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

The Worshipful Master, addressing the Senior and Junior Wardens and
then
the Brethren, successively, says: "Brother Senior, have you anything to
offer in the West for the good of Masonry in general or of this lodge
in
particular? Anything in the South, Brother Junior? Around the lodge,
Brethren?" The answers to these inquiries being in the negative on the
part of the Wardens, and silence on that of the craft, the Master
proceeds
to close the lodge in the manner prescribed in the ritual.
The reading of the minutes of the evening, not for confirmation, but
for
suggestion, lest anything may have been omitted, should always precede
the
closing ceremonies, unless, from the lateness of the hour, it be
dispensed
with by the members.
Section II.
_Of Appeals from the Decision of the Chair._
Freemasonry differs from all other institutions, in permitting no
appeal
to the lodge from the decision of the presiding officer. The Master is
supreme in his lodge, so far as the lodge is concerned. He is amenable
for his conduct, in the government of the lodge, not to its members,
but
to the Grand Lodge alone. In deciding points of order as well as graver
matters, no appeal can be taken from that decision to the lodge. If an
appeal were proposed, it would be his duty, for the preservation of
discipline, to refuse to put the question. It is, in fact, wrong that
the
Master should even by courtesy permit such an appeal to be taken;
because,
as the Committee of Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee have
wisely remarked, by the admission of such appeals by _courtesy_, "is
established ultimately a precedent from which will be claimed _the
right
to take_ appeals."[52] If a member is aggrieved with the conduct or the
decisions of the Master, he has his redress by an appeal to the Grand
Lodge, which will of course see that the Master does not rule his lodge
"in an unjust or arbitrary manner." But such a thing as an appeal from
the
Master to the lodge is unknown in Masonry.
This, at first view, may appear to be giving too despotic a power to
the
Master. But a little reflection will convince any one that there can be
but slight danger of oppression from one so guarded and controlled as
the