FELLOWCRAFT
This word is a shortening of Fellow o f the
Craft. A fellow is a comrade, an associate of
equal rank and privilege. In the development
of learned societies and universities
following the Renaissance, a Fellow was a
distinguished member of an educated group or
college faculty. For example, the Fellows of
Magdalen College, Oxford, are a group of
eminent scholars and teachers who enjoy a
certain equality of rank and privilege
because of their Fellowship. The Fellows of
the Royal Society of London are the modern
successors to the outstanding men of science
and letters who founded that organization in
the seventeenth century, at the time when
operative Masonry was evolving into the
social, charitable, and philosophic
institution we call Freemasonry today. As
Fellows they hold a grade of membership above
that of an ordinary Member. A similar
distinction may be found in the membership of
the Philalethes Society, an association of
American Freemasons.
A Fellow of the Craft originally was a worker
who had completed his term of service as an
apprentice, and after a further period of
employment and experience as a journeyman,
had been received into the Fellowship of his
guild or "trade union". In the case of
workers in stone, they passed into the
Fellowship of the Lodge. They became
associates, or equal comrades, because they
were now believed to be "of great skill,
tried and trusty". The term Fellowcraft was
used in other trades and guilds besides the
Masons' association; but is survival in
modern times is exclusively Masonic.
Today's Fellowcraft is a thin shadow of his
operative counterpart. Too many Masons
remember their experience in this degree but
vaguely. A shadowy recollection of the
working tools, of two bronze pillars, of an
ascent up a flight of winding stairs, of a
long lecture about the seven liberal arts and
sciences, something about wages, the Middle
Chamber of King Solomon's Temple, and the
letter "G", and the realization that he still
had another degree to "take" before he could
really become a member of the Lodge, - these
are the principal remembrances which the
average modern Mason can summon when he hears
the word Fellowcraft.
In some Lodges, where the unfortunate
tendency to shorten or to omit large parts of
the Middle Chamber Lecture is habitual, the
members are even poorer in the memories that
they have stored up about a significant
initiatory experience. Yet to those who view
the history of operative Masonry only through
a golden aura of legend and idealism, it may
prove disappointing to learn that such modern
Freemasons are reflecting an attitude or
practice of operative Masons concerning the
experience of "passing". Many operative
craftsmen never bothered to become Fellows of
the Craft; but they acted from very practical
and economic reasons. Furthermore, they had
already received the ritualistic instruction
which is reserved for the modern Fellowcraft.
It must be remembered that mediaeval guild
Masonry, and its extension through the period
of the Renaissance up to the eighteenth
century when Speculative Freemasonry was
formally organized, was never a fixed and
changeless thing. Like all human institutions
it grew and adapted itself to changing
conditions. Therefore, all statements about
the practices and principles of operative
craftsmen must be prefixed by the phrase,
"Generally speaking...... or "In such and
such a century . . .". No descriptive
statement about Fellows of the Craft can ever
apply to all workers in stone at all times
and in all places. Conditions varied widely
from one locality to another; regulations
were stricter in the cities, where Councils
could control the workers more easily.
The Short Talk Bulletin of September, 1959,
presented picture of the operative
apprentice. He was a worker indentured to a
master for a specific period of training,
usually seven years. At the time of his
indenture he was "booked", i.e., his contract
was registered with the municipal
authorities. When he had acquired sufficient
skill and dependability in his work, and when
his master was ready to guarantee his fees as
well as his character, the apprentice could
be "entered" in the lodge. The average period
of time it took apprentices to be "entered"
was four years after they had begun to serve
their masters. Yet there are some cases on
record in which the apprentice was "entered"
at the same time he was "booked", i.e., at
the very beginning of his apprenticeship to a
master. Kinship to the master or the
affluence of the apprentice's parents or
guarantors probably helped to speed up the
process in some cases.
When an apprentice had completed his
indenture, he was a journeyman, free to
travel from employer to employer, seeking
work at regular wages, which were usually
fixed by law at a daily or weekly rate. He
could stay on with the master of his
apprenticeship, or he could seek employment
with another. He could "free lance" his
skills. He could take on an apprentice
himself; this was a useful source of extra
income. He could even hire out his apprentice
to others, when his own affairs were slack.
He could contract for small jobs, the cost of
which had an upper limit prescribed by the
municipal authorities. He was sufficiently
trained and skillful to "start life on his
own". A journeyman could earn a comfortable
living.
The ultimate goal of all apprentices was to
become a burgess, a free citizen of the town.
To practice his trade with the widest
latitude and freedom, a craftsman had to
become a burgess, a full-fledged citizen with
certain property rights and the franchise. He
had to have "the freedom of the city". It was
the highest station in life to which the
ordinary man could aspire.
Generally speaking, an operative mason had to
be a Fellow of the Craft if he hoped to
achieve the status of burgess. This was
especially true in the smaller towns and in
the country, where the Lodge was the highest
authority in regulating workmen. In the
cities, the Council had overriding authority;
and it usually insisted that workmen could
not be ranked (or make contracts) as Masters,
until they had "taken the freedom of the
city". This freedom entailed certain duties
and responsibilities; but it also gave the
freeman some educational advantages for his
children, some "social security" benefits for
his family, priority in housing, and the
right to practice his trade as a Master
Workman.
Lodges apparently considered a workman "free"
only after he had had approximately three
years' experience as a journeyman, and after
he had "passed to Fellow of the Craft" in a
simple ceremony, of which the payment of
prescribed fees seems to have been the most
important element.
"Passing F.C." was not a ritualistic
experience; it was the attainment of a
certain grade or status in the classification
of workmen in a trade organization. While
there undoubtedly was some ceremony connected
with the event, it should be remembered that
"entered apprentices" were full members of a
lodge, that they had received all the
instructions pertaining to the noble craft,
as well as most of its operative secrets, at
the time of their initiation. A simpler,
shorter version of the lecture on the seven
liberal arts and sciences, which was part of
the old charges and regulations, was read to
apprentices at the time they were "entered".
The Schaw Statutes of 1598 attempted to
enforce a seven years' period of
journeymanship before an apprentice could be
"passed a Fellow of the Craft"; but old lodge
records indicate that the idea was largely a
hope or a dream, since practically no
apprentices had to wait that long to become
Fellows of the Craft. The "accommodation" of
the law to suit men's practical needs and
ambitions has been arranged in every
generation.
An apprentice, for practical purposes, was
free to work wherever he chose as soon as he
had completed his apprenticeship, and he was
technically "free" the day he completed the
required period of his journeymanship. Since
"the freedom of the city" could be granted to
a "free" apprentice as well as to a Fellow of
the Craft, it depended on the degree of
understanding and agreement between the
Council and the guilds (or Lodges) whether
only Fellows of the Craft received the
freedom. Where such Fellowship was not
insisted on, a worker could bypass the rank
of Fellowcraft on his way to becoming a
burgess.
In Edinburgh around 1600 "Freemen Masters"
were the actual full members and managers of
the Lodges. Fellows of the Craft were fully
trained masons, potential Masters. They could
take on apprentices, do limited "jobbing" on
their own account, but they could not work as
Masters until they had been made burgesses.
They needed no additional qualifications to
become Masters, except to pay the required
fees and to execute "an essay", a master's
piece.
No record of any ceremony for making a Fellow
of the Craft a Master has ever come to light.
When a workman was "passed F.C."., nothing
more seems to have been recorded of him until
he was made a burgess. Then, without any
announcement, minute, or ceremony of any
kind, he is to be found signing the Lodge
minutes as a "Freeman Master".
Apprentices could speed up the process of
becoming "free" by another, a modern sounding
technique, - by marrying the boss' daughter.
An "un-freeman" could acquire his "freedom"
at the cheapest rate and in the shortest
period of time by marrying a burgess'
daughter. If his master was a burgess and the
apprentice did this at the end of his
indenture, he was excused from the extra
three years of service as a journeyman. From
the evidence revealed by old lodge records,
it appears that many of them did. It was a
practical arrangement to insure the future
security of the females in a Master's family.
Many other journeymen, however, failed to
"pass the Fellow of the Craft". We can only
guess at their reasons. Some lacked ambition
and were content to continue a journeyman's
existence as a hired hand or as a small
employer of one or two apprentices. Some may
have multiplied their family needs and
obligations so rapidly that they were never
able to lay aside the sums required for
membership as Fellows of the Lodge. Lacking
relatives of means to help them pay the
necessary fees for Fellowship and Freedom,
they remained in the ranks of the unsung
common man, who may not always "lead a life
of quiet desperation", but who learns to
adapt his life to calm frustration.
Every system of society tends to harden into
a mold of custom and tradition which changes
far too slowly in some of its minor practices
to suit the changing conditions of the life
of which it is composed. When it became more
and more difficult for operative craftsmen to
"get to the top" in the exercise of the
builders' arts, there was less and less
urgency for journeymen masons to undertake
the responsibilities and the financial
obligations of "passing Fellowcraft".
Toward the close of the era of operative
Masonry, we discover a problem created by
this phenomenon, the solution of which helped
to hasten the transformation. of Craft
Masonry into Speculative Freemasonry.
In 1681 Mary's Chapel Lodge in Edinburgh
issued an edict against "entered Apprentices"
who neglected to be passed to Fellowcraft. It
ordered that no master was to employ any
apprentices who remained "unpassed" for more
than, two years after their discharge from
their indentures. A fine of twenty shillings
a day was to be imposed on any master who
employed them.
In this event we see the transformation of a
"closed shop" association of highly skilled
craftsmen into a broader trade association,
in which the number of members in the Lodge
and the income to be derived from their fees
were more important than the proven skills
and needs of specialized craftsmen.
A year later, 1682, the same Lodge legislated
directly against "unpassed" apprentices, by
levying a fine of twelve shillings a year
upon every such member. To make the
legislation more palatable, it was announced
that the fines would be used to relieve the
poor and the needy. It was not long before
the' claims upon such funds for relief became
excessive, with the result that quarrels and
contentions broke out in the Lodge.
By the time the eighteenth century was well
under way, the Lodge was solving this
difficulty by enrolling in its membership
"non-operatives", who paid 1 pound, 1 s
(Sterling), "for the use of the poor". The
Lodge had practically abandoned its original
function of trade control; it was now
virtually a social and benevolent society.
And it was just about this time that
Speculative Freemasonry began its history
with the founding of the first Grand Lodge in
London in 1717.
In spite of the differences between the
operative masons' grade of Fellow of the
Craft and the present Fellowcraft degree,
there is a thread that runs from the ancient
to the modern. It is the great theme of
enlightened manhood. The symbolic ritual
stresses the necessity of the cultivation of
the intellect and the acquisition of habits
of industry, both essential to the man who in
the prime of life would be a Master in the
building of a spiritual Temple of
Brotherhood.
The operative Fellow of the Craft was in the
full vigor of physical manhood. Because of
the nature of the work involved in cutting
and handling stone, the masons' guilds
generally required beginning apprentices to
be somewhat older than was the case in other
trades. Some Lodges tried to enforce a
minimum age of eighteen, although records
indicate that some apprentices were younger.
Nevertheless, an operative mason, after
completing his seven years' apprenticeship
and the usual period of service as a
journeyman, was a man in his late twenties.
In an era when the average life expectancy
was somewhere in the early forties, such a
man was well into the period of middle life,
when his skills should be mature and his
objectives well defined. Whatever executive
ability he needed to become a "freeman
Master" must have been demonstrated by the
time he became a Fellow of the Craft. Habits
of industry and the acquisition of knowledge
were among the important qualities in the
development of that ability.
In the modern Fellowcraft degree the
underlying idea of the Middle Chamber Lecture
is the development of manhood through useful
knowledge and constructive work. The
scientific facts and the theories of art
contained in the various sections of that
discourse are not its vital elements. They
are too elementary and too generalized to be
of practical use in any trade or profession
today. It is reverence for knowledge and its
moral usefulness which is illustrated for the
speculative Fellowcraft.
The ritual stresses the need for studying and
for learning throughout the period of
manhood. It illuminates the idea that a
Fellowcraft must search for knowledge about
the liberalizing ideas of morality and
brotherly love. If he would truly become a
Master engaged in building "a house not made
with hands", he must know the means of
achieving universal tolerance and
understanding.
The ritual of the Fellowcraft degree
admittedly difficult to learn and to present
with the same dramatic appeal that is
inherent in the other two degrees. But,
because the ennobling fascination of the
beautiful ceremonies of Freemasonry can
capture the hearts and minds of men in every
generation (and in every degree), it is
important that symbolic Craftsmen learn and
interpret as meaningfully as possible the
ritual of this degree.
A Fellow of the Craft should feel that he has
achieved a distinguished rank and privilege
when he has completed his journey through
King Solomon's Temple. A Fellow of the Craft
should understand that he has fulfilled
symbolically a journeyman's years of learning
and of labor in the arts of Brotherly Love,
Relief, and Truth.
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