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

immoral conduct, that would subject a candidate for initiation to
rejection.
As the punishment is general, affecting the relation of the one
expelled
with the whole fraternity, it should not be lightly imposed, for the
violation of any masonic act not general in its character. The
commission
of a grossly immoral act is a violation of the contract entered into
between each Mason and his Order. If sanctioned by silence or impunity,
it
would bring discredit on the institution, and tend to impair its
usefulness. A Mason who is a bad man, is to the fraternity what a
mortified limb is to the body, and should be treated with the same mode
of
cure--he should be cut off, lest his example spread, and disease be
propagated through the constitution.
The punishment of expulsion can only be inflicted after a due course of
trial, and upon the votes of at least two-thirds of the members
present,
and should always be submitted for approval and confirmation to the
Grand
Lodge.
One question here arises, in respect not only to expulsion but to the
other masonic punishments, of which I have treated in the preceding
sections:--Does suspension or expulsion from a Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons, an Encampment of Knights Templar, or any other of what are
called
the higher degrees of Masonry, affect the relations of the expelled
party
to Symbolic or Ancient Craft Masonry? I answer, unhesitatingly, that it
does not, and for reasons which, years ago, I advanced, in the
following
language, and which appear to have met with the approval of the most of
my
contemporaries:--
"A chapter of Royal Arch Masons, for instance, is not, and cannot be,
recognized as a masonic body, by a lodge of Master Masons. 'They hear
them
so to be, but they do not know them so to be,' by any of the modes of
recognition known to Masonry. The acts, therefore, of a Chapter cannot
be
recognized by a Master Masons' lodge, any more than the acts of a
literary
or charitable society wholly unconnected with the Order. Again: By the
present organization of Freemasonry, Grand Lodges are the supreme
masonic
tribunals. If, therefore, expulsion from a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons
involved expulsion from a Blue Lodge, the right of the Grand Lodge to
hear
and determine causes, and to regulate the internal concerns of the
institution, would be interfered with by another body beyond its
control.