Province of East Lancashire

Questions and Answers

Craft Freemasonry

General

CONFIRMING MINUTES AND VOTING THE MANNER OBSERVED AMONG MASONS

Q. What is the significance of the right hand stretched out at length. palm downwards as in the voting for the confirmation of minutes. as being the manner observed among masons’’!

A. After discussion with several learned Brethren I am still not sure of the answer. it is probably an act of ratification and, such as, it may bear some relationship to the position of the R.H. during the Obligation. In that case I suggest that the outstretched hand alone is hot enough. but that the thumb should be forming a square. We are taught that ‘all squares. levels. etc... are true and proper signs...etc’, and the early eighteenth century catechisms indicate that ‘squares’ and similar more-or-less unobtrusive modes of recognition were quite common practices (even to the point of signing the superscription of a letter in the form of a square).

So far as I know. the outstretched hand is customary all over England and in the Commonwealth.

But the problem has a different aspect if we distinguish between confirming the minutes and the voting in general. A regulation of the Grand Lodge of 6 April 1736 prescribed that the mode of voting should be by ‘holding up the hand’ and those same words appear in Rule 59 of our present day Book of Constitutions. Clearly the regulation requires that the hand should he held up. not outstretched, and if we assume, as we must, that the Grand Lodge adheres to its own regulations. then ‘holding up the hand’ has been, for more than two centuries, ‘the manner observed amongst Masons’. Yet, it must be admitted that even in Grand Lodge to confirm the minutes and for ordinary voting, the vast majority of Brethren use the outstretched hand.

Death of an Officer

A frequently held belief albeit quite wrongly, is that if an officer of the lodge should die or become unable to execute his office for the remainder of the year, the office cannot he filled until the next installation meeting. This is quite wrong as reference to Rule 121 will quickly show. It should he stated quite clearly here that this applies to all lodge officers with the single exception of the Master. Where an election is required to fill an office (e.g. Treasurer and Tyler) then such office shall not he filled until that election has taken place and a positive result has been obtained. What then should be the procedure if one of the regular officers other than the Treasurer or Tyler, let us say the Senior Deacon, should die and how is such a situation covered by the Book of Constitutions? Rule 104 (a) states quite clearly who are the regular officers in the lodge. The Master should appoint without delay another brother to this office and invest him at the next meeting of the lodge even if this should be for one meeting only before the start of the new Masonic year with the subsequent installation of a new master.

What is the definition of a masonic landmark?

The answer depends on which masonic jurisdiction one belongs to. Some jurisdictions actually define specific masonic landmarks; for example I recall reading a list published by one Grand Lodge that had over fifty landmarks. The word “landmark” is defined in any good dictionary, but “masonic landmarks” are much more difficult. The late Bro. Harry Carr, a Past Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge and a man of very wide masonic knowledge, said that the best writers on this subject are unanimous on two essential points; a landmark must have existed from the “time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary”, and a landmark is an element in the form or essence of the Society of such importance that Freemasonry would no longer be Freemasonry if it were removed. If these two qualifications are used strictly to test those things that can be admitted as landmarks it will be found that very few items will pass this rigid test, he then gave his ideas of acceptable landmarks that would conform to the tests, namely;

That a mason must profess a belief in a Supreme Being;

That the Volume of the Sacred Law is an essential and indispensable part of the lodge, to be open in full view of the brethren when the lodge is at labour;

That a mason must be male, free-born and of mature age;

That a mason, by his tenure, owes allegiance to the Sovereign and to the Craft, and

That a mason believes in the immortality of the soul

I would stress that masonic landmarks are not defined by the United Grand Lodge of England as they are in some jurisdictions.

Q. What is the origin of the words “So mote it be” which we use at the end of our Opening and Closing odes, etc.

A. From the Masonic point of view, they came into our usage in the 14th century, and our two earliest versions of the Old Charges both include the phrase in their closing words, which I render in modem spelling, as follows:

The Regius MS., c. 1390, after a closing prayer adds “Amen, amen, so mote it be, Say we so all, for charity”.

The Cooke MS., c. 1410, has “Amen so mote it be”.

The phrase means literally “So be it” and it was used in the middle ages in England as a pious finale to prayers or blessings. It should be noted that the medieval formula began with the Hebrew word “Amen”, nowadays often omitted from Masonic usage. The word “Amen” has a range of meanings all related to fidelity, constancy, sureness, trust, and when used at the end of Hebrew prayers and blessings it was a formula.

Question: Can you tell me what is meant by “The Dark Corner”?

Answer: The term arose at festive board in some lodges in the North East of England. On enquiry as to the state of charge in the lodge to the two Wardens there is a reply from the South and from the West. The East is covered by the Master. The North of the room is referred to as the “Dark Corner” and the brethren reply “All Charged in the Dark Corners”. The concept is also observed in churchyards. The North side, or Dark side, was reserved for less fortunate members of the parish who would be buried there. The ground on the North side of the church tends to be a small area since it would be hoped that most burials would take place on the East, South and West.

Q There is dissent on the correct use of firing glasses—what is the system?

A. Quite frankly there is no one correct way and practices vary. What is quite a common method is not to use them for drinking but solely for firing and to hold them by the rim for the “Point Left, Right; Point, Left. Right; Point, Left. Right: One Two” and then the glass is banged on the table and left there on “Three” and the normal claps follow. Another method is to have the glasses filled with wine and on the command from the Worshipful Master all the brethren stand, leaving their glasses on the table. The following drill is then gone through, the commands being given by Master:

1. ‘Hand to Arm’. The glass. remaining on the table is held in the right hand.

2. ‘Take Aim.’ The glass is then raised and held with the right arm stretched out vertically.

3. ‘Fire One.’ A sip of wine is taken.

4. ‘Fire Two.’ Another sip is taken.

5 ‘Fire All.’ The glass is drained.

6. Without any word of command, the glasses are banged three times on the table, on each occasion with a shout of Vivat’.

This is not a practice I would recommend if there are to be many toasts.

Prepared by:

THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

Freemasons’ Hall Bridge Street M3 3BT

The Questions and Answers given herein have been reproduced with the kind permission of:

The Brethren of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No 2076

Who have given permission for these to be used In Lodges throughout the Province of East Lancashire.

For further copies please contact your

DISTRICT MENTOR