Small Causes — Great Effects or the
Promotion of the Royal Arch Degree
Masonry grew by change. It is still
changing, right under our very noses.
Furthermore, it will continue to change,
even after we have all passed on.
All change is not
growth, as all movement is not forward. The
Aswan Dam was built in Egypt in 1967. It was
expected that it would prevent the flooding
of the Nile, and produce hydroelectric
power. Which it did, but along with the
change in the normal flow of the waters came
such evils as the loss of the rich silt
which for centuries had fertilized the
valley. Nutrients were lost with a 97% drop
in the local sardine industry. It is
estimated that the losses to Egypt due to
the Aswan Dam amount to some 550 million
dollars per year. Unpredictable results have
also happened in Freemasonry. Some adopted
changes have proved to be beneficial to the
Craft, whereas others have been unexpectedly
questionable. The point is that each one
of us, one of these days, will be called
upon to decide whether to accept or reject
some proposed change in our Institution. The
decision should be made knowingly,
intelligently, and not emotionally. To do so
one must be acquainted with the Story of
Freemasonry’s evolution, and understand its
present structure and mission. It was
Confucius who gave the advice “Study the
past if you would divine the future. “
As an object lesson
two innovations in Masonry can be reviewed,
one in America, the other in England.
Several American Masonic Jurisdictions sent
delegates to the 1843 Baltimore Convention.
One of the innovations there adopted was
that lodge business should be transacted
only in a Master Mason’s lodge. The purpose,
apparently, was to block impostors. But the
result was that Entered Apprentices and
Fellow Crafts were excluded from lodge
membership. For instance, Holland Lodge,
when under the Grand Lodge of the Republic
of Texas, conducted its business in an
Entered Apprentice Lodge. Fortunately, some
jurisdictions are at this moment attempting
to correct that misguided resolution.
In England, in the
year 1730, there appeared an Exposure called
Masonry Dissected, which proved so very
popular that many non-Masons bought the
six-pence booklet, learned the secrets, and
clandestinely conferred degrees for profit.
Grand Lodge was very disturbed and reacted
by transposing the words of the two Degrees,
the purpose being to make it possible to
detect impostors. Unfortunately, other
results developed. The Grand Lodge, founded
only some fifteen years previously, had
limited powers. Some lodges in the City of
London and the provinces disagreed with the
transposition and began, with recent Irish
and Scottish immigrants to form irregular
lodges which culminated in the creation of a
new Grand Lodge of their own, referred to as
the Antients.
“ This new Grand
Lodge, under the leadership of its ambitious
and pugnacious Grand Secretary, Bro.
Laurence Dermott, introduced ceremonial
items that emphasized the gap that was to
exist between the two Grand Jurisdictions
and give the Antients a supposed superiority
over the Premier Grand Lodge The first
change was to keep the Words of the First
Two Degrees in their original order.
Secondly, they adopted a new Substitute Word
for the Lost Word of a Master Mason. In the
third place, they introduced an esoteric
portion called the “Inner Working” into the
Installation Ceremony. And finally, the
biggest innovation in 18th century
Freemasonry was the grafting of the Royal
Arch as a fourth degree on to Ancient Craft
Masonry.
It seems, therefore,
that the Premier Grand Lodge’s decision to
transpose the words of the first two degrees
unwittingly contributed to the start of the
rift in the English Craft, which lasted well
over half a century. But at the same time it
did afford the Antients the opportunity to
bring about an almost universal adoption of
Royal Arch Masonry.
Early references to
Royal Arch Masonry are vague, and it is
difficult to say when it became a completely
separate degree and attained the full
development of its present-day ritual and
ceremonial. It may be taken as an accepted
fact that the Royal Arch ceremony was being
worked at York, London and Dublin about the
year 1740 in a systematic way. There is a
1744 reference to the Royal Arch as “an
organized body of men who have passed the
chair.” Later, in 1746, Laurence Dermott was
exalted to the Royal Arch in Lodge No. 26,
Dublin, Ireland shortly thereafter he
emigrated to England. But the really first
unchallenged dates of exaltation are 1752 in
Ireland, 1753 in America, 1756 in Scotland
and 1758 in England. It is of interest to
note that the earliest Minutes which
definitely re-cords a Royal Arch Exaltation
is of “A Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons”
in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The historical
Minute of December 22, 1753, record that
three Brethren were “Raised to the Degree of
Royal Arch Mason.” By the way, one month
earlier in this same lodge on November 4,
1753, George Washington had been made a
Mason.
So much for a very
sketchy description of the Royal Arch’s
evolution and acceptance as a Degree of
Masonry. The development and growth of its
doctrinal content and ritual is also very
hazy. There does not seem to be any evidence
to support the statement made by some
Masonic scholars that the Royal Arch was
originally a part of a Craft Degree. The
Master Mason’s Degree does not appear to
have been mutilated to provide a separate
and additional degree. Some students believe
the Royal Arch was compiled in France as one
of the many degrees created after the spread
of Freemasonry to the Continent of Europe,
and then “exported” back into England.
However, the prominent Masonic writer,
Bernard E. Jones, felt that the arranger,
editor or compiler might well have been
English. For, it is true, that in the years
after the establishment of the 1717 Grand
Lodge in London, there were those who found
themselves dissatisfied with the simplicity
of the teachings of the Craft and
embellished it with all kinds of additional
ceremonial items and degrees.
In that shadowy
background from which the Three Degrees of
Craft Masonry had emerged, there continued
to float around several vague traditions.
There were stories of
the loss and recovery of vital secrets; of
two antediluvian pillars designed to carry
and pre-serve the knowledge of Mankind; and
in the Graham MS. of 1726 the legend of the
loss of knowledge on the (natural) death of
Noah. In the 16th and 17th Centuries
literature introduced the idea of a Being so
dread that His name was not to be mentioned;
and in 1726 an advertisement referred to the
necessity for a Master to understand well
the Rule of Three. It has to be admitted
that early references to Royal Arch Masonry
are vague, and it is difficult to say when a
completely separate and fully developed
Degree emerged.
Although Royal Arch
Masonry gained impetus and definitely
established itself as a corollary of the
questionable “transposition” decision made
by the Premier Grand Lodge in 1730, it is
also true that much distress was caused by
hasty and uninformed decisions of both the
Americans and British. It also seems true
that the Royal Arch Degree would have
eventually gained recognition and acceptance
without the help of a disturbing innovation.
In conclusion, a
knowledge and an understanding of
Freemasonry’s past will help each individual
Mason make wise decisions in the future, for
the Wisdom of the Ages has already stated
that those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat the mis-takes of the
past. The prophet Hosea (Chapter 4:6) put it
this way: “My people are destroyed for lack
of knowledge.”
George H. T. French
(Texas)
Royal Arch Magazine
Winter1984 Vol 14 No 12
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