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

single meeting of the lodge. This may be done by the Master, under a
provision of the bye-laws giving him the authority, or on his own
responsibility, in which case he is amenable to the Grand Lodge for the
correctness of his decision. Exclusion in this way does not affect the
masonic standing of the person excluded, and does not require a
previous
trial.
I cannot entertain any doubt that the Master of a lodge has the right
to
exclude temporarily any member or Mason, when he thinks that either his
admission, if outside, or his continuance within, if present, will
impair
the peace and harmony of the lodge. It is a prerogative necessary to
the
faithful performance of his duties, and inalienable from his great
responsibility to the Grand Lodge for the proper government of the
Craft
intrusted to his care. If, as it is described in the ancient manner of
constituting a lodge, the Master is charged "to preserve the cement of
the
Lodge," it would be folly to give him such a charge, unless he were
invested with the power to exclude an unruly or disorderly member. But
as
Masters are enjoined not to rule their lodges in an unjust or arbitrary
manner, and as every Mason is clearly entitled to redress for any wrong
that has been done to him, it follows that the Master is responsible to
the Grand Lodge for the manner in which he has executed the vast power
intrusted to him, and he may be tried and punished by that body, for
excluding a member, when the motives of the act and the other
circumstances of the exclusion were not such as to warrant the exercise
of
his prerogative.
2. A member may be excluded from his lodge for a definite or indefinite
period, on account of the non-payment of arrears. This punishment may
be
inflicted in different modes, and under different names. It is
sometimes
called, _suspension from the lodge,_ and sometimes _erasure from the
roll_. Both of these punishments, though differing in their effect, are
pronounced, not after a trial, but by a provision of the bye-laws of
the
lodge. For this reason alone, if there were no other, I should contend,
that they do not affect the standing of the member suspended, or
erased,
with relation to the craft in general. No Mason can be deprived of his
masonic rights, except after a trial, with the opportunity of defense,
and
a verdict of his peers.
But before coming to a definite conclusion on this subject, it is
necessary that we should view the subject in another point of view, in
which it will be seen that a suspension from the rights and benefits of
Masonry, for the non-payment of dues, is entirely at variance with the
true principles of the Order.