The Principles of Masonic Law: A Treatise on the Constitutional Laws, Usages and Landmarks of FreemasonryMackey, Albert Gallatin
Religion
The Principles of Masonic Law: A Treatise on the Constitutional Laws, Usages and Landmarks of Freemasonry
Mackey, Albert Gallatin
Freemasons -- Legal status, laws, etc.
But, if the Grand Master has the power thus to enable others to confer the
degrees and make Masons by his individual authority out of his presence,
are we not permitted to argue _à fortiori_ that he has also the right of
congregating seven Brethren and causing a Mason, to be made in his sight?
Can he delegate a power to others which he does not himself possess? And
is his calling together "an occasional lodge," and making, with the
assistance of the Brethren thus assembled, a Mason "at sight," that is to
say, in his presence, anything more or less than the exercise of his
dispensing power, for the establishment of a lodge under dispensation, for
a temporary period, and for a special purpose. The purpose having been
effected, and the Mason having been made, he revokes his dispensation, and
the lodge is dismissed. If we assumed any other ground than this, we
should be compelled to say, that though the Grand Master might authorise
others to make Masons, when he was absent, as in the usual case of lodges
under dispensation yet the instant that he attempted to convey the same
powers to be exercised in his presence, and under his personal
supervision, his authority would cease. This course of reasoning would
necessarily lead to a contradiction in terms, if not to an actual
absurdity.
It is proper to state, in conclusion, that the views here set forth are
not entertained by the very able Committee of Foreign Correspondence of
the Grand Lodge of Florida, who only admit the power of the Grand Master
to make Masons in the Grand Lodge. On the other hand, the Grand Lodge of
Wisconsin, at its last communication, adopted a report, asserting "that
the Grand Master has the right to make Masons at sight, in cases which he
may deem proper"--and the Committee of Correspondence of New York
declares, that "since the time when the memory of man runneth not to the
contrary, Grand Masters have enjoyed the privilege of making Masons at
sight, without any preliminaries, and at any suitable time or place."
The opinions of the two last quoted Grand Lodges embody the general
sentiment of the Craft on this subject.[25] But although the prerogative
is thus almost universally ceded to Grand Masters, there are many very
reasonable doubts as to the expediency of its exercise, except under
extraordinary circumstances of emergency.
In England, the practice has generally been confined to the making of
Princes of the Royal Family, who, for reasons of state, were unwilling to
reduce themselves to the level of ordinary candidates and receive their
initiation publicly in a subordinate lodge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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