Entered Fellow, “Have you been in the Hall?” These are not framed like test questions, since a simple affirmative is a sufficient answer to either, nor can they be said to give us much information.
It is equally certain that by February, 1725, there were three degrees being worked. We have it definitely on record than an Association which called itself Philo‑Musicae et Architecturae Societas was founded on February 1725, by eight persons, masons, four of whom are recorded in the minute‑book as having been regularly passed Masters in the Lodge at the Queen’s Head in Hollis Street. And, the record goes on: “Before we founded this Society a Lodge was held, consisting of Masters sufficient for that purpose, in order to pass Charles Cotton, Esqr., Mr. Papillon Ball, and Mr. Thomas Marshall, Fellow Crafts.” Here are three degrees clearly indicated. What then is the history of the period in which this momentous change took place? The part of it that is material to our enquiry can be reconstructed with some degree of certainty.
In 1721 Grand Master Payne read over in Grand Lodge a new set of Articles to be observed. The text of these has not come down to us; what we have in their place is the Regulations propounded by Anderson in 1723, which are admittedly a revision of them and also contain additional matter. But we can form a fairly clear idea of the problem for which Payne was legislating.
We know that after a period of no particular distinction and no great increase in numbers the Craft suddenly leapt into popularity and the inevitable result was that the Four Lodges which at this time, with an undetermined number of unattached brethren (St. John’s Masons as they were called), alone constituted Grand Lodge, could not absorb the people who now clamoured for admission.
The question then arose whether it was possible to form new Lodges. To us this is no problem at all; we see it done every week. But it was in 1721 an entirely new departure on the part of Grand Lodge; we must recognise that it was quite definitely an arguable matter with much to be said on the side of the Old Lodges. It is, however, quite clear that from the meeting of June, 1721, Grand Lodge recognised the necessity for new Lodges and legislated for them.
We know the dates of most of those that were now constituted. But the power to form new lodges was narrowly restricted. It was the prerogative of Grand Lodge alone, and each had to be constituted by the Grand Master, if not in person then by a formally authorised deputy. The fact of its having been constituted was notified to all the other lodges, its first Master having been approved by the Grand Master and installed by him on the occasion of the constitution.
And it would seem that that was not the only way in which Grand Lodge kept control over the new accessions. The Master had to be among the Fellows. Grand Lodge now directed that the degree of Fellow and Master could be conferred in Grand Lodge alone. This perhaps did not matter as far as the new Lodges were concerned. It meant in practice that Grand Lodge retained in its own hands all the patronage, since it could if it chose prevent any particular brother in a new Lodge becoming qualified for the Chair. But even if the Degree itself was only now invented, the rule operated to infringe the privileges of the old Lodges. And it was the law of the Craft for at all events four years. We have no record of Grand Lodge actually conferring the degree; but that proves nothing.
But we can, I think, appreciate that in any case the old Lodges would be by no means in sympathy with this piece of legislation. Now it is just while the law stands thus that we find a new degree comes into existence, and it comes in between the Acceptance or Admission and the Master’s Part. Moreover it is, as a consideration of it today at once shows us, not in any way connected with the Third Degree of a later date, but is in every way complementary to the First Degree, the original Admission. In the 1723 exposure the candidate is made to say: “An enterd mason I have been, ‑ and ‑ I have seen,” while the Grand Mystery of Freemasons Discovered, of 1724, speaks of the first of two names as the Universal Word. Prichard’s account of these has already been referred to. Tubal Kain repeats it in 1777. So that it would seem that the new degree appropriated one word of two, both of which had originally been given to the candidate in the admission ceremony, and that this usage persisted for half a century and more.
The rule as to the new Lodge being constituted by the Grand Master or his Deputy was soon found unworkable. The Craft expanded in a way that its rulers had not foreseen, and when there were Lodges coming into existence at Bath, Bristol, Norwich, Chichester, Carmarthen, Portsmouth, and Congleton in Cheshire, as was the case in 1724, the directions as to Constitution had necessarily to be modified. The business of constituting new Lodges was now entrusted to deputations and the Brethren selected were usually local members of the Grand Lodge.
But with regard to the rule that restricted the conferring of the Master’s Part, Grand Lodge took an entirely different course. Instead of delegating its powers in this respect also, which is what we would have expected, it repealed the legislation absolutely on 27th November, 1725. By so doing it purported to restore to all Lodges, new and old alike, the privilege that had been the rule before 1721, that namely of selecting their own Masters. But the concession was an empty one, for while the law still was that the Master must be among the Fellow‑Craft, that was now complied with by his having taken the new intermediate degree that went by that name.
The Third Degree, as it can now be styled, was in fact all but superfluous. It conferred some amount of dignity no doubt, but while not now necessary for the mastership of the private Lodge, it was not as yet a pre‑requisite for any post in Grand Lodge, and indeed ran no small risk of passing entirely out of existence. In 1730 we read: “There is not one Mason in an Hundred that will be at the Expence to pass the Master’s Part.” We have here, I suggest, the key to the reason for the introduction of the Fellow Craft Degree.
Freemasons are us 