Having made his test piece which has been passed by the Inspector of Material, and having served for a year as a Fellow, the young mason was now eligible to apply to be advanced to the third degree, that of a Super Fellow.  The following petition had to be filled out and posted at the yard or quarry entrance:

       The word “Giblim” and the sign described in the last degree, left arm perpendicular and right arm horizontal, are the pass word and pass sign leading from the second to the third degree; and the perfect Ashlar stone the candidate himself made is the proof for advancement to the Super Fellows or third degree.

     

      The old Operative third degree and the first part of the modern Mark Master’s Degree are so very similar that today’s Mark Master would find himself quite at home in the Operative work. The word and sign of the old third degree of Super Fellow is the same as that of today’s Mark Master degree.

 

      Because the old Super Fellow Third Degree is so similar to the Mark Master’s Degree, it precludes us from describing the ceremony. The Super Fellow was allotted his Mark, and as a Super Fellow he was charged to produce “fare work and square work.”

       This degree termed Erector, was the fourth degree and the young mason was still a Super Fellow, but was one who was qualified and entitled to erect and put in position on the site the stones prepared in the first, second, and third yards and marked in the third stone yard. The Super Fellow Erector ascertained from the marks on the stone the exact position in which each stone was intended to be placed. This degree also followed closely the parts of the modern Mark Master’ degree.

 

      In this degree, it is the chief N.E. corner headstone that is missing, and in the arch degrees it is the keystone of the arch that has been lost. The moral is the same in both cases, “The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner.”

 

      In this fourth degree, the candidate took his obligation on a perfect polished Ashlar stone, both knees bare as before, and he is led around the Lodge four times.  The word and sign were the same as in the modern Mark Master degree.  This degree was struck out of the Symbolic degrees by those who formulated modern speculative Freemasonry in 1717.

 

      The majority of Operative Freemasons did not proceed beyond this degree (much like Masons of today).  The fifth degree, that of Superintendent, required considerable technical knowledge.