Past Master, or Fifth Degree | Chapter 5

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notice, and due inquiry into his character?

15. You agree that no visitors shall be received into your Lodge without due examination, and producing proper vouchers of their having been initiated into a regular Lodge?

Do you submit to these charges, and promise to support these regulations, as Masters have done in all ages before you?

Candidate–I do.

R. W. M.–You will now take upon yourself the obligation of this Degree. Please to kneel at the altar.

The candidate is conducted to the altar, kneels on both knees, lays both hands on the Holy Bible, square, and compasses, and takes the following oath:

I, Peter Gabe, of my own free-will and accord, in presence of Almighty God, and this Worshipful Lodge of Past Master Masons, erected to him, and dedicated to the Holy Saints John, do hereby and hereon, most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, in addition to my former obligations, that I will not give the secrets of a Past Master Mason, or any of the secrets pertaining thereto, to any one of an inferior Degree, nor to any person in the known world, except it be to a true and lawful brother, or brethren, Past Master Masons, or within the body of a just and lawfully constituted Lodge of such; and not unto him or unto them whom I shall hear so to be, but unto him and them only whom I shall find so to be, after strict trial and examination, or lawful information.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will obey all regular signs and summonses sent, thrown, handed, or given from the hand of a brother of this Degree, or from the body of a just and lawfully constituted Lodge of Past Masters.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will support the constitution of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States; also, that of the Grand Chapter of the State in which this Lodge is located, and under which it is held, and conform to all the by-laws, rules, and regulations of this, or any other Lodge of which I may at any time become a member, so far as in my power.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will not assist or be present at the conferring of this Degree upon any person who has not, to the best of my knowledge and belief, regularly received (in addition to the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason) the Degree of Mark Master, or been elected Master of a regular Lodge of Master Masons.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will aid and assist all poor and indigent Past Master Masons, their widows

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and orphans, wherever dispersed around the globe, they applying to me as such, and I finding them worthy, so far as is in my power without material injury to myself or family.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that the secrets of a brother of this Degree, delivered to me in charge as such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in my breast, as they were in his own before communicated to me, murder and treason excepted, and those left to my own election.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will not wrong this Lodge, nor a brother of this Degree, to the value of one cent, knowingly, myself, nor suffer it to be done by others, if in my power to prevent it.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will not govern this Lodge, or any other over which I may be called to preside, in a haughty and arbitrary manner; but will, at all times, use my utmost endeavors to preserve peace and harmony among the brethren.