Monday, 10 February 2025, 10:57 AM
Site: The Mason Word
Course: 1. Freemasonry for Non-Masons (Freemasonry for Non-Masons)
Glossary: Some Jargon Explained
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Candidate

Among Romans it was the custom for a man seeking office to wear a shining white robe. Since the name for such a color was candidus (whence our "candid"), the office seeker came to be called candidate.

In our ceremonies the custom is reversed: the candidate is clothed after his election instead of before.


Charity

The Greeks had a word, charisma, meaning a gift, and a number of words from the same root, variously suggesting rejoicing, gladness. Latin had a similar word, carus, meaning dear, possibly connected with amor, signifying love. From these roots came "grace", meaning a free, unbought gift, as in the theological phrase, "the grace of God", and "charity".

Strictly speaking, charity is an act done freely, and spontaneously out of friendship, not as a civic duty and grudgingly, as is sometimes the case in public charity. The Masonic use of the word is much nearer this original sense, for a Mason extends relief to a needy brother not as a duty but out of friendship.

Charter

The Charter of a Lodge is the official document , issued by Grand Lodge, authorising the membership to organize and constitute a Lodge.

Cowan

Cowan is not a word we encounter much nowadays. It originated back in the days of mediaeval stonemasons. Building in stone required training and long and patient study, to understand how a building’s structure and stability depended on geometry. This understanding was known as a ‘secret art and hidden mystery’, not to be shared by the stonemasons with their untrained and unskilled fellow workers, known as cowans.

The word was also used to refer to dry stone wallers, who built walls by piling up field stones, a technique that is still used today in many parts of the UK. These workers did not use mortar and shaped stones (‘ashlars’) that were used by stonemasons to build churches, castles and cathedrals. Hence, among stonemasons, a cowan was an outsider who must be kept at a distance.

In Scotland, the word was used to refer to stonemasons who had never completed their apprenticeships, but who worked alongside qualified stonemasons. They were the ‘cowboy builders’ of their time.

Craft

This term is often used to describe the practice of Freemasonry, e.g. becoming a member of the Scottish Craft.

It refers to the series of degrees practised by lodges operating under the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

Freemasonry originated in Scotland as lodges of stone-masons started to admit gentlemen who were not operative stonemasons.  The use of the term Craft' to describe the system may be said to hark back to this learning of a skill, or craft.

In Anglo-Saxon, craft meant cunning, skill, power, dexterity, etc. The word became applied to trades and occupations calling for trained skill on the part of those practicing it. The distinction between such trades and those not requiring trained workmen, so rigidly maintained, was one of the hallmarks of the Middle Ages.

Freemasonry is called a Craft, partly for historical reasons, partly because, unlike so many fraternities, it requires a training (given in the form of initiation ceremonies) of those seeking its membership.