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The Regius Manuscript: The Voice That Still Speaks

Bro. Greg Esposito
Hope Lodge No. 25 and Logia Libertad No. 50

If I could place a single scroll in the hands of every newly made Mason—one that offers not only the foundations of our Craft but also its soul—I would hand them the Regius Manuscript.

Written around 1390, this poetic text is the oldest known Masonic document in existence. It predates speculative Masonry, our degree system, our tracing boards, and even the working tools we know today. And yet, its words breathe with the same moral clarity and fraternal truth we still recite in our rituals and uphold in our conduct. Though it was composed for operative masons—builders of stone, not symbols—it’s a mirror held up to our modern speculative Craft.

The manuscript opens not with blueprints, but with a myth—a legend of how Geometry, as taught by Euclid in Egypt, became the foundation of Masonry. It tells how this divine art was carried into England under King Athelstan, where masons gathered in assembly to form a code of ethics and order. While we no longer take the historical claims literally, the legend offers us something more valuable: identity. We are the spiritual descendants of builders, scholars and kings, united not by blood, but by shared ideals.

And those ideals are laid out clearly. The Regius presents a series of Fifteen Articles and Fifteen Points—rules for conduct that ring just as true today. Love God. Be loyal to civil authority. Be honest in your labor. Do not slander your brethren. Take no bribes. Keep your word. Treat all as equals. If these sound familiar, it’s because they are etched into our obligations, our lectures and our daily practice as Masons.

Some rules are striking in their specificity. A mason must not seduce his brother’s wife. He must obey lawful summons. He must never speak evil of a fellow craftsman. There’s even instruction not to call anyone a “servant” or “slave”—a principle that echoes in our commitment to meet “on the level.” These aren’t quaint medieval customs. They’re blueprints for upright living.

What’s more, the manuscript’s influence didn’t stop in the 14th Century. When James Anderson compiled his Constitutions in 1723, he drew directly from these old charges. And when Benjamin Franklin published them in Philadelphia in 1734, the moral DNA of the Regius passed directly into American Freemasonry. Even today, when we install officers or recite the duties of a Mason, we’re repeating values first laid down in that ancient poem.

The Regius Manuscript may be over 600 years old, but it still speaks. Not with the dust of the past, but with the clarity of conscience. It reminds us that our Craft is not merely a system of ritual—it is a moral path. A brotherhood built on equality, duty and integrity.

So, when we open our meetings and call one another “Brother,” we are, in truth, continuing the song first sung in verse so many centuries ago. The voice that shaped us still echoes—if we have the ears to hear.

For those that want to look at the electronic version of the Manuscript, see www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/regius.html

 

Interested in joining Freemasonry? Learn more here https://rimasons.org/learnmore?src=ins413 #Freemasonry #RIMasons #GrandLodgeOfRI #GrandLodgeRI #YourBrothersAreWaiting #2b1ask1 #NotJustAManAMason

 

Selected Bibliography

  • de Vries, Harry G. The Regius Manuscript: A New Critical Edition. London: Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 2022.
  • Knoop, Douglas, and G. P. Jones. The Genesis of Freemasonry. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1947.
  • Stevenson, David. The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590–1710. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
  • Anderson, James. The Constitutions of the Free-Masons. London: 1723.