hanzosbm
Premium Member
There's another thread here talking about how long a brother must wait between degrees. It got me thinking about the early(er) days of Freemasonry where one had to be an EA for 7 YEARS before being passed/raised (only 2 degrees then).
We have also had some discussions as of late regarding deeper meanings behind the rituals, "true secrets", and different groups of brothers who are after different things in the Craft.
In an operative setting, 7 years as an EA makes sense, but what about for speculative purposes? I haven't done an exhaustive search to see exactly when this requirement fell away, but I know that as of 1724 in the Briscoe document it is mentioned and in 1728 in Cole's Constitutions is says either 5 or 7 years. Clearly, we are well into the time of speculative Masonry here. So, what was it about speculative Masonry in those days that required an EA 7 years to advance? Was it purely to create an arbitrary hierarchy? Was it a blind following of tradition left over from the operative days? Was it a requirement to learn every single part of every single ritual word for word mouth to ear (which would take a considerable amount of time) ? And why do we not see a time requirement to go from FC to MM? The MM degree started showing up sometime between 1723 and 1730, so, depending on that timing, there very easily could've been an overlap of time where the 7 year rule for EA was in effect and when there were 3 degrees.
What are your thoughts?
We have also had some discussions as of late regarding deeper meanings behind the rituals, "true secrets", and different groups of brothers who are after different things in the Craft.
In an operative setting, 7 years as an EA makes sense, but what about for speculative purposes? I haven't done an exhaustive search to see exactly when this requirement fell away, but I know that as of 1724 in the Briscoe document it is mentioned and in 1728 in Cole's Constitutions is says either 5 or 7 years. Clearly, we are well into the time of speculative Masonry here. So, what was it about speculative Masonry in those days that required an EA 7 years to advance? Was it purely to create an arbitrary hierarchy? Was it a blind following of tradition left over from the operative days? Was it a requirement to learn every single part of every single ritual word for word mouth to ear (which would take a considerable amount of time) ? And why do we not see a time requirement to go from FC to MM? The MM degree started showing up sometime between 1723 and 1730, so, depending on that timing, there very easily could've been an overlap of time where the 7 year rule for EA was in effect and when there were 3 degrees.
What are your thoughts?