SECTION I.

M A SONIC CENSURE.
In the canon law, ecclesiastical censure was a penalty which carried with it a deprivation of com- munion, or, in the case of clergymen, a prohibition to exercise the sacerdotal office.
But in Masonic law, it is the mildest form of punishment that can be inflicted, and may be de- fined to be a formal expression of disapprobation,
* Except in a single article of the Gothic Constitutions of 926, 1 do not find in any of the old Constitutions, Regulations aud Charges, the remotest refer ence to a pecuniary penalty for the breach of any Masonic duty.
REPRIMAND. 517
without other result than the effect produced upon the feelings of him who is censured.
The censure of a member for any violation of duty is to be adopted in the form of a resolution, which simply expresses the fact that the Lodge dis- approves of his conduct in the particular act. It may be adopted by a bare majority, and effects no deprivation of Masonic rights or Masonic standing. Inasmuch, however, as it is a penalty inflicted for an offence, although a very light one, it is due to comity and the principles of justice, that the party towards whom the censure is to be directed should be notified of the fact, that he may have an oppor- tunity to defend himself. A member, therefore, wishing to propose a vote of censure, should always give notice of the same ; or, what amounts to the same thing, the resolution of censure should never be proposed and acted on at the same meeting.
It is competent for any member, in the same way, and on notice given, to move the revocation of a vote of censure ; and the Lodge may, at any regu- lar communication, reverse such a vote. It is al- ways in the power of a Lodge to retrace its steps when an act of injustice is to be redressed.
SECTION n.
REPRIMAND.
Reprimand is the next grade of Masonic punish ment, and may be defined as a severe reproof for *ome fault formally communicated to the offender.
518 REPRIMAND.
It differs from censure in this, that censure is simply the expression of an opinion in relation to certain conduct, while reprimand is an actual punish- ment inflicted on the offender by some officer ap- pointed for that purpose.
Censure, as I have already said, may be expressed on a mere motion, and does not demand the forms of trial, although the party against whom it is pro- posed to direct the censure should always have an opportunity of defending his conduct, and of oppos- ing the motion for censure.
But reprimand cannot be predicated on a mere motion. It must be preceded by charges and a trial. I suppose, however, that a mere majority will be competent to adopt a sentence of reprimand.
Reprimand is of two kinds, private and public — the latter of which is a higher grade of punishment than the former. Private reprimand is generally communicated to the offender in the form of a let- ter. Public reprimand is given orally in the Lodge, and in the presence of all the brethren. The mode and terms in which the reprimand is to be communi- cated are of course left to the discretion of the executive officer ; but it may be remarked that no additional ignominy should be found in the language in which the sentence of the Lodge is communicated. The punishment consists in the fact that a repri- mand has been ordered, and not in the uncourteous terms with which the language of that reprimand may be clothed. But under particular circumstances the Master may find it expedient to dilate upon
EXCLUSION. 519
the nature of the offence which has incurred the reprimand.
The Master of the Lodge is the proper person to whom the execution of the reprimand should be intrusted.
Lastly, a reprimand does not affect the Masonic standing of the person reprimanded.