Gilles C.H. Nullens
The marks of the operative masons
have been found on stone buildings all over the world and they sometime
date back a few hundred if not a few thousand years. However the
ceremonies of Mark Masonry, as it is practised to day, probably date
from the eighteenth century. There are some recorded dates when Brethren
of the Craft were made Mark Mason, but we have no evidence when it was
introduced.
Mason marks have been found in the
buildings of all civilised countries and they are quite common in
English churches, abbeys, etc. However it is also true that they were
recorded and organised in two countries only: Scotland and Germany. The
Scottish Schaw Statutes of 1598 show how they were registered in this
country, and who was entitled to register his mark. Strange enough, not
only operative masons were able to do it, but also non-operative
"Accepted" members. Marks were common to many trades.
Mark Masonry was practised in Fellow Craft
lodges, which worked many ceremonies during the eighteenth century. In
those days Mark Masonry had two degrees, Mark Man and Mark Master; they
now are combined into one degree in English Masonry but this is not the
case in other countries, even if they differ from the old ones. The Mark
Man Degree was reserved to Fellow Crafts and the Mark Master was
exclusively for Master Masons. More often than not, Brethren receiving
the Royal Arch also received the Mark degree. Some Craft lodges worked
also the Mark and Royal Arch Degrees as well as the "constructive" chair
degree.
Mark Masonry made great progress between
the 1780's and the Act of Union of 1813 that, however, recognised only
the three Craft Degrees and Royal Arch as part of pure ancient Masonry
although it did not prevent the working of the other degrees. The Mark
ceremonies continued to be worked during the first half of the
nineteenth century but without any official basis or recognition by the
Unified Grand lodge and this lack of organisation was soon felt. A Mark
Grand Lodge was created in 1856 but it met with strong opposition. Many
Mark lodges applied to the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland
for warrants, and within one year or two there were about fifty Mark
lodges in England, Wales, and the Colonies, all owning allegiance to the
Scots Grand Chapter. The Scottish Grand Chapter regarded the English
Mark Grand lodge as illegal, but this did not prevent it to prosper.
Peace arrived in 1878 with the creation of the present "Grand Lodge of
Mark Master Masons of England and Wales and the Dominions and
dependencies of the British Crown".
Royal Arch and Mark Masonry were
associated from the start. There is no evidence that the "Antients"
found the early prototype of Mark Masonry in the Masonry of the early
1700's and that it developed Mark Masonry in parallel with their beloved
Royal Arch, despite the opposition of the "Moderns". Probably Mark
Masonry came to England from the same source that the Royal Arch with
which it was closely associated in its first half-century, and still is
in some places. Both the Mark Man and the Mark Master degrees initially
adhered closely to the Biblical account of Solomon's Temple. They were
especially popular in Scotland, a very religious country, in which the
idea of the mason's mark was well known. In conclusion, even if the
basic idea behind the Mark degrees is a thousand of years old, the
degrees, as we know them, were invented in the eighteenth century,
followed by many changes to reach the form under which we know them to
day. The Mark Man Degree is though to be the oldest in Mark Masonry,
although the evidence available mention it at the same time that the
Master Mark Degree in 1769.
The Mark Man degree was opened around
1820's as the Fellow Craft's. The apron worn by the Brethren carried ten
mathematical characters, the signature of Hiram Abif and the Mark of the
degree. The candidate in his Initiation made an important discovery, was
introduced to some secrets, and learned of the trumpet signal used to
signal danger at the time of the construction of the first Temple in
Jerusalem. The Candidate in the Old Mark Man Degree learned that there
were two thousand Mark Men employed during the building of Solomon's
Temple divided in twenty lodges. Their duty was to mark the stones
prepared by the workmen to facilitate their assembly on the building
site. The keystone of King Solomon's arch contained many valuable coins
and "the ten letters in precious stone work" became lost, and an
ingenious Entered Apprentice made a new one, but the fellow Crafts were
jealous, and threw it away. The candidate finds this keystone and is
rewarded for his discovery. This was the procedure followed in the
second half of the eighteen century and in the early years of the
nineteenth.
In the Mark Master Degree, a century or
more ago, the Candidate was told of the light house constructed on the
top of Mount Lebanon to guide the ancient mariners who were carrying
gold, ivory, and precious stones from Ophir for the decoration of
Solomon's Temple. The ritual introduces the "link", an idea that went
through many early Mark ceremonies, and gave its name to some of them.
In the early 1800's, in this degree the link referred to one of the
names of the creator "a grand ineffable name". It is said that there
were a thousand Mark Masters divided in twenty lodges at the building of
the Temple; their job was to control the material brought to Jerusalem
to make sure that the parts would fit and they would add their mark on
the stones accepted.
The Mark Degree to day centres on the
rejection of a worked stone that is found, later on, to be essential for
the erection of a building. This motif was initially absent from the
Mark degree but it appears in many references from the early nineteenth
century. The name "Mark" has been used to describe many degrees and does
not, alone, indicates the content of the degrees that can be very
different many of which are still worked to day even if their content
has often changed with time. There does not seem to be any connection
between the operative mark and these degrees worked and conferred by the
Royal Arch Masonry.
The Mark Mason is under an obligation to
receive a Brother's Mark and help him within the limit of his
possibilities. He is not obliged to help him it a second time unless he
has been repaid.
Operative masons' marks are found on the
stonework of buildings of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks,
etc as far back as 1500 BC. They appear on the stone work of Gothic
buildings in England and elsewhere. The reason and meaning of these
marks are unclear. Some experts have thought that they were associated
with magical and esoteric matters, but it seems more probable that they
only had an utilitarian nature, that is, to identify the man who shaped
the stone, or to indicate the position in which the stone should be
laid. As the number of stone masons working on a big building was large,
there must have been some organisation and registration of marks. They
are some historical evidences that this organisation existed in Scotland
and Germany but the absence of evidences does not mean that it was not
used somewhere else. Scottish rules issued in 1598 stated that on
admission to a fraternity, every mason had to enter his name and his
mark in a register. Something similar was in use in Germany.
In the speculative Mark lodges, every
brother selects his mark that is recorded in the book of the lodge and
also in the General Register Books of Marks in the Mark Grand lodge.
These marks generally have a geometrical character and consist of
straight lines and angles; curves were rare because they were difficult
to reproduce. The rise of Craft guilds in England and other countries
increased the need for Craft marks and not only for the masons. This was
even more necessary because most Craftsmen could not read or write and
could only leave their mark to identify their work. The marks were
applied where they could be easily seen, even after the stone was
integrated in the construction. Marks have been thought to indicate also
when the stone was worked but this is not certain.
Marks were used in other trades too and
for the same reasons. Some have been found in China, Persia, Egypt,
Rome, etc to identify weavers, potters, goldsmiths, silversmiths,
carpenters, joiners, coopers, cloth workers, bakers, etc. Even merchants
had to use their marks sometime in England and elsewhere. This was the
beginning of the mark of origin that is still widely used to day.