Clandestine

A clandestine lodge is an unauthorized body of Masons, or those claiming to be Masons, meeting without the consent and warrant of a recognized Grand Lodge, or continuing to assemble after its charter has been revoked 1 2. In standard usage, it refers to any lodge or governing body claiming a Masonic character that lacks lawful descent from regular bodies and is not recognized by the regular Masonic world 2. Regular Masons are strictly forbidden from conferring on Masonic subjects or associating with clandestine lodges and their members 1.

Historically, the designation was applied to groups assembling to initiate candidates privately or without a regular warrant, often upon improper considerations or insufficient authority 3. Despite its modern prominence in Masonic law, the word "clandestine" was not used in the early eighteenth-century Constitutions of James Anderson or John Entick; its first recorded appearance in the Constitutions of the premier Grand Lodge of England occurred in John Noorthouck's edition of 1784 1.

Works cited

From the library. Each claim above is numbered to the work and page it came from.

Albert C. Mackey Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences p. 453 Mackey defines clandestine lodges as those acting without a Grand Lodge charter or under a revoked one, and notes the term's late entry into the Constitutions.

Carl Claudy Introduction to Freemasonry: Fellowcraft p. 1 Claudy explains clandestine as meaning illegitimate or unrecognized, lacking proper authority or descent from regular Grand Lodges.

William James Hughan Origin of the English Rite of Freemasonry, Especially in Relation to the Royal Arch Degree 1884 · pp. 43-47 Hughan records early eighteenth-century complaints concerning the private and clandestine making of Masons without regular warrants.

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