THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

making Masons. Besides, in many instances, the lodge was held at a
different place from that of the Grand Lodge, and the officers were
not,
with the exception of the Grand Master, the officers of the Grand
Lodge.
Thus the occasional lodge, which initiated the Duke of Lorraine, was
held
at the residence of Sir Robert Walpole, in Norfolk, while the Grand
Lodge
always met in London. In 1766, the Grand Lodge held its communications
at
the Crown and Anchor; but the occasional lodge, which, in the same
year,
conferred the degrees on the Duke of Gloucester, was convened at the
Horn
Tavern. In the following year, the lodge which initiated the Duke of
Cumberland was convened at the Thatched House Tavern, the Grand Lodge
continuing to meet at the Crown and Anchor.
This may be considered very conclusive evidence of the existence of the
prerogative of the Grand Master, which we are now discussing, but the
argument _à fortiori_, drawn from his dispensing power, will tend to
confirm the doctrine.
No one doubts or denies the power of the Grand Master to constitute new
lodges by dispensation. In 1741, the Grand Lodge of England forgot it
for
a moment, and adopted a new regulation, that no new lodge should be
constituted until the consent of the Grand Lodge had been first
obtained,
"But this order, afterwards appearing," says the Book of
Constitutions,[24] "to be an infringement on the prerogative of the
Grand
Master, and to be attended with many inconveniences and with damage to
the
craft, was repealed."
It is, then, an undoubted prerogative of the Grand Master to constitute
lodges by dispensation, and in these lodges, so constituted, Masons may
be
legally entered, passed, and raised. This is done every day. Seven
Master
Masons, applying to the Grand Master, he grants them a dispensation,
under
authority of which they proceed to open and hold a lodge, and to make
Masons. This lodge is, however, admitted to be the mere creature of the
Grand Master, for it is in his power, at any time, to revoke the
dispensation he had granted, and thus to dissolve the lodge.
But, if the Grand Master has the power thus to enable others to confer
the
degrees and make Masons by his individual authority out of his
presence,
are we not permitted to argue _à fortiori_ that he has also the right
of
congregating seven Brethren and causing a Mason, to be made in his
sight?