Drawn from published Masonic monitor content. See site Credits for source citations.
Vocabulary (7)
Plumb
An operative instrument used to raise perpendiculars: a weighted line that hangs straight down. The published Fellowcraft lecture appoints it the emblem of uprightness of conduct.
Level
An operative instrument used to prove horizontals: to lay a course of stone true and flat. The published lecture appoints it the emblem of equality among brethren.
Square (FC use)
Already known to the Entered Apprentice, the Square is here taken up by the Fellowcraft as a working tool: the instrument by which our actions are made to agree with each other and with the rule of right.
Jewels of the Wardens
The Plumb is the published jewel of the Junior Warden; the Level is the jewel of the Senior Warden. The Square is the jewel of the Worshipful Master. Together, the FC working tools are the principal jewels of the Lodge.
Meet on the Level, act by the Plumb, part on the Square
The traditional published summary: the Level governs how Masons assemble (as equals), the Plumb governs how they live (uprightly), the Square governs how they take leave of one another (truly).
Equality (Masonic sense)
The published doctrine that brothers meet upon the Level without regard to outside rank or fortune while the Lodge is at labor. The lesson is moral, not political.
Operative origin
All three FC tools are basic instruments of the medieval stone-mason: plumb to set walls true, level to lay courses flat, square to ensure each corner stone meets the next. Speculative Masonry preserves them as moral instruments.
Multiple-choice (5)
1. Which of these is NOT one of the three working tools of a Fellowcraft?
Plumb
Level
Square
Twenty-four-inch gauge ✓
2. Whose published jewel of office is the Plumb?
Worshipful Master
Senior Warden
Junior Warden ✓
Treasurer
3. Whose published jewel of office is the Level?
Worshipful Master
Senior Warden ✓
Junior Warden
Senior Deacon
4. Complete the traditional published summary: "Meet on the Level, act by the Plumb, ..."
...labor by the gauge
...part on the Square ✓
...rest at the gavel
...build by the compasses
5. What does the Masonic Level publicly teach?
That all things shall be measured by a single standard
That all who meet upon the Level meet as equals while in Lodge ✓