The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

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Chapter 5 - Technical Terminology
as any other profane, or under certain circumstances he may be healed by the
Grand Master. The effect of the latter is to make him a non-affiliate [...]." 829
24. Lawful information
According to the EOF, "[o]ne of the modes of recognizing a stranger as a true
brother, is from the "lawful information" of a third party." 830 It means that a
brother vouches for a visitor who wants to enter the lodge. Normally, a stranger
who visits a Masonic lodge has to undergo tests to prove that he is entitled to be
accepted. This procedure can be replaced in English lodges by the act of "lawful
information," i.e. when a brother who knows the stranger or has previously tested
him vouches for him. 831
26. Making Masons at sight
The words "making Masons at sight" are not to be found in any of the
Constitutions or records of the legitimate Grand Lodge of England.
They were first used by the body known in history as the Athol Grand
Lodge, and are to be found in its authorized Book of Constitutions, the
"Ahiman Rezon" of Laurence Dermott. The "moderns," as they were
called, [...] always spoke of "making Masons in an occasional Lodge
[...]".
Now, in all of these cases, the candidates were made by the Grand
Master, without previous notice, and not in a regular Lodge; and this is
what I suppose to be really meant by making Masons at sight. 832
The "making Masons at sight" is an ancient expression and was first printed
in the Ahiman Rezon of 1778. As the American encyclopedia quoted above
states, the "making at sight" means to initiate candidates in a lodge called
together ad hoc. Mostly, the candidates receive all three degrees at a time.
According to the IFL, this is a very much disputed right of American Grand
Masters, and it is only rarely exercised in America and never in Europe. 833
Several famous personalities have been made Masons "at sight," for example
Ludwig Kossuth, President William Howard Taft, John Wanamaker, Admiral
Scott Schley, and others. 834
829 Grand Lodge of Tennessee, The Masonic Code, p. 48.
830 EOF, p. 351.
831 Cf. IFL, p. 740.
832 MD, p. 337/338.
833 Cf. IFL, p. 103.
834 Ibid.