Research Author and writer:

Sir Godfrey Gregg OHPM, ROMC

WHAT IS AN OBLIGATION

Obligate and oblige are sister words, deriving from the same Latin root, ob, a prefix meaning before, or about; and ligare, meaning bind, as in our ligament. An obligation is a tie, or pledge, or bond’ by which a man is tied to his fellows, or gives his word to perform certain duties. Accordingly, we have obliging, referring to one who is willing to bind himself to do something for you, obligatory, etc. The obligation is the tie, or bond, itself; in The Mystical Court a formal and voluntary pledge on the candidate’s part by virtue of which he is accepted as a responsible member of the family of The Mystical Court.

THE OBLIGATION

The solemn promise made by a member of The Mystical Court on his admission to any Degree is technically called his obligation. In a legal sense, the obligation is synonymous with duty. Its derivation shows its true meaning, for the Latin word obligatio literally signifies a tying or binding. The obligation is that which binds a man to do some act, the doing of which thus becomes his duty. By his obligation, a member of The Mystical Court is bound or tied to his Order. Hence the Romans called the military oath which was taken by the soldier his obligation, and, too, it is said that it is the obligation that makes The Mytical Court.

Before that ceremony, there is no tie that binds the candidate to the Order so as to make him a part of it; after the ceremony, the tie has been completed, and the candidate becomes at once a member of The Mystical Court on, entitled to all the rights and privileges and subject to all the duties and responsibilities that enure in that character. The jurists have divided obligations into imperfect and perfect, or natural and civil. In The Mystical Court, there is no such distinction.

The obligation of The Mystical Court is that moral one which, although it cannot be enforced by the courts of law, is binding on the party who makes it, in conscience and according to moral justice. It varies in each Degree, but in each is perfect. Its various clauses, in which different duties are prescribed, are called its points, which are either affirmative or negative, a division like that of the precepts of the Jewish law. The affirmative points are those which require certain acts to be performed; the negative points are those which forbid certain other acts to be done. The whole of them is preceded by a general point of secrecy, common to all the Degrees, and this point is called the binding tie.