SECTION II.

THE WARDENS.
Every Lodge has two officers, who are distin- guished as the Senior and Junior Wardens. The word is derived from the Saxon wearclian, " to guard or watch," and signifies therefore a guardian or watchman. The French and German titles for the same officers, which are surveillant in the former language, and aufseher in the latter, are equally significant, as they denote an overseer. The title is derived from the fact that in the old rituals these officers were supposed to sit at the two columns of the porch, and oversee or watch the Fellow Crafts and Apprentices — the Senior Warden overlooking the former, and the Junior Warden the latter. This ritual is still observed in the Lodges of the French rite* where the two Wardens sit in the
* Thus Cla.vel : " A l'occident, des deuxcote"s la porte d'entree, s?ele. vent deux colonnes de bronze. Sur la colonne de gaucha est traeee ;
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west, at what is supposed to be the pedestals of the two columns of the porch of the temple ; and in the York rite, although the allusion is somewhat im- paired by the removal of the Junior Warden to the south, they still retain on their pedestals miniature columns, the representatives of the temple pillars, and which in all processions they carry as the in- signia of their office.*
The duties of the Senior Warden are very briefly described in the Installation service. They are, in the absence of the Master, to preside, and govern the Lodge ; in his presence, to assist him in the government of it.f
In assisting the Master in the government of the Lodge, it is the duty of both officers to see that due silence is observed around their respective stations, and that the orders issued from the east are strictly obeyed. But most of their duties in their peculiar positions are of a ritualistic nature, and are either unnecessary or improper to be discussed in the present work.
sur l'autre, on lit . Pres de la premiere, se place Ie premier surveillant,
et pres, de la deuxieme, Is second surveillant." — Hist. Pittoresq. de la Franc- mag, p. 4.
* These columns appear at one time to have been called " truncheons," and Oliver {Book of the Lodge, p. 116) quotes an inventory of the furniture belonging to a Lodge at Chester, (Eng.) taken in the year 1761, which men- tions among other things " two truncheons for the Wardens."
t Lenning gives a more explicit recapitulation of the duties of these offi- cers. He says : " Their duties are to keep order and silence in the meeting, to repeat the commands of the Master, each from his station, and to see them obeyed." — Encyclopadie der Freimaurerei, in voce Aufseher. These are precisely their
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In the absence of the Master, the Senior Warden governs the Lodge. This is his inherent right, and has already been fully considered in the preceding section. He may, and often does, as a matter of courtesy, resign the chair to some Past Master present, but such Past Master always acts under the authority of the Warden, who has first to congre- gate the Lodge, that is, to call the brethren to labor, before he resigns the gavel of his authority into the hands of the Past Master.
Within a few years, the very singular objection has been urged by some Masons that a Warden can- not preside and confer degrees unless he lias re- ceived the Past Master's degree.* Now, I know of no modern theory on Masonic law which has so little foundation in fact as this. The degree of Past Master is a necessary qualification of the Mas- ter of a Lodge, and without it, it is admitted that he cannot legally preside, not, however, because of any peculiar virtue or superior knowledge that the possession of the Past Master's degree confers, but because by the Landmarks, or certainly by very
* In 1857, the Grand Master of Kentucky, Bro. T. N. Wise, made the following decision, which was sustained by the Grand Lodge: The Master and Senior Warden of a Lodge being absent, the Junior Warden took the chair, and conferred the second degree, notwithstanding several Past Mas- ters were present. The Master of the Lodge, at the next meeting, pro- nounced the action of the Junior Warden unmasonic. The Grand Master, however, approved his course, as being the constitutional ruler of the Lodge, in the absence of his two superiors ; and the Grand Lodge, of course, in so plain a case, sustained him. There was other matter involved in this case, but the real priniinle affected was the right of the Junior Warden U preside.
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ancient regulations, the conferring of that degree constitutes an essential part of the ceremony of in- stalling the Master of a Lodge. He is not legally installed until he has received the degree ; and not being installed, he cannot exercise the functions of his office. But there is no regulation making the reception of the Past Master's degree a necessary part of the installation of a Warden, and when, therefore, a Warden has been duly installed, he is entitled to preside and confer degrees in the absence of the Master.
All the duties that devolve upon the Senior Warden, in the absence of the Master, devolve in like manner, and precisely to the same extent, upon the Junior Warden, in the absence of both the Mas- ter and the Senior. All that has been said of one officer, under such circumstances, is equally appli- cable to the other.
But if the Master be present, and the Senior Warden absent, the Junior Warden does not assume the functions of the latter officer, but retains his own station, and a Senior Warden pro tempore must be appointed by the Master. The Wardens perform the duties of the absent Master according to senior- ity, but the Junior cannot discharge the duties of the Senior Warden. It must be remembered that a Warden acting as Master is still a Warden, and is so acting simply in the discharge of one of the duties of his office. The Senior Warden is bound to the performance of his duties, which are, in the presence of the Master, to superintend the west, and
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in his absence to preside. The Junior Warden, in like manner, is bound to the performance of his duties, which are, in the presence of the Master, to superintend the south, and in the absence of both Master and Senior Warden, to preside. The ab- sence of the Senior Warden has, therefore, no effect, upon the duties of the Junior Warden, unless the Master is also absent, when he takes the east. He is to supply the place, not of the absent Senior Warden, but of the absent Master.*
Among the duties which formerly devolved upon the Junior Warden, was that of the examination of visitors. t This duty has now, much more appropri- ately, been intrusted to the Stewards.
It is one of the ritualistic Landmarks that the Senior Warden presides over the craft during the hours of labor, and the Junior Warden during the hours of refreshment ; and in reference to this fact, it is the usage for the column of the Senior Warden
* It is a little singular that neither Preston nor Webb allude, in the In- stallation service, to this duty of the Junior to preside, in the absence of his two superior officers. The second Regulation of 1721 only intimates it in the last clause. Dalcho (Ahiman Iiezon, p. 59J and Tannehill {Manual, p. 237) are the only monitorial authorities. who state the law explicitly, but it is sanctioned by universal and uninterrupted usage.
f " In a copy of the lectures which were used about the close of the eighteenth century, the Junior Warden's office, amongst other important matters, is said to include the examination of visitors." — Oliver, Book of the Lodge, p. 113. That and the introduction of candidates are specially in- trusted to the Junior Warden in the installation services of both Preston and Webb, but have long since been disused in this country. Cross, the first edition of whose " Chart" was published in 1819, and all the authors and compilers who have since followed him, Davis, Stewart, Tannehill, Maooy, &c, omit these duties from the charge given to the Junior Warden.
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to be standing, and that of the Junior to be lying down, while the Lodge is at work, and these posi- tions to be reversed when the Lodge is called off.* In consequence of the Junior Warden being placed over the craft during the hours of refresh- ment, and of his being charged at the time of his installation to see " that none of the craft be suffered to convert the purposes of refreshment into those of intemperance and excess,;;t it has been very generally supposed that it is his duty, as the prose- cuting officer of the Lodge, to prefer charges against any member who, by his conduct, has made himself amenable to the penal jurisdiction of the Lodge. I know of no ancient regulation which imposes this unpleasant duty upon the Junior Warden ; but it does seem to be a very natural deduction from his peculiar prerogative as the custos morum or guardian of the conduct of the craft, that in all cases of vio- lation of the law he should, after due efforts towards producing a reform, be the proper officer to bring the conduct of the offending brother to the notice of the Lodge.
* Preston (p. 80) says : " When the work of Masonry in the Lodge is carrying on, the column of the Senior Deacon is raised ; when the Lodge is at refreshment, the column of the Junior Deacon is raised." It will be seen by this that the columns, which, in the custom of this country, are, by a beautiful symbolism, placed in the hands of the Wardens, to indicate the hours of labor and refreshment, are, in the Prestonian work, without any meaning whatever, given to the Deacons. Webb thoughtlessly followed the system of Preston in this respect ; but it is doubtful whether he or any of his disciples ever worked by it. At least I can find no evidence, except the passage in Webb's charge to the Deacons, that columns were ever borne by those officers.
+ Installation charge to the Junior Warden.
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One of the most important prerogatives of the Wardens is that of representing the Lodge Avith the Master at all communications of the Grand Lodge. This is a prerogative the exercise of which they should never omit, except under urgent circum- stances. A few Grand Lodges in the United States have disfranchised the "Wardens of this right, and confined the representation to the Master, but I cannot hesitate to say that this is not only a viola- tion of ancient regulations, but an infraction of -the inherent rights of the "Wardens and the Lodges. After the comparatively modern organization of Grand Lodges, in 1717, the craft as a body sur- rendered the prerogatives which belonged to every Mason of being present at the General Assembly, in the assurance that their rights and privileges would be sufficiently secured by the presence of their Masters and Wardens.* Hence, in the Regu- lations of 1721, which must be considered, according to the history given of them by Preston, in the light of a bill of rights, or fundamental constitution,*}* the Grand Lodge is expressly defined as consisting of
* " Matters being thus amicably adjusted," says Preston, when speaking (f the organization of the Grand Lodge in 1717, "the brethren of the four old Lodges considered their attendance on the future communications of the Society as unnecessary, and therefore, like the other Lodges, trusted im- plicitly to their Master and Wardens, resting satisfied that no measure of importance would be adopted without their approbation." — Illustrations, p. 138, Ol. edit.
f Preston says that the officers of the old Lodges, fearing that the ma- jority might " encroach upon, or even subvert the privileges of the original Masons of England, very wisely formed a code of laws for the future govern- ment of the Society ." — Ibid. p. 184. This code is what is known as tin Regulations of 1721,
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* tlie Masters and TV ardens of all the regular par- ticular Lodges upon record." The disfranchisement of the Wardens is, in fact, a disfranchisement of the Lodges and the establishment of a new form of Grand Lodge, unknown to the Ancient Consti- tutions.
Another prerogative of the Wardens is their eligi- bility to election as Master.. It has already been seen that no Mason can be chosen Master unless he has previously served in the office of Warden, ex- cept in the case of new Lodges, or of emergencies, where no Warden, Past Warden, or Past Master will consent to serve. This eligibility to the chair is not confined to the Wardens then in office, for any brother who has ever filled that station retains for ever his eligibility. It is a right that is affected by no lapse of time.
The prerogative of appointment which is vested in these officers is limited. The Senior Warden has the right of appointing the Junior Deacon, and the Junior Warden that of appointing the two Stewards.
If the Master and both Wardens be absent, the Lodge cannot be opened, because the warrant of constitution is granted to the Master and Wardens, and their successors, and to none else. In 1857, during the absence of the Master and Wardens of a Lodge in Kentucky, a Past Master of the Lodge as- sumed the chair, appointed proxies for the Wardens, and proceeded to transact business. Upon an ap- peal from the Master of the Lodge, the Grand Mas-
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ter declared the acts of the Lodge to be illegal and of no effect. There can be no doubt that this de- cision was correct, according to the Regulations of 1721 ; for, although a Past Master may preside, by the courtesy of a Warden, he holds his authority, according to these Regulations, under the Warden, and cannot act until that officer has congregated the Lodge. At the opening of the Lodge at least, therefore, the Masier or a Warden must be present, and if Master and Wardens are all absent, the Lodge cannot be opened.
If, however, the Lodge is congregated by the Warden, and he places a Past Master in the chair, and then retires, I am inclined to think that the labors or business of the Lodge may be legally con- tinued, notwithstanding the absence of the Warden, for he has complied with the requisitions of the law, and congregated the Lodge. It is a right belong- ing to the Warden to invite a Past Master to pre- side for him, and if, after exercising that right, he then retires, the Past Master will continue to act as his representative. But the Warden will be re- sponsible for the acts of the Past Master ; for, if anything is done irregularly, it may be well said that the Warden should have been there to correct the irregularity when it occurred. I confess, how- ever, that this is a res non judicata — a question that has not been even discussed, so far as I am aware, by any Masonic authority.
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