Chapter 12 · Study

Working Tools of the Fellowcraft

Print study sheet Read first, then practise.

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.

Practice questions · 5

Which of these is NOT one of the three working tools of a Fellowcraft?
- a. Plumb
- b. Level
- c. Square
- d. Twenty-four-inch gauge ✓
Whose published jewel of office is the Plumb?
- a. Worshipful Master
- b. Senior Warden
- c. Junior Warden ✓
- d. Treasurer
Whose published jewel of office is the Level?
- a. Worshipful Master
- b. Senior Warden ✓
- c. Junior Warden
- d. Senior Deacon
Complete the traditional published summary: "Meet on the Level, act by the Plumb, ..."
- a. ...labor by the gauge
- b. ...part on the Square ✓
- c. ...rest at the gavel
- d. ...build by the compasses
What does the Masonic Level publicly teach?
- a. That all things shall be measured by a single standard
- b. That all who meet upon the Level meet as equals while in Lodge ✓
- c. That the Mason should be flat in his dealings
- d. That straight talk is the highest virtue