What are the Ancient Landmarks?
Various Grand Lodges have “adopted” various “lists of Ancient Landmarks” and thus have given the tenets in the list the force of law in those Grand Lodges. But no Grand Lodge can make or unmake a landmark, any more than the Congress of the United States can make or unmake a law of nature. Congress might pass a law saying that the law of gravitation was hereafter to be inoperative, but presumably an apple rolling from a table would still fall to the floor! Grand Lodges which leave landmarks undefined and unrestricted by listing seem to have the better practice, just as those churches which do not list “the moral law” clause by clause seem to have a better grasp of what it is. The late great Charles C. Hunt, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, put this point of view in a few words: “The Masonic conception of a landmark is fundamental law of Masonry which no body of men or Masons can repeal. Anything that can be adopted can be repealed. If a Grand Lodge has power to adopt, it has
