CHAPTER I.
Of the Nature and Organization of Subordinate Lodges.
The old charges define a Lodge to be "a place where Masons assemble and work;" and also "that assembly, or duly organized society of Masons." The lecture on the first degree gives a still more precise definition.

It says that "a lodge is an assemblage of Masons, duly congregated, having the Holy Bible, square, and compasses, and a charter, or warrant of constitution, empowering them to work." Every lodge of Masons requires for its proper organization, that it should have been congregated by the permission of some superior authority, which may be either a Grand Master or a Grand Lodge.

When a lodge is organized by the authority of a Grand Master, it is said to work under a Dispensation, and when by the authority of a Grand Lodge, it is said to work under a warrant of constitution.

In the history of a lodge, the former authority generally precedes the latter, the lodge usually working for some time under the dispensation of the Grand Master, before it is regularly warranted by the Grand Lodge.

But this is not necessarily the case.