The average man enters Freemasonry with little or no knowledge of the fraternity, its manner of organization, or its system of doing business. When he petitions a lodge, so far as he knows, he has applied for the privileges of the fraternity, and his initiating, passing, and raising are supposed to put him in full possession of all that appertains to the society. Upon receiving the degree of Master Mason, he finds in his pleasant journey thus far that he has arrived at a fork in the road, and if he is to believe all his Masonic friends tell him, he is at once beset with perplexity and doubt. Intimations are given him that Masonry of the lodge is not complete and that before he can have a full conception of Freemasonry, it will be necessary for him to petition a Masonic bode known as the Chapter, and receive the degree of the Holy Royal Arch. He is further informed that he cannot possibly fully appreciate his Masonry until he has presented his petition to a Commandery of Knights Templar and received the Orders therein conferred. He is also given the information that between the Chapter and the Commandery are three very entertaining degrees known as those of Royal, Select, and Superexcellent Master, and while not at all required, yet his knowledge of Masonry will never he satisfactory until lie has received these highly instructive degrees. While he is seriously considering the ways and means of completing his Masonic schooling, he is approached by another group of Masons who inform him that the knowledge of Masonry which he has acquired in the first three degrees is purely fragmentary, and that before he can begin to realize what Masonry means, it will be necessary for him to receive the various grades conferred in the Scottish Rite Bodies, twentynine in number culminating with the thirty-second degree.
At this point he becomes confused, particularly if his means are limited and the query which naturally arises in his mind as he stands at the fork of the Masonic road is, "Which route shall I take?"
For a long time, much jealousy existed between Ancient Craft Masonry as contained in the first three degrees, and the so called higher degrees. No little acrimonious debate was indulged in by the proponents of each group of Masons, and in some instances, Grand Lodge authorities denounced the adherents of the higher degrees as Masonic outlaws. But as time has passed, and the fraternity has come to be better understood, Masons are beginning to understand that Freemasonry is a principle and not a collection of organizations. At the present time the Mason who can afford it, takes all the degrees which his finances will permit, and seeks to broaden as far as possible his knowledge of those great fundamental truths which distinguish Freemasonry, whether found in Lodge, Chapter, Commandery or Consistory.
Masonry in the world today, is organized under two systems. One, miscalled the York Rite System, including four degrees of the Chapter, three degrees of the Council, and three Orders of Knighthood, and the Scottish Rite System, comprising eleven degrees conferred in a Lodge of Perfection, two degrees conferred in a Council of Princes of Jerusalem, two degrees conferred in a Chapter of Rose Croix, and fourteen degrees conferred in a Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret. To these, the Scottish Rite has added one more, known as the thirty-third degree, which is purely honorary and is awarded to those who by reason of long service in Masonry or because of some great benefit rendered to humanity, have attained distinction. Both the York Rite and the Scottish Rite have built their systems upon the first three degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry, and require all petitioners for their various grades to be first of all Master Masons made in a regular lodge of Masons.
In attempting to establish Royal Arch Masonry as a legitimate part of the Ancient Craft System, and declaring that it cannot be divorced therefrom without serious injury to the Masonic knowledge of the seeker after light, the claim is sometimes made that the third degree was mutilated in order to create the Royal Arch degree and that the Fellow Crafts degree was spoiled in order to make the Mark Master's degree. These declarations are simply the result of a mad desire to establish a connection between Royal Arch and Ancient Craft Masonry by those who have arrived at their deductions merely from the study of a monitor or such internal evidence as they have been able to deduce from the degrees themselves.
When the Grand Lodge of England was formed in 1717, nothing vas known of the Royal Arch Degree. No mention of it is made in connection with the early ceremonies of Masonry and so far as the legends of the fraternity are concerned, it ryas unknown. In the year 1737 some of the members Of the Grand Lodge of England became dissatisfied with the way its affairs were being conducted and seceding, set up a Grand Lodge of their own calling themselves Ancients, in contrast with the lawful Grand Lodge which they styled Moderns. This schismatic Grand Lodge afterwards became known as the Athol Grand Lodge, in consequence of the Duke of Athol, having been for many years its Grand Master.
It has been claimed that after the secession of the so called Ancients the Moderns changed the modes of recognition. The charge has also been set up that Dermott and Dunckerly had taken something from the Third Degree and made out of it the Royal Arch.
The exact source of the legend of the Royal Arch is not known. It may have been conceived in the fertile brain of Dunckerly for the principal reason that the Ancients sought to give to their schismatic body a prestige which was not possessed by the Moderns or Mother Grand Lodge of England.
The Royal Arch degree did not appear until some twenty or thirty years after the formation of the Grand Lodge of England, clearly proving that any multilation of the Third Degree for the purpose of creating the Royal Arch Degree is pure fiction. It is also true that there was no despoilation of the Fellow Crafts degree in order to create the Mark Master's degree. Undoubtedly the Royal Arch Degree had in a way become fixed in the system as promulgated by the Ancients or Secedents. There is no question that this degree was practiced by the seceders until the union of the two Grand Lodges in 1813. In discussing the articles of union, the question of the future of the Royal Arch Degree became a very serious one. The Ancients or the regular Grand Lodge demanded its separation from the first three degrees.
The Moderns or Seceders refused to accept this disposition of it and threatened to withdraw from all negotiations unless the regular Grand Lodge recognized their Masonic offspring.
As the union seemed so desirable in order to save the fraternity, the regular Grand Lodge agreed to compromise by recognizing the Royal Arch, not as a fourth degree, but as an order appended to the third. Inasmuch as no reference was made at the time of the union to the modes of recognition, it is reasonable to assume that no change whatsoever had been made in these by the Ancients and that it was left to the Seceders to change the old order of things by the creation of an extraneous degree which they called the Holy Royal Arch. Thus it was nearly one hundred years after those fathers in Masonry who had laid the foundations of the fraternity were quietly sleeping in their graves that their decendants agreed to an innovation in the body of the fraternity believing as they honestly did, that such innovation was necessary to save the society from disaster.
One of the arguments offered for the Royal Arch Degree at the present time is that it is necessary in order to complete the Masonic knowledge of the candidate for the reason that the loss of the word in the Master Masons degree demands that it shall be again found and this is what is accomplished in the Royal Arch Degree, and there we evidently find the reason for the fabrication of the Royal Arch System.
In Scotland, the Royal Arch has never been recognized as a part of Masonry. The Grand Lodge of Ireland has given it recognition, not however as appended to Ancient Craft Masonry, but has accorded it a standing which stamps it as legitimate for all who desire to affiliate with it.
So far as the fabrication of the degree is concerned, it is of little interest to those of the present day whose only concern is in the false claim which is so often set up by its supporters that it derived its parentage front Ancient Craft Masonry. The assumption, therefore, is that the Ron-al Arch was but one of the numerous degrees that were fabricated not only in England but America as well, in the first half of the Eighteenth Century, and which were in the possession of various degree peddlers for several years thereafter. That it was seized upon by the Ancients and made ;in appendix to the Third Degree in order to give them a distinction which was not possessed by their enemies the Moderns, is an acceptable explanation of its appearance in that system.
The division of Royal Arch Masonry into the degrees of Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch, is simply due to the work of modern ritual builders of whom Thomas Smith Webb may be said to have been the father.
The three degrees usually conferred in a Council of Royal and Select Masters are purely ritualistic fabrications. Inasmuch as the Royal Arch Degrees were made to furnish the completion of knowledge alleged to be missing in the Master Masons Degree, enthusiastic ritualists conceived the idea of completing the knowledge of the Royal Arch Mason in additional degrees known as Royal and Select Master. Later a third degree was added called the Super-Excellent Masters Degree. Originally, these degrees were conferred tinder the jurisdiction of a Chapter - a custom which today prevails in some parts of America, but with the growth of Masonry, the Councils in most States have assumed sovereign jurisdiction over these three degrees and confer them in an independent manner. These degrees have no connection whatsoever with Ancient Craft Masonry. There is good reason to believe that they originally belonged to the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and were for a time conferred as honorariums. Later on they were neglected only to be taken up by groups of Masons given the semblance of independent Masonic degrees and finally made the basis of the organization or governing body now known as the Grand Council Royal and Select Master.
To complete what has been termed the York Rite System, the Orders of Knighthood have been added, but these have never laid any claim whatsoever to Masonic origin, but have simply been injected or made a part of the so-called York Rite System in order that it might culminate in an organization which had a military character. A discussion of the Order of Knights Templar is reserved for a succeeding chapter.
As the years have advanced, the Chapter,
the Council, and the Commandery experienced a remarkable development,
and have become independent bodies setting tip their own laws,
rules, and regulations, establishing their own rituals, and maintaining
an individuality which makes them sovereign in their own sphere.
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