The Old Charges

Vocabulary (6)

Old Charges

A family of more than a hundred surviving medieval and early-modern manuscripts that set out the duties of an operative Mason and recite the legendary history of the craft. They were typically read aloud to candidates at admission.

Regius Manuscript

The oldest known of the Old Charges, dated to ca. 1390. Preserved among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum (hence "Regius"). It is in verse: seventy-nine articles and points concerning a Mason's duty.

Cooke Manuscript

Second-oldest known, dated ca. 1410. In prose rather than verse. Combines a longer legendary history of geometry and Masonry with a shorter set of articles and points.

Articles and points

The two standard sections of an Old Charges manuscript. Articles govern conduct between masters and the rest of the trade; points govern conduct between fellow workers.

Legendary history

Most Old Charges open with a mythic history tracing the craft from Adam, through Euclid, to King Solomon, to the operative guilds of the present. It blends biblical and classical material; it is symbolic, not factual.

Anderson's debt

Rev. James Anderson drew explicitly on the Old Charges when composing the 1723 Constitutions, opening his Constitutions with a History section that condenses and extends the legendary history found across the manuscript tradition.

Multiple-choice (4)