This post is the script of a talk I gave as a 2022 Grand Commandery York Rite Conference Speaker. It is preserved as closely as possible to the actual talk delivered at the conferences, including voicing, phrasing, etc. Please enjoy.

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The Latin Rule

A Templar Talk for the 2022 Texas York Rite Conferences

By Gabriel Jagush, Past Commander, Worth Commandery № 19, K∴T∴

Sir Knights,

My name is Gabriel Jagush. I am a Past Commander of Worth Commandery № 19 in Fort Worth. Today, we’re going to explore the Latin Rule. This was the monastic code by which our spiritual ancestors, the Knights Templar, governed their lives. We’ll also reflect on what it means to us as Templar Masons.

A “Rule” is a system of regulations for a monastic order. Each member of the community has to follow this Rule. Every monastic order uses (or used) a Rule of some kind. The Knights Templar were no exception.

Historians have studied many monastic Rules. They have taught us a lot about the spiritual beliefs and structures of those orders. However, the Latin Rule of the Knights Templar has not been studied this way. In fact, it has never been fully translated into English. The full text contains hundreds of regulations. So far, English translations only cover the first seventy-two sections. This is known as the Primitive Rule.

The Latin Rule was the guiding document for the Knights Templar. They used it to govern themselves, their monasteries, and their entire order. It was important from a legal perspective, too. It let the Church recognize them as a valid military-monastic order. As Templar Masons, we can use it to help govern our own lives and actions.

The Rule covers many aspects of consecrated life. A lot of it prescribes how to worship both in public and in private. For example, you had to attend church services multiple times a day. If you couldn’t attend services, you had to pray to make up for it. You had to pray the Lord’s Prayer thirteen times at 2 AM, seven times every three hours, and nine times for evening prayer. 

Other regulations governed how the Knights ate. They ate only three meat-based meals per week. At all other meals, they ate simple plant-based food. They didn’t eat breakfast. During lunch and dinner, they ate in complete silence. They used only hand signals to communicate. A member of the Order read Scripture out loud at every meal.

Some regulations are interesting to us as Masons. §24 dictates that “permanent brothers” couldn’t wear furs, hides, or skins. They were, however, allowed to wear lambskin or ram’s skin. The reception of candidates into the Order is similar to how we investigate candidates for the lodge. It’s also similar to the installation of the Worshipful Master. Brethren traveling through different regions were instructed, “let them not defile by word or action the purpose of the order, but by their examples let them display – especially to those with whom they may be joined – the salt of wisdom and the spice of good works.” This should sound familiar to every modern Knight Templar!

The defining trait of the Latin Rule is its emphasis on humility. Unselfishness, obedience, and living a simple, quiet life mark the Rule like a steady drumbeat. We can especially see this in the regulations about clothing. 

Clothing was uniform in color. The color varied depending on the brother and his role in the order. Members wore black, white, or sometimes brown. Clothing had to be simple. Any clothing that required more than one person to put on – like that of the nobility – was forbidden. §28 set grooming standards. Hair had to be “regular and orderly.” Beards could not be “excessive or facetious.” The Rule forbade pointed shoes and shoes with buckles, which were expensive exotic imports. Gold, silver, and jeweled horse tack was forbidden unless it was old and had been given as a gift. Horse feed bags had to be plain. You couldn’t put your family coat of arms or another “cover” on any of your weapons, shields, or armor. Doing so meant you were attached to secular titles and worldly connections. This wasn’t compatible with the spirit of the Order.

Other sections of the Rule address humility more directly. §43 condemns bragging about your sinful ways before joining the Order. §47 and §48 tell Knights to humbly accept any legal actions taken against them. This applies even if the judgment may not be fair. That may remind us a little of the Entered Apprentice Charge.

There are parts of the Rule that don’t translate as well to a modern day perspective. §44 forbids going hawking with a falconer. At first, this might seem like a deviation from the theme. Further context helps us out here. Hawking and falconry were hobbies reserved for the rich as a spectator sport. Someone sworn to live a humble life couldn’t take part in this. Thus, we see the continued development of the theme of humility. Avoid selfishness. Obey God, the Church, and the Order. Live a quiet and simple life.

We can’t summarize the entire Rule in this talk. It’s a document that deserves several deep dives from every Sir Knight. As Templar Masons, it calls to us. What can we learn from it today? How can we guide our lives by its wisdom? We are the spiritual descendants of those Knights. Their Rule is our inheritance. We know that it’s got real value.

Nowadays, not many of us – myself included – live by a monastic code. We have “house rules.” Our commanderies have bylaws. The Grand Commandery has a book of statutes and regulations. The Grand Encampment has a Constitution. What about a personal Rule? 

I have a question for the Sir Knights here today. Imagine that you are writing a formal moral code for yourself. This is something to live by as a man and a Templar Mason. What is the first or most important rule you’d write down?

[Short, limited discussion.]

Sir Knights, I have to wrap us up here. You can learn more about the Latin Rule in “The Original Rule of the Knights Templar.” This is a master’s thesis by Robert Wojtowicz of Western Michigan University. If you’d like a copy, please send me an email. 

Thank you so much for your attention. I hope you all enjoyed this talk. God bless!

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This post was originally written to be delivered as a talk for the 2021 Texas York Rite Conferences on behalf of the Most Excellent Grand Chapter of Texas. As such, much of it is in an oratory style. I have chosen to preserve it in this tone of voice. All information presented is freely available online and not considered “secret.”

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The Royal Arch Degree:

An Early History

Gabriel Jagush, PHP, Texas Chapter № 362, RAM

Introduction

Disclaimer

I want to start with a disclaimer. Please don’t go into this talk thinking that I intend this to be a rigorous work of scholarship! Yes, this talk leans on established masonic authors and primary sources. The primary basis, though, is my personal collection of notes and thoughts. I am grateful to Most Excellent Companion Myer for letting me share this with y’all.

I will, of course, defer to more experienced academics when it comes to corrections. I plan to alter, correct, and add to the talk over the course of time. If this ends up being a very different talk by the last conference, that would be more than acceptable to me.

Overview

At first, I intended for this to be more about the chronology of the Royal Arch Degree. Over the course of researching the subject and writing the talk, I changed my mind. To me, it’s become more interesting to relay a few stories about early Royal Arch Masons. Through those stories, though, we will learn more about the history of the degree. 

We’ll talk about:

• the earliest confirmed dates of Royal Arch Masonry, 
• an early clandestine capitular rite,
• the torture of John Coustos by the Portuguese Inquisition,
• and what this all might mean.

The Earliest “Hard Dates”

Ireland

The first written record that we have of the Royal Arch comes from the January 14, 1744 edition of Faulkner’s Dublin Journal. As part of a Masonic Saints John Day parade in the city of Youghal (You-All), on December 27, 1743, two “Excellent Masons” carried a “Royal Arch” through the town.¹

Robert Harvey (of the Research Lodge of Ireland) thinks that the “Excellent Masons” were Deputy Wardens.² I noticed an inconsistency, though. In the parade, one pair of “Excellent Masons” carries the “Royal Arch” and a second pair of “Excellent Masons” carry a level and a plumb line.³ As per Harvey’s account, the Master and Wardens are one group of three; the Deputy Master and Deputy Wardens are another group of three.⁴ At a total of six officers, this doesn’t account for the two other “Excellent Masons.” If not Deputy Masters, who are they?

Were these two brethren masons who were of an “excellent” quality? Were they “Excellent Masons” because they had received a specific degree? To add to this, was the “Royal Arch” like the kind of arch that we see within our modern Chapter rooms? Was it something more representative, like an Ark of the Covenant, as Companion John Stokes claims?⁵ We don’t have a lot of the context we need to answer these questions – or, at least, I don’t.

Scotland

Our journey now takes us to Bridge of Allan, Scotland. The oldest known Chapter in the world is Stirling Rock Royal Arch Chapter № 2. Their earliest documented meeting dates to July 30, 1743.^{6 7} This begs the question: how long had they been in operation before then? We can now push back the earliest date of the Royal Arch further than before. How much further can we go?

The Spurious Dublin Rite

Short Book (Long Title)

Let’s move on from “hard dates” and go back to Dublin, and tell a story that feels like it’s from the Wild West of Freemasonry. In 1744, Fifield D’Assigny (Fye-Field d’Ah-See-Nee) wrote a short book with a very long title.⁸ I’ll refer to it as A Serious and Impartial Inquiry. In great part, it’s a critique of how far Freemasonry had fallen in his day, with suggestions on how to fix it. It turns out that even in 1744, Freemasonry was always better in the good ol’ days.

The Grift in Action

D’Assigny also writes about a newcomer to the Dublin masonic scene who started a spurious Capitular Rite “somewhere about 1740.”⁹ He claimed to be a Master of the Royal Arch bringing over a rite from York, and used this pretense to scam  “several worthy men.”¹⁰ He also said they could only understand most of the “beauties of the Craft” through this new degree.¹¹ This grift ran for a span of a few months. The deceit was so convincing that D’Assigny says even “many of the learned and the wise” fell for it.¹² 

One day, a Mason who was a “brother of probity and wisdom” showed up in Dublin, and blew the whole thing apart. You see, he was an ACTUAL Royal Arch Mason who had ACTUALLY received the degree. Somehow,¹³ he was able to show and prove that the spurious Dublin rite was a sham.¹⁴ The grifter was then “justly despised” by all the brethren, who expelled him.¹⁵

Consequences

This seems like it would have resolved the situation, but this did hurt many Dublin masons. A real Royal Arch rite existed, but they didn’t have a right to take part in it, and the real degrees were a secret to them.¹⁶ D’Assigny himself agreed that even though they had passed “usual degrees of probation,” this didn’t entitle them to the rights and benefits of a Royal Arch Mason. They should, instead, make a proper application, received with “due formality” by the proper authorities.¹⁷

D’Assigny further elaborates that the Royal Arch Rite was an “organized body of men who have passed the chair, and given undeniable proofs of their skill in Architecture.”¹⁸ He is describing Past Masters. This is consistent with the old prerequisite for Companions to have served as Master of a lodge. D’Assigny describes this “untainted” group of brethren as a “Lodge.”¹⁹ It is not clear if he’s referring to a lodge utilizing an additional Royal Arch degree, or if there was not yet a lexical distinction between Lodges and Chapters. 

The Guy Who Could Stare at the Sun

D’Assigny also writes of an “itinerant Mason” who claimed that his judgement was so “illumin’d,” and his eyes were so strong, that he could stare at the brightest rays of the noonday sun without harm.²⁰ He claimed that there were three more “material steps” needed to approach our “Summum Bonum,” or “highest good.”²¹ D’Assigny thoroughly rejected this second attempt at someone peddling a spurious rite, and felt it necessary to warn the Brethren.

John Coustos & His “Sworn Evidence”

Early Life

Moving onwards, we have the opportunity to explore the story of John Coustos and his “Sworn Evidence.” Coustos was born in Bern, Switzerland in 1703,²² and moved to London, England with his family in 1716,²³ where he became a naturalized citizen.²⁴ He was a jeweler and a businessman.²⁵

In 1730, he was initiated in one of the lodges under the Premier Grand Lodge of England, and it was particularly notable because it is the oldest recorded instance of a new initiate being presented with a pair of white gloves.²⁶ His entry into Freemasonry brought him interesting new connections, including the British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole. Although most accounts agree that Coustos was Protestant, there were allegations that Coustos was of Marrano descent,²⁷ or in other words, that he was descended from Spanish and Portuguese Jews. This brought him to the attention of Walpole after a particularly unpleasant trial of Fransica Francia, who was a Mason and a “Sephardic Jacobite Jew.”²⁸ Walpole then employed Coustos as a spy from 1730 to 1732, sending him (and others) to infiltrate French masonic lodges in London, and use their new connections to monitor the movements and activities of exiled Jacobites in Paris.²⁹ Coustos travelled the Continent frequently for business, and ended up living in Paris for five years before he travelled to Portugal.³⁰

The Portuguese Inquisition

In approximately 1742, in one of his frequent business trips, Coustos found himself travelling to Lisbon. There, he hoped to find passage to Brazil in an effort to “make his fortune” in the New World.³¹ However, when he petitioned the King of Portugal for permission to travel to Brazil, the King refused his petition, on account that Coustos’ skills as a jeweler made him a threat to any possible treasures in Brazil that the Portuguese throne wanted to lay claim to.³² He stayed in Lisbon long enough that he ended up founding a masonic lodge and serving as its Charter Master.³³

As the Protestant Worshipful Master of a mostly-Catholic masonic lodge in a predominantly Catholic country, Coustos attracted a lot of unwanted attention – specifically, from the Portuguese Inquisition. At one point, he noticed that he was no longer receiving his mail.³⁴ According to Coustos, this was a common tactic used by the Inquisition when they were closing in on someone whom they suspected of crimes against the Church.³⁵ A year later, a woman gave up the identity of several influential Masons in Lisbon when she was giving confession to her priest, which caused the Inquisition to open up an active case against them.³⁶ Subsequently, one of Coustos’ friends betrayed his identity and location, and in 1743, the Inquisition seized him under the pretense of diamond theft.³⁷

The Inquisition whisked him away, and kept him as a captive for an extended period of time. Over the course of several months, he was put under oath multiple times, tortured brutally and repeatedly in different ways, and even subjected to the torture known as “the rack,” where his limbs were tied to winches and he was stretched out.³⁸ Because of this torture, Coustos found himself forced to give up some of the secrets of Freemasonry.³⁹

During this period, three of his friends and brothers were hanged by the Inquisition.⁴⁰ Starting in 1744, he was sentenced to four year’s hard labor in a ship’s galley.⁴¹ One of his duties was to deliver water to the various prisons of the city, but because of the damage to his body from the torture, and because each load of water weighed approximately one hundred pounds, he fell “grieviously sick.”⁴² While convalescing in the infirmary, it became apparent that he would not be able to carry out his sentence, and was “excused” from it when he bribed the overseers.⁴³ Once he was able to actually rest, Coustos got a friend of his to write to  his brother-in-law, asking him to inform the Earl of Harrington as to what was going on.⁴⁴

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Coustos lucked out, and in October of 1744, he received a letter from King George II, demanding that the Inquisition release him.⁴⁵ They agreed to give up Coustos, but only on the condition that he had to leave on the first ship to England, and could never return to Portugal.⁴⁶ In addition to this, he would also be required to disclose which ship he would take, who was captaining the ship, and what day he would depart, down to the very hour he planned on boarding the ship.⁴⁷

Coustos was elated – but only for a short while. While he was waiting for an English ship to arrive in harbor, he heard some news along the grapevine that very rightfully put him in a full state of panicked alert. An unnamed Freemason had been seized by the Inquisition and tortured similarly to Coustos until he “earned” his freedom by converting to Roman Catholicism.⁴⁸ Like Coustos, the Inquisition had placed him under oaths not to reveal any of the events that happened during his imprisonment. However, unlike Coustos, this brother did not lay low, and instead told others about how he had been tortured.⁴⁹ Coustos feared for his life, and approached the captain of a Dutch ship, and asked for permission to hide on board.⁵⁰ The captain agreed, and Coustos went to the Inquisitor’s office with a friend, telling him that he would be leaving for England on the Damietta at 9 AM the next day, to which the Inquisitor agreed, on the condition that Coustos come to the office first, so that the Inquisition could provide an official escort and see him off.⁵¹

Coustos and the Dutchmen were very suspicious of this, so he immediately went into hiding on their ship, which was anchored, but not docked.⁵² The next day, when he didn’t show up at the office, the Inquisitor immediately suspected that Coustos had flown the coop, and sent 30 spies after him, who ransacked docked ships, tore apart his old house, and even looked for him in wardrobes and closets.⁵³ Inquisition rowboats circled the Dutch ships for days and days, Coustos was forced to hide below deck for three weeks before they could safely set sail.⁵² He arrived in London on the 15th of December, 1744, and two years later, wrote a book called The Sufferings of John Coustos for Freemasonry and for His Refusing to Turn Roman Catholic in the Inquisition.⁵⁵

Bernard Jones & His Thoughts

The Portuguese Inquisition actually kept very good records of their torture sessions, and some of Coustos’ confessions survived. An extract reads as follows:

… when the destruction took place of the famous Temple of Solomon there was found below the First Stone a tablet of bronze upon which was engraved [a familiar Biblical word meaning] God, giving thereby to understand that that Fabric and Temple was instituted and erected in the name of the said God to whom it was dedicated, that same Lord the beginning and the end of such a magnificent work, and as in the Gospel of St John there are found the same words and doctrine they, for this reason, cause the Oath to be taken at that place.⁵⁶

We can immediately see here that Coustos is obviously talking about the Royal Arch legend. Companion Bernard Jones, who wrote Freemasons’ Book of the Royal Arch, felt that the information was credible and very important to the history of Capitular masonry, but he ascribes the idea to a sort of proto-Royal Arch ritual, or pieces of ritual, used in Craft lodges under the Premier Grand Lodge during the 1730s.⁵⁷

I feel that at this point, I have to depart from Jones’ conclusion. Based primarily on the history of Stirling Rock Chapter and D’Assigny’s account of the spurious rite in Dublin, I think that Jones isn’t going far enough in his assessment of where Coustos learned these particular secrets. I think that he learned them through actually experiencing the Royal Arch, and not just a proto-ritual – although when, where, and how is lost to us.

The Possible French Connection

Coustos as a Temporary Parisian

We know that Coustos had been a Mason for over a decade by the time he was arrested in Lisbon. Prior to serving as Charter Master of his lodge, he was a member of several lodges in London, and Jones speculates that he may have served as Master of one of them.⁵⁸ He also spent considerable time in Paris, which was a hotbed of masonic activity.

Kelly’s Theory

R.W.Bro. W. Redfern Kelly, among other brothers, held a theory that the Royal Arch may have been created in 1738 or 1739 by an English mason who witnessed a brand-new Continental degree, brought it back to England, and revised it in order to begin conferring it.⁵⁹ This is only one of many theories trying to establish a French origin to the Royal Arch.

While I don’t want to rule it out, I am personally not entirely convinced that a French origin is likely. If we accept Kelly’s theory regarding a possible date of 1738 or 1739, then we have to ask a lot of questions about how Royal Arch Masonry spread so quickly to Scotland and Ireland.

Conclusion & Summary

I’m running out of time. To close, these stories I’ve told today happened long before the 1750s drama of the Moderns and Antients, or the beginning of the first Grand Chapter in the 1760s.

From documents as simple as a newspaper or charter, to stories as wild as masonic con-men and torture at the hands of the Portuguese Inquisition, we’ve gotten to get a little peek behind the mists of early Royal Arch Masonry, and see how well-developed it already was by the time it appeared in the historical record.

Sources

1. Harvey, R. J. (1974). Royal Arch Masonry in Ireland in the Early 19th Century. Transactions of the Lodge of Research № CC (Ireland), XVI (Transactions for the years 1969 – 1975).
2. Ibid.
3. “Fourthly, the Royal Arch carried by two Excellent Masons. Fifthly, the Master with all his proper implements, his rod gilt with gold, his Deputy on his left with the square and compasses. [ . . . ] Sixthly, the two Wardens with their truncheons gilt in like manner. Eighthly, two Excellent Masons, one bearing a level and the other a plumb line.”
4. Harvey, R. J. (1974). Royal Arch Masonry in Ireland in the Early 19th Century. Transactions of the Lodge of Research № CC (Ireland), XVI (Transactions for the years 1969 – 1975).
5. Castells, F. D. (1927). Antiquity of the Holy Royal Arch. London: A. Lewis.
6. Ibid.
7. Edinburgh № 1 was chartered in 1778, despite having a lower Chapter number.
8. “A Serious and Impartial Enquiry into the Cause of the Present Decay of Free-Masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland… To Which Are Added, Such Instructive Remarks… to Revive the Honour of That Antient Craft…”
9. Bernard Edward Jones, Freemasons’ Book of the Royal Arch (London: Harrap, 1980).
10. F. D’Assigny, A Serious and Impartial Enquiry into the Cause of the Present Decay of Free-Masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland. … To Which Are Added, Such Instructive Remarks … to Revive the Honour of That Antient Craft… By Fifield D’Assigny .. (Dublin: Printed by Edward Bate, 1744).
11. Bernard Edward Jones, Freemasons’ Book of the Royal Arch (London: Harrap, 1980).
12. F. D’Assigny, A Serious and Impartial Enquiry into the Cause of the Present Decay of Free-Masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland. … To Which Are Added, Such Instructive Remarks … to Revive the Honour of That Antient Craft… By Fifield D’Assigny .. (Dublin: Printed by Edward Bate, 1744).
13.  D’Assigny does not elaborate how.
14.  F. D’Assigny, A Serious and Impartial Enquiry into the Cause of the Present Decay of Free-Masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland. … To Which Are Added, Such Instructive Remarks … to Revive the Honour of That Antient Craft… By Fifield D’Assigny .. (Dublin: Printed by Edward Bate, 1744).
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22.  McKeown, T. (n.d.). John Coustos. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from http://www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/coustos_j/coustos_j.html
23.  John Coustos, The Sufferings of John Coustos For Free-Masonry, and for His Refusing to Turn Roman Catholic, in the Inquisition at Lisbon; Where He Was Sentenc’d, During Four Years to the Galley; and Afterwards Releas’d … To Which Is Annex’d, The Origin of the Inquisition, … Extracted from a Great Variety of the Most Approved Authors. … (London: W. Strahan, 1746).
24.  McKeown, T. (n.d.). John Coustos. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from http://www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/coustos_j/coustos_j.html
25.  John Coustos, The Sufferings of John Coustos For Free-Masonry, and for His Refusing to Turn Roman Catholic, in the Inquisition at Lisbon; Where He Was Sentenc’d, During Four Years to the Galley; and Afterwards Releas’d … To Which Is Annex’d, The Origin of the Inquisition, … Extracted from a Great Variety of the Most Approved Authors. … (London: W. Strahan, 1746).
26. Ibid.
27.  Zeldis, L. (2008, October 9). Some Sephardic Jews in Freemasonry. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/zeldis14.html
28.  Schuchard, M. K. (2012). Emanuel Swedenborg, secret agent on earth and in heaven: Jacobites, Jews and Freemasons in early modern Sweden. Leiden: Brill.
29. Ibid.
30.  John Coustos, The Sufferings of John Coustos For Free-Masonry, and for His Refusing to Turn Roman Catholic, in the Inquisition at Lisbon; Where He Was Sentenc’d, During Four Years to the Galley; and Afterwards Releas’d … To Which Is Annex’d, The Origin of the Inquisition, … Extracted from a Great Variety of the Most Approved Authors. … (London: W. Strahan, 1746).
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Bernard Edward Jones, Freemasons’ Book of the Royal Arch (London: Harrap, 1980).
34.  John Coustos, The Sufferings of John Coustos For Free-Masonry, and for His Refusing to Turn Roman Catholic, in the Inquisition at Lisbon; Where He Was Sentenc’d, During Four Years to the Galley; and Afterwards Releas’d … To Which Is Annex’d, The Origin of the Inquisition, … Extracted from a Great Variety of the Most Approved Authors. … (London: W. Strahan, 1746).
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid.
39. Bernard Edward Jones, Freemasons’ Book of the Royal Arch (London: Harrap, 1980).
40.  McKeown, T. (n.d.). John Coustos. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from http://www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/coustos_j/coustos_j.html
41. Bernard Edward Jones, Freemasons’ Book of the Royal Arch (London: Harrap, 1980).
42.  John Coustos, The Sufferings of John Coustos For Free-Masonry, and for His Refusing to Turn Roman Catholic, in the Inquisition at Lisbon; Where He Was Sentenc’d, During Four Years to the Galley; and Afterwards Releas’d … To Which Is Annex’d, The Origin of the Inquisition, … Extracted from a Great Variety of the Most Approved Authors. … (London: W. Strahan, 1746).
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. Ibid.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Bernard Edward Jones, Freemasons’ Book of the Royal Arch (London: Harrap, 1980).
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.

One of the coolest moments in my Masonic career so far. A mysterious package arrived for me, but at the Fort Worth Temple, where I (almost) never receive mail. In it, I found a book titled Loge Liberté chérie: A Light in the Darkness.

Alexander P. Herbert, a brother from Ohio, wrote a book about Loge Liberté chérie, the secret lodge chartered by Belgian Resistance fighters inside Esterwegen concentration camp during the Holocaust. He quoted me in the book’s introduction!

The book is a quick read, but incredibly moving. It captures both how positively heartbreaking their conditions were, but also how powerful and uplifting the resilience of the human spirit can be.

I have written a letter of thanks back to him – this has floored me.

Happy Pentecost, brethren.

Today, in the Western Christian Church, it is Pentecost – the great feast commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the disciples of Christ after the Ascension. While it is a Christian holiday, I think that all brethren, regardless of their faith, can appreciate the allegorical and alchemical symbolism involved, much in the same sense as the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite does.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.

Acts 2:1-6

I don’t want to connect the dots too much for y’all, because it’s more fun to sit and contemplate individually. However, I encourage meditation on the idea of  “I N R I” as a spiritual process of regeneration through the sacred fire of truth and love (AASR 18°).

May Love and Truth purify us all, helping us to become our higher selves while growing in the knowledge of the Divine, and may we all find ways to live and serve the glory of the Great Architect of the Universe.

Pax.

This was a Junior Warden’s Law Talk for the November 2019 stated meeting of Fort Worth Lodge № 148, AF&AM.

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There are many laws that the Grand Lodge has laid down about teaching & and learning. These laws establish a set of rules that we have to follow to stay out of trouble.

Article 127 states that “no ritual other than that promulgated by this Grand Lodge shall be taught or used in this Jurisdiction.”¹ To “promulgate” something is to promote it or make it “widely known.”²

This means that we can’t:

• teach you an alternative trial lecture, or
• use the ritual from another Jurisdiction, or
• make up our own work.

There’s a grand tradition in Masonry of pointing out how different Grand Lodge laws don’t work. The most literal interpretation of this law’s phrasing is a good example of this. At face value, it means that teaching a candidate incorrect work by accident is also against the law! It also begs a few questions:

• How do we define “ritual?”
• The full-form degree lectures are no longer made “widely known” by the Grand Lodge. Are the full-form lectures legal?
• Are the funeral services considered ritual? If so, are the services that are no longer included in the Monitor, and thus no longer promulgated, legal to use?

Article 138 states that if the holder of an esoteric certificate asks a lodge or Mason(s) to “employ or accept his services to teach or exemplify the work” shall lose his certificate. ³

Two things worth noting are:

• there’s no mention of receiving compensation.
• “Employ or accept his services” isn’t defined in the text.

Let’s use another literal interpretation. If I walk up to an Entered Apprentice and tell him, “let me teach you the work,” I am breaking the law.

Article 139 states that you can’t exemplify ritual or be compensated for it unless you hold an esoteric certificate.⁴ This means that you can’t lead a floor school if you don’t hold a certificate. It may also bar you from instructing students. The language of “receive compensation therefor” also seems to imply that you can be paid for leading a floor school. Article 142 supports this, in that no compensation can occur for a floor school unless the lodge authorizes and pays for it to happen in a lodge room. ⁵

Article 140 states that we can ask any member of the Committee on Work or any certificate holder to teach the work. ⁶

There several types of Masons who may not receive instruction in the work:

• Someone suspended for non-payment of dues. ⁷
• An Entered Apprentice or Fellowcraft whose advancement was protested. ⁸
• An Entered Apprentice or Fellowcraft who is required to petition for advancement due to lapse of time. ⁹

Article 439.2 states that a Master Mason who goes ninety days without during in his proficiency is automatically suspended. It also states that he can still receive instruction and be examined in an open lodge. ¹⁰ Master Masons will want to pay close attention to that point. This article means that Grand Lodge law allows for members of the lodge to or, sit in lodge with a suspended Mason. That would be a violation of our obligation.

It shall also be a Masonic disciplinary violation for a Lodge, a committee or any combination of Masons, or an individual Mason to possess, or use a cipher/code book on a Lodge premises, or to use a cipher/code book or access a cipher/code book in any form, including electronic access, in the presence of a candidate when instructing the candidate in the esoteric work of a Masonic Degree. ¹¹

Title V, Chapter 2, Article 508.24

That one speaks for itself.

In short, there’s a lot of ways to be unpleasantly surprised, legally speaking, when instructing or learning. It’s important that we pay attention to these kinds of laws. We don’t want anyone to get in trouble just for trying to progress in Masonry, or participating in lodge activities.

Notes

1. Grand Lodge of Texas. The Laws of the Grand Lodge of Texas A.F. & A.M. Containing the Corporate Charter, the Constitution and Ancient Charges, the Statutes and Masonic Forms. Revised 2019. Title I, Chapter 17 “Committee on Work”, Article 127 “Ritual”.
2. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “promulgate,” accessed November 11, 2019, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/promulgate
3. Grand Lodge of Texas. The Laws of the Grand Lodge of Texas A.F. & A.M. Containing the Corporate Charter, the Constitution and Ancient Charges, the Statutes and Masonic Forms. Revised 2019. Title I, Chapter 17 “Committee on Work”, Article 138 “Certificates: Forfeiture.”
4. Ibid. Article 139 “Esoteric Work: Who May Exemplify.”
5. Ibid. Article 142 “Esoteric Work: Schools of Instruction.”
6. Ibid. Article 140 “Esoteric Work: Employing Instructor.”
7. Ibid. Title II, Chapter 18, Article 323 “Effect of Suspension.”
8. Ibid. Title IV, Chapter 4, Article 434 “Procedure After Rejection.”
9. Ibid. Article 434a “Procedure After Lapse of Time.”
10. Ibid. Article 439.2 “Examination in Master’s Degree.”
11. Ibid. Title IV, Chapter 2, Article 508.24 “Certain Other Masonic Disciplinary Violations.”