ntroduction of ignorant
and unskillful workmen into the temple, it may be worth the labor we shall
spend upon the subject, to investigate some of the authorities which
support us in the declaration, that no candidate should be promoted,
until, by a due probation, he has made "suitable proficiency in the
preceding degree."
In one of the earliest series of regulations that have been
preserved--made in the reign of Edward III., it was ordained, "that such
as were to be admitted Master Masons, or Masters of work, should be
examined whether they be able of cunning to serve their respective Lords,
as well the lowest as the highest, to the honor and worship of the
aforesaid art, and to the profit of their Lords."
Here, then, we may see the origin of that usage, which is still practiced
in every well governed lodge, not only of demanding a proper degree of
proficiency in the candidate, but also of testing that proficiency by an
examination.
This cautious and honest fear of the fraternity, lest any Brother should
assume the duties of a position which he could not faithfully discharge,
and which is, in our time, tantamount to a candidate's advancing to a
degree for which he is not prepared, is again exhibited in the charges
enacted in the reign of James II., the manuscript of which was preserved
in the archives of the Lodge of Antiquity in London. In these charges it
is required, "that no Mason take on no lord's worke, nor any other man's,
unless he know himselfe well able to perform the worke, so that the craft
have no slander." In the same charges, it is prescribed that "no master,
or fellow, shall take no apprentice for less than seven years."
In another series of charges, whose exact date is not ascertained, but
whose language and orthography indicate their antiquity, it is said: "Ye
shall ordain the wisest to be Master of the work; and neither for love nor
lineage, riches nor favor, set one over the work[73] who hath but little
knowledge, whereby the Master would be evil served, and ye ashamed."
These charges clearly show the great stress that was placed by our ancient
Brethren upon the necessity of skill and proficiency, and they have
furnished the precedents upon which are based all the similar regulations
that have been subsequently applied to Speculative Masonry.
In the year 1722, the Grand Lodge of England ordered the "Old Charges of
the Free and Accepted Masons" to be collected from the ancient records,
and
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