A Constitution is a document or instrument
with inherent authority used as the means by which an organized
body of men is brought into existence with a name and identity
of its own, and on the understanding that the body thus formed,
or erected, or organized, or constituted will thereafter continue
to be governed by that document or instrument as its own law.
The first Lodges to be made permanent soon discovered the need
for such an instrument and drew up the written version of the
Old Charges to satisfy it. Almost immediately after it was begun
in 1717 A.D., the Mother Grand Lodge began to feel that same need;
to satisfy it the Grand Lodge prepared a version of the Old Charges
for its own use, and in 1723 A.D., published it in a written volume
entitled The Book of Constitutions. To make sure that this important
task would be soundly and regularly clone the Grand Lodge appointed
a Committee with Rev. Dr. James Anderson as chairman, called a
number of the oldest and best informed Master Masons into conference,
and collected as many versions of the Old Charges and other time-honored
documents as it could find and analyzed, compared, and collated
them. After the Book was read to Grand Lodge and was officially
approved it was turned over to Dr. Anderson for publication, and
for that reason has since been often called the "Anderson
Con
stitutions," though to call it so is incorrect because Dr.
Anderson was not its author - the Grand Lodge was its author.
The book consists of g r pages, 8 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches in size. Its title page reads: "The Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Containing the History, Charges, Regulations, etc., of that most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity. For the use of the Lodges, London: Printed by William Hunter, for John Senex, at the Globe, and John Hooke at the Flower deluce over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet-street. In the Year of Masonry - 5723. Anno Domini - 1723."
The full-page Frontispiece is a line drawing believed to represent the Grand Master the Duke of Montagu presenting the Roll of the Constitutions to his successor, the Duke of Wharton, with their officers behind them; it was engraved by John Pine.
The first four pages of the body of the Book consist of a dedication "To His Grace the Duke of Montagu," signed by his Deputy Grand Master, J. T. Desagulicrs.
Except for seven lines of reading text at the bottom the page numbered i is at one stroke title and an introduction: "The Constitution, History, Laws, Charges, Orders, Regulations, and Usages, of the Right Worshipful Fraternity of Accepted Free Masons; Collected From their general Records, and their faithful Traditions of many Ages. To he read At the Admission of a New Brother, when the Master or Warden shall begin, or order some other Brother to read as follows: etc."
From the bottom of page 1 to page 48 inclusive the book consists of a loose and rapid summary of the story of the art of Masonry, or architecture, as that story had been first narrated in the Fourteenth Century, and with the addition of enough facts to bring it down to (late in 1723 A.D. This section is not signed.
Page 49 consists of a title, introduction, and table of contents for a second section, reading in full: "The Charges of a FreeMason, extracted from The ancient Records of Lodges beyond Sea, and of those in England, Scotland, and Ireland, for the Use of the Lodges in London: To be Read At the making of New Brethren, or when the Master shall order it. The General Heads, viz.
I. Of God and Religion.
II. Of the Civil Magistrate supreme and subordinate.
III. Of Lodges.
IV. Of Masters, Wardens, Fellows, and Apprentices.
V. Of the Management of the Craft in working.
VI. Of Behaviour, viz. -
1. In the Lodge while constituted.
2. After the Lodge is over and the Brethren not gone.
3. When Brethren meet without Strangers, but not in a Lodge.
4. In Presence of Strangers not Masons.
5. At Home, and in the Neighbourhood.
6. Towards a strange Brother.
This section ends on page 56 with an "Amen so mote it be." Page 57 consists of a long foot-note, entitled "Postscript," in the form of a quotation from Lord Coke to the effect that a statute aganst Masons by Henry VI had been repealed by Elizabeth.
The section from page 58 to page 70 inclusive has another long, combination title-introduction: "General Regulations, Compiled first by Mr. George Payne, Anno 1720, when he was Grand Master, and approved by the Grand Lodge on St. John Baptist's Day, Anno 1721, at Stationers'-Hall, London; when the most noble Prince John Duke of Montagu was unanimously chosen our Grand-Master for the Year ensuing; who chose John Beat M.D., his Deputy Grand-Master; and Mr. Josiah Villeneau and Mr. Thomas Morris, Jr., were chosen by the Lodge Grand-Wardens. And now, by the Command of our said Right Worshipful Grand-Master Montagu, the Author of this Book has compared them with, and reduced them to the ancient Records and immemorial Usages of the Fraternity, and digested them into this new Method, with several proper Explications, for the Usage of the Lodges in and about London and Westminster."
A Postscript on pages 71 and 72 gives the "Manner of Constituting a New Lodge, as Practised by his Grace the Duke of Wharton, the present Right Worshipful Grand-Master, according to the ancient Usages of Masons."
Pages 73 and 74 consist of an "Approbation," which was in fact a Grand Lodge official action, signed by Grand-Master Wharton, Deputy Grand-Master J. T. Desaguliers, two Grand-Wardens, and the Masters and Wardens of twenty "particular Lodges."
The section from page 75 to go inclusive consists of songs: The Master's Song, or the History of Masonry; in five parts. The Warden's Song; in thirteen stanzas. The Fellow-Craft's Song;
The Entered Prentice's Song; By "our
late Brother Mr. Matthew Birkhead, deceased."
On page 92 is an official authorization for the printing of the
Book signed by Philip Duke of Wharton, Grand-Master, and J. T.
Desaguliers, Deputy Grand-Master.
An unnumbered last page consists of a detailed advertisement for "Some Books Printed for J. Senex, and J. Hooke."
It will be noted that no name of either an author or an editor is given in any of the title-pages, yet at some three or four pages in the text the writer refers to himself as "the author." It has been presupposed, but without certainty, that "The author" was Dr. James Anderson; on the other hand it may have been used for whoever may have been writing the page in which it occurs, after the fashion of the "editorial we"; in any event the word could not have been used in the present day sense of "sole writer of this book" but in the early Eighteenth Century sense of "editor" the records of Aberdeen Lodge in which Dr. Anderson is believed to have been a Mason used it in that same sense of editor. The phrase on page 58 which reads "digested then with this new method" does not mean that a new practice is being introduced into the Lodges; the word "method" is here used in its old literary sense, and means that George Payne's text has been revised.
In the first paragraph of the long section which is called "History" God is described as the Architect of the Universe, and geometry is made synonymous with architecture. Adam must have taught the builders' art to his sons because Cain built a city, and Seth made many "curious works," and in a foot-note it is said that according to "some vestiges of Antiquity" that Enoch "erected his two large Pillars" "the one of stone, and the other of Brick, whereon were engraven the Liberal Sciences, etc.," to preserve the latter from the Flood.
Noah and his three sons were cognizant of the art else they could not have devised so wonderful a vessel as the Ark. Then for about 131 years after the Flood Noah's descendants, "a large number of them" worked at building a Tower (among other wonders) in the Valley Shimar; God confounded their speech, and for that reason the populaces separated, and this explains why there have been so many nations and languages ever since. Nimrod was the mightiest of Ancient architects because he built so "many splendid cities." From him and his generation the Chaldes and the Magi "preserved the good Science, Geometry, as the Kings and great men encouraged the Royal Art."
Mizraim, the second son of Ham, six years after Babel, brought a colony down to Egypt and in his irrigation systems "caused an improvement in Geometry." The "great sons of Canaan" erected many "stately cities." Even into Asia the art was carried, for Abram, after the Confusion of Babel about 268 years, was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, where he learned Geometry. "From him it passed on to the twelve Patriarchs of the Hebrews."
The Israelites, "at their leaving Egypt, were a whole Kingdom of Masons" and Moses was their Grand Master, "who often marshalled them into a regular and general Lodge while in the Wilderness" and before many years they erected a Temple in Jerusalem "to the Amazement of all the World," and 183,600 men were employed on it. "Hiram, or Hurarn," was "the most accomplished Mason on Earth."
Nebuchadneza's city of Babylon was "the Third of the Seven Wonders of the World." Then architecture was carried down into Greece. Miletus was the first to have "any considerable knowledge in Geometry," but it was his scholar Pythagoras who was the author of the "47th Proposition of Euclid's fifth Book, which, if duly observed, is the foundation of all Masonry, sacred, civil, and military." After him Geometry "became the Darling study of Greece," and it was the Greek Euclid who gathered "up the scattered Elements of Geometry" and "digested them into a Method that was never yet mended." And thus the art of architecture was carried triumphantly from land to land, and in Rome it was finally made illustrious by "the great Vitruvius, the Father of all true architects to this Day."
After following the introduction of architecture into Gaul, Britain, the Lowlands, and even into the Gothic north, the "history" then pauses to quote from an old MS. "written in the Reign of King Edward IV, in which it is told that King Athelstan was "a mighty Architect," called expert Masters of Masons out from France, reconstituted the Craft, and created many towns and buildings. His youngest son, Prince Edwin, who had been obligated in a Lodge, "purchased a free Charter of King Athelstan his Father, which empowered Freemasons "to hold a yearly Communication and General Assembly." Acting upon it Edwin called a General Assembly at York.
After telling the story of the Craft in England, the "history" turns to Scotland, where the Kings were "often the Grand Masters." When James of Scotland became King of England he introduced the Augustan (or neo-classical) style; in describing this, many famous architects and Grand Masters are named, Palladio, Inigo Jones, and Sir Christopher Wren. The long excursion through this story of the Masons' art reaches its conclusion in a peroration genuinely eloquent:
"And now the Freeborn British Nations, disentangled from foreign and civil Wars, and enjoying the good Fruits of Peace and Liberty, having of late much indulged their happy years for Masonry of every sort, and reviewed the drooping Lodges of London, their fair Metropolis flourisheth, as well as other Parts, with several worthy particular Lodges, that have a Quarterly Communication, and an Annual Grand Assembly, wherein the Forms and Usages of the most ancient and worshipful Fraternity are widely propagated, and the Royal Art duly cultivated, and the Cement of the Brotherhood preserved; so that the whole Body resembles a well built Arch: several Noblemen and Gentlemen of the best Rank, with Clergymen and learned scholars of most Professions and Denominations, having frankly joined and submitted to take the Charges, and to wear the Badges of a Free and Accepted Mason, under our present worthy Grand-Master, the most noble Prince John Duke of Montagu."
The "Manner of Constituting a New Lodge" on page 71 is especially worth a thorough study by a student of Masonic history because it shows so clearly two fundamental facts about the first, or Mother, Grand Lodge. First, the Grand Lodge took itself to be a Lodge in every sense of the word, except that where a local Lodge has individual Masons as its members, the Grand Lodge has Lodges; this is shown by the Officers of the new Lodge being described as "Candidates"; the new Lodge itself is a "Candidate" in the eyes of the Grand Lodge. Second, it is for the Grand Master himself to constitute a new Lodge: "A new Lodge, for avoiding many Irregularities, should be solemnly constituted by the Grand Master," and it is the Grand Master, not the Grand Lodge, who decides whether a new Lodge is to be founded or not; afterwards this power was transferred to the Grand Lodge, where it has remained ever since. When the Grand Master himself constituted Lodges he issued a letter, or Warrant, authorizing the action; when Grand Lodge took over the power of forming Lodges it issued Charters. A Charter is a Grand Lodge document, and it is only because it is one that it possesses inherent authority.
Pages 73 and 74 are unique among the contents of the book because they do not belong to the text of the book itself, but are a statement about the hook. The material in the two pages is entitied "Approbation." Since this material is strictly official, and is itself an act of the Grand Lodge in 1723 A.D., it is unfortunate that it has not been more carefully studied, because if it had been fewer inaccurate statements would have been published about the First Edition of the Book of Constitutions. In this Approbation Dr. James Anderson is described as "Author of this Book" but this can only mean that he acted as scribe, or secretary, or amanuensis; the text itself makes it plain that he did not himself originate the materials. Grand Lodge itself was the true author.
The Approbation states that because of wars "the Freemasons twice thought it necessary to correct their Constitutions . . .", once by Athelstan, the second time under Edward IV. But since through the passage of time many errors crept in, it is now deemed necessary to correct, or to revise, them a third time. The Grand Master, the Duke of Montagu, "ordered the author to peruse, convert and to digest into a new and better method." This new version was carefully studied by Grand Lodge, the Lodges, and many learned Masons, and it is now fully and officially approved. The Grand Master, the Duke of Wharton, who is speaking, ends by saying: "And we ordain that there be reviewed in every particular Lodge under our Cognizance, as the ONLY CONSTITUTION of Free and Accepted Masons amongst us, to be read at the making of new Brethren, or when the Master shall think fit: and which the new Brethren should peruse before they are made." The Approbation is signed by. the Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master, Grand Wardens, and twenty Lodges - among the then Worshipful Masters of these Lodges were George Payne, Matthew Birkhead, the Earl of Dalkeith, and James Anderson. These twenty were in London and Westminster; no "county Lodges," or Lodges outside of London, were added to the List until the following year.
On page 70 Regulation No. XXXIX (the last
one) states: "Every Annual Grand Lodge has an inherent Power
and Authority to make new Regulations, or to alter these, for
the real Benefit of their ancient Fraternity; Provided always
that the Old Landmarks be carefully preserved ..." The Grand
Lodge itself acted upon this inherent right to such an extent
that in 1738 A.D. it published a Second Edition, and this work
of revision has been carried on ever since. But though the body
of Constitutional Law now printed in the Code of any Grand Lodge
is scarcely to be recognized as the same Book as that of 1723
A.D., it nevertheless is a direct descendant of that Book. When
the Grand Lodges of Ireland, Scotland, the Antient Grand Lodge,
anti. later, American Grand Lodges adopted a Book of Constitutions
it was on that volume of 1723 A.D., that they patterned it; and
since that Book itself, as the official Approbation is at so much
pains to state, is a revision of yet older laws, and which it
does not hesitate to describe as ancient, Masonic constitutional
law is very old indeed.
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