Anaheim Masonic Lodge No. 207

by Norm Leeper, PM

Q. 'Will you be off or from?' Is this a test-question or a 'catch-question'? Please explain.

A. This is not a catch-question. It is a question in what is known, in Scottish working, as the 'short method' of passing or raising the Lodge from one degree to another. Let us assume that the Lodge is in the first degree and the next item of business is 'to pass Brother N. to the Second Degree'.

The Master orders the Lodge to be proved tyled in the usual manner, and the Brethren all stand to order 'while the Lodge is being passed'. The Master then asks the Senior Warden: Will you be off or from?' The S.W. replies: 'From' (if the Lodge is going up to the degree). The Master then says: 'From what to what?' The S.W. says: 'From the Degree of E.A. to that of Fellowcraft'. The Master then says: 'By virtue of the Authority vested in me as Master of this Lodge, I declare it closed in the E.A. Degree' (gives knocks of E.A. Degree) 'and opened in the Degree of Fellowcraft' (gives knocks of F.C. Degree). And that is that ! Very simple and very quick - as opposed to all the usual questions about squares, etc. Nom: If the Lodge is coming down, the S.W. will answer 'Off instead of 'From' - to be followed, of course, by the Master asking: 'Off what to what?'

This method of getting the Lodge up and down from one degree to another is quite popular and is much used by the Scottish country Lodges. It is also used in all Lodges when coming down from M.M. at the end of a raising unless there is no more Business, when the Lodge is closed finally on the third (by the Wardens giving the substituted secrets, etc.). The Scottish working also allows the Lodge being finally closed on the second.

When this question came in, in 1963, I was under the impression that the 'Off or From' was purely Scottish practice. I therefore sent it to Bro. G. S. Draffen, M.B.E., then S.G.W. of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. He, very kindly, furnished the answer printed above, which, I hasten to add, is perfectly correct. Scottish influence in Craft customs has always been so strong that one would expect to find similar practices in use overseas and soon after the Summons was issued, a number of letters came in, from Brethren in England and overseas, pointing out that the answer was incomplete. In particular, a note that the 'Short Method' is used in Derbyshire started me on a search for early English usage. I found that it was in print, in the two most important English exposures of the 1760s, when it was used in the course of testing Candidates and Visitors, but not as a 'Short Method' of raising or lowering the Lodge from one degree to another. The following is from the Master's Part Catechism, in Three Distinct Knocks, 1760:

Mas. Will you be of [sic] or from?
Ans. From.
Mas. From what, Brother?
Ans. From an enter'd Apprentice to a Fellow-Craft. Mas. Pass, Brother.

This was followed by the (then customary) P.G. and P.W. leading to the 2E and further questions embodying the Tn. and Wd. of the F.C. The same text also contained a chapter describing the examination of a visitor 'at the Door of a Free-Mason's Lodge', in which the `Of or From' appears twice, once with the word 'Off and once as 'Off'.

In Ireland, Scotland, certain Canadian jurisdictions, California, Texas, and doubtless in many other places too, the question Will you be off or from?' is still used as part of the 'Entrusting' and subsequent testing of candidates, i.e., for passing from the grip of one degree to the one immediately above, and also from the pass-grips to the second and third to the proper grips of these degrees. The interrogator poses the question, Will you be off or from?' and the interrogated always answers, 'From'. The former then says, 'From what to what?' and the latter replies, for example, 'FROM the grip of an E.A. Mason to the pass-grip of a F.C. Mason', or 'From the pass-grip of a F.C. Mason to the grip of the same', or 'From the grip of a F.C. Mason to the pass-grip of a M.M.', etc., etc., as the case may be. The answer to the original question is never 'Off'.

Bro. J. Pendrill, Prov. G. Secretary, Warwicks., writes to say that the 'Off or From' questions are also used in Scotland for testing visitors to Lodges.

Bro. B. Kelham, Secretary of Lodge No. 278, Gibraltar, says that the questions are also used in Derbyshire, and possibly in other English Provinces, as the 'Short Method of Raising (or Reducing) the Bro. C. R. J. Donnithorne, Dist. G. Secretary of the District Grand Lodge of the Far East, writes from Hong Kong:

In Scottish Lodges here it is the Junior Warden who gives the answers when the  Lodge is 'going up' from first to second degree and 'coming down' again. The Senior Warden replies  to the questions when moving to the third degree and coming down again. Lodges here also  close finally in the third degree in the manner men- tioned in your notice, and this means that 'any other business' after the conferment of a degree is always dealt with before the degree  working.

[Excerpt from "The Freemason At Work" by Harry Carr, PM]