CHAPTER I.

©f Hnteretr Apprentices,
There was a time, and that at no very remote period, when the great body of the fraternity was composed entirely of Entered Apprentices. The first degree was the only one that was conferred in subordinate Lodges, and the Grand Lodge reserved to itself the right of passing Fellow Crafts and raising Master Masons." Of course all the business of subordinate Lodges was then necessarily trans- acted in the Entered Apprentice's degree. The Wardens, it is true, were required to be Fellow Crafts,t and the most expert of these was chosen as the Master ;J but all the other offices were filled,
* " No private Lodge at this time [1739] had the power of passing or rais- ing Masons, nor could any Brother be advanced to either of these degrees but in the Grand Lodge, with the unanimous consent of all the Brethren in communication assembled." — Smith's Use and Abuse of Freemasonry, p. 73. This is confirmed by the Old Laws of the Grand Lodge of England, art. xiii.,which ordered that" Apprentices must be admitted Fellow Crafts and Masters only here, [in the Grand Lodge] unless by dispensation from the Grand Master."
t " No Brother can be a Warden until he has passed the part of a Fellow Craft."— Charges of 1721, § 4.
% " The most expert of the Fellow Craftsmen shall be chosen or appointed the Master or Overseer of the lord's work, who is to be called Master by those that work under him."— Ibid, § 5.
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and the business and duties of Masonry were per- formed, by the Apprentices. But we learn from Anderson, that on the 22d of November, 1725, a regu- lation was adopted which permitted the Lodges to assume the prerogative formerly vested in the Grand Lodge, of conferring the second and third degrees, and as soon as this became generally the custom, Apprentices ceased to constitute the body of the craft, a position which then began to be occupied by Master Masons ; and the Apprentices lost by this change nearly all the rights and prerogatives which they had originally possessed.
This fact must be constantly borne in mind when- ever we undertake to discuss the rights of Entered Apprentices, and to deduce our opinions on the sub- ject from what is said concerning them in the ancient Regulations. All that is written of them in these fundamental laws is so written because they then constituted the great body of the craft.* They were almost the only Masons ; for the Fellow Crafts and Masters were but the exceptions, and hence these Regulations refer to them, not so much
* This expression must, however, be taken with some reservation. In the early part of the eighteenth century, when the speculative element predomi- nated in the Order, to the entire exclusion of the operative, Entered Appren- tices, that is to say, initiates, or Masons who had taken but one degree, clearly constituted the body of the craft. But at an earlier period, when the operative was mingled with the speculative character of the institution, the body of the Order were undoubtedly called " Fellows," and would now pro- bably be considered as equivalent to our Fellow Crafts. This subject will be discussed at length in the next chapter. It is sufficient for the present that we consider the condition of the Order at the time of the revival in 1717, and for some years afterwards, when Apprentices only composed the prinot pal membership of the Lodges.
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as Apprentices, or men of the lowest degree, in con- tradistinction to those who had been advanced to higher grades, but simply as the large constituency of the Masonic fraternity. Hence the Regulations which on this principle and in this view then ap- plied to Entered Apprentices, must now be referred to Master Masons, who have taken their place in the distribution of the labors, as well as the honors and prerogatives of the institution. I shall have occa- sion, before this chapter is concluded, to apply this theory in the illustration of several points of Ma- sonic law.
In the modern system — the one, that is to say, which is now practised everywhere — Entered Ap- prentices are possessed of very few rights, and are called upon to perform but very few duties. They are not, strictly speaking, members of a Lodge, are not required to pay dues, and are not permitted to speak or vote, or hold any office. Secrecy and obedience are the only obligations imposed upon them, while the Masonic axiom, " audi, vide, tace" — • hear j see, and be silent — is peculiarly appropriate to them in their present condition in the fraternity.
Our ritual, less changed in this respect than our Regulations, still speaks of initiating Apprentices and making Masons, as synonymous terms. They were so, as we have seen, at one time, but they cer- tainly no longer express the same meaning. An Entered Apprentice is now no more a Mason than a student of medicine is a physician, or a disciple ia a philosopher. The Master Masons now constitute
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the body of the craft ; and to be, at this day, a Mason, properly so called, one must have taken the third degree.45"
Hence Apprentices are not entitled to the honors of Masonic burial, t nor can they join in paying those honors to a deceased Master Mason. 'J: In this respect they are placed precisely in the position of profanes ; and it is a practical proof of what I have just said, that they are not Masons in the strict sense and signification of the word. They are really nothing more than Masonic disciples, permit- ted only to enter the porch of the temple, but with no right to penetrate within its sanctuary. §
* I must not be understood by this expression to deny the Masonic charac- ter of Entered Apprentices. In the ordinary and colloquial use of the word, a Mason is one who has been admitted into the Order of Masonry. In this sense an Apprentice is a Mason ; he is to be styled, by way of distinction from the possessors of the succeeding degrees, an " Entered Apprentice Mason." But in the more legal and technical employment of the title, a Mason is one who is in possession of the rights, privileges and mysteries of Masonry. And in this sense an Apprentice is clearly not yet a Mason ; he is only a neophyte in the incipient stage of Masonry. To avoid confusion, this difference in the colloquial and legal uses of the word must be always borne in mind. We speak carelessly and familiarly of a building in the course of erection as a house, although nothing but the frame-work may be there. But really and strictly, it is only a house when completely finished, and ready for occupation as a place of habitation.
f " No Mason can be interred with the formalities of the Order .... unless he has been advanced to the third degree of Masonry, from which re- striction there can be no exception. Fellow Crafts or Apprentices are not entitled to the funeral obsequies." — Preston, Ol. edit., p. 89.
X This is evident from the fact that on such occasions the Lodge is re- quired to be opened in the Master's degree. — See Preston, as above.
§ The position of Entered Apprentices in the Order at the present day eeems to be strictly in accordance with our ancient traditions. These inform us that the Apprentices were not permitted to pass the portals of the temple.
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Jf this be the case, then it follows clearly that fchey are not entitled to Masonic charities or relief. And so far a? regards the pecuniary benefits of the Order, we have a still better reason for this exclu- sion ; for surely they who have contributed nothing to the support of the institution, in the form of con- tributions or arrears, cannot expect, as a right, to receive any eleemosynary aid from its funds. The lesson of charity is, it is true, given in the first de- gree ; but this is a ritualistic usage, which was estab- lished at the time when Entered Apprentices were, as I have already observed, the great body of the craft ; and were really, by this fact, entitled to the name of Masons. The lessons taught on this sub- ject, except in so far as they are of a general char- acter, and refer to the virtue of charity simply as a part of a system of ethics, must be viewed only as an introductory instruction upon matters that are afterwards to be practically enforced in the third degree.
Entered Apprentices formerly had the right of being present at the communications of the Grand Lodge, or General Assembly, and taking part in its deliberations. In fact, it is expressly prescribed, in the last of the Regulations of 1721, that none of these important laws can be altered, or any new General Regulations made, until the alteration or
but were occupied in the quarries in fashioning the rude stones by means of the guage and gavel, so as to fit them for the use of the Fellow Crafts. And it was not until they had made due proficiency and proved themselves worthy by their obedience and fidelity, that they were permitted to enter the sacred precincts, and to receive a fuller share of light and instruction.
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the new regulation is submitted to all the Brethren, " even the youngest Entered Apprentice."* But this rule is now obsolete, because, being founded on the fact that Apprentices were then the body of the craft, and they being no longer so, the reason of the law having ceased, the law also ceases. Cessante ratione legis, cessat ipsa lex.
Entered Apprentices, however, still have several rights, in the due exercise of which they are en- titled to as much protection as the most important members of the craft. These rights may be briefly enumerated as follows :
They have a right to sit in the Lodge in which they were initiated, when it is opened in the first degree, and to receive all the instructions which ap- pertain to that degree. This is not a right of visitation such as is exercised by Master Masons, because it cannot be extended beyond the Lodge in which the Apprentice has been initiated. Into that Lodge, however, whenever opened and working, in his degree he can claim admittance, as a right ac- cruing to him from his initiation ; but if admitted into any other Lodge, (the policy of which is doubt- ful) it can only be by the courtesy of the presiding officer. Formerly, of course, when Apprentices constituted the body of the fraternity, they pos- sessed this general right of visitation,! but lost it
* See ante p. 79.
f Of course when the majority of the members of all Lodges were Appren- tices, or, in other words, had received only the first degree, it is evident that there could have been few or no visits among the craft, if the right were re- stricted to the possessors of the third degree.
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as soon as Lodges began to confer the higher de- grees ; and now it is confined to Master Masons, who alone, under modern usage, possess the right of visit.
Apprentices have also the right to apply for ad- vancement to a higher degree. Out of the class of Apprentices the Fellow Crafts are made ; and as this eligibility to promotion really constitutes the most important right of this inferior class of our Brethren, it is well worthy of careful consideration. I say, then, that the Entered Apprentice possesses the right of application to be passed to the degree of a Fellow Craft. He is eligible as a candidate ; but here this right ceases. It goes no farther than the mere prerogative of applying. It is only the right of petition. The Apprentice has, in fact, no more claim to the second degree than the profane has to the first. It is a most mistaken opinion to suppose that when a profane is elected as a candi- date, he is elected to receive all the degrees that can be conferred in a Symbolic Lodge. Freemasonry is a rigid system of probation. A second step never can be attained until sufficient proof has been given in the preceding that the candidate is " worthy and well qualified.""* A candidate who has received the first degree is no more assured by this reception that he will reach the third, than that he will attain
* The Charges of 1722 tell us that " all preferment among Masons is grounded upon real worth and personal merit only," and they proceed to show how by these means alone progress is to be made from the lowest to the highest positions in the Order. See ante p. 57.
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the Royal Arch. In the very ceremony of his re ception he may have furnished convincing evidence of his unfitness to proceed further ; and it would be- come the duty of the Lodge, in that case, to debar his future progress. A bad Apprentice will make a worse Master Mason ; for he who cannot comply with the comparatively simple requisitions of the first degree, will certainly be incapable of respond- ing to the more important duties and obligations of the third. Hence, on the petition of an Apprentice to be passed as a Fellow Craft, a ballot should al ways be taken. This is but in accordance with the meaning of the word ; for a petition is a prayer for something which may or may not be refused, and hence, if the petition is granted, it is ex gratia, or by the voluntary favor of the Lodge, which, if it chooses, may withhold its assent. Any other view of the case would exclude that inherent right which is declared by the Regulations of 1721 to exist in every Lodge, of being the best judges of the quali- fications of its own members.*
An Apprentice, then, has the right to apply for advancement ; but the Lodge in which he was initi- ated has the correlative right to reject his applica- tion. And thereby no positive right of any person is affected ; for, by this rejection of the candidate for advancement, no other injury is done to him than the disappointment of his expectations. His character as an Entered Apprentice is not impaired,
* Regulations of 1721, art. vi., ante,p. 66.
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He still possesses all the rights and prerogatives that he did before, and continues, notwithstanding the rejection of his application, to be an Apprentice " in good standing," and entitled, as before, to all the rights and privileges of a possessor of that degree.
This subject of the petition of an Apprentice for advancement involves three questions of great im- portance : First, how soon, after receiving the first degree, can he apply for the second ? Secondly, what number of black balls is necessary to consti- tute a rejection ? And thirdly, what time must elapse, after a first rejection, before the Apprentice can renew his application for advancement ?
1. How soon, after receiving the first degree, can an Apprentice apply for advancement to the second ? The necessity of a full comprehension of the mys- teries of one degree, before any attempt is made to acquire those of a second, seems to have been thoroughly appreciated from the earliest times ; and hence the Old York Constitutions of 926 prescribe that " the Master shall instruct his Apprentice faithfully, and make him a perfect workman."* But if there be an obligation on the part of the Master to instruct his Apprentice, there must be, of course, a correlative obligation on the part of the latter to receive and profit by those instructions. Accordingly, unless this obligation is discharged, and the Apprentice makes himself acquainted with
* See,ante p. 45. But it is unnecessary to multiply authorities; as the ritual of the first degree has always prescribed study and probation.
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the Hosieries of the degree that he has already re- ceived, it is, by general consent, admitted that he has no right to be intrusted with further and more important information. The modern ritual sustains this doctrine, by requiring that the candidate, as a qualification in passing onward, shall have made " suitable proficiency in the preceding degree." This is all that the general law prescribes."" Suit- able proficiency must have been attained, and the period in which that condition will be acquired, must necessarily depend on the mental capacity of the candidate. Some men will become proficient in a shorter time than others, and of this fact the Master and the Lodge are to be the judges. An examination should therefore take place in open Lodge, and a ballot immediately following will ex- press the opinion of the Lodge on the result of that examination, and the qualification of the candidates.
From the difficulty with which the second and third degrees were formerly obtained — a difficulty dependent on the fact that they were only conferred in the Grand Lodge — it is evident that Apprentices must have undergone a long probation before they had an opportunity of advancement, though the pre- cise term of the probation was decided by no legal
* Unfortunately it is too much the usage, when the question is asked whether the candidate has made suitable proficiency in his preceding degree, to reply, " .such as time and circumstances would permit." I have no doubt that this is an innovation originally invented to evade the law, which has al- ways required a due proficiency. To such a question, no other answer oughl to be given than the positive and unequivocal one that " he has."
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enactment. Several modern Grand Lodges, how- ever, looking with disapprobation on the rapidity with which the degrees are sometimes conferred upon candidates wholly incompetent, have adopted special regulations, prescribing a determinate period of probation for each degree. This, however, is a local law, to be obeyed only in those jurisdictions in which it is of force. The general law of Masonry makes no such determinate provision of time, and demands only that the candidate shall give evidence of " suitable proficiency."*
2. What number of black balls is necessary to con- stitute a rejection ? Here we are entirely without the guidance of any express law, as all the Ancient Constitutions are completely silent upon the subject. It seems to me. however, that in the advancement of an Apprentice, as well as in the election of a profane, the ballot should be unanimous. This is strictly in accordance with the principles of Ma- sonry, which require unanimity in admission, lest improper persons be intruded, and harmony im- paired. Greater qualifications are certainly not required of a profane applying for initiation than of an Apprentice seeking advancement ; nor can I see any reason why the test of those qualifications
* The Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England contains the following provision : " No Lodge shall confer more than one degree on any Brother on the same day, nor shall a higher degree be conferred on any Brother at a less interval than four weeks from his receiving a previous degree, nor until he has passed an examination in open Lodge in that degree." A similar regulation prevails in many, if not most, of the Grand Lodges of the United States.
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should not be as rigid in the one case as in the other. I am constrained therefore to believe, not- withstanding the adverse decision of the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin in 1849,* that on the applica- tion of an Entered Apprentice for advancement to the second degree, the ballot must be unanimously in his favor to secure the adoption of his petition. It may be stated, once for all, that in all cases of balloting for admission in any of the degrees of Masonry, a single black ball will reject.
3. What time must elapse, after a first rejection, before the Apprentice can renew Ms application for advancement to the second degree ? Here, too, the Ancient Constitutions are silent, and we are left to
* The Hon. Wm. R. Smith, at that time Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin, said, in 1849, that he considered it not only wrong in itself, but highly unmasonic to deny advancement to an Entered Apprentice or Fellow Craft, " by the operation of a single negative in the ballot box." And he advanced the doctrine that, " without sufficient cause shown to the contrary, the advancement may be demanded by the candidate as a matter of right. He has already submitted to the ordeal of a single negative in the ballot box, and he stands in the Lodge as a man and a Mason, subject to the action of a majority of his Brethren on his merits or his demerits." — Proc. Q. L. Wise, 1849, p. 11. And the Grand Lodge decided, in accordance with this opin- ion, that an Entered Apprentice, should not be refused advancement, except by a vote of a majority of the Lodge. In commenting on this opinion and decision, the Committee of Foreign Correspondence of the G. L. of Florida, of which that able and experienced Mason, John P. Duval, was chairman, remarked : " We always supposed, if any one rule of ancient Masonry was more unquestionable than another, it was unanimity in balloting for initiating, passing and raising." — Proc. G. L. of Fla., 1851, p. 31. This view is sus- tained by the Grand Lodges of New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Iowa, Maryland and Ohio ; and the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin itself, the very next year, in its amended Constitution, adopted a provision declar- ing that " any member of a subordinate Lodge may object to the initiation, passing or 1'aising of a candidate, at any time before the degree is confer' red."— Const. G. L. Wise, part iv., art. iii., sect 7 ; anno 1850.
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» -educe our opinions from the general principles and a lalogies of Masonic law. As the application for advancement to a higher degree is founded on a ri&ht eauring to the Apprentice, by virtue of his re- ception into the first degree — that is to say, as the Apprentice, so soon as he has been initiated, be- comes irvested with the right of applying for ad- vancement to the second — it seems evident that, as long as ho remains an Apprentice " in good stand- ing," he continues to be invested with that right. Now, the rrjection of his petition for advancement by the Lodge does not impair his right to apply again, because it does not, as I have already shown, affect his rights and standing as an Apprentice ; it is simply the expression of the opinion that the Lodge does not at present deem him qualified for further progress in Masonry. We must never for- get the difference between the right of applying for advancement and the. right of advancement. Every Apprentice possesses the former, but no one can claim the latter until it is given to him by the unani- mous vote of the Lodge. And as, therefore, this right of application or petition is not impaired by its rejection at a particular time, and as the Ap- prentice remains precisely in the same position in -his own degree, after the rejection, as he did before, it seems to follow as an irresistible deduction, that he may again apply at the next regular communica- tion ; and if a second time rejected, repeat his ap- plications at all future meetings. I hold that the Entered Apprentices of a Lodge are competent, at
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all regular communications of their Lodge, to peti- tion for advancement. Whether that petition shall be granted or rejected is quite another thing, and depends altogether on the favor of the Lodge.
This opinion has not, it is true, been universally adopted, though no force of authority, short of an opposing landmark, could make one doubt its cor- rectness. For instance, the Grand Lodge of Cali- fornia decided that " the application of Apprentices or Fellow Crafts for advancement, should, after they have been once rejected by ballot, be governed by the same principles which regulate the ballot on petitions for initiation, and which require a proba- tion of one year."*
This appears to be a singular decision of Masonic law. If the reasons which prevent the advancement of an Apprentice or Fellow Craft to a higher de- gree, are of such a nature as to warrant the delay of one year, it is far better to prefer charges against the petitioner, and to give him the opportunity of a fair and impartial trial. In many cases, a candi- date for advancement is retarded in his progress from an opinion on the part of the Lodge that he is not yet sufficiently prepared for promotion by a knowledge of the preceding degree — an objection which may sometimes be removed before the recur-
* Proceedings G. L. of California, 1857. Several Grand Lodges have prescribed a certain period which must elapse before a rejected Apprentice can apply a second time for advancement. These are, however, only local regulations, and are unsupported by the ancient Landmarks or the genera] principles of Masonic law, being rather, as I think I have shewn, in opposi tion to the latter.
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renco of the next monthly meeting. In such a case, a decision like that of the Grand Lodge of Cali- fornia would "be productive of manifest injustice. I hold it, therefore, to be a more consistent rule, that the candidate for advancement has a right to apply at every regular meeting, and that whenever any moral objections exist to his taking a higher degree, these objections should be made in the form of charges, and their truth tested by an impartial trial. To this, too, the candidate is undoubtedly entitled, on all the principles of justice and equity. Whatever may be the rights of an Entered Ap- prentice, they are liable to forfeiture for misconduct, and he may be suspended, expelled, or otherwise masonically punished, upon adequate cause and sufficient proof. An Apprentice may therefore be tried, but the trial must be conducted in the first degree ; for every man is entitled to trial by his peers. But as none but Master Masons can inflict punishment, since they alone now constitute the body of the craft, the final decision must be made in the third degree. He is also entitled to an appeal to the Grand Lodge, from the sentence of his Lodge, because the benign spirit of our institution will al- low no man to be unjustly condemned ; and it is made the duty of the Grand Lodge to see that the rights of even the humblest member of the Order shall not be unjustly invaded, but that impartial justice is administered to all. This question of the trial of Entered Apprentices will, however, be re- sumed on a subsequent occasion, when we arrive at the topic of Masonic trials.