Masonic Landmarks

Masonic landmarks are a set of principles that many Freemasons claim to be "both ancient and unchangeable precepts of Masonry". Issues of the "regularity" of a Freemasonic Lodge, Grand Lodge or Grand Orient are judged in the context of the landmarks. Because each Grand Lodge is self-governing, with no single body exercising authority over the whole of Freemasonry, the interpretations of these principles can and do vary, leading to controversies of recognition. Different Masonic jurisdictions have different landmarks.

According to Percy Jantz, the Masonic term landmark has biblical origins. He cites the Book of Proverbs 22:28: "Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set", referring to stone pillars set to mark boundaries of land. He further quotes a Jewish law: "Thou shalt not remove thy neighbors' landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance" to emphasize how these Landmarks designate inheritance.

Mark Tabbert believes that the actual rules and regulations laid down in the early masonic landmarks derive from the charges of medieval stonemasons.

According to the General Regulations published by the Premier Grand Lodge of England in 1723 "Every Annual Grand Lodge has an inherent power and Authority to make new Regulations or to alter these, for the real benefits of this Ancient Fraternity; provided always that the old Land-Marks be carefully preserved." However, these landmarks were not defined in any manner. The first attempt at this was in Jurisprudence of Freemasonry 1856 by Dr. Albert Mackey. He laid down three requisite characteristics for each landmark:

He claimed there were 25 landmarks in all, and they could not be changed. However subsequent writers have differed greatly as regards what they consider the landmarks to be. In 1863, George Oliver published the Freemason's Treasury in which he listed 40 landmarks. In the last century, several American Grand Lodges attempted to enumerate the landmarks, ranging from West Virginia (7) and New Jersey (10) to Nevada (39) and Kentucky (54).

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