tdf018 - Aspects of Apprenticeship (06 Mar 2006)

How fortunate we are in these modern times - or are we? - our period of Apprenticeship to the craft of Speculative Masonry is now so short. In the older days of the Operative forebears it was no easy task for a man to become a Freemason. He had to win the right by hard work, technical skill and personal worth. Not only did he, as now, have to prove himself a freeman, of lawful age, legitimate birth, sound body and good repute, but also he had to bind himself to serve under rigid rules for seven years.