Short Talk Bulletin Vol 09 No 11

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Short Talk Bulletin

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SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.IX   November, 1931   No.11 

FREE AND ACCEPTED 

by: Unknown 

The origin of these terms, descriptive of Speculative Freemasons,  
goes back into the very beginnings of the history of the Order;  
indeed, behind the history of the building Craft in Europe. 
But it is only in keeping with the antiquity of the teachings of  
Freemasonry.  Many of our symbols and their meanings go back to the  
very childhood of the race.  Through these a direct relationship may  
be traced in mind, heart and ideal; if not in written document, to  
such diverse ages and places as China four thousand years ago, the  
priesthood of ancient Egypt and the Jews of the Captivity.  For  
purposes of understanding the genesis of the word “Free” as coupled  
with Mason, it will suffice to begin with the Roman “Collegia”,  
orders or associations of men engaged in similar pursuits.  Doubtless  
their formation was caused partly by the universal desire for  
fellowship and association, particularly strong in Rome, in which the  
individual was so largely submerged for the good of the Empire, and  
partly by economic necessity, just as labor unions are formed today. 
These “Collegia” speedily became so prominent and powerful that Roman  
Emperors attempted to abolish the right of free association.  In  
spite of edicts and persecutions, however, the “Collegia” continued  
to exist. 
The Colleges of Architects, however, for a time were sanctioned even  
after others were forbidden.  They were too valuable to the State to  
be abolished, or made to work and meet in secret.  They were not at  
this time “called” Freemasons, but they were “free” - and it is the  
fact and not the name which is here important.  Without architects  
and builders, Rome could not expand, so the colleges of Architects  
were permitted to regulate their own affairs and work under their own  
constitutions, free of restrictions which attempted to destroy the  
“collegia.” 
Then, as now, “three” were necessary to form a College (no Masonic  
lodge can meet with less than three); the College had a “Magister” or  
Master, and two Wardens.  There were three orders or degrees in the  
College which to a large extent used emblems which are a part of  
Freemasonry.  Roman sarcophagi show carvings of square, compasses,  
plumb. level and sometimes columns.  
Of the ceremonies of the “Collegia” we know little or nothing.  Of  
their work we know much, and of their history enough to trace their  
decline and fall.  The Emperor Diocletian attempted to destroy the  
new religion, Christianity, which threatened so much which seemed to  
the Romans to make Rome, Rome.  Many members of the Colleges of  
Architects were Christians - a very natural result, since these  
associations had taught and believed in brotherhood because of a  
common Father, the members of the College or Architects took for  
their own his doctrine, so strangely familiar. 
Persecution, vengeance, cruelty followed; this is not the place to go  
deeply into the story of the four Masons and the Apprentice who were  
tortured to death, only to become the Four Crowned Martyrs and Patron  
Saints of later builders and the Masons of the Middle Ages.  Suffice  
it that the College of Architects were broken up and fled from Rome. 
Comes a gap which is not yet bridged.  Between the downfall of Rome  
and the rise of Gothic architecture in Europe we know little of what  
happened to the builders’ “Collegia.”  It is here that we come to the  
fascinating theory of the Comancines - that some of the expelled  
builders found refuge on the Island of Comacina in Lake Como, and,  
through  generation after generation, kept alive the traditions and  
secrets of the art until such time as the world was again ready for  
the Master Builders.  All this is fascinatingly set forth in several  
books, best known of which is Leader Scott’s “Cathedral Builders, the  
Story of a Great Masonic Guild.”  The author says that the Comancine  
Masters “were the link between the classic  “Collegia” and all other  
art and trade guilds of the middle ages.  They were Freemasons  
because they were builders of a privileged class, absolved from taxes  
and servitude, and free to travel about in times of feudal bondage. 
During the Middle Ages and the rise of Gothic Architecture, we find  
two distinct classes of Masons; the Guild Masons who, like the Guild  
Carpenters, Weavers or Merchants were local in character and strictly  
regulated by law, and the Freemasons, who traveled about from city to  
city as their services were needed to design and erect those  
marvelous churches and cathedrals which stand today inimitable in  
beauty. 
It may not be affirmed as a proved fact that the Freemasons of the  
Middle Ages were the direct descendants through the Comacine Masters  
of the Colleges of Architects of Rome, but there is too much evidence  
of a similar structure, ideal and purpose and too many similarities  
of symbol, tool and custom to dismiss the idea merely  because we  
have no written record covering the period between the expulsion from  
Rome and the beginning of the Cathedral building age. 
However this may be, the operative builders and designers of the  
Cathedrals of Europe were an older order than the Guild Masons; it is  
from these Freemasons - free of the Guild and free of the local laws  
- that the Masonry of today has come.  Incidentally, it may be noted  
that the historian Findel finds the name Freemason as early as 1212  
and the name occurs in 1375 in the history of the Company of Masons  
of the City of London. 
The history of the Freemasons through the Cathedral Building Ages up  
to the Reformation and the gradual decline of the building arts,  
needs volumes where here are but pages.  But it must be emphasized  
that the Freemasons were far more than architects and builders; they  
were the artists, the leaders, the teachers, the mathematicians and  
the poets of their time. 
In their lodges Speculative Masonry grew side by side with their  
operative art.  They were jealous of their Order and strict in their  
acceptance of Apprentices; strict too, in admitting Apprenticed to be  
Fellows of the Craft, requiring seven years of labor before an  
Apprentice might make his Mater’s Piece” to submit to the Master and  
Wardens of his lodge, when happily, he might become a Fellow and  
receive “the Mason Word.” 
No fools built the great Cathedrals of Europe.   
Mathematics. architecture, strength of materials, the principle of  
the arch, proportion, unity, beauty - all had to practiced by experts  
to produce these tremendous structures, on which the most modern  
science and art cannot improve. 
It was only natural then, that the Masters desired a high quality of  
Craftsmanship.  Only Apprentices of character and willingness to  
learn were accepted.  Only those who could make a perfect Master’s  
Piece were accepted as Fellows.  Doubtless only the most expert and  
learned of the Fellows could ever hope to be Masters. 
Then, as now, to secure fine workmen they began early and trained  
them long.  As a workman who was immoral, a drunkard, a gambler, a  
loose liver could not hope to learn to do good work, or to be trusted  
with the operative secrets; it was essential that moral precepts and  
philosophical lessons be incorporated into operative lodge life. 
Unquestionably the building crafts from the earliest ages - ate, even  
back of the Roman Collegia - incorporated speculative teachings with  
operative instructions given to Apprentices.  This practice grew and  
expanded during what may be termed the formative period of the  
Fraternity.  The Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages must have been  
a little world unto themselves in the towns in which they worked.   
They would employ the local Guild Masons for the rough work, but  
strictly excluded them from their lodge when meetings were held.   
Doubtless these meetings were frequent, perhaps nightly, to discuss  
the great work being done. 
Young Apprentices, like young men the world over, would skylark and  
want to have a good time.  Their elders would reprove and read them a  
lesson in a simple parable of the building art.  The square, the  
compasses, the trowel, the chisel, the mallet, the gavel and the  
setting maul would all be brought into such lessons. 
And so, through year after year and age after age, the teachings of  
Speculative Masonry grew.  And as is invariably the case the thing  
which was used as an example to teach, gradually came to symbolize  
the lesson taught.  To be “square” was at first but an essential of a  
tool and an ashlar.  Universally now, a “square man” is an honest  
one.  Trowel and gavel took upon themselves significancies far beyond  
their operative use.  Master after Master would add from his store of  
learning; lesson after lesson would be incorporated with an operative  
practice, until the Speculative Art and the Operative Craft were,  
apparently, dependent upon each other. 
It is world history that knowledge cannot be kept from those who seek  
it.  By hook or crook, in one way or another, the student will find  
that which he seeks. 
In an age when learning was difficult to get, and association with  
the educated was hardly to be had outside the church, it was but  
natural that thoughtful and scholarly men should desire membership  
among Freemasons. 
Other men, thoughtful but not scholarly, would see in the Speculative  
teachings of the Masons that road to knowledge which was otherwise  
hard to find.  Neither, however, would want to practice operative  
Masonry, serve seven years apprenticeship or make a Master’s Piece. 
Just how such men accomplished their desire and became “accepted”  
members of the Order we do not know.  Doubtless they had something to  
bring to, as well as something to get from their operative brethren.   
But we do know the fact; a place was made for such seekers after the  
light.  Distinguished by the title “accepted” that they might not be  
confused with “free” Masons, these non-building members encouraged  
and expanded the speculative side of Masonry. 
It is not possible to say when this practice began.   
The Regius Poem, the oldest document of Freemasonry (1390) speaks of  
Prince Edward (twentieth century) as: 
“Of Speculatyfe he was a Master.” 
Ecclesiasts, desiring to become architects and builders, joined the  
Order.  Lovers of liberty were naturally attracted to a fellowship in  
which members enjoyed unusual freedom among their fellows. 
Gradually the “accepted” or Speculative Freemasons equaled, then  
outnumbered the operative craftsmen and slowly but surely the Craft  
came to be what it is today, and has been for more than two  
centuries, wholly Speculative in character. 
Through the years, particularly those which saw the decline of great  
building and coming of the Reformation, more and more became the  
Accepted Masons and less and less the operative building Freemasons.   
Of forty-nine names on the roll of the Lodge of Aberdeen in the year  
1670, thirty-nine were those of Accepted Masons. 
Hence our title - Free and Accepted Masons - abbreviated F & A.M.   
United States Grand Lodges style themselves under several different  
abbreviations: F.& A.M., F. and A.; A.F. & A.M.; and other variations  
using the Ampersand (&) in place of the word “and.”  The District of  
Columbia still uses F.A.A.M., meaning Free and Accepted Masons, in  
spite of the possible confusion as to whether the first “A” stands  
for “and” or “ancient.”  The variations are accounted for both by  
difference on origins, some Grand Lodges coming into being with  
lodges held under the “Ancie-nts” and some from the “Moderns” and by  
variations due to the errors which are seemingly ineradicable in  
“mouth to ear” instruction. 
But of all of us, regardless of what order we choose for “Ancient,”  
“Accepted,” “Free” and “Masons,” all are “Free and Accepted.” 
It is one of the glories of the Craft that her historians can trace  
such derivations into such a long gone past.  That Mason is dead of  
soul, indeed, who cannot thrill to the thought that as a Free and  
accepted Mason he is kin not only to those ancient brethren of Old  
England who first began the practice of “accepting” good men because  
they “were” good men, not because they were builders, but also to the  
builders of ancient Rome and all the generations which sprang from  
them, who were “Free” of the bonds which bound less skillful and  
esteemed workmen.