Have we any evidence tending to confirm this inference? Most certainly; so much so that it is not easy to interpret the hints given in the _Old Charges_ upon any other theory. For one thing, in nearly all the MSS, from the _Regius Poem_ down, we are told of two rooms or resorts, the Chamber and the Lodge--sometimes called the Bower and the Hall--and the Mason was charged to keep the "counsells" proper to each place. This would seem to imply that an Apprentice had access to the Chamber or Bower, but not to the Lodge itself--at least not at all times. It may be argued that the "other counsells" referred to were merely technical secrets, but that is to give the case away, since they were secrets held and communicated as such. By natural process, as the order declined and actual building ceased, _its technical secrets became ritual secrets_, though they must always have had symbolical meanings. Further, while we have record of only one oath--which does not mean that there _was_ only one--signs, tokens, and words are nearly always spoken of in the plural; and if the secrets of a Fellowcraft were purely technical--which some of us do not believe--they were at least accompanied and protected by certain signs, tokens, and passwords. From this it is clear that the advent of an Apprentice into the ranks of a Fellow was in fact a degree, or contained the essentials of a degree, including a separate set of signs and secrets. When we pass to the second period, and men of wealth and learning who were not actual architects began to enter the order--whether as patrons of the art or as students and mystics attracted by its symbolism--other evidences of change appear. They, of course, were not required to serve a seven year apprenticeship, and they would naturally be Fellows, not Masters, because they were in no sense masters of the craft. Were these Fellows made acquainted with the secrets of an Apprentice? If so, then the two degrees were either conferred in one evening, or else--what seems to have been the fact--they were welded into one; since we hear of men being made Masons in a single evening.[97] Customs differed, no doubt, in different Lodges, some of which were chiefly operative, or made up of men who had been working Masons, with only a sprinkling of men not workmen who had been admitted; while others were purely symbolical Lodges as far back as 1645. Naturally in Lodges of the first kind the two degrees were kept separate, and in the second they were merged--the one degree becoming all the while more elaborate. Gradually the men who had been Operative Masons became fewer in the Lodges--chiefly those of higher position, such as master builders, architects, and so on--until the order became a purely speculative fraternity, having no longer any trade object in view.