What are the Ancient Landmarks and who defined them?

Ancient Landmarks are the unchangeable fundamental principles and immemorial usages that define the identity of the Craft 1. Under the doctrine of landmarks, these elements are universal and unrepealable; because they constitute the essential identity of the fraternity, any alteration or repeal of one is considered an innovation that would destroy Freemasonry itself 1.

No single Masonic authority or Grand Lodge has ever promulgated a definitive list acceptable to the entire Craft 1. The first systematic enumeration was set down by Albert G. Mackey in October 1858 in the *American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry*, where he published a list of twenty-five landmarks later incorporated into his *Text Book of Masonic Jurisprudence* 1. Mackey's list included the modes of recognition 1, the division of Symbolic Freemasonry into three degrees 1, the Legend of the Third Degree 1, the necessity of a belief in God 1, belief in a resurrection to a future life 1, the right of visitation 1, and the government of a lodge by a Master and two Wardens 1. Although roughly half of American Grand Lodges endorsed or adopted Mackey's list, scholars criticized its scope; Theodore Sutton Parvin, for instance, proposed reducing the list to five or six core principles 1.

Other writers and governing bodies have formulated their own definitions and lists. In 1809–1810, the Lodge of Promulgation sought to ascertain the ancient landmarks, resolving that the installation of Masters was one of them alongside the modes of recognition and regular lodge officers 1. Dean Roscoe Pound defined landmarks as universal, immemorial fundamentals that no Masonic authority may alter or derogate from 1, while Melvin M. Johnson described them as the essential elements without which the fraternity would lose its identity 1. In 1918, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts recognized a concise list of seven landmarks: monotheism, belief in immortality, the Volume of the Sacred Law, the Third Degree legend, secrecy, operative symbolism, and the requirement of being a freeborn male adult 1. When the Grand Lodge of England acted in 1813 to define Ancient Craft Masonry, it declared that the system consisted of the three degrees, explicitly including the Holy Royal Arch 1.

Ancient Landmarks are, by traditional definition, strictly unalterable and unrepealable 1. Under the doctrine set forth by Albert G. Mackey, these foundational principles possess a permanent identity that cannot be modified, subtracted from, or added to in any respect 1. Mackey maintains that even if all Masonic authorities worldwide were to gather in a universal congress and unanimously vote to enact a new landmark or abolish an existing one, they would lack the prerogative to do so, as landmarks must remain in force until the fraternity itself ceases to exist 1. Any attempt to alter or divest the fraternity of an essential landmark would cause the Order to lose its identity entirely 1.

This restriction against altering landmarks is embedded in the historical governance of the fraternity. The thirty-ninth General Regulation of 1723 provides that while every Grand Lodge possesses an inherent power and authority to amend existing regulations or enact new ones for the benefit of the Craft, it may do so only provided that the old landmarks are carefully preserved 23.

Despite the principle that landmarks cannot be changed, Masonic authorities differ on how the rule operates in practice. Mackey observed that framing an exhaustive, hard-and-fast list of landmarks is difficult because the surrounding world changes, though the doctrine continues to serve as a criterion to test whether a proposed change is an impermissible innovation 1. Furthermore, while some legalists such as H. B. Grant defined landmarks as immemorial and unchangeable fundamental principles 1, critics such as Albert Pike argued that no universal consensus exists across jurisdictions as to what specific rules actually constitute a landmark 1.