November 23,  1987

CERTIFICATE OF WITHDRAWAL

R.W. Bro.  D.A. Bruce, DGM


ACCORDING TO LEXICON AND HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY

DEMIT.  A Mason is said to demit from the order when he withdraws
from all connection with it.  It relieves the individual from all
pecuniary contributions, and debars him from pecuniary relief,
but it does not cancel his masonic obligations, nor exempt him
from that wholesome control which the order exercises over the
moral conduct of its members.  In this respect the maxim is, once
a Mason and always a Mason.

ACCORDING TO CYCLOPAEDIA OF FREEMASONRY

WITHDRAWAL OF PETITION. By American Masonic law, a petition for
initiation cannot be withdrawn; it must go before the Lodge.  In
England, however, a candidate is frequently withdrawn, or is
quietly warned not to present himself.

DEMIT. Practically, a resignation from a Lodge or Chapter, upon
which a certificate of demission is granted by the body in
question.  This is an American practice, and its object is to
show that the brother to  whom it is granted leaves the
association in good standing.  The fact of its frequency in the
United States is owing to the migratory habits of the citizens,
and owing to the strict custom - which has almost the force of
law - that any brother should live within the length of his cable
tow.  A demit involves no disgrace on the person receiving it; he
is qualified to affiliate in another Lodge willing to receive
him, and it constitutes a sort of certificate in the meantime.

As a demit is applied for only in cases of urgent necessity, it
throws no slur upon the brother, and his re-affiliation restores
him to all the privileges temporarily suspended.  It is commonly
called, with some inaccuracy, a dimit; but although the word is
most correct according to derivation, still, when a new nation
starts up, it has a right to make its own language.  It is not
used in England.


ACCORDING TO KENNING'S MASONIC CYCLOPAEDIA AND HANDBOOK
OF MASONIC ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

WITHDRAWAL OF CANDIDATES. It is frequently the custom in Lodges
to withdraw the name of any candidate about to be balloted for,
should it be found that there are strong objections to  his
reception, and thus avoid the unpleasantness of "black-balling."
How far such a course is constitutional it is not for us to
determine; but whilst anxious to spare the feelings of the
proposer and his friend, if the latter is not acceptable, we
desire to point out that if the name is to be withdrawn at all,
it should be before the particulars are inserted on the summons;
also that the proposition fee is only returnable on the rejection
of the applicant for initiation.

DEMIT.  By a regulation of the English Grand Lodge, November 25,
1723, it was provided, that "if the Master of a Lodge is deposed
or demits, the Senior Warden shall fill the chair until the next
appointment of officers." This is therefore the proper word
apparently for what Gadicke calls "declaring off." The word is
sometimes written "dimit," but dimit is clearly wrong, being a
corruption of demit.  In fact it is the difference between
"demissio" and "dimissio." The word "demit" is now more in use in
America than in England, where the practice of granting "demits,"
as they are called, that is certificates of relinquishment of
Lodge membership, is under constitutional regulation, in the
various Grand Lodges. In England the term "clearance certificate"
is preferred.  "Demits" are now issued under the seal of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland.

ACCORDING TO A NEW AND REVISED EDITION AN ENCYLOPAEDIA
OF FREEMASONRY AND ITS KINDRED SCIENCES

DEMIT. A Mason is said to demit from his Lodge when he withdraws
his membership; and a demit is a document granted by the Lodge
which certifies that demission has been accepted by the Lodge,
and that the demitting brother is clear of the books and in good
standing as a Mason.  To demit, which is the act of the member,
is then, to resign; and to grant a demit, which is the act of the
Lodge, is to grant a certificate that the resignation has been
accepted.  It is derived from the French reflective verb se
demettre, which, according to the dictionary of the Academy,
means "to withdraw from an office, to resign an employment."

The application for a demit is a matter of form, and there is not
power in the Lodge to refuse it, if the applicant has paid all
his dues and is free of all charges. It is true that a regulation
of 1722 says that no number of brethren shall withdraw or
separate themselves from the Lodge in which they were made,
without a dispensation; yet it is not plain how the law can be
enforced, for Masonry being a voluntary association, there is no
power in any Lodge to insist on any brother continuing a
connection with it which he desires to sever.

The usual object in applying for a demit is to enable the brother
to join some other Lodge, into which he cannot be admitted
without some evidence that he was in good standing in his former
Lodge.


DIMIT. A modern, American, and wholly indefensible corruption of
the technical word Demit.  As the use of this corrupt form is
beginning to be very prevalent among American Masonic writers, it
is proper that we should inquire which is the correct word, Demit
or Dimit.

The word continued in use as a technical word in the Masonry of
England for many years. In the editions of the Constitutions
published in 1756, p. 311, the passage just quoted is again
recited, and the word demit is again employed in the fourth
edition of the Constitutions published in 1767, p. 345.

But the word seems to have become obsolete in England, and to
resign is now constantly used by English Masonic writers in the
place of to demit.

The word dimit is of very recent origin, and has been used only
within a few years. Usage, therefore, both English and American,
is clearly in favor of demit, and dimit must be considered as an
interloper, and ought to be consigned to the tomb of the
Capulets.

To demit, in Masonic language, means simply to resign.  The Mason
who demits from his Lodge resigns from it.  The word is used in
the exact sense, for instance, in the Constitution of the Grand
Lodge of Wisconsin, where it is said: "No brother shall be
allowed to demit from any Lodge unless for the purpose of uniting
with some other." That is to say: "No brother shall be allowed to
resign from any Lodge."

Now what are the respective meanings of demit and dimit in
ordinary language?

There the words are found to be entirely different in
signification.

To demit is derived first from the Latin demittere through the
French demettre. In Latin the prefixed particle de has the weight
of down; added to the verb mittere, to send, it signifies to let
down from an elevated position to a lower.  Thus, Caesar used it
in this very sense, when, in describing the storming of Avaricum,
(Bel.  Gal., vii., 28), he says that the Roman soldiers did not
let themselves down, that is, descend from the top of the wall to
the level ground. The French, looking to this reference to a
descent from a higher to a lower position, made their verb se
demettre, used in a reflective sense, signify to give up a post,
office, or occupation, that is to say, to resign it.  And thence
the English use of the word is reducible, which makes to demit
signify to resign.  We have another word in our language also
derived from demettre, and in which the same idea of resignation
is apparent.  It is the word demise, which was originally used
only to express a royal death.  The old maxim was that "the king
never dies." So, instead of saying "the death of the king," they
said "the demise of the king." thereby meaning his resignation of
the crown to his successor.  The word is now applied more
generally, and we speak of the demise of Mr. Pitt, or any other
person.


To dimit is derived from the Latin dimittere. The prefixed
particle di or dis has the effect of off from, and hence
dimittere means to send away.  Thus, Terence uses it to express
the meaning of dismissing or sending away an army.

Both words are now obsolete in the English language.  They were
formerly used, but in the different senses already indicated.

Thus, Hollinshed employs demit to signify a surrender, yielding
up, or resignation of a franchise.

Bishop Hall, uses dimit to signify a sending away of a servant by
his master.

Demit, as a noun, is not known in good English; the correlative
nouns of the verbs to demit and to dimit are demission and
dimission. "A demit" is altogether a Masonic technicality, and
is, moreover, an Americanism of very recent usage.

It is then evident that to demit is the proper word, and that to
use to dimit is to speak and write incorrectly.  When a Mason
"demits from a Lodge," we mean that he "resigns from a Lodge,"
because to demit means to resign.  But what does anyone mean when
he says that a Mason "dimits from a Lodge"? To dimit means, as we
have seen, to send away, therefore "he demits from the Lodge" is
equivalent to saying "he sends away from the Lodge," which of
course is not only bad English, but sheer nonsense. If dimit is
to be used at all, as it is an active, transitive verb, it must
be used only in that form, and we must either say that "a Lodge
dimits a Mason" or that "a Mason is dimitted by his Lodge.

Morgan in his Code of Masonic Law, has the following passage to
which may be attributed the confusion:

"A 'demit,' technically considered is the act of withdrawing, and
applies to the Lodge and not to the individual. A Mason cannot
demit, in the strict sense, but the Lodge may demit (dismiss)
him."

First, to demit means to withdraw, and then this withdrawal is
made the act of the Lodge and not of the individual, as if the
Lodge withdrew the member instead of the member withdrawing
himself. And immediately afterward, seeing the absurdity of this
doctrine, and to make the demission the act of to dismiss.
Certainly it is impossible to discuss the law of Masonic
demission when such contrary meanings are given to the word in
one and the same paragraph.

But certain wiseacres, belonging probably to that class who
believe that there is always improvement in change, seizing upon
this latter definition of Morris, that to demit meant to dismiss,
and seeing that his meaning which the word never had, and, from
its derivation from demittere, never could have, changed from the
word demit to dimit, which really does have the meaning of
sending away or dismissing. But as the Masonic act of demission
does not mean a dismissal from the Lodge, because that would be
an expulsion, but simply a resignation, the word dimit cannot
properly be applied to the act.

A Mason demits from the Lodge; he resigns. He takes out his demit
(a strictly technical expression and altogether confined to this
country); he asks for and receives an acceptance of his
resignation.




