Sketch Of The History Of The Mark Masters' Degree, &C.

SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE MARK MASTERS' DEGREE , & c .

Bead at a meeting of the Masonic brethren at Leicester , on the 20 th February , 1868 , by Bro . William Kelly , l' . M ., and P . Prov . G . M-M . for Leicestershire . Brethren , —We are now assembled to consider and decide whether the degree of Mark Master ,

which was practised in this town formerly , and was again introduced here about ten years ago , under authority of the warrants constituting the Fowke and Howe Lodges of Mark Masters , Nos . 19 and 21 , but wliich has since fallen again into

abeyance , shall be revived , whilst the opportunity remains of retaining our wan-ants , or whether these shall be surrendered , the working of the degree lost , so far as we are concerned , and the continuity of the chain of ancient Freemasonry still remain broken amon ° st us .

To enable you to come to a decision it is , of course , essential that you should be acquainted , at least cursorily , with the history of the degree , and with its true position amongst the other degrees of the Order , in this country and elsewhere .

Those brethren who have not been advanced to the rank of Mark Master may naturally be supposed to be entirely ignorant on these points , but I will venture to assert that nine out of ten of those brethren who have taken the degree here are but very imperfectly acquainted with the facts of the case .

It is therefore necessary that the nature and position of the degree should be explained , which I shall endeavour to do , so far as the very brief time at my disposal , and my own knowledge will enable me to accomplish .

First , as regards the origin and history of the degree . That ( as a constituent part of the second degree ) it is at least as ancient as the Master Mason's degree I firmly believe , and that the interesting tradition which it embodies is no less

worthy of attention than that of the third degree . At the period of what is usually termed the " Revival of Masonry , " a century and a half ago , great modifications were made in the practice of our rites . Before that time , the lodges of

Freemasons were banded together almost solely for the practice of operative Masonry ; for although it appears to have been customary in all ages to admit into the fraternity men of high rank and great abilities , like the eminent ecclesiastics and powerful nobles , who , from time to time , were

elected to rule over the Craft ; or like Elias Ashmole and others , of whose initiation at a later date we have undoubted record , still their number was comparatively few . The only degrees conferred in the ordinary

lodges were those of E . A . and F . O . The degree of Master Mason was I'estricted to a small body of superior brethren , and is said to have been conferred only in the Grand Lodge . Every F . O . had his peculiar mark , which he was

required to cut upon the stones wrought by him , and by which distinctive mark his work was known to his overseer , or Master of the lodge—a practice which had prevailed from the most remote period , and it is a highly interesting and curious

fact in connection with the Mark Masters' degree , that on the Pyramids , and other buildings of ancient Egypt , on the ruins of Persepolis , on the

temples of classic Greece , on the remains of Roman architecture , both in the eternal city itself , at Herculaneum , Carthage , & c , and in Great Britain , France , and other countries where Roman colonies were founded , on the temples and forts

of Central India and elsewhere , the same identical marks of the Craftsmen occur , as may be seen ou the magnificent cathedrals and other ecclesiastical structures which are known , by documentary evidence , to have been erected under the patronage

of the Church , by travelling lodges of Freemasons , throughout Europe in the Middle Ages ; and many examples of which marks have been found in our own to . vn aud county . I may instance St . Mary ' s Church , the vaulted cellar under the

Castle , and the south aisle of Gaddesby Church , erected by the Knights Templars of Rothley , almost every stone of which still bears the Masonic mark of the Craftsman who wrought it .

Of the general nature of these symbolical characters you will be enabled to judge by these copies of Masons' marks at Canterbury cathedral , with which I was favoured some years ago by Mr . Georo'e Goodwin , F . S . A ., the eminent architect ,

and the author of two very interesting papers on Masons' Marks printed in the" Archoeologia . " In illustration of this subject , I may add that Mr . Godwin states that in a conversation in September , 1844 , with a Mason at work at

Canterbury Cathedral , he found that many Masons ( all who were Freemasons ) had their mystic marks handed down from generation to generation ; this man had his mark from his father , aud he received it from his grandfather . Mr . Godwin is not him-