FELLOWCRAFT EXAMINATION
Q. Are you a Fellow Craft?
A. I am, try me.
Q. By what will you be tried?
A. By the Square.
Q. Why by the Square?
A. Because it is an emblem of morality and one of
the working tools of a Fellow Craft.
Q. What is a Square?
A. An angle of ninety degrees, or the fourth part of
a circle.
Q. What makes you a Fellow Craft?
A. My Obligation.
Q. Where were you made a Fellow Craft?
A. Within the body of a just and duly constituted
Lodge of Fellow Crafts, assembled in a place
representing the Middle Chamber of King
Solomon’s Temple.
Q. How may I know you to be a Fellow Craft?
A. By certain signs and tokens.
Q. What are signs?
A. Right angles, horizontals, and perpendiculars.
Q. Advance a sign. Has that an allusion?
A. It has; to the position of my hands while taking
the Obligation.
Q. Have you a further sign?
A. I have.
Q. Has that an allusion?
A. It has; to the penalty of the Obligation.
Q. What are tokens?
A. Certain friendly or brotherly grips, whereby one
Mason may know another in the dark as in the
light.
Q. Advance and give me a token. What is that?
A. The pass-grip of a Fellow Craft.
Q. Has it a name?
A. It has.
Q. Will you give it to me?
A. I did not so receive it, neither will I so impart it.
Q. How will you dispose of it?
A. Letter or syllable it.
Q. Syllable it and begin.
A. You begin.
Q. Begin you.
A. Shib;
Q. bo;
A. leth.
A. Shibboleth.
Q. Will you be off or from?
A. From.
Q. From what, and to what?
A. From the pass-grip of a Fellow Craft to the real
grip of the same.
Q. Pass. What is that?
A. The real grip of a Fellow Craft.
Q. Has it a name?
A. It has.
Q. Will you give it to me?
A. I did not so receive it, neither will I so impart it.
Q. How will you dispose of it?
A. Letter or halve it.
Q. Letter it and begin.
A. You begin.
Q. Begin you.
A. A;
Q. J ;
A. C;
Q. H;
A. I;
Q. N.
A. Jachin.
Q. Where were you prepared to be made a Fellow
Craft?
A. In a room adjoining the body of a just and duly
constituted Lodge of Fellow Crafts.
Q. How were you prepared?
A. By being divested of all metallic substances,
neither naked nor clothed, barefoot nor shod,
right knee and breast bared, hood-winked, and
with a cable-tow twice around my right arm,
clothed as an Entered Apprentice, in which
condition I was conducted to a door of the Lodge
and caused to give three distinct knocks, which
were answered by three within.
Q. Why was the cable-tow twice around your right
arm?
A. To teach me that as a Fellow Craft I was under a
double tie to the Fraternity.
Q. To what do the three knocks allude?
A. To the Three Precious Jewels.
Q. What was said to you from within?
A. Who comes here?
Q. Your answer?
A. A worthy Brother, who has been duly initiated an
Entered Apprentice, and now wishes more Light
in Masonry by being passed to the Degree of
Fellow Craft.
Q. What were you then asked?
A. If this was an act of my own free will and accord,
if I was worthy and well-qualified, duly and truly
prepared, if I had made suitable proficiency in
the preceding degree, all of which being
answered in the affirmative, I was then asked by
what further right or benefit I expected to obtain
this important privilege.
Q. Your answer?
A. By the benefit of the pass-word.
Q. Had you the pass-word?
A. I had not. My conductor had, and gave it for me.
Q. What were you then told?
A. Since I was in possession of all these necessary
qualifications, I should wait until the Worshipful
Master could be informed of my request and his
answer returned.
Q. What was his answer when returned?
A. Let him enter this Worshipful Lodge of Fellow
Crafts and be received in due and ancient form?
Q. How were you received?
A. On the angle of a Square applied to my naked
right breast, which was to teach me that the
Square of Virtue should be a rule and guide for
my practice through life.
Q. How were you then disposed of?
A. Conducted twice regularly around the Lodge and
to the Junior Warden in the South, where the
same questions were asked and answers returned
as at the door.
Q. How did the Junior Warden dispose of you?
A. Directed my conducted to the Senior Warden in
the West, where the same questions were asked
and answers returned as before.
Q. How did the Senior Warden dispose of you?
A. Directed me conducted to the Worshipful Master
in the East, where the same questions were asked
and answers returned as before, who also
demanded of me whence I came and whither
traveling.
Q. Your answer?
A. From the West, traveling East.
Q. Why did you leave the West and travel East.
A. In search of more Light in Masonry.
Q. How did the Worshipful Master dispose of you?
A. Ordered me re-conducted to the Senior Warden
in the West, who taught me how to approach the
East in due and ancient form.
Q. What is that due and ancient form?
A. Advancing on my right foot, bringing the heel of
my left into the hollow of my right, thereby forming
the angle of a square, body erect, facing East.
Q. What did the Worshipful Master then do with you?
A. Made me a Fellow Craft.
Q. How?
A. In due form.
Q. What is that due form?
A. Kneeling on my naked right knee, my left forming
the angle of a square, my right hand resting on
the Holy Bible, Square and Compasses, my left
in a vertical position, my arm forming a square,
in which due form I took the solemn Obligation of
a Fellow Craft.
Q. Have you that Obligation?
A. I have.
Q. Repeat it.
A. I, _____ ______, of my own free will and accord,
in the presence of Almighty God and this
Worshipful Lodge of Fellow Crafts, erected to
Him and dedicated to the memory of the Holy
Saints John, do hereby and heron, solemnly and
sincerely promise and swear, that I will keep and
conceal and never reveal any of the secrets
belonging to the Degree of Fellow Craft, which I
have received, am about to receive, or may be
hereafter instructed in, to any person unless it
shall be to a worthy Brother Fellow Craft, or within
the body of a just and duly constituted Lodge of
such; and not unto him or them until by due trial,
strict examination, or lawful Masonic information,
I shall have found him or them justly entitled to
receive the same.
Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will
answer and obey all due signs and regular
summons, sent me from the body of a just and
duly constituted Lodge of Fellow Crafts, or handed
me by a worthy Brother of this degree, if within
the length of my cabletow, and the square and
angle of my work.
Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will
help, aid, and assist all poor and distressed Fellow
Crafts, they applying to me as such, I finding
them worthy, and can do so without material injury
to myself.
Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will
not wrong, cheat, nor defraud a Fellow Craft’s
Lodge, or a worthy Brother of this degree, to the
value of anything, knowingly, nor suffer it to be
done by another, if in my power to prevent.
To all of which I do solemnly and sincerely
promise and swear,without any hesitation, mental
reservation, or secret evasion of mind in me
whatsoever; binding myself under no less a
penalty than that of having me left breast torn
open, my heart and vitals taken thence, and with
my body given as a prey to the vultures of the
air, should I ever knowingly or willfully violate this,
my solemn Obligation of a Fellow Craft. So help
me God and make me steadfast to keep and
perform the same.
Q. After the Obligation what were you asked?
A. What I most desired.
Q. Your answer.
A. More Light in Masonry.
Q. Did you receive it?
A. I did, by order of the Worshipful Master.
Q. On being brought to Light in this degree, what
did you first behold?
A. The Three Great Lights in Masonry, as in the
preceding degree, with this difference; one point
of the Compasses was above the Square, which
was to teach me that I had received, and was
entitled to receive, more Light in Masonry, but as
one point was still hidden from my view, it was
also to teach me that I was as yet one material
point in darkness respecting Freemasonry.
Q. What did you next behold?
A. The Worshipful Master approaching me from the
East, upon the step, under the due-guard and
sign of an Entered Apprentice; upon the step,
under the due-guard and sign of a Fellow Craft,
who presented his right hand in token of the
continuance of friendship and brotherly love, and
invested me with the pass-grip, pass-word, real
grip and word, ordered me to rise, salute the
Junior and Senior Wardens and satisfy them that
I was in possession of the step, due-guard, sign,
pass-grip, pass-word, real grip and word of a
Fellow Craft.
Q. How were you then disposed of?
A. Re-conducted to the Senior Warden in the West,
who taught me how to wear my apron as a Fellow
Craft.
Q. How should a Fellow Craft wear his apron?
A. With the lower left corner tucked up.
Q. With what were you then presented?
A. The working tools of a Fellow Craft.
Q. What are they?
A. The Plumb, Square, and Level.
Q. How are they explained?
A. The Plumb is an instrument used by operative
masons to try perpendiculars, the Square to
square their work, and the Level to prove
horizontals; but we, as Free and Accepted
Masons, are taught to use them for more noble
and glorious purposes. The Plumb admonishes
us to walk uprightly in our several stations before
God and man, squaring our actions by the Square
of Virtue, ever remembering we are traveling upon
the Level of Time to that undiscovered country
from whose bourne no traveler returns.
Q. With what were you then presented?
A. The Three Precious Jewels; the Attentive Ear,
the Instructive Tongue, and the Faithful Breast.
They teach us this important lesson. The Attentive
Ear receives the sound from the Instructive
Tongue, and the mysteries of Freemasonry are
safely lodged in the repository of Faithful Breasts.
Q. How were you then disposed of?
A. Re-conducted to the place whence I came,
invested with that of which I had been divested,
and returned to a place representing the Middle
Chamber of King Solomon’s Temple.
