The History of Freemasonry

by Albert Gallatin Mackey

Chapter 25 - The Mark Degree

THERE is no stronger or more convincing proof of the connection between the Operative Freemasons of the Middle Ages and those of the present day, and of the regular descent of the one from the other, than that furnished by the existence in the modern rituals of a degree the ceremonies of which have been evidently founded on the system of proprietary marks which prevailed among the Stonemasons of Germany, and which passed from them into all the other countries of Europe.

If all the other authentic testimonies of the fact that about the beginning of the 18th century there was a transmutation of an Operative Art into a Speculative Science, were expunged from the record, the apparently extraordinary phenomenon that there exists in the latter, and in the latter only, a peculiar and extraordinary system, which also prevailed in the former, and in the former only, would be sufficient to warrant the conclusion that there must have been a very intimate relation between the two associations with which this system was connected.

Therefore, as a connecting link of that great chain which, beginning with the Roman Colleges of Artificers, extended to the early Masons of Gaul and Britain to the Travelling Freemasons of Lombardy and Germany, and finally terminated in the Free and Accepted Masons of modern times, a thorough consideration of the rise and progress of the Mark degree must be deemed essential to the completeness of any work on the history of Freemasonry.

In pursuing this investigation it will be necessary to inquire, firstly, what is the position of the Mark degree in the modern rituals; secondly, what is its character and legendary history; and, thirdly, what was its real historical origin as distinguished from the mythical account of its fabrication, as it is given in its legends.

To an investigation of these important and, to the student of Masonic Antiquities, interesting, points, the present chapter will be devoted.

The Mark degree, or to define it more accurately according to the received phraseology, the degree of Mark Master, constitutes the fourth degree or the first of what are called the capitular degrees in the American Rite as it is practiced in the United States. In Scotland and Ireland it is a degree recognized under the jurisdiction of the Grand Chapter. In England it is not recognized by the Grand Lodge. The articles of Union, adopted in 1813, defined Ancient Craft Masonry to consist only of the first three degrees, including the Royal Arch. Hence, there being no place provided for the Mark degree, it was ignored in English Masonry until its introduction a few years ago, when it was placed under an independent jurisdiction called the Mark Grand Lodge, a body which was established in 1856.

On the Continent of Europe and in all countries the Freemasonry of which is not delved immediately from and is in intimate connection with the Masonry of England and America, the Mark degree is entirely unknown. There is not in any of the German, French, Italian, or Spanish rituals the slightest allusion to it.

In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite the Mark degree at one time held a distinct position, though it has ever since the beginning of this century or the close of the last, been stricken from its ritual. Of this fact there is undeniable proof.

I have in my possession an original Warrant or charter, granted in the year 1804 by the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem to American Eagle Master Mark Masons' Lodge No. 1, in Charleston, South Carolina, and there is in the archives of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, the ritual of the degree as at the time conferred, which appears to have been only on Past Master Masons of the Scottish Rite who were recognized by the possession of Scottish degrees as Past Masters. (1)

There is no evidence, however, that other lodges were established

(1) That is, on Master Masons who had received the preliminary degrees of the Scottish Rite, who were assumed in their own Rite to be Past Masters. In the Circular of the Charleston Supreme Council, issued in 1802, it is said that "throughout the Continent of Europe, England, Ireland, and the West indies, every Sublime Mason is recognized as a lawful Past Master."

by the same authority. At least no other Charters have to my knowledge been discovered. (1)

At the time of the establishment of the Supreme Council at Charleston, in 1801, the jurisdiction over the degree had probably been assumed by the Scottish Rite Masons, for the Warrant just mentioned was granted by the Council of Princes of Jerusalem, which was a body subordinate to the Supreme Council.

At the present time the Mark degree constitutes a part of the Rite practiced in the United States, and is under the jurisdiction of the Grand Chapter, being the fourth of the capitular degrees.

Up to nearly the middle of the present century the degree was conferred sometimes in a lodge working under the Warrant granted by the Grand Chapter to a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and sometimes in a Mark Masters' lodge working under a special and distinct charter from the Grand Chapter. But in 1853 this system was abolished by the General Grand Chapter, and independent Mark Masters' lodges no longer exist in America.

In Scotland, after the transition of Operative into Speculative Masonry, the Mark degree was worked originally by a few lodges under their Craft Warrant, and it was then conferred as an appendage to the Fellow-Craft degree. This was done as late as 1860, by a lodge at Glasgow, which action, however, attracted the notice of the Grand Chapter, and having in conference with the Grand Lodge thoroughly investigated the subject, the following report was made, which as giving a summary of the rise and progress of the degree in Scotland, and of the changes of position to which it was subjected, is well worthy of quotation.

In this report it was unanimously agreed by the Committee of Conference "that what is generally known under the name of the Mark Master's degree was wrought by the Operative lodges of St. John's Masonry (2) in connection with the Fellow-Craft degree before the institution of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. That since that date it has continued to be wrought in the Old Operative lodges, but in what may be called the Speculative lodges, it was never worked at all - or at all events only in a very few. That this

(1) The American Eagle Master Mark Masons' Lodge was in existence at least as late as 1807, and a list of its officers is given in the register published in that year by J.J. Negrin, and appended to his "Free Masons' Vocal Assistant," page 25. (2) By St. John's Masonry is meant in Scotland the three symbolic degrees.

degree being, with the exception of the Old Operative lodges above mentioned, entirely abandoned by the lodges of St. John's Masonry, the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter assumed the management of it as the Fourth degree of Masonry, in order to complete the instruction of their candidates in the preliminary degrees, before admitting them to the Royal Arch. And, finally, that this degree, whether viewed as a second part of the Fellow-Craft degree or as a separate degree, has never been recognized or worked in England, Ireland, or the Continent, or in America, as a part of St. John's Masonry."

It was also stated by a delegate of the Grand Lodge of Scotland at a conference on the subject of the Mark degree, held at London in 1871, that long anterior to the institution of the Grand Lodge of Scotland two classes of lodges existed in that kingdom; namely, those which worked only the First and Second degrees and of which the Mark Master or Overseer was Master, and those which worked the First, Second, and Third degrees, over which the Master Mason presided.

In both of these statements there are errors in respect to the Mark degree, which have been corrected by subsequent investigations. Bro. Lyon, whose authority on this subject is unquestionable, says that the statements in regard to an organization for conferring the Mark under Mark Masters or Overseers are unsupported by any existing records. The lodges previous to the 18th century "knew nothing of the degrees of Mark Men, Mark Master, or Master Mason." (1)

As a degree of Masonry, in the sense which we give to the word degree, the system of Mark Masonry was wholly unknown to the Operative Masons of the Middle Ages. It has been shown that in Germany every Apprentice who had served his time, on being admitted as a Fellow Craft received a Mark, which was to be his unchangeably during his life. The reception of this was generally accompanied by a banquet, furnished to a certain extent of expenditure by the lodge which admitted him; but there is not the slightest allusion in any document extant to the fact that the bestowal of the mark was accompanied by esoteric ceremonies which would give it the slightest resemblance to a degree.

(1) "History of the Lodge of Edinburgh," p. 71.

In Scotland the Statutes of William Schaw required all Fellows and sometimes Apprentices, to select their marks, which were to be recorded, and a fee was paid for their registration; but as Bro. Lyon says, there is not anything in the records of the period which points to a special ceremony in connection with their adoption.

In England preceding the middle of the 18th century we have nothing in reference to marks in the Old Charges or to the Mark degree in the minutes of lodges, either in Operative or Speculative Masonry.

We are indebted to Bro. Hughan, that indefatigable investigator, for the earliest authentic record we possess of the existence of the Mark degree in Scotland. It is contained in an extract from the minutes of the Operative lodge at Banff, the date of which is January 7, 1778. The minute is in the following words:

"That in time coming all members that shall hereafter raise to the degree of Mark Mason, shall pay one mark Scots, but not to obtain the degree of Mark Mason before they are passed Fellow-Craft. And those that shall take the degree of Mark Master Masons shall pay one shilling and sixpence sterling into the Treasurer for behoofe of the lodge. None to attain to the degree of Mark Master Mason until they are raised Master."

From this record we learn that at that time there were two degrees in connection with the mark-one called "Mark Mason," probably the same which was distinguished elsewhere as "Mark Man," to which degree Fellows were eligible, and another called "Mark Master Mason," which was conferred only on Master Masons.

We are not, however, to ascribe the year 1778, the date of the record, as the date of the institution of either of the degrees. The minutes only prove that the degrees were then in existence, and show the regulation by which they were governed.

Their fabrication must have taken place at an earlier period, but how much earlier we are unable to say. But I imagine that we would be safe in saying that neither of the degrees was fabricated anterior to the middle of the 18th century. If earlier, some notice of them would occur in the minutes of the Lodges of Mary's Chapel and Kilwinning. But those minutes have been thoroughly digested by Bro. Lyon, and no such notice has been met with.

The earliest mention of the two Mark degrees in England is found in the Minute Books of St. Thomas Lodge No. 142 in London.

The minutes of the lodge in connection with this subject were transcribed by Bro. H.C. Levander, Secretary of the lodge, and are contained in a letter from Bro. T.B. Whytehead, Past Master of York Mark Lodge, which was inserted in the Report of the Committee on Correspondence to the Grand Chapter of Pennsylvania, and published in the proceedings of that body for the year 1879. From the minutes of the lodge, of August 14, 1777, we are put in possession of important facts bearing on this subject. The minute is as follows:

"August 14, 1777. "Regular Lodge night, the W.M., the Wardens, the Secretary, and Treasurer present worked in the First and Second degrees, made the following brothers Mark Masons and also Mark Master Masons, opened at 6 o'clock."

From this and from other minutes of the lodge of subsequent date but of the same purport, we glean the facts that in 1777, and no doubt earlier (the lodge was warranted in 1775), the two degrees of Mark Man and Mark Master were worked in the South of England as an appendage to the Fellow-Craft's degree.

The Lodge of St. Thomas received its Warrant from the Grand Lodge of "Ancients," or Athol Grand Lodge, which held close and amicable relations with the Grand Lodge of Scotland. But there is also evidence that at a later period, the Mark degree was worked by an English lodge holding its Warrant from the Grand Lodge of "Moderns," or the legitimate Grand Lodge of England, though that body religiously repudiated all degrees except the three symbolic degrees.

Bro. Whytehead, in the article before referred to, supplies us with an extract from the minutes of the Imperial George Lodge of Middleton in Lancashire, which had been warranted in 1752 by the Grand Lodge of "Moderns." The minute is dated March 9, 1809, and is in these words:

"This lodge was opened in due form at 8 o'clock, in peace and good harmony.

"When the following Brethren were made Mark Masons."

Bro. Whytehead also cites the Directory of Minerva Lodge No. 250 at Hull, as showing that in the year 1802 that lodge conferred, besides several other degrees, those of "Ark, Mark, and Link."

Though there was no regular book of the Mark Lodge, yet the Secretary, Bro. M.C. Peck, states that the marks were entered in the Craft minute book.

In Kenning's Masonic Cyclopaedia, Bro. Woodford says: "It is undoubtedly true that in Scotland the 'Falows of Craft' took up their marks, but we are not aware, so far, of any corresponding use in England." (1)

But the records of St. Thomas Lodge of Lancashire in 1775 and of Minerva Lodge of Yorkshire in 1809, marks were regularly selected and recorded by brethren when they received the Mark degree. The mark was always appended to the name of the brother.

So that if, by the expression "Taking up their marks," of which, he says, there was no "corresponding use in England," he means that the English Mark Masons did not select and register their marks, just as they did in Scotland, these records show that he is clearly in error.

Bro. Woodford also says, in the same article, "Mark Man, in our humble opinion, is historically synonymous with Mark Mason."

But the same records prove that in 1775 the degree of Mark Man was distinct from that of Mark Master, though in 1809 the Minerva Lodge does not appear to have practiced the former.

Whether we call the first of these degrees Mark Man or Mark Mason, and the latter Mark Mason or Mark Master Mason, the words Mark Man and Mark Mason, in the meaning given to them at the present day, are not synonymous, and never could have been, because they indicate two distinct things.

These minutes also show that in the 18th century the Mark degree was worked independently by certain Blue lodges under their Grand Lodge Warrants. It was, however, rejected as a degree, or rather not recognized by the United Grand Lodge, in the articles of union adopted in 1813. It has, however, always been recognized in Scotland and in Ireland as a part of Speculative Masonry necessarily preparatory to the Royal Arch.

The Mark degree was introduced into the United States at a

(1) Kenning's "Cyclopaedia,' in voce. Mark Man, p. 453.

time subsequent to the middle of the last century. In the sparseness of authentic documents, it is impossible to affix the precise date of the introduction of the Mark degree into America, but it would be, I think, more correct to place that date at about the close rather than immediately after the middle of the century. "Independent Mark Lodges" says Bro. Hughan, (1) "were scattered throughout the United States of America during the latter part of the last century and early in the present one." This, I have no doubt, as the result of my own investigations, is the proper date of the introduction of the degree in this country.

The late Bro. F.G. Tisdall, who was the Master of St. John's Lodge No. 1 in the city of New York, asserted in an address delivered at the Centennial of the lodge, in 1857, that the lodge received its original Warrant from the Grand Lodge of England in the year 1757, under the Grand Mastership of Lord Aberdour, and that to its Warrant was "annexed a Warrant with power to make Mark Masons."

If this assertion were true it would establish two important historical facts: first, that the Mark degree was recognized in the middle of the last century by the Grand Lodge of England (Moderns), and secondly, that it was practiced at the same period in the United States.

Unfortunately, Bro. Tisdall has verified neither of these statements by authentic documents, and we are compelled to relegate them to the regions of the mythical, where so many hundreds of hap-hazard statements of Masonic history have found at last a quiet resting-place. (2)

He has, however, cited an extract from the minutes which shows that in the year 1796 there was a Mark lodge, connected in some way with the Craft Lodge, St. John, and that at that time the Mark degree was conferred by it. (3)

It must be admitted as a well-proven historical fact that Mark

(1) Mackey's "National Freemasons" February, 1873, vol. ii., p. 348. (2) In the article just cited from Mackey's "National Freemasons" Bro. Hughan has written an able criticism on the address of Bro. Tisdall as well as some Essays on the same subject published by Tisdall in Pomeroy's "Democrat." Hughan has very conclusively proved that the claims of Tisdall for so early an existence in America of the Mark degree have no historical foundation. (3) The minute reads as follows: "The accounts of St. John's Mark Lodge No. 1, made up to December 23, 1796, show a balance due to the treasury of 3 pounds 18s."

lodges existed in America and that the Mark Master's degree was conferred at the earliest about the close of the last century.

It was most probably introduced from Scotland or from the Athol Grand Lodge of England. St. John's Lodge of New York, already mentioned, though it was originally warranted by the Grand Lodge of "Moderns," afterward attached itself to the Grand Lodge of New York which was established by the "Ancients" under the Duke of Athol in 1781. It will be remarked, as has been proven by Bro. Hughan, that notwithstanding the assertion of Tisdall, there is no mention in the records of a Mark lodge or of the Mark degree in the records, until after it became connected with the "Ancients."

Though it is probable that in America, as in Scotland and in England, the Mark Master's degree was conferred in connection with Craft lodges, we learn by authentic testimonies that it was about the beginning of the present century, perhaps a few years earlier, conferred in Mark lodges, which seem to have been under the charge of Chapters.

Webb, in the 1812 edition of his Freemasons Monitor, records two Mark lodges as existing in Rhode Island and seventeen in New York. The Grand Chapters of both of these states were organized in 1798. But there were Royal Arch Chapters in existence before this date, and Mark lodges also.

The first constitution adopted in 1798 by the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the Northern States of America, which body afterward became the General Grand Chapter of the United States, recognized the Mark Master Mason's degree as a part of its system of degrees. The Constitutions adopted in 1799 expressly provided for the granting of warrants to hold Mark Master Masons' Lodges separately.

For a long time afterward Mark lodges were held generally in the bosom of the Chapters and under Chapter Warrants, and sometimes in distinct lodges under Warrants issued by the State Grand Chapters. Perhaps the last of these was St. John's Mark Lodge No. 1, in the city of Charleston, South Carolina.

But in the year 1856 the General Grand Chapter abolished independent Mark lodges, and ever since the degree has been conferred in a lodge working in the bosom of a Chapter and under the Chapter Warrant.

The theory entertained by some that the Mark degree was introduced into America by the Masons of the Scottish Rite, founded on the isolated fact that in the year 1803 a Mark lodge had been warranted in the city of Charleston by the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem, is wholly untenable. It is more probable that the jurisdiction over the degree was assumed in that case by the Council, the degree having existed long before in this country, whither it had been brought from Scotland and England through Charters issued for the establishment of subordinate lodges of Craft Masons.

The Mark degree appears, indeed, to have been something of a waif floating on the waters - a sort of flotsam and jetsam - without any lawful owner, and claimed and seized sometimes by Royal Arch Chapters, sometimes by Craft lodges, sometimes by independent Mark lodges, and lastly by the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The degree was traveling about during the close of the last and the beginning of the present century like Marryat's "Japhet," in search of a father. Fortunately, it has at last found a parent in Scotland, Ireland, and this country, in the Grand Chapter, which has assumed the paternity. In England, maternal relations are exercised by the Grand Mark Lodge, which is nursing the bantling until such time as the Grand Chapter shall acknowledge a fatherhood.

From this indicative sketch of the position occupied by Mark Masonry in the series of Masonic grades, we pass to a consideration of its legend - that mythical history fabricated at the time of its adoption, as a part of the system of Speculative Masonry.

In pursuing our further investigations in this way we necessarily abandon the functions of the historian and assume those of the fabulist. Yet the investigation is of great importance, for the fact of the direct descent of Speculative Masonry from the Operative art practiced by the medieval builders, is by no circumstance more clearly and positively proved than by the modification of the system of Marks peculiar to the latter, which was invented by the former.

This modification was, however, a very important one. The practice of using proprietary Marks, which was in use among the Operative Masons of the Middle Ages, and which lasted longer in Scotland than in any other country, undoubtedly suggested to the Speculative Masons the thought which resulted in the fabrication of the Mark degree. At first the idea of a proprietary mark may have occurred to the inventors of the different legends. If so, it gradually became obsolescent, and at this day the Mark of a Speculative Mark Master bears in its accepted character and use a much nearer resemblance to the tessers hospitalis of the Ancients than to the proprietary mark of an Operative Mason of the Middle Ages. To this particular point I shall have occasion hereafter to revert.

As the government of the Mark degree differed in different countries and at different times, so the legend seems also to have varied, and we find several forms of it in the rituals of the degree.

In the middle of the last century, or a little later, when in Scotland and in England the Mark system was divided into two grades or ranks, that of Mark Man and that of Mark Master, the design of the Mark was supposed to be very different from that of indicating a proprietorship.

The duty of the Mark Men is said in the ritual to have been to examine the materials as they came out of the hands of the workmen, and then to place a Mark upon them so as to enable them to be put together with greater facility and precision when brought from the quarries, the forest, and the clay-grounds to the city of Jerusalem. These marks were mathematical figures, name squares, levels, and perpendiculars which were used by command of King Solomon.

The Mark Masters were to examine the materials when they were brought to the Temple to see that every part duly corresponded, and thus to prevent confusion and mistake in fitting the respective parts to their proper places. In doing this they were, of course, guided by the marks which had been placed upon the stones and other materials by the Mark Men. The Mark Masters then placed an additional Mark upon them to show that they approved the work which had been previously examined by the Mark Men.

In all this there is not the slightest notion of a proprietorship. The stones were marked by the medieval Mason, so that the work of each man might be identified and he be made responsible for its imperfection or receive due credit for its merit.

But the stones and timbers were not according to this legend marked for any such purpose by the workmen, who "hewed, cut, and squared" them. The Mark was placed upon them by the Mark Masters, who superintended the Masons and carpenters in the quarries and the forests, and who placed a Mark on each stone and timber so that when transported to Jerusalem, the Mark Masters would find no difficulty, when guided by these Marks, in placing those materials together which were intended to be in juxtaposition.

Such a system prevails at the present day among stonemasons, carpenters, and joiners, so as to point out precisely the positions to be occupied by the different parts of the work upon which they are engaged when they are to be put together.

But this is altogether different from the system of proprietary Marks which was pursued by the Operative Masons of the Middle Ages.

There was another legend introduced at a later period, for the preliminary degree of Mark Man appears to have been omitted by that time from the system. It was most probably the ritual practiced in this country before the close of the last century. It is that which was used by the Mark lodge in Charleston, which had been chartered in 1804 by the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem. We have every reason to believe that this was the ritual used at that time by the Mark lodges in America, from whom the Charleston Mark lodge must have received it, as there is no other source known from which it could have been derived.

The legend in this ritual differs very materially from the former, which has been just described. There is no longer a pretension that the Mark was used as a means of indicating that two distinct pieces of material were when brought together to be put in juxtaposition. That idea has now been entirely eliminated from the degree.

In this more modern legend, the Mark is said to have been used for two purposes. In the first place, Hiram Abif, seeing that it was impossible to superintend so large a number of workmen as were employed in the building of the Temple, appointed overseers to the different classes. He was careful to select only men of irreproachable character for this responsible office.

He was particularly attached to the Giblemites or Stonecutters, whom he formed into a body, whose duty it was, as overseers, to procure from the Treasurer-General such sums of money as were necessary to pay off the workmen over whom they presided, which was done at a particular time and in a particular place.

To expedite the task of payment, and to prevent confusion and imposition among the workmen, the Giblemites were ordered to provide for themselves a particular Mark by which they and the amount due to each one were easily recognized; and presenting this Mark in a particular manner, each Mark Master received at once the wages due to him.

But the Mark thus selected was to be used not on the stone as a proof of who was the cutter of the stone, but only as a jewel to be employed at the hour of paying wages, so that the paymaster might commit no error in the payment.

But the Mark was used also for another purpose. This purpose was one utterly unknown to the Operative Masons or to the Speculative Masons who first founded the degree.

A Mark Master being in distress or danger, has a talisman for relief in his Mark. He sends it, says the ritual, to a Mark Mason, who instantly obeys the summons and flies to his relief with a heart warmed with the impulse of brotherly love.

The Mark might also be put in pledge if the owner was "in the utmost distress;" and he was to redeem it as soon as it should be in his power.

In this way the Mark of the Speculative Masons began to cease to bear any analogy to that of the Operative Stonecutters whence it was originally derived. It was no longer a device placed by a builder upon the stone which he had wrought, and the proprietorship of which he by this token claimed - not a proprietorship in the material, but in the workmanship with which his skill had fitted it for the building.

In the first ritual of the Mark degree, adopted at the time, most probably, of its institution, though this design of a proprietary Mark was not exactly observed, still the Speculative Mark referred to an architectural purpose, that of indicating the proper position of the materials.

There was enough of analogy to the Operative preserved by the Speculative Mark to indicate and to clearly prove the one was the outcome of the other.

But now all analogy or resemblance to the operative art was obliterated, and the more recent Mark Masters began to look outside of the Craft of Operative Masons for characteristics to apply to the Mark. It became to him, as it is called in the ritual quoted above, a "talisman," a means of obtaining relief, either by summoning with it a brother Mark Master to his assistance, or by pledging it to obtain the loan of money.

In plain words it ceased to have any relation to the proprietary mark of the Cologne and Strasburg Masons, and found its true analogy in the tessera hospitalis of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

The tessera hospitalis, or "hospitable die," was a piece of bone, of stone, or ivory, or any other material. It was a custom among the ancients that when two persons became allied as friends, they took such a die, which they divided into two parts, each one inscribing his name upon one of the halves, which were then interchanged. The Scholiast on Euripides says that if at any future period either needed assistance, on showing his broken half of the die to the other the required aid was, if possible, granted.

Plautus, the Roman dramatist, gives an interesting instance of the use of the lessers in the interview between Agorastocles and his unknown uncle, Hanno, described in the play of "Poenulus."

"Hanno. Hail, my countryman. "Agorastocles. Whosoever thou art, I hail thee also in the name of Pollux. If thou needest anything, speak, I beseech thee, and ask it for the sake of thy country. "Hanno. I thank thee, but I have a lodging here. Show me, if you know him, Agorastocles, the son of Antedamas. Knowest thou here a certain youth called Agorastocles ? "Agorastocles. If thou art looking for the adopted son of Antedamas, I am the one thou art seeking. "Hanno. Ha! what do I hear ? "Agorastocles. That I am the son of Antedamas. "Hanno. If this be so, compare with me, if thou pleasest, the hospitable die (tessera hospitalis); here it is, I have brought it with me. "Agorastocles. Come then, let me see it; it is the exact counterpart of that which I have at home. "Hanno. Much I greet thee, oh, my friend! for thy father, Antidamas, thy father, I say, was bound to me by the ties of hospitality. This hospitable die (tessera hospitalis) was in common with him and me. "Agorastocles. Therefore thou shalt lodge with me. For I deny neither the rights of hospitality nor Carthage where I was born." (1)

The early Christians also had their lessers, which they carried about in their journeys from one place to another as a means of introduction to their fellow-Christians whom they might meet. Dr. Mason Harris, in a dissertation on this subject, says that the use of these tesseree in the place of written certificates of character lasted until the 11th century.

It is very evident that the fabricator of the Mark ritual which we are considering was well acquainted with the nature of these Greek, Roman, and Christian tessera, and that they suggested to him the idea of transmuting the proprietary Mark of the Operative Masons which had given origin to the Mark degree from a token of ownership in the work of the stone to a badge of fraternity, and a means of claiming brotherly assistance.

In the early part of the present century, perhaps even much earlier, the ritual was again changed, and that form adopted which being either invented or approved by Thomas Smith Webb, the most prominent ritual maker of his day, is now the form universally practiced in this country.

The legend attached to this ritual enters into several details not embraced in the former ones, but it continues to maintain the theory that the Mark is a token of friendship, a theory which I have already said a dozen times was utterly unknown to the old Operative Masons.

The legend is to this effect. At the building of the Temple of Solomon, a young craftsman found in the quarries a stone of a peculiar form and beauty, and an which was inscribed certain mystical characters the meaning of which was wholly unknown to him. Nevertheless, he carried it up to the inspectors of the materials brought up for the construction of the temple, and disingenuously but unsuccessfully attempted to pass it off as a stone wrought by himself. Some time afterward this very stone, which had been prepared by Hiram Abif, for a special purpose in the building, was found to be wanting. After a strict search it was discovered among the rubbish and applied to its original destination. In honour of

(1) Plautus, "Poenulus," Act V., Scene 2, ver. 80.

Hiram Abif, who had constructed the stone and placed his own mark upon it, a representation of this stone in gold or silver is used as the decoration of the degree; it is worn by Mark Masters, and the traditional mark of Hiram being a circle of letters, each brother is directed to select his own mark and place it within the circle. This mark is inscribed by the lodge in its register or Book of Marks. The representation of it in metal is often, but not always, nor by any obligation, worn upon his person. It is sometimes used when in distress as a means of obtaining aid and relief.

To be more precise in the description: the American ritual requires the jewel, as it is called, to be "made of gold or silver, usually of the former metal (sometimes of a precious stone, as opal or agate), and in the form of a keystone. On the obverse or front surface the device or mark selected by the owner must be engraved within a circle composed of the letters H.T.W.S.S.T.K.S. On the reverse surface the name of the owner, of his chapter, and the time of his advancement to the degree may be inscribed, though this is not legally necessary.

In Scotland the usage is a little different. The jewel must be of mother-of-pearl and wedgeshaped. In a circle on one side are the Hebrew letters XXXXXXXX; on the other side are letters conveying the same meaning in the vernacular language with the wearer's mark in the center. (1)

In this ritual and legend, as in the preceding one, the Mark has altogether lost the proprietary character which it had among the Craft in the Middle Ages. It has become a Masonic decoration and a means of proving the claims of its owner to certain prerogatives peculiar to Mark Masters.

In one point, however, all the legends agree. Each fixes the time and place of instituting the degree at the building of Solomon, and they attribute the establishment of the regulations which then governed it to the wisdom and foresight of Hiram Abif, though according to the most modern ritual, the circumstances which are commemorated in the ceremony of initiation occurred after the death of that distinguished artist.

As the result of our investigation, I think that we are forced to come to the conclusion that the Mark degree first made its appearance

(1) Laws of the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland, cap. vii., 4.

in Speculative Masonry about the middle of the 18th century. We can find no records in which such a degree is mentioned previous to that period.

In a report made to the Grand Lodge of Mark Masons of England in 1873, it is said, with a great deal more of boldness than of accuracy, that "there is probably no degree in Freemasonry that can lay claim to greater antiquity than those of Mark Man or Mark Mason and Mark Master Mason." It is a very great pity, for it is vastly detrimental to the intelligent study of Masonic history, that men otherwise accurate and trustworthy should indulge in such fanciful speculations. To say nothing of the Fellow-Craft and Master's degrees which antedate all allusions to Mark degrees by about half a century, all the degrees of the Chevalier Ramsey's system and many other high degrees were known and practiced at a time when Mark Masonry as a Speculative degree or degrees had been unheard of.

There can not, I think, be any doubt that Scotland was the place where the Mark degree was instituted. "It is to Scotland," says Bro. Whytehead (in the letter heretofore cited), "that we must look for the birthplace of the Mark degree as a Speculative working;" and he feels sure that the degree "came into working existence toward the close of the last century, when there was a rage for the multiplication of Orders."

In both of these opinions I concur, except that I would prefer to make the time of birth about the middle, rather than toward the close, of the last century. But in either way the difference would not be much more than a score of years.

We must also, I am sure, ascribe the fabrication of the degree to suggestions derived from the use of proprietary marks by the Freemasons of Germany, whence they were introduced into Scotland. There they remained long after they had ceased to be employed in other countries.

It has been shown that in Operative Masonry the Mark was bestowed upon the Fellow-craft or sometimes upon the Apprentice, unaccompanied with any other ceremonial than that of a modest banquet in Germany at the expense of the lodge, and that of a registration of the mark in Scotland at the expense of the candidate.

Notwithstanding this, when the inclination to create a new degree in Speculative Masonry took possession of the minds of certain Scottish Masons, the very fact that the Mark was bestowed without any ceremonial, inspired the thought that this manifest want of any formality in the bestowal might be well supplied by the fabrication of a degree in which the ceremony might take place.

Whytehead supposes, but I can not agree with him, that "it may have even been the case that originally some kind of Mark working, though, of course, not the same as at present, once formed an integral part or complement of the Second degree, just as some Masons imagine the Royal Arch did of the Third degree, and that for the sake of abbreviating the ceremonies both were divorced and fashioned into separated and distinct workings under newly invented names."

But it is not necessary to indulge in any such supposition, which, besides, is not sustained by the records. The mere fact that there was in Operative Masonry a Mark, which every Fellow received upon his admission to the Craft and preparatory to his going to work as a journeyman, would have been sufficient to suggest to an inventive genius the most fitting points of a new degree, at a time when the manufactory of degrees had been established as a popular and successful branch of business in Speculative Masonry.

Notwithstanding that the use of proprietary Marks by the German and Scottish Operative Masons had furnished the suggestion for the invention of a degree in Speculative Masonry, the fabricators of that degree did not strictly preserve the system by which the use of Marks had always been regulated, which was simply to each stone-cutter the means of identifying the stones which he had cut.

I do not believe that the Mark was employed simply to give the Overseers and Masters of the works a ready means of calculating the amount of pay due to each workman. Nothing of this is to be found in any of the old statutes or regulations.

Besides, the Mark was not placed on all stones indiscriminately, and if the calculation of wages was made by the marked stones only, the workmen would be constantly defrauded of a part of their dues.

It was a regulation that those stones only should be marked which were of importance in the building and which required skill and dexterity in their construction.

The inscribing of a Mark on a well-cut and polished stone was rather intended to secure to the stonecutter a just reputation for his work than to enable an overseer to calculate the amount of wages which were due.

If I am correct in my views, the Masons placed their Marks upon the stones which they cut in the same spirit in which the early printers affixed, each one, a peculiar device on the title-pages of the books which were issued from his press. (1)

It is evident from what has been here said that the design of the Mark has been greatly changed in its adoption by the Speculative Masons from that of the Operative Builders, from whom, however, the former derived it.

In one respect the various rituals of Mark Masonry agree, without the slightest variation. They all placed the institution of the system of giving Marks to a portion of the Craft at the time of building King Solomon's Temple, and the legend connects them with Hiram Abif, whose supposed personal Mark, surrounding that of the wearer, constitutes the decoration of the degree of Mark Master according to the modern ritual.

I need hardly say that this story of the Temple origin of the Mark degree is a mere myth, having no more foundation in history than the Hiramic legend of the Third degree. Its adoption in the Mark Master's degree is, however, a conclusive proof that degree in Speculative Masonry was fabricated after the invention of the Third degree, in the first quarter of the 18th century. In conclusion, as it has been shown that the Mark of the modern Speculative Freemason was evidently suggested by that of the German and especially the Scottish Operative Masons, and as the employment of Marks by the latter has evidently suggested their adoption by the Mark Masters when fabricating their degree, so I may repeat what was said in the beginning of this chapter, that there is no stronger or more convincing proof of the connection between the Operative Freemasons of the Middle Ages and the Speculative Freemasons of the present day, and of the direct descent of the latter from the former, than that which is furnished by the Mark Master's degree.

(1) Some of these old printers' devices bear a very striking resemblance to the stone-cutters' marks. That resembling an inverted 4 is very common to both. See Fosbrook's, "Encyclopedia of Antiquities," p. 445, or the title-page of any old book.

But we must be careful to repudiate as simply a myth of modern origin, the notion that there was ever a Mark degree before the middle or toward the close of the last century.

Still the Mark degree, though it has no antiquity, has its historical value as a factor in determining the true origin of the Speculative system, no investigation of which could be correctly or usefully conducted without a due consideration of the modern Mark degree.

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