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YORK CONSTITUTIONS This document, which is also called the Krause Manuscript, purports to be the Constitutions adopted by the General Assembly of Freemasons that was held at York in 926 (see York Legend). No original manuscript copy of it can be found, but a German translation from a Latin version was published, for the first time, by Krause in the drei attested Kunsturkunden der Freimaurer bruderschaft, the Three Oldest Craft Records of the Masonic Brotherhood. It will be found in the third edition of that work ( WAGES OF OPERATIVE MASONS In all the Old Constitutions praise is given to Saint Alban because he raised the wages of the Freemasons. Thus the Edinburgh-Kilwinning Manuscript says: "Saint Albans loved Masons well and cherished them much, and made their pay right good, standing by as the realm, did, for he gave them iis. a week, and 3d. to their cheer; for before that time, through all the land, a Mason had but a penny a day and his meat, until Saint Alban amended it." We may compare this rate of wages in the th RAISED When a candidate has received the Third Degree, he is said to have been raised to the sublime Degree of a Master Mason. The expression refers, materially, to a portion of the ceremony of initiation, but symbolically, to the resurrection, which it is the object of the Degree to exemplify. A curious sidelight upon the use of the expression is that obtained by considering the word as also meaning the acceptance or adoption of the candidate officially by the Fraternity. There is an ancient and stri OCCASIONAL LODGE A temporary Lodge con-voked by a Grand Master, as for the purpose of making Freemasons, after which the Lodge is dissolved. The phrase was first used by Anderson in the second edition of the Book of Constitutions, and is repeated by subsequent editors. To make a Freemason in an Occasional Lodge is equivalent to making him "at sight." But any Lodge, called temporarily by the Grand Master for a specific purpose and immediately afterward dissolved, is an Occasional Lodge. Its organization LODGE HOURS Brother Laurence Dertnott says (Ahiman Rezon, page xxiii), "that Lodge hours, that is, the time in which it is lawful for a Lodge to work or do business, are from March 25th to September 26th, between the hours of seven and ten; and from September 25th to March 25th, between the hours of six and nine." Whence he derived the law is unknown; but it is certain that it has never been rigidly observed even by the Antient Lodges, for whom his Ahimun Rezon was written. As a matter of general LAMB In Ancient Craft Masonry the Lamb is the symbol of innocence; thus in the instructions of the First Degree: "In all ages the Lamb has been deemed an emblem of innocence." Hence it is required that a Freemason's Apron should be made of lambskin. In the advanced Degrees, and in the Degrees of chivalry, as in Christian iconography, or station, the lamb is a symbol of Jesus Christ. The introduction of this Christian symbolism of the lamb comes from the expression of Saint John the Bap FLOOR-CLOTH A framework of board or canvas, on which the emblems of any particular Degree are inscribed, for the assistance of the Master in giving a lecture. It is so called because formerly it was the custom to inscribe these designs on the floor of the Lodge-room in chalk, which were wiped out when the Lodge was closed. It is the same as the Carpet, Or Tracing-Board. The washing out of the designs chalked upon the floor is seen in the early caricatures of the Craft where a mop and pail are illustrated. FELLOW OF THE CRAFT The word "fellow" derived from early northern languages; the central meaning which persisted from one language or dialect to another was that of associate, one in full and equal membership. There are indications that the word first entered our nomenclature in Scotland, but the status or grade thus named was as old as Freemasonry. In Medieval Freemasonry an Apprentice served a long period of years as a learner or student. He was under oath to the Lodge to obey its rules and regulations ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY Sixth President of the United States, who served from 1825 to 1829. Adams, who has been very properly described as "a man of strong points and weak ones, of vast reading and wonderful memory, of great credulity and strong prejudices," became notorious in the latter years of his life for his virulent opposition to Freemasonry. The writer already quoted, who had an excellent opportunity of seeing intimately the workings of the spirit of Anti-Masonry, says of him: "He hated Freemason The Ashlar Company is Owned & Operated Exclusively by Past Masters
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