Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

DISPENSATION
DISPENSATIONS 217
showing how much the ancient ecclesiastical
authorities were opposed to the granting of
dispensations, since they preferred to pardon
the offense after the law had been violated,
rather than to give a previous license for its
violation he adds, "but however much the
Roman 13ontiffs and pious Bishops felt of reverence
for the ancient Regulations, they were
often compelled to depart in some measure
from them, for the utility of the church ; and
this milder measure of acting the jurists called
a dispensation."
This power to dispense with the provisions
of law in particular cases appears to be inherent
in the Grand Master ; because, although
frequently referred to in the old Regulations,
it always is as if it were a power already in existence,
and never by way of a new grant .
There is no record of any Masonic statute or
constitutional provision conferring this prerogative
in distinct words. The instances, however,
in which this prerogative may be exercised
are clearly enumerated in various places
of the Old Constitutions, so that there can be
no difficulty in understanding to what extent
the prerogative extends .
The power of granting dispensations is confided
to the Grand Master, or his representative,
but should not be exercised except on
extraordinary occasions, or for excellent reasons
. The dispensing power is confined to only
four circumstances : 1 . A Lodge cannot be
opened and held unless a Warrant of Constitution
be first granted by the Grand Lodge ;
but the Grand Master may issue his dispensation,
empowering a constitutional number of
brethren to open and hold a Lodge until the
next communication of the Grand Lodge .
At this communication, the dispensation of
the Grand Master is either revoked or confirmed
. A Lodge under dispensation is not permitted
to be represented, nor to vote in the
Grand Lodge . 2 . Not more than five candidates
can be made at the same communication
of a Lodge ; but the Grand Master, on the
showing of sufficient cause, may extend to a
Lodge the privilege of making as many more
as he may think pro p er . 3 . No Brother can,
at the same time, belong to two Lodges within
three miles of each other . But the Grand
Master may dispense with this regulation also .
4 . Every Lodge must elect and install its officers
on the constitutional night, which, in most
Masonic jurisdictions, precedes the anniversary
of St . John the Evangelist . Should it,
however, neglect this duty, or should any officer
die, or be expelled, or removed permanently,
no subsequent election or installation can take
place, except under dispensation of the Grand
Master .
Dispensation, Lodges under . See Lodge.
Dispensations of Religion . An attempt
has been made to symbolize the Pagan, the
Jewish, and the Christian dispensations by a
certain ceremony of the Master's Degree which
dramatically teaches the resurrection of the
body and the immortality of the soul . The
reference made in this ceremony to portions of
the First, Second, and Third degrees is used to
demonstrate the difference of the three dispensations
in the reception of these two dogmas.
It is said that the unsuccessful effort in
the Entered Apprentice's Degree refers to the
heathen dispensation, where neither the resurrection
of the body nor the immortality of
the soul was recognized ; that the second unsuccessful
effort in the Fellow-Craft's Degree
refers to the Jewish dispensation, where,
though the resurrection of the body was unknown,
the immortality of the soul was dimly
hinted ; and that the final and successful effort
in the Master's Degree symbolizes the Christian
dispensation, in which, through the teachings
of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, both the
resurrection of the body and the immortality
of the soul were clearly brought to light .
This symbolism, which was the invention of a
peripatetic lecturer in the South about fifty
years ago, is so forced and fanciful in its character,
that it did not long survive the local and
temporary teachings of its inventor, and is
only preserved here as an instance of how
symbols, like metaphors, may sometimes run
But there is another symbolism of the three
degrees, as illustrating three dispensations,
which is much older, having originated among
the lecture-makers of the eighteenth century,
which for a long time formed a portion of the
authorized ritual, and is still repeated with
approbation by some distinguished writers .
In this the three degrees are said to be symbols
in the progressive knowledge which they impart
of the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the
Christian dispensations.
The First, or Entered Apprentice's Degree,
in which but little Masonic light is communicated,
and which, indeed, is only preparatory
and introductory to the two succeedin g degrees,
is said to symbolize the first, or Patriarchal
dispensation, the earliest revelation,
where the knowledge of God was necessarily
imperfect, His worship only a few simple rites
of devotion, and the religious dogmas merely
a general system of morality. The Second, or
Fellow-Craft's Degree,is symbolic of the second
or Mosaic dispensation, in which, while there
were still many imperfections, there was also
a great increase of religious knowled g e, and a
nearer approximation to Divine truth, with a
promise in the future of a better theodicy .
But the Third, or Master Mason's Degree,
which, in its original conception, before it was
dismembered by the innovations of the Royal
Arch, was perfect and complete in its consummation
of all Masonic light, symbolizes the last
or Christian dispensation, where the great and
consoling doctrine of the resurrection to eternal
life is the crowning lesson taught by its
Divine founder. This subject is very full y
treated by the Rev . James Watson, in an address
delivered at Lancaster, Eng ., in 1795,
and contained in Jones's Masonic Miscellanies,
p . 245 ; better, I think, by him than even by
Hutchinson.
Beautiful as this symbolism may be, and
appropriately fitting in all its parts to the laws
of symbolic science, it is evident that its