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Already certain of the historical backgrounds of the Degree have been sketched in, but there remains yet another chapter of its history to be told. In a companion booklet on "The Entered Apprentice Degree" a sketch was given of the history of the Operative Masonry; it is hoped that the reader will here recall it, more especially its account of the apprenticeship system practiced by the early Lodges. The lad who came for admission into the Craft was required to have certain necessary physical, mental and moral qualifications; these proved, and after the ballot, he was then bound (or indentured) to a Master Mason (intender) who thereby became obligated to teach him the art of building, how to make or read plans, how to judge and handle materials, how to use his tools, how to behave as a Craftsman, etc. This was the boy's "apprenticeship," an old custom after which the First Degree is named.

At the end of a period of years, usually seven, the boy, now a young man, was called back into the Lodge, there to have report made concerning his skill and conduct, and to undergo an examination. As a part of this examination he was required to do a piece of work before the Lodge! This was called his "Master's Piece." If all this met with the approval of the brethren, as expressed by the ballot, he was then elected to full membership of the Craft as a Fellow, or Master Mason.

This last point is a confusing one and calls for explanation. In our speculative system, "Fellow Craft" is a degree below "Master Mason," the two titles standing for two quite different grades. In Operative Masonry this was not so; the terms were then applied to the same man and at the same time. In the sense that he was now out of his indentures, a free workman in his own right, a member of the Lodge, entitled to earn wages, to hold office, to accept any responsible task, to have apprentices of his own, he was a "Fellow" - that is, of an equal standing as regards rights, duties and privileges with all others; in the sense that he had learned his art as a builder, was proved proficient in it, could satisfactorily turn out any kind of skilled work required of him, he was a " Master" --that is, master of his calling, perfected in his art, no longer a mere learner.

It is supposed that in its Operative Period the Craft employed only two Degrees. Apprentice and Fellow of the Craft or Master Mason, and this remained the case throughout the Transition Period from the beginning of the decline of Operative Masonry during the Reformation to the beginning of the eighteenth century in England. When, in 1717, in London, a Grand Lodge was organized and the Craft became transformed into a wholly speculative Fraternity, the Ritual, necessary enough under the circumstances, became more or less fluid for a few years, perhaps for twenty or thirty.

As the old Time Immemorial Lodges came into the new Grand Lodge they brought along, many of them, their own ritualistic traditions. This resulted at last in such an accumulation of ritualistic material, all of it time-honored and used here and there by various Lodges for many generations, that the ceremonies became too long for only two evenings and were therefore rearranged into three Degrees. What had been the old First Degree was, with the addition, divided into two, the original First and the new Second, and what had been the old Second was made the Third. For some reason now difficult to understand the name "Fellow Craft" was given to the Second. In this manner arose the distinction we now make between "Fellow Craft" and "Master Mason," one that would have been unintelligible to brethren in the Operative period.

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