CHAPTER 1,

&i)c Nature of a 3Letr£e,
*
The Old Charges of 1722 define a Lodge to be " a place where Masons assemble and work ;" and the definition is still further extended by describing it as " an assembly or duly organized society of Ma- sons." This organization was originally very sim- ple in its character ; for, previous to the year 1717, a sufficient number of Masons could meet, open a Lodge, and make Masons, with the consent of the sheriff or chief magistrate of the place.* But in 1717 a regulation was adopted, which declared " that the privilege of assembling as Masons should no longer be unlimited, but that it should be vested in certain Lodges convened in certain places, and legally authorized by the Warrant of the Grand
* " The mode of applying by petition to the Grand Master, for a Warrant to meet as a regular Lodge, commenced only in the year 1718 ; previous to which time, Lodges were empowered, by inherent privileges vested in the fraternity at large, to meet and act occasionally, under the direction of some able Architect, and the acting magistrate of the county ; and the proceed- ings of those meetings being approved by the majority of the brethren con- vened at another Lodge assembled in the same district, were deemed con- stitutional."—Preston, Ol. ed., p. 66, note.
280 NATURE OF A LODGE.
Master and the consent of the Grand Lodge. So that the modern definition contained in the lecture of the first degree is more applicable now than it would have been before the eighteenth century. This definition describes a Lodge as " an assem- blage of Masons, duly congregated, having the Holy Bible, square and compasses, and a Charter or Warrant of Constitution empowering them to work."
The ritual constantly speaks of Lodges as being "just and legally constituted." These two terms refer to two entirely distinct elements in the organi- zation of a Lodge. It is "just "* when it consists of the requisite number of members to transact the business or perform the labors of the degree in which it is opened, and is supplied, with the neces- sary furniture of a Bible, square and compasses. It is " legally constituted " when it is opened under constitutional authority. Each of these ingredients is necessary in the organization of a Lodge. Its justness is a subject, however, that is entirely regu- lated by the ritual. Its legality alone is to be con- sidered in the present work.
Every Lodge, at the present day, requires for its proper organization as a " legally constituted " body, that it should have been congregated by the permission of some superior authority, which au thority may emanate either from a Grand Master or a Grand Lodge. When organized by the for-
* The word just is here taken in the old sense of " complete in all it* parts."
LODGES UNDER DISPENSATION. 281
iner, it is said to be a Lodge under Dispensation ; when by the latter, it is called a Warranted Lodge. These two distinctions in the nature of Lodge or- ganization will therefore give rise to separate inqui- ries : first, into the character of Lodges working under a Dispensation ; and secondly, into that of Lodges working under a Warrant of Constitution.