Accepting & Admitting Our Differences
One of the most
Unfortunate Aspects of the Craft is that what has been Lost is Nowhere
Understood, is Wholly Misunderstood and is not even Missed.
Just
as the meaning behind the word “Free”
has been both misunderstood and misapplied within the Fraternity for over three
centuries, the meaning behind the words, “Accepted”
and “Admitted” have been erroneously
communicated to all those so Initiated.
be)))))fa
It wasn’t until I was in the Organization for several years that the
phrase “first prepared in my heart to be
made a Mason” began to catch my attention.
It was often misquoted by well-meaning Brothers who eagerly communicated
that they were made a Mason in their heart first. It caught my attention enough over the years
to earn a permanent position in my ready to comment list.
It’s
not that I personally don’t believe that men weren’t being Made Masons in their
heart first and perhaps foremost. It’s because I have a clear understanding
what a Mason is for me. My understanding
was driven home as a result of some investigation into the background of the
word, “Accepted”, that occurred
recently. What I found was both
enlightening and disturbing.
Entry
Just
as many others before me, I have been told repeatedly that the word “Accepted” refers only to the “Speculative” Brothers within the
Craft. This is based upon the mistaken
belief that the Craft phrase, “Free and
Accepted” referred to the “Operative
and Speculative” members respectively.
Numerous writers over the last three hundred years have drawn this
conclusion, trying to make sense of something that was not well understood.
Reviewing available resources though shows that this interpretation is not the
case and that such conjectures are both erroneous and wrong.
There
are countless sources of Light on this matter of which I shall only mention
four. Brother Mackey’s Encyclopedia of
Freemasonry has been a favorite starting point for many of my Masonic
Quests. In this tome he is credited with
writing under the heading, “Accepted”,
the following:
“Accepted. A term in Freemasonry which
is synonymous with "initiated" or "received into the society… …The
word accepted, however, as a synonym
of initiated, has now become obsolete
[underline added]."[1]
Furthermore,
in other parts of his “Lexicon of
Freemasonry” and “Encyclopedia of
Freemasonry”, he is credited with the following entries:
“Make. ‘To make Masons’ is a very ancient term, used in the
oldest charges extant, as synonymous with the verb ‘initiate’.” [2]
“Make. ‘To make Masons’ is a very ancient term; used in the
oldest charges extant as synonymous with the verb to initiate or receive into the Fraternity. It is found in the Landsdowne MS., whose date is
1560. ‘These be all the charges .... read at
the making of a Mason.’” [3]
It’s
clear from several sources that the words, “Accepted”,
“Initiated”, “Received”, and “Entered” were
at one time synonymous for non-members who were joining the Organization of
Masons. It
is most unfortunate that this clarity was not available to many writers who
concluded differently.
Speculations
An
example is provided by Brother Mackey:
“Accepted”:
“The modern idea of an accepted Mason is that he
is one distinguished from a purely operative or stone-mason, who has not
been admitted to the freedom of the company; an idea evidently intended to be
conveyed by the use of the word in the Charges of 1722, already quoted.”
However,
when one examines the 1721 through 1723 General Regulations in total[4], it
becomes apparent that the words, “Make,
Made or Enter’d” in contrast with the word “Admitted” have entirely different meaning and direction. Furthermore, none of them have anything to do
with new members being distinguished from Operative members.
Moreover,
the word, “Made” was at one time
synonymous with the words, “Enter’d”,
“Accepted”, and “Initiated”. The word, “Admitted” was applied strictly to those
Brothers who have already been “Accepted”,
as in, those members who have already “joined”
the Society of Masons. Hence, existing
members of the Society, whether they were Apprentices, Fellows or Masters, who
joined specific Society Lodges, were referred to as “Admitted” members. Those “Entering”
the Society in general, as in, “becoming members of the Society”, were referred
to as, “Enter’d”, “Made”, and “Initiated”, regardless of their intentions to learn or not learn the
Operative aspects of the Craft once they join.
Acceptance
into the Society was not limited to Apprentices only. Just as Apprentices, Journeyman (Fellow
Craft) and Masters who were not members of the Society were also Accepted first
into it and then Admitted into Lodges as members.
There
are many Masonic historians and authors who have written similar supporting
thoughts on the word, “Accepted”
being applied only to the Speculative members Entering the Fraternity. One such author was Edward Conder Junior. In his
book, “Records of the Hole Crafte and
Fellowship of Masons” (1894), he continually uses the word, “Accepted” to refer to the Speculative
members only. In doing so, he
misinterprets John Aubrey’s handwritten note[5] to mean
there was a convention of Speculative Masons rather than a convention for newly
Initiated Members. His misunderstanding of the words, “Accepted”, “Admitted” and
“Admission” plagues his book and his
conclusions.
Once
you understand the intended original meanings and uses of the word, “Accepted” in contrast with the word, “Admitted”, you recognize that his
conclusions are incorrect[6]. As many authors and historians have done before
and after him, they assumed that “Free
Masons” were Operative and “Accepted
Masons” were Speculative. This was
not true then and is still not true now.
Prerogatives
The
Light provided to us by knowing that the words, “Made; Initiated; Received; Enter’d; Accepted” were at one time synonymous
for “men joining the Society” opens
up a whole different understanding of our Fraternity. In specific, one of the much quoted Ancient
Landmarks that is recognized and honored within many Jurisdictions becomes
clearly understood. This group of
Landmarks was provided in writing to the Fraternity by Bro. Anderson around the
time of the founding of the Grand Lodge Era; not all jurisdictions recognize
them. The Landmark in question though refers
to the exclusive right or privilege of the Grand Master of any Recognized Grand
Lodge “to make masons at sight”[7], [8].
This
Landmark is reasonable and understandable when
one considers that a previous Landmark[9]
provides for prerogatives that naturally dovetail into this one. The Grand Master, by virtue of his position,
has the authority to dictate when and where men can be Initiated by others, or using
the ancient now obsolete meaning of the word, “made masons”. This authority naturally extends to him, by
virtue of being part of the Craft.
Finding Acceptance
Troubles
arise though for members of the Craft who
take the Words, “Made”, “Initiated”, and “Accepted”, out of context. In the context of the original sourced, “to be
made a mason” meant “to join the society and become a member”. Such members are called “Accepted” masons as
in “Initiated”.
Taken
out of context, “to be made a mason” leads members to believe that they are
actual “Free Masons”. This action confuses unknowing Brothers. There is a huge difference between being Initiated into the Society, thus becoming
one of its members and being thought of or referred to as something other than a newly Enter’d Mason. To be Made
a Mason, does not mean that you are
qualified to do Masonry, and more especially
“Free Masonry”. It merely
means that you are only a newly Initiated member of the Society – An Accepted
Mason! A Member.
Additionally,
when you have done nothing further to Improve yourself in the Art and Science
of Masonry[10],
you’ve done nothing to transform yourself from a Good man to a Better man. Moreover, referring to yourself as a “Free
Mason[11]”, as it
was originally meant centuries ago, and believing and acting as if you are
anything other than an “Accepted” Mason, misleads yourself and all others who
desire the Betterment that Free Masonry exemplifies.
Points to Perpend
1) What are your thoughts as to the difference between
Accepted and Admitted Masons?
2) How
different is the current Craft understanding of the words focused upon herein
from that of years past?
3) What impact
would Better Understanding these differences have upon present and future
Brother Development?
(SOURCE: Building Free Men - Uncommonly Freeing Masonic Education)
[4] Excerpts from General Regulations highlight the use of the words, Make, Made,
Admitted, and Enter’d:
IV. No Lodge shall make more than Five new Brethren at one Time, …
V. No man can be made or admitted a
Member of a particular Lodge, …
VI. But no man can enter’d a Brother in any particular Lodge, or admitted to be a Member thereof, …
VIII. No
set or Number of Brethren shall withdraw or separate themselves from the Lodge
in which they were made Brethren, or were afterwards admitted Members, …
XIII. At
the said Quarterly Communication all Masters that concern the Fraternity in
general, or particular Lodges, or single Brethren, are quietly, sedately and
maturely to be discoursed and transacted; Apprentices must be admitted Masters and Fellow-Craft only
here, unless by a Dispensation. … Here also the Master or the Wardens of each
particular Lodge shall bring and produce a List of such Members as have been made or even admitted in their particular Lodges since the last Communication of
the Grand Lodge.
XXV. The
Masters of Lodges shall each appoint one experienced and discreet Fellow-Craft
of his Lodge, to compose a Committee, consisting of one from every Lodge, who
shall meet to receive, in a convenient Apartment, every Person that brings a
Ticket, and shall have Power to discourse him, if they think fit, in order to admit him or debar him, as they shall
see cause; Provided they send no Man away before they have acquainted all the
Brethren within Doors with the Reasons thereof, to avoid Mistakes, that so no
true Brother may be debarr'd, nor a false Brother, or more Pretender, admitted. This Committee must meet very
early on St. John's Day at the Place, even before any Person come with Tickets.
[5] John Aubrey, the author
of The Natural History of Wiltshire, next claims our attention, chiefly from
the fact that he is one of the few authorities quoted when an endeavour is made
to prove that Sir Christopher Wren was a member of the Fraternity. In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, there is the
MS. of Aubrey's History, dated 1686, and on the reverse of folio 72 of this MS.
is the following note in Aubrey's handwriting :—
“1691 Mdm this day [May the i8th being Monday
after Rogation Sunday] is a great convention at St. Pauls Church of the
fraternity, of the free Accepted
Masons; where Sir Christopher Wren is to be adopted a Brother: and Sir Henry
Goodric . . . of ye Tower and divers [diverse] others. – There have
been kings that have been of this Sodalitie*.”
In this case Aubrey has himself erased the
word free, and substituted accepted, to denote the Speculative Masons.
* Author’s Note: a sodality is a form of the "Universal Church"
expressed in specialized, task-oriented form.
[6] At this date, and
extending from the early days of architectural development, there was a
peculiar esoteric division in the communities of masons, which at times
admitted persons, in no way operatively connected with their craft, into
fellowship with them when they met for the purposes of speculative masonry, and
these persons who were so admitted were termed Accepted Masons, perhaps at
first to distinguish them from the Operative or Free-Mason.
But as time
went on the two words became synonymous, and at length were used conjointly to
distinguish the strictly speculative from the operative masons.
Having
obtained this evidence as to the value and intention of the words
"Accepted Mason," it will now be my purpose to show in what way the
London Company of Masons was connected with the Society of Free and Accepted or
Speculative Masons.
[8] Please note that this
does not say, “make a freemason at sight”, which makes sense since he is making
an “Accepted Mason” not a “Free Mason”.
[9] Anderson’s Ancient
Landmarks; #4. The government of the fraternity by a presiding officer called a
Grand Master, who is elected from the body of tile craft.; #5. The prerogative
of the Grand Master to preside over every assembly of the craft, wheresoever
and whensoever held.; #6. The prerogative of the Grand Master to grant
dispensations for conferring degrees at irregular times.; #7. The prerogative of the Grand Master to grant
dispensation for opening and holding lodges.
[10] other than memorizing
things that you do not understand with no intention to understand
[11] Literally, “Masterful
Builder”
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