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

FREE
FREEDOM 281
only temporarily in a place of confinement . In
the year 1783, the Master of the Royal Military
Lodge at Woolwich (No . 371) being confined,
most probably for debt, in the King's
Bench prison, at London, the Lodge, which
was itinerant in its character and allowed to
move from place to place with its regiment,
adjourned, with its warrant of Constitution,
to the Master in prison, where several Masons
were made . The Grand Lodge, being informed
of the circumstances, immediately
summoned the Master and Wardens of the
Lodge "to answer for their conduct in making
Masons in the King's Bench prison," and, at
the same time, adopted a resolution, affirming
that "it is inconsistent with the _principles of
Masonry for any Freemasons' odge to be
held, for the purposes of making, passing, or
raising Masons, in any prison or place of confinement."
(Constitutions, 1784, p . 349 .)
Free and Accepted . The title" Free and
Accepted" first occurs in the Roberts Print of
1722, which is headed The Old Constitutions
belonging to the Ancient and Honourable Society
of Free and Accepted Masons, and was adopted
by Dr. Anderson in the second edition of the
Book of Constitutions, published in 1738, the
title of which is The New Book of Constitutions
of the Antient and Honourable Fraternity
of Free and Accepted Masons . In the first
edition of 1723 the title was, The Constitutions
of the Freemasons. The newer title continued
to be used by the Grand Lodge of England,
in which it was followed by those of Scotland
and Ireland ; and a majority of the Grand
Lodges in this country have adopted the same
style, and call themselves Grand Lodges of
Free and Accepted Masons . (See Accepted .)
The old lectures formerly used in England
give the following account of the origin of the
term :
"The Masons who were selected to build
the Temple of Solomon were declared FREE
and were exempted, together with their descendants,
from imposts, duties, and taxes .
They had also the privilege to bear arms . At
the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar,
the posterity of these Masons were
carried into captivity with the ancient Jews .
But the good-will of Cyrus gave them permission
to erect a second Temple, having set
them at liberty for that purpose. It is from
this epoch that we bear the name of Free and
Accepted Masons ."
Free Born. In all the old Constitutions,
free birth is required as a requisite to the reception
of Apprentices . Thus the Lansdowne
MS . says, "That the prentice be able of birth,
that is, freeborn ." So it is in the Edinburgh
Kilwinning, the York, the Antiquity, and in
every other manuscript that has been so far
discovered . And hence, the modern Constitutions
framed in 1721 continue the regulation
. After the abolition of slavery in the
West Indies by the British Parliament, the
Grand Lodge of England on September 1,
1847, changed the word "free-born" into
"freeman," but the ancient landmark never
has been removed in America .
The non-admission of a slave seems to have
been founded upon the best of reasons; because,
as Freemasonry involves a solemn contract,
no one can legally bind himself to its
performance who is not a free agent and the
master of his own actions. That the restriction
is extended to those who were originally
in a servile condition, but who may have since
acquired their liberty, seems to depend on the
principle that birth in a servile condition is
accompanied by a degradation of mind and
abasement of spirit which no subsequent dis.
enthralment can so completely efface as to
render the party qualified to perform his duties,
as a Mason, with that "freedom, fervency,
and zeal" which are said to have distinguished
our ancient brethren . "Children," says Oliver,
"cannot inherit a free and noble spirit except
they be born of a free woman ."
The same usage existed in the spurious Freemasonry
or the mysteries of the ancient world,
There, no slave, or man born in slavery, could
be initiated ; because the prerequisites imperatively
demanded that the candidate should
not only be a man of irreproachable manners,
but also a free-born denizen of the country in
which the mysteries were celebrated .
Some Masonic writers have thought that in
this regulation, in relation to free birth, some
allusion is intended, both in the mysteries and
in Freemasonry, to the relative conditions and
characters of Isaac and Ishmael . The former
-the accepted one, to whom the promise was
given-was the son of a free woman, and the
latter, who was cast forth to have "his hand
against every man and every man's hand
against him," was the child of a slave . Wherefore,
we read that Sarah demanded of Abraham,
"Cast out this bondwoman and her son ;
for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir
with my son ." Dr . Oliver, in speaking of the
grand festival with which Abraham celebrated
the weaning of Isaac, says that be
"had not paid the same compliment at the
weaning of Ishmael, because he was the son of
a bondwoman, and consequently could not be
admitted to participate in the Freemasonry
of his father, which could only be conferred on
free men born of free women ." The ancient
Greeks were of the same opinion ; for they
used the word Souxorpeaeia, or "slave manners,"
to designate any very great impropriety
of manners .
Freedom. This is defined to be a state of
exemption from, the control or power of
another . The doctrine that Masons should
enjoy unrestrained liberty, and be free in all
their thoughts and actions, is carried so far in
Masonry, that the Grand Lodge of England
will not permit the initiation of a candidate
who is only temporarily deprived of his liberty,
or even in a place of confinement . (See
Free .)
It is evident that the word freedom is used
in Masonry in a symbolical or metaphysical
sense differing from its ordinary signification . ,
While, in the application of the words free
born and freeman, we use them in their usual
legal acceptation, we combine freedom with
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