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

A lodge under dispensation can elect no members. The Master and
Wardens,
who are named in the dispensation, are, in point of fact, the only
persons
recognized as constituting the lodge. To them is granted the privilege,
as
proxies of the Grand Master, of making Masons; and for this purpose
they
are authorized to congregate a sufficient number of Brethren to assist
them in the ceremonies. But neither the Master and Wardens, nor the
Brethren, thus congregated have received any power of electing members.
Nor are the persons made in a lodge under dispensation, to be
considered
as members of the lodge; for, as has already been shown, they have none
of
the rights and privileges which attach to membership--they can neither
make bye-laws nor elect officers. They, however, become members of the
lodge as soon as it receives its warrant of constitution.
Chapter III.
Of Lodges Working under a Warrant of Constitution.
Section I.
_Of the Powers and Rights of a Lodge._
In respect to the powers and privileges possessed by a lodge working
under
a warrant of constitution, we may say, as a general principle, that
whatever it does possess is inherent in it--nothing has been delegated
by
either the Grand Master or the Grand Lodge--but that all its rights and
powers are derived originally from the ancient regulations, made before
the existence of Grand Lodges, and that what it does not possess, are
the
powers which were conceded by its predecessors to the Grand Lodge. This
is
evident from the history of warrants of constitution, the authority
under
which subordinate lodges act. The practice of applying by petition to
the
Grand Master or the Grand Lodge, for a warrant to meet as a regular
lodge, commenced in the year 1718. Previous to that time, Freemasons
were
empowered by inherent privileges, vested, from time immemorial, in the
whole fraternity, to meet as occasion might require, under the
direction
of some able architect; and the proceedings of these meetings, being
approved by a majority of the Brethren convened at another lodge in the