THE BUILDER October, 1926

The Precious Jewels

By BROS. A. L. KRESS AND R. J. MEEKREN

THE Masonic usage of the word jewel has doubtless struck many a
brother as not a little peculiar upon his first introduction to the
traditional phraseology of the Craft. What is possibly its most
familiar application, that of designating the badges of office used
in the lodge, is however sufficiently in accord with the modern
meaning of the word to make it appear plausible that it was through
this that it came to be adopted into our terminology. These badges,
worn on the breast and suspended by a ribbon or an ornamental
chain, are frequently superb examples of the jewelers' art. It
might thus seem not unnatural to suppose that plainer specimens
were merely substitutes or imitations of such jewels, and that the
other applications of the word in the rituals are derived from this
by association, and as affording a secondary verbal symbolism
indicating the value set by Masons upon certain emblems. There is
no need to say any more of this, as like so many apparently obvious
explanations, further examination shows it to be wide of the mark,
for this use is not the primary one. But though secondary it is
doubtless true that its accordance with the ordinary every-day
meaning has had a great deal to do with the persistence of the
word in Masonic forms. Such evidence as we have seems to indicate
that it came into use by Freemasons a very long time ago and that 
it is possibly as old as anything in the system. At any rate it is
pretty certain that it originally had nothing to do with ornamental
badges of office.

THE MEANING OF THE WORD

A jewel to us signifies something precious; this in ordinary
every-day usage seems to be the root idea, whether the value be
intrinsic in the material or due to its beauty and workmanship. It
is therefore with something like surprise that we learn that the
word is really derived from the same root as the French word jeu,
and that it meant originally a plaything, a toy or a trinket. So
fully indeed did the word connote the idea of "play" in medieval
times that in Flanders the dramatic performances presented by the
Craft Gilds on the different festivals were actually called jewels.
In Masonic usage, however, the idea of value seems to have always
been the prominent one as far back as we can go. Whether the other
was also present may be an interesting speculation. In most trades
there are traditional jokes which through familiarity have become
more habits of speech than occasions for laughter except when first
communicated to the novice, That our old operative predecessors had
a strong sense of humor is certain, and also that, like
unsophisticated folk generally, they did not see anything
inappropriate in mingling it with the sublime, or setting the comic
side by side with the serious and sacred. Men who have the true
craftsman's appreciation of, and interest in their work, are quick
also to make fun of it on occasion, and it would be natural enough
for them to speak of their most necessary implements and tools as
"playthings." Such tricks of speech were to be heard among the
elder workmen in different occupations within the memory of those
still living, and may even yet survive if trades unionism, and the
idea that work is essentially an evil to be reduced to an absolute
minimum, have not quite killed them. The case of one old rough
mason, still alive some twenty years ago, might be quoted. It was
his invariable habit to speak of any particularly awkward stone,
either from its shape or size, as a "trinket," which seems a
curiously apt parallel. No stress, however, is to be laid on this
suggestion, only it may be as well to bear in mind that at the time
the word was first employed Masonically it had other meanings in
common use besides those to which it is now limited, and that such
meanings may have been in the minds of the men who first spoke of
the "jewels" of their Craft.

PRESENT MASONIC USAGE

Though, as we have noted, the first thought suggested to a Mason
today by the word is that of the insignia of the officers of the
lodge and the honorary badges given to past officers, yet he can
hardly fail to be aware that it has other applications. In the
Second Degree the candidate is told of the "three precious jewels
of the Fellowcraft." In England the Entered Apprentice learns that
"the perfect Ashlar is for the experienced Craftsman to try and
adjust his jewels on." In America, from the time of Webb at least,
the corresponding passage says that the same ashlar "is a stone
made ready by the hands of the workman, to be adjusted by the
working tools of the Fellowcraft." There is no doubt but that here
tools are synonymous with jewels, but these jewels of the
Fellowcraftsman are not the three mentioned above. The candidate is
at the same time told of the furniture and the ornaments of the
lodge. The former includes the Square, which is found in several of
the sets of jewels hereafter quoted, while the latter may be
derived from a tradition that had come to be misunderstood of an
earlier set of jewels. That "jewel" and "ornament" have long been
almost synonymous may have had something to do with the change in
name.

There will be no need to remind the Mason who is in least familiar
with the formularies of the Craft how confusingly these various
groups overlap and interconnect. There is one external
characteristic common to them all, with the exception of the first,
and that is their arrangement in triplets. And even if the jewels
of office are now more than three it must be remembered that
originally the lodge had only this number of officers, the Master
and the two Wardens, so that this set, too, originally agreed with
the others in this regard. Indeed a purist in Masonic nomenclature
would have good grounds for insisting that the insignia of the
subordinate officers are not properly called jewels, and that the
custom of doing so is due to ignorance and carelessness. This may
well be, but of course such extensions of meaning by analogy and
association are quite normal in the evolution of language; and
something after all has to be conceded to convenience.

Let us now consider these various groups in more detail. The
"furniture" consists, as is well known, of the Bible, the compasses
and the square. It is probable that the term is derived from
another statement, that a lodge must be furnished, that is provided
with, these things as one of the conditions of regularity. The
"ornaments" consist of the Mosaic Pavement, Indented Tessel and
Blazing Star. We have already seen a possible connection between
the terms ornament and jewel and will defer further discussion for
the moment. The "jewels" or "tools" of the Fellowcraft mentioned in
the explanation usually given of the perfect ashlar, are the
"square, level and plumb" which are also said (in America) to be
the immovable jewels of the lodge, and are also actually the
insignia of the three principal and original officers of the lodge.
The movable jewels are the two ashlars and the trestleboard. It may
be remarked here that except in the United States these last are
called immovable and the others movable. There is also evidence to
show that this is the original usage, and that the peculiar
American description is due to a more or less deliberate change
made by the Baltimore Convention in 184?. Finally we have the
"precious jewels of the Fellowcraft," which phrase seems only to be
used as a figurative mode of describing the traditional manner of
conveying Masonic instruction and preserving Masonic secrets.

Taking for granted the now generally received hypothesis that
Freemasonry two hundred years ago comprised only two grades or
degrees, each with its appropriate ceremonies and ritual secrets,
it is feasible to suggest tentatively that all these groups or sets
of three are variants or doublets of some common original which was
given as part of the instruction in the primitive "making" or
initiation of the first grade, excepting those now said to belong
especially to the Fellowcraft. These, as has been seen, stand quite
apart from the others, and we shall therefore dismiss them for the
present with the suggestion that they seem to be connected with the
account of the five senses on the one hand, and the symbolic key of
Masonry, which is enlarged upon in the first section of lecture in
the Entered Apprentice Degree as usually worked in England. It
would seem that they may have come to be termed jewels toward the
end of the eighteenth century to signify their importance in the
emblematic instructions regarding the basic duties and obligations
incumbent upon each individual Mason.

THE JEWELS OF THE LODGE

In this, as in other special investigations of the kind, we are
greatly handicapped by the lack of definite and trustworthy
information; and for the earliest origins there is practically
nothing outside the old Catechisms which have already been freely
made use of in the previous articles in this series. As has been
stated before, they are documents of very doubtful authenticity,
but if we reject them on that account we have simply nothing at all
to go upon. We must therefore use them for whatever they may be
worth, always remembering that conclusions based upon them must
always be held with a certain reserve.

Assuming then that these documents represent variant forms of the
oral tradition of pre-Grand Lodge Masonry, or part of it, let us
see what they have to tell us upon the subject. Eight of these
catechisms have questions and answers relating to the jewels of
Masonry or of the lodge, and of these four seem to agree that they
were a square ashlar, a diamond and the common square; by which
presumably we are to understand the working tool of that name. It
is true that the Mason's Examination says that there are four,
naming them as the "square, astler, diamond and common square," yet
this is probably, indeed almost certainly, an error arising through
the separation, by an inserted comma, of the adjective "square"
from the substantive "astler," thus turning the original form,
represented by the other three versions, into a duplication of the
common square. Unless indeed we suppose that the qualifying word
"common" was later inserted in order to prevent the statement
appearing utter nonsense, and to try and give some meaning to the
double mention of the implement. But this appears the less likely
hypothesis.

That the original number of jewels in this tradition was really
three and not four is further supported by the fact that in the
Mystery of Free Masons, which is obviously a slightly variant form
of the Examination tradition, this answer has dropped out together
with the following question, while the answer to the latter has
taken its place. This will be made clear by placing them in
parallel columns, as follows:

Examination

Q. How many precious jewels are there in Masonry?
A. Four, Square, Astler, Diamond and Common Square.

Q. How many lights be there in a lodge?
A. Three, the Master, Warden and Fellows.

Mystery

Q. How many precious jewels be there in Masonry?
A. --------

Q. --------
A. Three, the Master, Warden and Fellows.

All the other documents that mention the jewels follow it with a
question about "lights" including Prichard's Dissection. Of the
remainder several mention the lights in approximately the same
relative position so that we may perhaps assume that in the
originals of all these variants there were questions and answers
respecting lights and jewels grouped together. From a number of
considerations, such as the general use of the subjunctive mood
instead of the indicative it would seem that the Mystery is
probably somewhat the older form of the two, though both are
certainly defective in that each contains matter that has dropped
out of the other. It would be very easy, when two consecutive
questions demand answers beginning with the word "three," and
neither of them very intelligible as we may suppose to the
copyists, that such a slip should be made, and once made, be
perpetuated.

This, however, by the way. In three other forms we have agreement
on the same sequence of questions about jewels and lights, though
the defining phrases "in Masonry" and "in the lodge" are absent,
probably marking an earlier stage in the tradition. These three
form another well-defined group as they resemble each other even
more closely than the two first quoted do. The answer to the
question about jewels, with some variation in spelling, is in two
of them as follows:

Q. How many jewels?
A. Three, a square asher, a diamond and a square.

The third has the obviously corrupt rendering:

A. Three, a square where, a diadem and a square.

Now diadem appears a very possible mistake for diamond, but "a
square where" is most mysterious In type there does not appear any
resemblance that might account for it, but if the word "asher" be
written out carelessly and the top of the "a" left open the two
first letters together will bear some resemblance to a "w" and a
copyist ignorant of the real word intendent might well have read it
so. He would thus seem to have before him the word "wher" and would
quite naturally take it for "where" even if it did make no sense.
If we could suppose that he might have had before him a copy that
spelled "asher" with a final "e" it would be all the more natural.
But abbreviations and variegated spellings were so universal at the
time we may suppose this copy to have been made that the
supposition is hardly necessary.

The conclusion then that we come to as a result of this discussion
is that five out of the eight documents referring to jewels agreed
on there being the square ashlar, diamond and square." And though,
as we have seen, these five fall into two groups in each of which
the exemplars are so closely related that they should be taken
rather as representing two independent witnesses, yet as this
throws back the date of their originals it also tends to augment
their weight.

The three remaining references are as follows: In the Sloane M. S.
No. 3329, we have:

How many jewels belong to your lodge?
There are three, the square pavement, the blazing star and the
Danty Tassley.

The Chetwode Crawley M. S. has:
Are there any jewells in your lodge?
Three, Perpendester, Square Pavement and an brobed Mall.

While the Mason's Confession has a more extended version:

How many jewels in your lodge?
Three.
What are these three?
A square pavement, a dinted ashlar and a broached dornal.
What's the square pavement for?
For the Master to draw his ground draughts on.
What's the dinted ashlar for?
To adjust the square and make the gages by.
What's the broached dornal for?
For me the younger and last Entered Prentice to learn to broach
upon.

Before proceeding to discuss these it may be useful to quote what
Prichard in his Masonry Dissected has to say on the matter.
Prichard is the first record we have of two groups of jewels called
movable and immovable. The former according to him are those which
(following the innovation brought in by the Baltimore Convention)
are now called the immovable in America. Those that he thus
distinguishes are the "Trasel board, rough ashlar and broached
thurnel." Following which comes the question:

What are their uses?
Trasel Board for the Master to draw his designs upon, the Rough
Ashlar for the Fellowcrafts to try their jewels upon and the
Broached Thurnel for the Enter'd 'Prentice to learn to work upon.

As the movable jewels spoken of immediately preceding are "the
square, level and plumbrule," we may legitimately suppose that
these are also the jewels of the Fellowcrafts here spoken of as
tested on the ashlar. These however we will pass for the time
being, remarking, however, that the passage bears out the opinion
that the older usage is to call these implements "jewels" and not
"tools."

In the four accounts just given of the jewels of the lodge it would
seem at first sight that they disagreed with each other as much as
they vary from those previously discussed. Yet three of them
coincide in speaking of a square pavement, while two agree with the
earlier set in mentioning an ashlar. Closer examination may reveal
other identities concealed under the differing phraseology.

PRICHARD'S VERSION

Though less extended in form, Prichard's version seems to bear
considerable resemblance to that of the Confession. Both agree on
that mysterious and much discussed object the "Broached Thurnel" or
"Dornal," for there can be no doubt that these are but dialectal
variants of the same word. Both also mention an ashlar, though in
the one case it is rough and in the other "dinted." Still it would
appear that the same thing was intended in each case. It is true
that in Prichard the "Square Pavement" is replaced by the "Trasel
Board", which is probably the prototype both of the English
"tracing board" and the American "trestle board," yet both are
explained as intended for the Master to draw his plans on. In fact,
the explanations of all three are equivalent and couched in very
similar language. The ashlar would appear to have been used as a
test block for trying the accuracy of the working tools while the
"dornal" or "thurnel" was for the Apprentice to learn to work on.

Prichard's work is of very doubtful character, but whatever
conclusions we may come to regarding it, it is impossible to
believe that it was pure invention. However he may have modified
and rearranged the material before him it is practically certain
that he copied from earlier documents. As we have them his three
catechisms bear internal evidence of being compilations, and we
might suppose that he had built them up out of similar documents to
those we now know as the Old Catechisms. It would seem that such
variant forms as he knew were combined and sometimes given
different applications. If this were not done by him then it was by
others before him, and really this seems the more probable
hypothesis, for his work was but a catch-penny publication and it
hardly seems likely that he would have gone to any unnecessary
trouble to edit his material; unnecessary that is from his point of
view, seeing that his object was only to turn a more or less honest
penny.

Immediately preceding the questions relating to the jewels we find
in the "Dissection" the following:

Have you any furniture in your Lodge?
Yes.
What is it?
Mosaic pavement, blazing star and indented tarsel.
What are they?
Mosaic pavement the ground floor of the Lodge, Blazing Star the
Centre and indented tarsel the border round about it.
What is the other furniture of a Lodge?
Bible, Compass and Square.

Other and later authorities describe the first group not as
furniture but as ornaments, but its resemblance to the set of
jewels given in the Sloane M. S. is so striking that it makes us
suspect that jewel, furniture and ornament were then all very fluid
terms, and not used with the technical precision that later came
into vogue. While the "Danty tassley" of the older version might
seem an ignorant corruption of "indented tessel," or of the
"indented or tesselated border," the phrase more familiar to
English Masons, yet second thoughts lead us to suspend judgment. It
may really be that both are due to attempts to rationalize a phrase
already corrupt and obscure.

REFERENCES

The same works should be consulted as were given in the February
Study Club, page 59. The paper by Bro. Herbert Poole in the last
part issued of A. Q. C. will be of assistance. A notice of this
appeared in the August BUILDER, page 252.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

In what way can the present use in the ritual of the term "jewel"
be best explained?
What was the original badge or insignia of office of the Master of
a lodge?
Could the phrase, "all the implements of Masonry," as used in the
American ritual of the Third Degree have a reference to a time when
Master Mason was equivalent to Master of a Lodge?

