An Authorised Ritual? 1950
From th
From the Archives
The Lodge of Reconciliation
& the Question of an Authorised Ritual
Extract from The Freemasons’ Guide and Compendium by Bernard E. Jones, pub 1950, pages 223-228
The Lodge of Reconciliation, brought into existence by the Articles of Union, had as its members the two Grand Secretaries and nine Brethren from each body, but in the following year six had ceased to be members, and ten other Brethren were appointed. It arranged the details of the assembly at which the union was ratified, and was especially entrusted to promulgate and enjoin the pure and unsullied system, that perfect reconciliation, unity of obligation, law, working, language and dress, may be happily restored to the English Craft." It remained in existence until 1816, and duly carried on the work which had been begun by the Lodge of Promulgation; but now, it will be understood, it was agreeing and rehearsing a set of ceremonies for the acceptance of a united body, whereas the earlier lodge had been working for the 'Moderns' only. It revised all the degrees and ceremonies in a spirit of reconciliation, and carried out a vast amount of instructional work. It decided, for example, that lodges should send a Master and Warden to attend a meeting of the Lodge of Reconciliation, so as to learn the agreed ritual and instruct their lodge on their return.
Further, the members of the Lodge of Reconciliation visited many lodges and gave instruction.
Many country lodges took their own time to bring their working into conformity, but there was nevertheless a genuine desire throughout the country lodges that they should acquaint themselves with the new forms.
Further, the members of the Lodge of Reconciliation visited many lodges and gave instruction.
Many country lodges took their own time to bring their working into conformity, but there was nevertheless a genuine desire throughout the country lodges that they should acquaint themselves with the new forms.
How far the Lodge of Reconciliation went in settling the differences between the two workings; whether, for the greater part, it came down heavily in favour of the 'Antient' working, as has been generally assumed; and to what extent, if any, as has also been suggested, it fashioned new versions as a compromise to meet cases of especial difficulty-on all these points little or nothing is known, although some authors manage to create the impression that they are aware of all the facts. It must always be remembered that the Lodge of Reconciliation forbade its members, or anyone present, to make a note of its proceedings, and dealt promptly with any offender. There had always been objection to reducing the ceremonies to writing or print, and we find it still strong in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, it is not in the least likely that any member of the Lodge of Reconciliation could have come away from its final meeting with a word-perfect recollection of the agreed rituals. H. Hiram Hallett points out that its Master presided over nine only of the recorded twenty rehearsals, that members were lax in their attendance, that there were intervals of many weeks between rehearsals, that detail changes were made from time to time, and that there was an interval of more than a year preceding the final rehearsal.
This must be borne in mind when any claim is made that any particular working of the masonic ceremonies is a faithful reproduction of the ceremonies approved by the Lodge of Reconciliation. It is quite inevitable that the Brethren would go from that final rehearsal back into their various lodges, where they would teach the new forms, and every one of them would have a slightly different idea as to the working and wording of some of the details. This readily explains how it was that, in 1819 certain Brethren brought complaints before the Board of General Purposes that lectures were being worked contrary to the stipulations of the Act of Union. The Board in its wisdom decided that the charges had not been made out, the Grand Master shortly afterwards stating that: "It was his opinion that so long as the Master of any Lodge observed exactly the Land Marks of the Craft he was at liberty to give the Lectures in the language best suited to the character of the Lodge over which he presided. . . ." That opinion, not of course to be interpreted too literally, holds good to-day.
This must be borne in mind when any claim is made that any particular working of the masonic ceremonies is a faithful reproduction of the ceremonies approved by the Lodge of Reconciliation. It is quite inevitable that the Brethren would go from that final rehearsal back into their various lodges, where they would teach the new forms, and every one of them would have a slightly different idea as to the working and wording of some of the details. This readily explains how it was that, in 1819 certain Brethren brought complaints before the Board of General Purposes that lectures were being worked contrary to the stipulations of the Act of Union. The Board in its wisdom decided that the charges had not been made out, the Grand Master shortly afterwards stating that: "It was his opinion that so long as the Master of any Lodge observed exactly the Land Marks of the Craft he was at liberty to give the Lectures in the language best suited to the character of the Lodge over which he presided. . . ." That opinion, not of course to be interpreted too literally, holds good to-day.
The ritual agreed on by Grand Lodge when the Lodge of Reconciliation completed its work was not ordered to be universally adopted, but with regard to the Obligations in the First and Second Degrees and with regard, also, to the opening and closing of lodge, the resolutions were much more definite. With regard to the Obligations, it was "Resolved and Ordered that the same be recognised and taken in all time to come, as the only pure and genuine Obligations of those Degrees, and which all Lodges dependent on Grand Lodge shall practise." The ceremonies of opening and closing, as agreed by the Lodge of Reconciliation, were ordered to be used and practised. For the rest, the ceremonies were "approved and confirmed," but again let it be borne in mind that no written note, if made, of any of these ceremonies has come down to us.
Brethren are fond of repeating the statement that there is no authorized ritual. But is not this rather a technicality, something of a legal fiction, a convenient formula? Obviously, it is true that, with certain small exceptions, no written or printed ritual has been authorized by the United Grand Lodge, but is it not equally true to say that Grand Lodge would soon assert itself, as it has done in the past, if the essentials of the ritual were departed from?
A simple view, and probably the correct one, is that the ritual approved by Grand Lodge in 1816 is actually an authorized ritual for the use of English lodges, any variations practised in various lodges being nonessential and limited to matters of detail. It will be objected that the usefulness of this statement is greatly discounted by the absence of any written record. There is in English lodges one essential ritual, fully approved and recognized by regular usage extending back to the early years of the nineteenth century, handed down unaltered from generation to generation, but subject to scores of trivial variations.
Certain sister Grand Lodges authorize and issue the ritual to be followed in their lodges. Under the Scottish Grand Lodge the position, it is suggested, is the same as under the English Grand Lodge, but the Irish Grand Lodge has what is known as the Grand Lodge of Instruction, consisting of its Grand Master and his Deputy, the Grand Wardens, Grand Treasurer, the Grand Registrar, the Grand Secretary, together with a number of skilled Past Masters. Its decisions on all questions of the ritual or ceremonies of ancient Craft masonry, when approved by the Grand Lodge, are binding on every lodge and every member of the Craft under the Irish jurisdiction. It has power to appoint committees to instruct any lodge in the proper working of any of the ceremonies "and such conjoint instruction shall be received ... as the working authorised and deemed correct by the Grand Lodge of Ireland." Its Secretary ranks as a Grand Officer, and its members have the privilege of wearing on the left breast a quatrefoil jewel, returnable to the Grand Secretary on membership ceasing.
In the Supreme Grand Chapter of New South Wales, a committee on ritual has power to decide all questions of ritual practice, and the correctness of regalia and furniture of a chapter. Certain of the American Grand Lodges closely supervise the ritual practised in the lodges under their jurisdiction; one of them used to issue a copy of the Craft ritual in cipher to each lodge Master, who duly passed it on to his successor. American chapters work to an approved ritual issued to them in cipher.
Variations in the English Ritual
The variations in masonic ritual are a never-ending subject of discussion among Brethren, some few of whom occasionally may be tempted to regard their doxy as orthodoxy and the other man's doxy as heterodoxy. If one thing above all others is clear, it is that the Lodge of Reconciliation agreed on certain essentials, its compelling motive being nothing more than the necessity of adjusting differences existing between the 'Moderns' and the 'Antients,' but it did not lay down a cast-iron ritual, word by word.The members and visiting Brethren went from that lodge all over the country and taught as they remembered. There is reason to believe that much 'give and take’ went on unofficially, and that the ceremonies, while retaining every essential, deviated considerably in detail during the next ten years. Consequently, it is impossible to believe that any one system of ritual derived line by line, word by word, directly, and without alteration, from the Lodge of Reconciliation. That is the conclusion arrived at by various Brethren who at different times have studied the matter. Of the many variations met in the workings of the different lodges in matters of unimportant detail it is impossible to say that some, but not others, have the authority of time-immemorial usage.
The variations in themselves have a value and provide special interest. "I should be very grieved," says one writer, "if at any time my own lodge ceased to invest its new initiate with the jewel of an Entered Apprentice, or if, a certain portion of the inner working of the Installation ceremony peculiar to this Province, were to lapse." Says another:
It is unfortunate that many ancient usages in the Craft have become gradually discontinued in some of our lodges and are now practically forgotten. The Order loses with these old customs and methods some of its character. The movement to spread the use of one particular form of working makes it difficult for some of the old lodges to maintain practices which have been handed down from time immemorial. Whatever the value of uniformity may be in some phases of life, it does tend to a loss of things of interest and romance
Stability.
High in the estimation of the Craft are two workings namely, Stability and Emulation. The Stability Lodge of Instruction (sanctioned by the Lodge of Stability, now No.217, formerly an 'Antient' lodge) had among its seventeen founders sixteen Brethren of the 'Antient' body, and it was founded in 1817 a year after the Lodge of Reconciliation had finished its work. Three members of that lodge were among its founders, and are claimed to have taught the forms and ceremonies rehearsed in it. In all, eight members of the Lodge of Reconciliation joined the Stability Lodge of Instruction at various times. The detailed differences between its working and that of the Lodge of Emulation are many, but can scarcely be referred to here.
Emulation.
The Emulation Lodge of Improvement was founded six years later than Stability-that is, in 1823-under the sanction of a London lodge, an old 'Antient' lodge, now the Royal York Lodge of Perseverance, No.7; but in 1830 it passed to the sanction of the Lodge of Unions, No. 256, formerly a 'Modern' lodge, under which it still acts. Of the twenty-one founders, ten were of the 'Antient' body and eleven of the 'Moderns.' Unfortunately its early records are lost, but the lodge has had the advantage of having its history written by the late Bro. Henry Sadler. Originally this Lodge of Improvement was intended for Master Masons and for working the lectures only, but five years or more after 1825, when Peter Gilkes became its leading spirit, it began to teach the three degrees. Gilkes, who was born about 1765 and died in 1833, was a 'Modern' who had been initiated as far back as 1786, and he stands out in the history of freemasonry as a teacher of the first order. The lodge bases its claims for pre-eminence on its association with Gilkes, who, critics remind us, was not a member of the Lodge of Promulgation or the Lodge of Reconciliation, but was a visitor to the latter about ten times. Peter GiIkes as an instructor would not allow the slightest deviation from set forms, and to-day Emulation working is noted for its strict adherence to precise verbal detail, a point again subject to the criticism that it was well-nigh impossible to bring away from the Lodge of Reconciliation an infallible recollection of every line of the ceremonies. For this reason, and for the further one that there was a gap of some years between the approval of the Craft degree ritual and Emulation's starting to teach it, there may be some doubt about the claim made by Bro. Sadler, the historian of the lodge, that the Emulation standard is "fixed, unaltering and unalterable," but exactly the same criticism applies to any other standard.
One minute of the Lodge of Reconciliation tells its own story: "Bro – having offended ... in printing certain ... tending to convey information on the subject of Masonic instruction, should for this offence be reprimanded. . . . The Master did express accordingly the high sense of disapprobation which the Lodge felt," and he proceeded to collect any available copies and place them in the custody of the Lodge of Reconciliation. In spite of this experience, however, manuscript and printed rituals began to appear soon after the Union, but in general were frowned on by the lodges. We have already made clear the position of the Grand Lodge of England on the question of the authorized ritual, and it naturally follows that there is no authorized printed ritual. No rule of Grand Lodge refers to the subject.
After an irregular ritual issued in 1826, or slightly later, probably the earliest regular one was The Whole of the Lodge Ceremonies and Lectures in Craft Masonry: as taught by the late P. Gilkes, together with the Ceremony of Installation, published about 1835, followed in 1838 by George Claret's A Series of Masonic Illustrations, comprising all those taught by the late Bro. P. Gilkes with many others. It follows, then, that the earliest printed rituals were Emulation.
The Text Book of Freemasonry (published by Reeves and Turner, London, 1870), contained the three Craft degrees, the Ceremony of Installation, the three Lectures, and-most surprisingly-the Ceremony of Exaltation to the Royal Arch. In the preface of the first edition the compiler expressed surprise that no authentic ritual had hitherto been published.
In 1871 "A. Lewis" published The Perfect Ceremonies of Craft Masonry from Standard Authority, and as taught in the Unions Emulation Lodge of improvement for Master Masons. This ritual has gone through a great number of editions, and was the subject of an important law case which reached the Appeal Court in 1935, the Court deciding that The Perfect Ceremonies in its 1896 edition was a "new work for purpose of copyright," but that any copyright in it had not passed to the publisher, and that no edition between 1896 and the date of action had contained alterations sufficiently substantial to constitute it a new work for purposes of copyright.
The "West End" ritual was first published about 1882, but represents a working considerably older. It appears to have had its rise in some one or more London lodges of instruction.
The "Oxford," which probably came into general use in the Province of Oxford about 1870, is thought to be more free from grammatical errors than many others. It is associated with the name of R.G. Spiers, of the Alfred Lodge, No.340, Oxford, but is not believed to represent the local working of the Oxford Province, but rather to reproduce the substance of The Whole of the Lodge Ceremonies, etc., already mentioned.
Of comparatively late revision is the Logic which represents an old working modernized, a new and different interpretation being given to instructions and phrases that have been the subject of difficulty in earlier rituals.
There are many other printed rituals, most of them being derived from the Stability working. The Standard Ceremonies of the Stability Lodge was printed about 1902.
Manuscripts are in existence of provincial and other workings that still retain many time-honoured features.
High in the estimation of the Craft are two workings namely, Stability and Emulation. The Stability Lodge of Instruction (sanctioned by the Lodge of Stability, now No.217, formerly an 'Antient' lodge) had among its seventeen founders sixteen Brethren of the 'Antient' body, and it was founded in 1817 a year after the Lodge of Reconciliation had finished its work. Three members of that lodge were among its founders, and are claimed to have taught the forms and ceremonies rehearsed in it. In all, eight members of the Lodge of Reconciliation joined the Stability Lodge of Instruction at various times. The detailed differences between its working and that of the Lodge of Emulation are many, but can scarcely be referred to here.
Emulation.
The Emulation Lodge of Improvement was founded six years later than Stability-that is, in 1823-under the sanction of a London lodge, an old 'Antient' lodge, now the Royal York Lodge of Perseverance, No.7; but in 1830 it passed to the sanction of the Lodge of Unions, No. 256, formerly a 'Modern' lodge, under which it still acts. Of the twenty-one founders, ten were of the 'Antient' body and eleven of the 'Moderns.' Unfortunately its early records are lost, but the lodge has had the advantage of having its history written by the late Bro. Henry Sadler. Originally this Lodge of Improvement was intended for Master Masons and for working the lectures only, but five years or more after 1825, when Peter Gilkes became its leading spirit, it began to teach the three degrees. Gilkes, who was born about 1765 and died in 1833, was a 'Modern' who had been initiated as far back as 1786, and he stands out in the history of freemasonry as a teacher of the first order. The lodge bases its claims for pre-eminence on its association with Gilkes, who, critics remind us, was not a member of the Lodge of Promulgation or the Lodge of Reconciliation, but was a visitor to the latter about ten times. Peter GiIkes as an instructor would not allow the slightest deviation from set forms, and to-day Emulation working is noted for its strict adherence to precise verbal detail, a point again subject to the criticism that it was well-nigh impossible to bring away from the Lodge of Reconciliation an infallible recollection of every line of the ceremonies. For this reason, and for the further one that there was a gap of some years between the approval of the Craft degree ritual and Emulation's starting to teach it, there may be some doubt about the claim made by Bro. Sadler, the historian of the lodge, that the Emulation standard is "fixed, unaltering and unalterable," but exactly the same criticism applies to any other standard.
One minute of the Lodge of Reconciliation tells its own story: "Bro – having offended ... in printing certain ... tending to convey information on the subject of Masonic instruction, should for this offence be reprimanded. . . . The Master did express accordingly the high sense of disapprobation which the Lodge felt," and he proceeded to collect any available copies and place them in the custody of the Lodge of Reconciliation. In spite of this experience, however, manuscript and printed rituals began to appear soon after the Union, but in general were frowned on by the lodges. We have already made clear the position of the Grand Lodge of England on the question of the authorized ritual, and it naturally follows that there is no authorized printed ritual. No rule of Grand Lodge refers to the subject.
After an irregular ritual issued in 1826, or slightly later, probably the earliest regular one was The Whole of the Lodge Ceremonies and Lectures in Craft Masonry: as taught by the late P. Gilkes, together with the Ceremony of Installation, published about 1835, followed in 1838 by George Claret's A Series of Masonic Illustrations, comprising all those taught by the late Bro. P. Gilkes with many others. It follows, then, that the earliest printed rituals were Emulation.
The Text Book of Freemasonry (published by Reeves and Turner, London, 1870), contained the three Craft degrees, the Ceremony of Installation, the three Lectures, and-most surprisingly-the Ceremony of Exaltation to the Royal Arch. In the preface of the first edition the compiler expressed surprise that no authentic ritual had hitherto been published.
In 1871 "A. Lewis" published The Perfect Ceremonies of Craft Masonry from Standard Authority, and as taught in the Unions Emulation Lodge of improvement for Master Masons. This ritual has gone through a great number of editions, and was the subject of an important law case which reached the Appeal Court in 1935, the Court deciding that The Perfect Ceremonies in its 1896 edition was a "new work for purpose of copyright," but that any copyright in it had not passed to the publisher, and that no edition between 1896 and the date of action had contained alterations sufficiently substantial to constitute it a new work for purposes of copyright.
The "West End" ritual was first published about 1882, but represents a working considerably older. It appears to have had its rise in some one or more London lodges of instruction.
The "Oxford," which probably came into general use in the Province of Oxford about 1870, is thought to be more free from grammatical errors than many others. It is associated with the name of R.G. Spiers, of the Alfred Lodge, No.340, Oxford, but is not believed to represent the local working of the Oxford Province, but rather to reproduce the substance of The Whole of the Lodge Ceremonies, etc., already mentioned.
Of comparatively late revision is the Logic which represents an old working modernized, a new and different interpretation being given to instructions and phrases that have been the subject of difficulty in earlier rituals.
There are many other printed rituals, most of them being derived from the Stability working. The Standard Ceremonies of the Stability Lodge was printed about 1902.
Manuscripts are in existence of provincial and other workings that still retain many time-honoured features.
Extract from The Freemasons’ Guide and Compendium by Bernard E. Jones, pub 1950, Page 223
© Stability Ritual Association
