History & Limitations of Masonic Travel By Bro Kent Henderson

Excerpted from :The Masonic World Guide (Lewis Masonic, London. 1984) -
by Kent Henderson. Pages 6-14

"The habit of Freemasons to travel and to visit other Lodges, or even affiliate with them, is one of the oldest and most widely practiced customs of the Craft. In operative times, well before the emergence of the Speculative Craft as we now know it, masons were itinerant workers who were forced to travel to renew their employment as each building project was completed.

This fluid nature of the Operative Craft led to the formation of trade societies, known as lodges, to protect the professional integrity of their occupation, and to enhance the moral and social practices of their members. It is surmised, not without some evidence, that the modes of recognition were originated in the operative period as a means of identifying the genuinely skilled mason who came to visit a lodge in search of work.

It is therefore reasonable to deduce that the tendency of Masons to visit other Lodges is very old custom indeed. Many of the oldest extant Masonic manuscripts contain charges associated with visiting, and the reception of visitors.

Visiting as a Right

As has just been outlined, the right to visit and sit in every regular Lodge is one of the oldest Masonic customs. This custom hinged on the theory that all Lodges are only divisions of the 'Universal Brotherhood'. Indeed, in some areas of old, visitors could even vote at Lodge meetings.

However, the growth and spread of the Craft saw many variations in forms and procedures develop, and the evolution of the Grand Lodge system as we know it today. In turn, this necessitated that the concept of visiting as a right undergo changes.

The movement towards qualification of the right to visit appears to have begun in the early eighteenth century. There are records of Lodges in this period setting out limitations to visiting, in terms of the number of visits a non-member Mason could make to a Lodge in a twelve month period; and limiting the types of meeting a visitor could attend.

Certainly, by the end of the eighteenth century, visiting had ceased to be a right, but rather a privilege.

Visiting as a Privilege

The situation today is that visiting is a privilege-indeed, it is one of the greatest privileges of Masonic membership. It must be immediately stated that a Mason has no absolute, prescriptive right to visit a Lodge wherein he is not a member.

However, with that fact clearly stated, it must be observed that visiting as a privilege is most definitely encouraged and welcomed in every regular jurisdiction. A regular Freemason in good standing will always encounter Masonic hospitality and brotherhood in his travels.

The Limitations on Visiting Today

There are four basic limitations on visiting in the Masonic world today. The first two, as listed below with explanations, are common to every regular jurisdiction; while the last two are less prevalent. They are:

1. The Recognition of Regularity. This is a limitation on visiting whereby the only people a Lodge may receive are those who are members of another Lodge whose Grand Lodge is recognized by its own. This whole question is detailed at length in a later chapter.

2. The Master's Prerogative. It is, by custom and often by Grand Lodge statute, the prerogative of the Master of a Lodge to refuse to admit any visitor if he is not satisfied that he is a regular Mason of good standing; or he feels that such a proposed visitor will disturb the harmony of his Lodge.

The former power is only occasionally used as a matter of necessity; the latter very rarely. Nevertheless, the prerogative power of the Master of a Lodge is wide.

3. Business Meetings. Under some forms of Masonic practice, business meetings are held separately to meetings held for degree conferment, and where this is the case, visitors are often excluded from the former, but never the latter. Similarly, in some jurisdictions where ordinary Lodge business and degree conferment are held in the space of a since meeting, visitors are sometimes not admitted until after the Lodge has completed the business part of its activities.

4. Visiting by Invitation. In some jurisdictions, notably England, it is largely usual for visitors to receive an invitation from a Lodge member. In other areas, while such a restriction does not exist with respect to ordinary meetings, it does apply to Installation Meetings.

These practices are not adhered to without reasons, and they will be examined when we come to discuss those jurisdictions concerned later in this guide."

See next post for the continuation of this article.