Ancient Landmarks

Ancient Landmarks of Freemasonry are defined as the immemorial usages, fundamental principles, and unalterable essentials that constitute the fixed identity of the Fraternity 1. Any alteration that destroys one of these core constituents is considered an innovation that would cause the institution to cease being Freemasonry 1. The phrase itself first appeared in George Payne's Regulations of 1721 1.

No single authoritative list of Landmarks is accepted across all jurisdictions, and scholars express widely divergent opinions on their exact contents and number 1. The most influential compilation was set forth by Albert G. Mackey, who enumerated twenty-five Landmarks 1. In the Craft, these include a belief in God as the Grand Architect of the Universe, belief in a resurrection to a future life, the presence of a Book of the Law in every lodge, the right of visitation, the examination of unknown visitors, candidate qualifications requiring a mature male, secrecy, and the foundation of a speculative science upon an operative art 12.

Other grand bodies and Masonic jurists have adopted widely varying lists 1. The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts specified a brief list including monotheism, belief in immortality, the Volume of the Sacred Law, the legend of the Third Degree, secrecy, operative symbolism, and male adult membership 1. The Grand Lodge of New Jersey adopted eight distinct items 2. Scholars such as Chetwode Crawley reduced the Landmarks to three core tenets, while J. W. Horsley identified five indispensable items, observing that lists limiting Masonry strictly to three degrees fail to account for the High Grades, such as those in the Scottish Rite 1. Qualifications have also varied across jurisdictions; while older rules specified that a candidate must be freeborn, the Grand Lodge of England amended its requirement in 1847 to "free man" following the Emancipation Act 1.