THE "OLD CHARGES"
Bro. Wallace McLeod is a member and Past Master of Mizpah Lodge #572,
Toronto, Canada, and of Quatuor Coronati Lodge #2076, London, England; and is
the Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario.
The Charges of a Freemason. In our Constitution (Ontario) in Section 371, we
read the words. 'Every newly initiated candidate shall he presented with a copy
of the Book of Constitution..." One hopes that a new Mason will become familiar
with our regulations by reading through this book But if he does so, he may be
puzzled by the first section of Part VI, which is entitled, "The Charges of a
Freemason. Extracted from the Ancient Records of Lodges throughout the World,
for the use of Lodges"
In this section, he will find some parts that sound familiar. a bit like the
ritual "The persons made Masons and admitted members of a lodge must be good and
true men.. free born, and of a mature and discreet age and sound judgment, no
bondsmen. no women, no immoral or scandalous men, but of good report"
But what is he to make of other portions? "The Master, knowing himself to he
able of cunning shall undertake the lord's work as reasonably as possible."
Such rules as this cannot apply in any literal sense of most of us. Why then
are they printed for every Mason? The reason is his- torical. In its present
form most of the wording of this section goes back two hundred and seventy-five
years. In 1723. the Reverend James Anderson, with the approval of his Grand
Lodge, published the most influential work on Masonry ever printed. The first
book of The Constitutions of the Free-Masons. He included a section called the
Charges of a Free-Mason, extracted from The ancient Records of lodges beyond
Sea, and of those in England, Scotland, and Ireland, for the Use of the Lodges
in London." Apart from a number of tiny changes, the modern wording is
identical.
Anderson's Sources. But here too we must ask the same question. Why did this
book of Constitutions. designed for nonoperative Masons, include rules that
apply to operative masons? And where did Anderson find this material? The second
edition of his Constitutions, printed in 1738. tells a bit more at the Annual
Festival on 24 June 1718, when the Grand Lodge was one year old, the Grand
Master "desired any Brethren to bring to the Grand Lodge any old Writings and
Records concerning Masons and Masonry in order to show the Usages of ancient
Times; And this Year several old Copies of the Gothic Constitutions were
produced and collated."
And in September 1721, the Grand Master and the Grand Lodge, "finding Fault
with all the Copies of the old Gothic Constitutions, order'd Brother James
Anderson. A.M. to digest the same in a new and better Method." The end result of
his labours was the book of Constitutions, which was duly approved by the Grand
Lodge, and printed in 1723. And James Anderson did make use of the old
manuscripts that he called "The Old Gothic Constitutions." We can tell from the
wording of his text that by the time of his second edition be had obtained
access to at least six of them, and that he quoted and paraphrased them quite
extensively.
The Old Charges: Number, Date, Location, Form. But what are these "Old Gothic
Constitutions" also known as the "Old Charges" and the "Old Manuscript
Constitutions"? In all, 119 copies have survived, all going back to the same
original, and there are references to 15 more that are lost. New versions are
turning up all the time; In the last ten years, six more have come to our
attention
Nearly two-thirds of them are earlier than the first Grand Lodge of
1717-perhaps as many as 75. Fifty-five go back before 1700 Four were written
about 1600, one is dated 1583, one is about 1400 or 1410, and one goes all the
way back to 1390
Most are located in England; London alone has more than fifty. Thirteen are
in Scotland-none of them earlier than 1650; four are in the United States; one
was last heard of in Germany; and one has wandered to Canada-the Scarborough
Manuscript. of about 1700.
The Old Charges present various aspects. About fourteen are known only from
printed transcripts. A few are written on separate sheets of paper or vellum;
about thirty-three are written on sheets that are fastened together in book
form; but the typical form. represented by more than fifty versions, is a scroll
or roll of paper or parchment, between three and fourteen inches wide, and
anything up to fourteen and a half feet in length.
Contents. Let us summarize the contents. with a review typical examples of
the wording.
They nearly all begin with an Invocation: "The might of the Father of Heaven,
with the wisdom of the glorious Son, through the grace and goodness of the Holy
Ghost, that be three persons in one Godhead, be with us at our beginning, and
give us grace so to govern us here in our living that we may come to His bliss
that never shall have ending. Amen.'
Then comes an announcement of the purpose and contents, followed by a brief
description of the Seven Liberal Arts or Sciences. one of which is Geometry, or
Masonry. Then we have a proof of the fundamental nature of Geometry.
[Then there is an extended Traditional History of Geometry, Masonry, and
Architecture, taking up over half of the text. It is based in the first instance
on the Bible. The art of building was invented, we are told, before Noah's Flood
by Jabal and metalfounding was discovered by his brother Tubal-cain. They knew
that God would send destruction for sin so they wrote their arts on Two Great
Pillars, that were found after the Flood. Then we hear about Nimrod and the
Tower of Babel: and how Abraham went to Egypt and taught the Liberal Arts and
sciences to the Egyptians; and how he had a student Euclid; and then how King
David loved Masons well; how Solomon built the Temple, with lie help of King
Hiram and his Master Builder. One man who worked at Solomon's Temple later went
to France, and taught the art to Charles Martel; subsequently the Craft. was
brought to England, in the time of Saint Alban: and finally about the year 930,
Prince Edwin called a great assembly of Masons in the city of York, and
established the regulations used "from that day until this time."]
(Note: Read this section as an ancient document, but remember the evolution
of Masonry is not historically accurate.)
Next we have the manner of taking the oath: "Then let one of the elders hold
the Book, so that he or they may place their hands upon the Book, and then the
rules ought to be read."
Then comes the admonition: "Every man that is a Mason take right good heed to
these charges, if that you find yourselves guilty in any of these, that you may
amend you against God. And especially ye that are to be charged, take good heed
that ye may keep these charges, for it is a great peril for a man to foreswear
himself upon a Book."
Next come the regulations or Charges proper. Some are to administer the
trade: "No Master shall take upon him no lord's work, nor no other man's work,
but that he know himself able and cunning to perform the same. . ." These are
the ones that are still quoted in "The Charges of a FreeMason." Others do not
concern trade matters at all, but are intended to regulate behavior. No doubt
they were essential in a community of tradesmen who were thrown together in
close proximity for twenty-four hours a day. Still, they are unexpected, and
serve to mark the masons lodge as different from most other craft organizations.
"No Fellow [is to] slander another behind his back. to make him lose his good
name or his worldly goods." And also that "no Mason shall play at hazard or at
dice."
Finally comes the Oath: "These charges that we have rehearsed. and all other
that belong to Masonry, ye shall keep, so help you God and Halidom, and by this
Book to your power. Amen."
What were they used for? In its most common version, the text is about 3,500
words long. To copy it out by hand represents a substantial investment of
effort, and yet it was copied repeatedly. In the circumstances it is fair to ask
what the Old Charges were used for. To begin with, the rules and orders served a
practical purpose. They clearly were intended to regulate the Craft.
We also know that occasionally the manuscripts were treated like a Warrant or
Constitution. One early Scottish lodge had a copy of the Old Charges, written on
a single sheet of parchment had been mounted and framed, and the members
believed that their meetings would not be legal unless it was exhibited in the
lodge room.
In a sense, the Old Charges also served as The Work, because they described
certain procedures that were to be followed when any man was made a Mason, and
they included little bits of ritual, such as the Invocation and the Obligation.
We see then that they provided ordinance, authority, and ritual, three
practical matters. But as well they must have had a psychological effect. They inculcated in masons a sense of respect and
reverence for their craft They told how it went back before the Flood, how it
was connected with famous buildings in the sacred Writings, and how it could
number among its votaries even monarchs themselves. This was no servile trade of
recent devising, but an ancient and honorable institution.
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