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

374 JURISDICTION
JUST
every Lodge working within its territorial
limits, and over all places not already occupied
by a Grand Lodge . The territorial
limits of a Grand Lodge are determined in
general by the political boundaries of the
country in which it is placed . Thus the territorial
limits of the Grand Lodge of New York
are circumscribed within the settled boundaries
of that State . Nor can its jurisdiction extend
beyond these limits into any of the
neighboring States . The Grand Lodge of New
York could not, therefore, without an infringement
of Masonic usage, grant a Warrant of
Constitution to any Lodge located in any
State where there was already a Grand Lodge .
It might, however, charter a Lodge in a Territory,
where there is not in existence a Grand
Lodge of that Territory . Thus the Lodges of
Franceheldtheirallegianceto theGrandLodge
of England until the formation of a Grand
Lodge of France, and the Grand Lodges of
both England, Scotland, and France granted
Warrants to various Lodges in America until
after the Revolution, when the States began
to organize Grand Lodges for themselves . For
the purposeof avoiding collision and unfriendly
feeling, it has become the settled usage, that
when a Grand Lodge has been legally organized
in a State, all the Lodges within its limits
musts urrender the charters which they have
received from foreign bddies, and accept new
ones from the newly established Grand . Lodge .
This is the settled and well-recognized law of
American and English Masonry . But the continental
Masons, and especially the Germans,
have not so rigidly interpreted this law of unoccupied
territory ; and there have been in
France, and still are in Germany, several
Grand Lodges in the same kingdom exercising
coordinate powers .
Jurisdiction of a Lodge . The jurisdiction
of a Lodge is geographical or personal .
The geographical jurisdiction of a Lodge is that
which it exercises over the territory within
which it is situated, and extends to all the
Masons, affiliated and unaffiliated, who -live
within that territory . This jurisdiction extends
to a point equally distant from the adjacent
Lodge . Thus, if two Lodges are situated
within twenty miles of each other, the
geographical jurisdiction of each will extend
ten miles from its seat in the direction of
the other Lodge . But in this case both Lodges
must be situated in the same State, and hold
their Warrants from the same Grand Lodge ;
for it is a settled point of Masonic law that no
Lodge can extend its geogr aphical jurisdiction
beyond the territorial limits of its own
Grand Lodge .
The personal jurisdiction of a Lodge is that
penal jurisdiction which it exercises over its
own members wherever they may be situated .
No matter how far a Mason may remove from
the Lodge of which he is a member, his allegiance
to that Lodge is indefeasible so long as
he continues a member, and it may exercise
penal jurisdiction over him .
Jurisdiction of a Supreme Council.
The Masonic jurisdiction of the whole territory
of the United States for the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite was divided between
the Southern and Northern Supreme Councils
in accordance with a special concession
made by the former body in 1813, when the
latter was organized . By this concession the
Northern Supreme Council has jurisdiction
over the States of Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
New York, New Jersey, Delaware,
Pennsylvania Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana ;
all the other Atates and Territories are under
the jurisdiction of the Southern Supreme
Council.
Justice. One of the four cardinal virtues,
the practise of which is inculcated in the First
Degree . The Mason who remembers how emphatically
he has been charged to preserve
an upright position in all his dealings with
mankind, should never f ail to act justly to himself,
to his brethren, and to the world . This
is the corner-stone on which alone he can expect
"to erect a superstructure alike honorable
to himself and to the Fraternity." In
iconology, Justice is usually represented as a
matron with bandaged eyes, holding in one
hand a sword and in the other a pair of scales
at equipoise . But in Masonry the true symbol
of Justice, as illustrated in the First Degree
is the feet firmly planted on the ground, and
the body upright.
Justification . The Fifth Degree in the
Rite of Fessler .
Just Lodge . A Lodge is said to be Just,
Perfect, and Regular under the following circumstances
: Just, when it is furnished with
the three Great Lights ; Perfect, when it contains
the constitutional number of members ;
and Regular, when it is working under a Charter
of Warrant of Constitution emanating
from the legal authority.