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

misapprehension of an ancient regulation, which says that "no man can
be
entered a Brother in any particular lodge, or admitted a member
thereof,
without the unanimous consent of all the members"--which inherent
privilege is said not to be subject to dispensation, "lest a turbulent
member should thus be imposed upon them, which might spoil their
harmony,
or hinder the freedom of their communication, or even break and
disperse
the Lodge." But it should be remembered that this regulation altogether
refers to the admission of new members, and not to the restoration of
old
ones--to the granting of a favor which the candidate solicits, and
which
the lodge may or may not, in its own good pleasure, see fit to confer,
and
not to the resumption of a vested and already acquired right, which, if
it
be a right, no lodge can withhold. The practical working of this system
of
incomplete restoration, in a by no means extreme case, will readily
show
its absurdity and injustice. A member having appealed from expulsion by
his lodge to the Grand Lodge, that body calmly and fairly investigates
the
case. It finds that the appellant has been falsely accused of an
offense
which he has never committed; that he has been unfairly tried, and
unjustly convicted. It declares him innocent--clearly and undoubtedly
innocent, and far freer from any sort of condemnation than the
prejudiced
jurors who convicted him. Under these circumstances, it becomes
obligatory that the Grand Lodge should restore him to the place he
formerly occupied, and reinvest him with the rights of which he has
been
unjustly despoiled. But that it cannot do. It may restore him to the
privileges of Masonry in general; but, innocent though he be, the Grand
Lodge, in deference to the prejudices of his Brethren, must perpetuate
a
wrong, and punish this innocent person by expulsion from his lodge. I
cannot, I dare not, while I remember the eternal principles of justice,
subscribe to so monstrous an exercise of wrong--so flagrant an outrage
upon private rights.
Index.
A.
Accused, to what he is entitled
Act passed in the reign of Henry VI., anno 1425