"Ritual Differences"
THE SHORT TALK BULLETIN
The Masonic Service Association of the United States
VOL. 12 January 1934 NO. 1
An experience in Freemasonry usually upsetting to
the newly-Raised brother is his first visit to a Lodge in another
Jurisdiction than his own. Having carefully been taught a certain
ritual, in all probability with positive emphasis upon the
necessity of being "letter perfect", he learns with a
distinct shock that the ritual in other States differs from his
own, and that these differ each from the other.
If he converses with those "WELL INFORMED BRETHREN WHO WILL
ALWAYS BE AS READY TO GIVE AS YOU WILL BE TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTION"
he is more than apt to be met with a puzzled, "I don't know,
I'm sure, just why they are different from us, but, of course,
ours is correct."
The riddle becomes much plainer as the neophyte studies Masonic
history - but, alas, many never open a Masonic book! Yet
divergences in ritual cannot be understood without some
historical background. IT is necessary to understand, for
instance, that Freemasonry came to this country, some time prior
to 1731, at a time when English ritual was in process of
formation. We did not receive our Masonry from one central source,
but from several; nor did we obtain it as a whole. several
different localities (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia)
received Freemasonry from across the sea and from them our forms
and ceremonies radiated to other sections. The schism in the
first Grand Lodge in England (1753) resulted in two Grand Lodges;
the "Ancients" (the younger, schismatic body) and the
"Moderns" (the older, original Grand Lodge). Each had
its own ritual; our rituals sometimes lean to one, sometimes to
the other, and often to both. Literal ritualism is comparatively
a modern matter; and "mouth to ear" in early days meant
nothing more than the giving of information, not transmitting it
in a set form of words. Most of our Grand Lodges have been formed
by a union of particular Lodges many of which received each its
ritual from a different American source, with the result that the
ritual finally adopted is a combination of several. And finally,
Grand Lodges have not infrequently changed, added to and taken
from their own rituals, either as a matter of legislation or by
the easier course (in early days) of adopting with little or no
question the variations suggested by positive minded ritualists,
Grand Lecturers, Custodians of the Work, Ritual Committees and so
on. Some of these, unfortunately, had little or no Masonic
background, and changed and altered, added and subtracted with no
better reason than "this seems much better to us!"
Certain fundamentals are to all intents and purposes the same in
every one of our forty-nine Grand Jurisdictions. All American
Lodges have a Master and two Wardens, a Secretary and Treasurer,
and Altar with the V. S. L. and the other Great Lights; lesser
lights, three degrees; unanimous ballot required; make Masons
only of men; have the same Substitute Word given in the same way;
are tiled; have a ceremony of opening and closing. To some extent
all dramatize and exemplify the Master's Degree, although the
amount of drama and exemplification differs widely.
But beyond these and a few other simple essentials are wide
variations. Aprons are worn one way in one degree in one
Jurisdiction and another way in the same degree in another. Some
Jurisdictions have more officers in a Lodge than others. In some
Jurisdictions Lodges open and close on the Master Mason's Degree;
others on the First Degree; others only in the degree which is to
be worked." Lesser Lights are grouped closely about the
Altar, in a triangle to one side of the Altar, in the stations of
the Master and Wardens. In some Lodges the I. P. M. (Immediate
Past Master) plays an important part, as in England. Other Lodges
know him not. Some Lodges have Inner Guards and two Masters of
Ceremonies - others will have none of these. Dividing, lettering,
syllabling are almost as various in practice as the Jurisdictions.
Obligations show certain similarities in some requirements; but
what is a part of the obligation in one Jurisdiction may be
merely an admonition in another, and vice versa.
Discovering all this (and much more!) the thoughtful initiate is
apt to wonder why it is deemed so important that he memorize his
own particular "work" so closely; when he travels he
finds that what he knows as familiar words and forms and phrases
are strange to the Lodges he visits. Nor is this the place to
argue for purity of the ritual as taught. There are good and
sufficient reasons why we should hand on to our sons and their
sons the ritual as we received it - if only to preserve without
further alteration and change that which was formed by the
fathers. Suffice it that while uniformity in work within
Jurisdictions is fairly well established as good American Masonic
practice, it is not universal. There are several "workings"
for instance, permitted in English Lodges, and even in some
American Jurisdictions (vide Connecticut) not all Lodges use the
same ritual.
The reason for all this are so involved, complex and cover such a
long period, that a complete understanding is difficult even for
the student willing to read the enormous amount of history and
authority which may make it plain. Briefly, and in general, the
matter becomes clearer if we visualize our sources of ritual.
We receive our Masonry from
The Mother Grand Lodge of England......................1717-1753
The Grand Lodge of the "Ancients"..........................1753-1813
The Grand Lodge of the "Moderns"..........................1753-1813
The United Grand Lodge.........................................1813
and on
The Grand Lodge of Ireland....................................1724
and on
The Grand Lodge of Scotland................................1736
and on
And from pre-Grand Lodge era Lodges of England, Ireland
and (or) Scotland........................................................
Unfortunately for the Historian, this list does not signify six
or seven springs from which ritual welled in six or seven
different but "pure" forms. The ritual of the original
Grand Lodge changed as it flowed, through many years after 1717.
The Grand Lodges of "Ancients" and "Moderns"
both made alterations in ritual so that rival members of each
body found it impossible to make themselves known Masonically in
the other. Ireland and "Scotland were, and are, as different
as Pennsylvania and California. From pre-Grand Lodge Lodges
members came to this country to form themselves into Lodges
without warrant or charter (as was the custom in early days). A
dozen men, bringing what they remembered of the ritual they heard
when "made" to from a Lodge, would naturally include in
their ritual a little of one original source, some phrases from
another beginning, a paragraph from a third wellspring, and so on.
The Mother Grand Lodge ritual (1717 to 1753) was not the ritual
of the United Grand Lodge which came into existence in 1813, when
the two parts of the original Mother Grand Lodge ("Ancients"
and "Moderns") again came together. The United Grand
Lodge, or Grand Lodge of Reconciliation, formed ins ritual from
the best of the divergent rituals of the "Ancients" and
the "Moderns".
Thus, Lodges in this country which received their ritual, in any
or all states of purity or impurity, from either of these several
sources, would differ decidedly each from the other.
Come we now to the spread of Masonry in the thirteen colonies,
and later, through the forty-eight states and territories and the
District of Columbia. To write even one paragraph of Masonic
history of ritual in so many subdivisions would make this
Bulletin unreadably long. But a few high lights may be noted.
From four primary American sources of ritual, in one way or
another all other American Grand Jurisdictions, in part at least,
received their "work"; Massachusetts, which at first
sent forth what must have been at least an approximation of the
work of the original Mother Grand Lodge, through her ritual today
is derived from "Moderns" and "Ancients";
Pennsylvania and Virginia, both giving forth individual variants
of a combination of "Modern" and "Ancient",
and North Carolina, almost purely "Modern."
In 1915 Dean Roscoe Pound showed how various were the next groups
of States which received their rituals from the first four
American sources. He developed that Maine derived from
Massachusetts since the fusion; Vermont derived from the Grand
Lodge of "Ancients" in Massachusetts before the fusion;
Ohio derived from Massachusetts, from Connecticut, a strictly
"Modern" Jurisdiction, and from Pennsylvania; Indiana
derived from Ohio and Kentucky, which latter represents Virginia
after the fusion; Michigan derived from the "Ancient"
Grand Lodge of Canada and from New York, which since the
Revolution was a strictly "Ancient" Jurisdiction;
Kentucky derived from Virginia; Tennessee derived from North
Carolina, a purely "Modern" Jurisdiction; Alabama
derived from North Carolina, from South Carolina and from
Tennessee, thus representing Virginia and North Carolina;
Louisiana derived from South Carolina, from Pennsylvania and from
France; Florida derived from Georgia and from South Carolina;
Missouri derived from Pennsylvania and from Tennessee,
representing therefore, the fusion in Pennsylvania and the "Modern
Masonry" of North Carolina; Illinois derived from Kentucky
and so represents Virginia; and the District of Columbia derived
from Maryland (a fusion of "Modern Masonry" from
Massachusetts and from England direct, with "Ancient Masonry"
from Pennsylvania, and from Virginia.
The further west we go, the more we find of a mixture of sources,
complicated rather than simplified by such matters as the
splitting of the Grand Lodge of Dakota into the Grand Lodges of
South Dakota and North Dakota, when these two states were formed,
and the formation of the Grand Lodge of California, which drew
its work from many different sources. California Lodge No. 13, of
the District of Columbia, was formed for the purpose of carrying
Masonry to the Golden Gate at the time of the Gold Rush. That
Lodge is now Number 1 on the California Grand Lodge register. But
California's ritual is not more similar to the district of
Columbia working than that of any other state, since the District
Lodge was but one of several which formed the Grand Lodge of
California.
There have been certain unifying influences; The Baltimore
Masonic Convention of 1843, the conclusions of which were adopted
in whole or in part by several American Grand Jurisdictions, and
the work of Rob Morris and his conservators, which despite its
chilly reception by many Grand Jurisdictions, undoubtedly left
its impress on American Ritual. A third unifying influence has
been the tremendous impress made on almost all American
Jurisdictions by Thomas Smith Webb and Jeremy Cross, plainly
evident in the exoteric paragraphs printed in many State monitors
or manuals. A fourth has been the honest desire and strenuous
efforts of many Grand Lodges, through District Deputies, Grand
Lecturers, Schools of Instruction and similar machinery, to
preserve what they have in its supposedly ancient perfection. But
by the time these latter were in operation, ritual was more or
less fixed. because of the reverence of the average Mason for
what his is taught, and his fierce resentment of any material
change in that which he learns, rituals and degree forms,
ceremonies and practices, usages and customs, continue to be what
he believes them to have been "from time immemorial"
even when sober fact shows that they have an antiquity of (in all
probability) less than two hundred years.
For the benefit of those Masons to whom divergence of ritual is
not the less distressing that it is understandable, it may be
said that most authorities agree that it is really not a matter
of great moment. All over the world Freemasonry teaches the same
great truths, offers the same spiritual comfort, creates and
continues the same fraternal bond. "In non essentials,
variety; in essentials, unity" might have been written of
Masonry. It matters little how we wear the apron in given degree
- so be it that it is worn with honor. The method of giving a
sign or a pass matter much less than that what we do is done with
understanding.
While Freemasonry continues to observe and revere those few
Landmarks which are undisputed everywhere - those which Joseph
Fort Newton says are "The fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood
of Man, the Moral Law, the Golden Rule, and the hope of Life
Everlasting," it becomes of less moment that different men,
in different times, in different localities, have found more than
one way to phrase and to teach the ancient verities of the old,
old craft.