SECTION III.

THE EXECUTIVE POWERS OF A GRAND LODGE.
In the exercise of its executive functions, the Grand Lodge carries its laws into effect, and sees that they are duly enforced. But as a Grand Lodge is in session only during a few days of the year, it is necessary that these functions should be exercised for it, by some one acting as its agent ; and hence,
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to use the language of the Grand Lodge of New York, " all the executive powers of a Grand Lodge, when not in session, are reposed in its Grand Master."*
The Grand Master is therefore, in this discharge of executive powers, the representative of the Grand Lodge. That "body having first, in its legislative capacity, made the law, and then, in its judicial capacity, having applied it to a particular case, finally, in its executive capacity, enforces its de- cision through the agency of its presiding officer. The Grand Master cannot make laws nor adminis- ter them, for these are the prerogatives of the Grand Lodge ; but he may enforce them, because this is a power that has been delegated to him.
The conferring of degrees is an interesting and important exercise of the executive functions of a Grand Lodge, which is entitled to careful considera- tion. The question to be discussed is this : Has a Grand Lodge the power to confer the degrees of Masonry on a candidate ? In the years 1851 and 1852, this question was the subject of controversy between the Grand Lodges of Wisconsin, Florida and Iowa — the two former claiming, and the latter denying the right. Let us endeavor to come to a right conclusion on this subject by a careful ex- amination of the ancient laws and usages.
The earliest written Constitutions that we have— those of York in 926 — show, without doubt, that Apprentices were at that time made by their own
* Const. G. L. of New York, § 10,
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Masters. The law is not so clear as to where Fel- low Crafts were made, and we are obliged to resign all hope of finding an}' reference to the making of Master Masons, as ail the old Constitutions previous to 1721 are silent on this subject. Either the de- gree did not then exist, as we now have it, or this was clearly a casus omissus.
The Constitutions of Edward III., in the four- teenth century, are equally uncertain ; but in the third article is a phrase which seems to admit that Fellow Crafts might be made in a subordinate Lodge, for it is said that when a Lodge meets, the Sheriff, the Mayor, or the Alderman " should be made Fellow, or sociate to the Master.'7 If the ex- pression " made Fellow" is here to be interpreted in its Masonic meaning, then there can be no doubt that a Lodge might at that time confer the second degree : and I suppose, by analogy, the third. But of the correctness of this interpretation there may be a reasonable doubt, and if so, these Constitutions give us no light on the subject.
By the middle of the seventeenth century, we be- gin to find some definite authority, both in private records and in Constitutions. Elias Ashmole, the celebrated antiquary, tells us in his diary that he was made a Freemason on the 16th October, 1646, at Warrington, in Lancashire, " by Mr. Richard Penket, the Warden and the Fellow Crafts." This, then, was evidently in a subordinate Lodge. And in the Regulations adopted by the General Assembly in 1663. it is expressly stated that " no person, of
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what degree soever, be made or accepted a "Free* mason, unless in a regular Lodge, whereof one to be a Master or a Warden in that limit or division where such Lodge is kept, and another to be a craftsman in the trade of Freemasonry."*
Still later, about the year 1683, we find it stated in "The Ancient Charges at Makings" "that no Master nor Fellow take no allowance to be made Mason without the assistance of his Fellows, at least six or seven. "t
Preston also furnishes us with authority on this subject, and tells us that previous to the beginning of the eighteenth century, a sufficient number of brethren might meet together without warrant, make Masons, and practise the rites of Masonry.;):
But in 1722, a Regulation was adopted by the Grand Lodge of England, which declared thai Entered Apprentices must be admitted Fellow Crafts and Masters only in the Grand Lodge, unless by a dispensation from the Grand Master. §
This Regulation continued in force, however, only for three years ; for, in November, 1725, it was enacted that " the Master of a Lodge, with his Wardens and a competent number of the Lodge, assembled in due form, can make Masters and Fel- lows at discretion. "|| And ever since, the subordi-
* See ante p. 49. $ Preston, p. 182, note.
t See ante p. 51. § Reg. of 1722, No. xiii.
|| See Anderson, second edit. p. 160. The reason is assigned in the third edition of the Book of Constitutions for this almost immediate repeal of the law, namely, that " it was attended with many inconveniences." — See third edit. p. 280
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nate Lodges have continued to confer all the de- grees, while the records do not give a single instance of their being conferred, subsequent to that date, in the Grand Lodge.*
The facts, then, in relation to this subject appeal* to be briefly as follows : that as far back as we can trace by written records, the subordinate Lodges were authorized to confer all the degrees ; that in 1722, or perhaps a year or two sooner ,t this power, so far as the second and third degrees were con- cerned, was taken from the Lodges and deposited in the Grand Lodge ; that in 1725, this change being found to be productive of inconvenience, the old system was restored, and the Lodges were again permitted to confer all the degrees.
I cannot doubt, from this statement of facts, that the attempt on the part of the Grand Lodge in 1722 to deprive the Lodges of their right to confer all the degrees, was a violation of an ancient Land- mark, and I am inclined to attribute its speedy re- peal as much to a conviction of this fact as to the acknowledged reason of its inconvenience.
But while I contend that all regular Lodges have an inherent right to enter, pass and raise Free masons, of which no Grand Lodge can deprive them,
* The instances quoted of the initiation of the Duke of Lorraine, the Prince of Wales, and a few others, were not examples of the degrees being confer- red in a Grand Lodge, but of Masons made " at sight" by the Grand Master in " occasional Lodges."
t There is a record that the degrees were conferred in the Grand Lodge by Payne, Grand Master, on the 24th June, 1721 ; but we find no subsequent record to the same effect.
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except by forfeiture of warrant, I cannot deny the same prerogative to a Grand Lodge ; for I cannot see how an assemblage of Masons, congregated in their supreme capacity, can have less authority to transact all the business of Masonry than an in- ferior and subordinate body.
But I am equally convinced that the exercise of this prerogative by a Grand Lodge is, under almost all circumstances that I can conceive, most inexpe- dient, and that the custom of conferring degrees should be, as a matter of policy, confined to the subordinate Lodges.