Page 21 - ASHLAR - Jan-Mar 2020

N A L G R
I G O AND LODGE
The Ashlar E R Vol. XV Issue IV
regulations were enforced by fines, which secret sign delivered from hand to hand”.
were doubled if they remained unpaid at the Early Masonic documents suggest that the
next meeting. Mason Word was circulated amongst the
brethren at the conclusion of the ceremony
Within its own territory each operative lodge of admission.
became very powerful. Territorial lodges
were themselves under the supervision of It appears to have been first used in the
head lodges, such as the lodges at fourteenth or fifteenth century; it is
Kilwinning, St Andrews, Aitcheson's Haven, mentioned in Henry Adamson's The Muses
Edinburgh, Dundee, Perth, Dunfermline, Threnodie, published at Edinburgh in 1638;
Glasgow, Stirling and Ayr. Not all of these and it is referred to by the English poet,
important lodges were in large towns; the Andrew Marell, the friend of Milton, in a
famous lodge at Kilwinning, for example, poem, Rehearsal Transpos'd, written about
was in a village-town, which even at the 1672. Obviously, then, late in the sixteen
present day, with its iron, coal, engineering hundreds, there was no secret in the public
and spinning industries, has a relatively mind as to the existence of the Mason Word,
small population. The Lodge of Kilwinning however secret the word itself was kept.
had supervisory powers over lodges in the
west of Scotland; and the Lodge of St Organisation of Lodges in Scotland:
Andrews over lodges in Fifeshire. There is evidence that there were periodical
meetings of representatives form the various
The Mason Word: It is believed that operative lodges in Scotland in order to
these mason trade bodies introduced a discuss matters of common interest. These
mode of recognition, lacking which any meetings were usually held in Edinburgh as
operative, whatever his skill and training, being the business center of the country and
was regarded merely as semi-skilled or even the seat of the Court. From these meetings
as labourer. The Mason Word probably the Lodge of Edinburgh gained a sort of pre-
came into existence as soon as the Scots eminence amongst the lodges and one of its
mason trade of the towns and cites was officers was frequently appointed Warden
strong enough to limit the number of General. The Warden-General was an
apprentices and to protect itself from the administrative official appointed by the
competition of country masons coming to Crown with the titles of 'King's Master of
town to seek their fortune. It would thus Works and Warden-General' or alternatively,
follow that the Scots country mason, a skilled 'Chief Master of Masons' under which last
mason in his own village and countryside, title he presided, when present in any lodge,
might be no more than a Cowan in a Scots to the temporary exclusion of its own
city, although were he given in lodge the Warden. The functions of the Warden-
secret qualification possessed by the city General were entirely administrative.
masons his standing would be exactly the
same as theirs. On 28 Dec 1598, William Schaw, of
Schawpark near Alloa, Issued a series
The Mason Word was something more than enactments known as the 'Schaw Statutes'.
a mere expression. It was described as This he did by virtue of his office as Warden-
“something like a rabbinical tradition, in the General. These are to be found in the
way of comment on the two pillars of King minutes book of the Lodge Edinburgh
Solomon's Temple; with the addition of some (Mary's Chapel) No.1 and codify the

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