Ancient landmarks

Ancient landmarks are the essential, unalterable constituents that define the fixed identity of Freemasonry 1. According to Dean Roscoe Pound, landmarks are universal and immemorial fundamentals from which no Masonic authority may derogate 1. They are considered unrepealable because altering or removing any core landmark would destroy the integrity of the Craft itself 1.

No single universally accepted list of landmarks exists across all jurisdictions 1. In 1858, Albert C. Mackey published a landmark enumeration of twenty-five items, which was subsequently adopted by roughly half of the Grand Lodges in the United States 1. Mackey's list includes the modes of recognition 1, the division into three degrees 1, the legend of the Third Degree 1, the requirement for a lodge to be tiled 1, government by a Master and two Wardens 1, the right of Masons to congregate in lodges 1, the right of visitation 1, candidate qualifications requiring an adult freeborn male 1, and a belief in God alongside a belief in a future life 1.

Scholars and Masonic bodies have frequently contested the number and contents of these principles 1. Theodore Sutton Parvin advocated reducing the list to five or six items 1, while Albert Pike viewed landmarks as the basic principles of fellowship and government derived from the Ancient Charges 1. W. J. Chetwode Crawley summarized the underlying foundation as a triple dogma: the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the life to come 1. In 1810, the Lodge of Promulgation identified key landmarks as including the ceremony of installing Masters, the form of the lodge, its officers, and its words 1. Furthermore, when defining the scope of the Craft in 1813, the Grand Lodge of England declared that Ancient Craft Masonry consisted of the three degrees, including the Holy Royal Arch 1.