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The Lodge is the basic unit in the Craft. To be regular, under either Grand Lodge, a Lodge had to be personally constituted by the Grand Master or a deputy for him. From the 1750s each new Lodge was provided with a Warrant of Constitution, which document had, and has, to be present at every meeting of the Lodge for its proceedings to be Masonically regular. |
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The principal officers of the Lodge, the Master and Senior and Junior Wardens, were adopted from the guild system. The sole purpose of the Lodge was, and is, to make Masons, passing them through the three steps of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason in which they are taught to practise the three great principles of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. |
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Lodges in the 18th century met in inns and taverns. Meetings were fairly informal and refreshment was an important part of the proceedings. As a result enterprising glass, porcelain and pottery manufacturers began to decorate their wares with Masonic symbols either for Lodge use, for special presentations or for purely domestic decoration. As brethren had to be summoned to both Grand and private Lodge meetings and wished to have certificates as proof of their membership, engravers began to produce elegantly designed copperplates from which such documents could be printed.