by N. W. J. HAYDON (Toronto)
1871 - 1950
The connection between "Ancient Craft Masonry", as modern American Freemasons understand it, and the Capitular Degrees has always been more than ordinarily interesting to the inquiring member of the Craft. In this review of the origin of the separate ceremonies, which seem to have been more closely linked together in earlier days, our Associate on the Board of Editors, Companion N.W.J. Haydon of Canada, treats very interestingly the known links in the chain of history. There is still much more to be learned, though whether all the historic facts will ever become clear is somewhat doubtful.
After a man has been received into a Masonic lodge, he is apt to become bewildered by several claims on his attention, not the least of which are those of the so-called "higher degrees". Finding himself almost at the bottom of the degree ladder, instead of the top as he had rather expected to be, he will --if he has the money to spare, and no one is good enough to advise him to digest first what he has already experienced --inquire as to what comes next and proceed with his travels. So, the purpose of this paper is to help him discover what "next" is most natural, masonically, and where to stop if he would profit by his experience.
There has been in all known Masonic history but one formal and authoritative declaration ax to just what constitutes "Ancient Craft Masonry". This is to be found in the "Articles of Union" drawn up in November 1813 and accepted as a basis for the healing of the masonic differences which had for over sixty years (since 1751), divided our English predecessors into two hostile camps. Of these twenty-one Articles, the second reads as follows:
It is declared and pronounced that pure Ancient Masonry consists of three degrees, and no more; viz, those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellowcraft, and the Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.
EARLIEST
KNOWN RECORD
Just when these "Degrees" became separate and secret ceremonies is still unsettled. The earliest known record of such is dated 1702, in the minute book of a lodge at Haughfoot, Scotland (1) and the others must have been revived prior to 1723, as they are mentioned in the First Book of Constitutions, of that date, drawn up by Dr. Anderson.
The whole history of our Order forbids any opinion as to the degrees being originated at this date, as the brethren were so opposed to anything new that even the changes in the Constitution, which made possible the present broad-minded basis of admission to membership, were sufficient to commence the bitter disputes referred to above.
The Royal Arch Degree was first conferred in lodges, the word chapter coming into official use in England about 1768, though Stirling Rock R. A. Chapter of Scotland claims a charter of 1743. The earliest known mention of it as a separate ceremony is found in an Irish work dated 1744 (2), but the statement there made is that this degree had been conferred "some few years" previously in York and in London and further, that it was conferred only on "Most Excellent Masons" who were "an organized body of men who have passed the chair and given undeniable proofs of their skill in architecture", so that this degree must have been originally a reward of Operative merit.
As the years passed this pre-requisite became a barrier to the support of Royal Arch Masonry, so we find that in 1768, at Bolton, in Lancashire, nine brethrer, were "installed" Masters in order to qualify them for the Royal Arch (1), thus making them virtual or honorary Past Masters as, distinguished from those who were actual Past Masters, through service in the chair. The fact that nine brethren were so treated is evidence that the custom was much older than this record, and this method finally became a matter of routine as it is today.
An Irish scholar (3) has preserved for us the record in a Dublin newspaper of 1743, that in a celebration by a lodge at Youghal, there was a procession in which was seen "the Royal Arch carried by two excellent Masons" and a minute of the same lodge of two brothers "passing to the dignity of Royal Arch Masons. they being proper officers of this lodge".
AMERICAN EARLY RECORD
The earliest record of this ceremony being conducted in the American Colonies is that of a lodge at Fredericksburg, in Virginia, dated 1753, which states that on the same evening two brethren were "raised to the Degree of R. A. Mason" following which an Entered Apprentice's Lodge was opened.
There is much more interesting material available to fill in the above outline but, the present purpose being just to show the historical connection of the chapter with the lodge, the reader would gain more profit by making use for himself of the references given at the end of this paper.
The next question is whence was the material drawn for the Royal Arch ceremonies; has it any symbolic connection with the lodge; does it serve to complete the instruction given therein?
It will be remembered that, on becoming a Master Mason, one learned that, owing to the death of the Chief Architect, the plans were all awry because the knowledge that alone could make them serviceable was cut off. As a result there was received only that bare statement and further Masonic progress was based entirely on the hope that oneself or some other brother might regain that which was lost, thereby making possible the completion of the Temple, as existing in both h member and our Order as a whole.
CENTRAL IDEA OF OUR SYSTEM
This loss and recovery of some essential element of
progress, generally termed "The Word," is the central idea of our
Masonic system. The idea is not original with us as Words of Power were known
and referred to many centuries ago, but we being Speculatives rather than
Operatives see in it not some method of ceremonial magic, but a reminder of the
perpetuation of life through the natural processes of death and renewal of our
bodies. And, since familiarity has made us contemptuous of their divine
character, we need to learn their correct use as they are the appointed pathway
to that Temple of which all humanity are the ashlars.
Dr. Oliver tells us (4) that in his time the candidate, this exaltation, was addressed as follows:
Allow me to congratulate you on your admission into the sublime and exalted Degree of a Royal Arch Mason, which is at once the foundation and copestone of the whole Masonic structure. You may perhaps conceive that you have received this day a Fourth Degree of Freemasonry, but such is not the case; it is only the completion of that of a Master Mason.
It may be said, then, without passing the limits of due caution, that the completion of the lodge in the chapter is the finding of the lost Word of Power, embodied in one of the Names whereby the Great Architect is known throughout this material universe. But, because these Names are as infinite of variety as they are of potency, we use as a focus for our finite intelligence that ancient form preserved in the Hebrew scriptures, known as the Tetragrammaton, and revered for centuries by countless worshippers.
That this usage preceded the official separation we also learn from Dr. Oliver, as he tells us (5) "I have before me an old French engraving of the Ground Work of the Master's Lodge, dated 1740, containing the usual emblems and, on the coffin, is the 'True Word' in Roman capitals."
SEPARATION OF THE CEREMONIES
Just why or how this conclusion of the Master Mason ceremony came to be separated from it and worked up into a different name and condition is difficult to state in a few words. A natural theory is that the same influence which brought about an earlier change in Masonic methods, making it possible for lodges to pass and raise their own members instead of leaving that power in the hands of Grand Lodge alone, was also responsible, as our Order increased in numbers, for granting the Royal Arch to brethren who could pass the prescribed trials of skill and firmness, but were prevented by that same increase from passing the chair. Even if, as is certain, the working was less elaborate than it is today, the complete degree would be inconveniently long, especially with the ceremonial changes involved. So that as the growing popularity of the Craft brought in men who had to consider the value of their time, the blemishes of "short forms" and of "hearing the lecture on some-future occasion" could only be avoided by the actions of those who, out of respect for the ceremonies, finally brought about the division into two at the natural point of cleavage.
There is one more consideration that should be dealt with--what good will be served by joining the chapter and being exalted to the Royal Arch? If the Royal Arch truly contains the discovery of the Omnific Word or of the Ineffable Name, as it is also known, why is it that one sees the sign of the chapter on the persons of so many ordinary citizens?
Here we touch on the mystical side of things, for neither lodge nor chapter is like a College of Surgeons, which requires its students to prove their practical as well as their theoretical knowledge of its secrets and mysteries, before they are granted the honors and responsibilities of graduation in their degrees.
Our science can be learned only by experience in service and while that is coincident with our whole life, we should not refrain from entering upon it just because the end seems so far off. As a matter of fact we reap every day the slowly converging results of our efforts, some long past and forgotten, some recent, bnt the more we try to serve the more marked and speedy are the results. As Bro. Wilmshurst tells us (6):
The pursuit of "secrets" is certain to prove futile, for the only secrets worth the name or the tinding are those incommunicable ones which discover themselves within the personal consciousness of the seeker, who is in earnest to translate ceremonial representations into facts of spiritual experience.
Since the purpose of all initiation is to lift human consciousness from lower to higher levels by quickening the latent, spiritual, potentialities in man to their fullest extent through appropriate discipline.
No higher level of attainment is possible than that in which the human merges in the Divine consciousness and knows as God knows.
That being the level of which the Order of the Royal Arch treats ceremonially, it follows that Masonry, as a ceremonial system, reaches its climax and conclusion in that Order.
OTHER CHAPTER DEGREES
In Canadian chapters we have three ceremonies or degrees, the other two being known as the Mark Master and the Most Excellent Master, both of which precede the Holy Royal Arch and act as links between it and that of the Master Mason with their bases of history, symbol and mystery-teaching.
In England and its dependencies the Mark Degree has been a separate Institution, governed by its own Grand Mark Lodge since 1856, owing to its being refused recognition by that Grand Chapter as a separate degree, because of the terms of the Act of Union. There, too, it also consists of two parts, Mark Man and Mark Master, usually worked on the same occasion, the former applying to workmen who had gained some skill but were not yet able to work alone, and the latter to Fellowcrafts who had earned the right to travel in foreign lands and work as Masters (7). This recognition has now been granted officially and some changes of organization may ensue as a result.
In Scotland, the Mark is conferred in lodges, but the Royal Arch is not recognized by that Grand Lodge, while, in Ireland, both are serving Masonic interests.
The use of the Mark is, naturally, very ancient and widespread, as Operatives, being usually illiterate, had to use symbols for purposes of identification. Collections of Marks have been gathered from all parts of the world where stone has been worked, and ingenious theories devised by Masonic scholars to reduce their various shapes to a system. For the most part they consist of straight lines making an uneven number of angles, but curved lines have been found in Scotland (8) and India. Indeed, the theory has been advanced that our present alphabet, through its descent from Phoenician and Greek letter-systems, owes its origin.s to the marks used by operatives who built the temples of Egypt and its Colonies in Asia Minor (9).
Just when a distinct ceremony was first used is not definitely known. The oldest record of its working as such is dated 1769 (10), but the famous Schaw statlltes of Scotland under date of 1598, require that when a Fellow of the Craft is received, his name and Mark must "be orderlie buikit" (11).
Symbolically, the granting of the right to use a Mark is akin to the Rite of Confirmation in the Church, and to the legal "coming of age". It was not granted until the apprentice had finished his term, passed his test, and been received as a Fellow of the Craft by his lodge. Then, no longer need his work be governed at every step by some more skillful Craftsman. He now stands on his own feet and accepts responsibility for his own acts. He is considered a man of mature years, sound judgment and good morals. His Mark is put on his work; on it he builds his reputation and, if his sons follow in his trade, they would frequently use his Mark, though with some slight difference. We, though Speculatives, still follow this custom, and every Mark Master is required to select and register his Mark and cut it on his "Chapter penny". Apart from this we emphasize the lessons of the Master Mason by regarding the Mark as made visible in personality and character, than which no man can go further.
MOST EXCELLENT MASTER
This degree is not worked in Great Britain but is peculiar to Canada and the United States, and the latter still work the ancient ceremony of "passing the chair" in memory of the old regulation as to Installed Masters.
While the phrase "Excellent Master" has a definite place and value in Capitular Masonry from its earliest times, it does not appear that there was also a special or distinct ceremony conferring such a title until much later. M. W. Bro. Mackey tells us (12) that originally "this degree was the sixth of the York Rite" and he adds that it was "the invention of [Thomas Smith] Webb, who organized the Capitular system of Masonry as it exists in America". As this first Grand Chapter for the United States had not come into being in 1798, and the original York Rite had ceased to exist by about 1789 at the latest, it seems more probable that Webb's "invention" was simply an adaptation of material already respectable with long use.
The legend of this degree is concerned with the Keystone, and in conjunction with the Mark, teaches the lesson of patience under injustice caused by official ignorance, and the final triumph of work properly done.
(Reprinted from an article from The Builder Magazine, October 1925 Volume XI, Number 10, September 1947, pages 38 – 46.)
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