Royal Arch Masonry (also known as "Capitular Masonry") is the first part of the American York Rite system of Masonic degrees. Royal Arch Masons meet as a Chapter, and the Royal Arch Chapter confers four degrees: Mark Master Mason, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason.
Constituent degrees Within the York Rite, a Royal Arch Chapter works the following degrees:
The Mark Master Mason degree is in some respects an extension of the Fellowcraft or Second degree. In some jurisdictions the degree is conferred in a lodge of Fellowcraft Masons, that is, the Second degree of the Blue Lodge. The Past Master (Virtual) degree is conferred because of the traditional requirement that only Past Masters of a Blue Lodge could be admitted to Royal Arch Masonry. Because there are so many applicants for this degree, Virtual Past Master is required to qualify them for it. Much of the work is the same given to install the Worshipful Master of a Blue Lodge. There is no such requirement or procedure outside the United States. In Pennsylvania, this degree is under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and is conferred only to newly elected Masters of Symbolic Lodges. In the Most Excellent Master degree the building of King Solomon's Temple, which figures so prominently in Blue Lodge, has been completed. In England and Wales, the degree is conferred by Cryptic Councils, along with three other degrees (see below). The Royal Arch Mason degree is said by many to be the most beautiful degree in all of Freemasonry. Freemasons who reach this degree may continue to Cryptic Masonry or go straight to Knights Templar (where permitted—requirements vary in different jurisdictions). Honorary Degrees of Valor.
Administrative organization
Chapter level A Royal Arch Chapter is in many ways the same as a Lodge; it has officers and a ritual degree system, which in this case consists of four degrees: Mark Master Mason, Past Master (in some jurisdictions the degree is named Virtual Past Master, to distinguish those who have taken this degree in a Royal Arch Chapter from those who were installed as a Worshipful Master in a lodge), Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason. However, unlike Lodges, the titles of the Officers change depending on the degree being conferred:
Mark Master Mason (Virtual) Past Master Most Excellent Master Royal Arch MasonMaster Master Master High Priest Senior Warden Senior Warden Senior Warden King Junior Warden Junior Warden none Scribe Treasurer Treasurer Treasurer Treasurer Secretary Secretary Secretary Secretary Chaplain Chaplain Chaplain Chaplain Marshal Marshal Marshal Captain of the Host Senior Deacon Senior Deacon Senior Deacon Principal Sojourner Junior Deacon Junior Deacon Junior Deacon Royal Arch Captain Master Overseer none none Master of the Third Veil Senior Overseer none none Master of the Second Veil Junior Overseer none none Master of the First Veil Tyler Tyler Tyler Sentinel
Jurisdictional level Every US state has a Grand Chapter, which performs the same administrative functions for its subordinate Chapters as a Grand Lodge does for its subordinate Lodges. In other countries there are either national or state Grand Chapters. The Chapter also has its own equivalents of Grand Lodge Officers, modified from the titles of the officers of a Royal Arch Chapter: Grand High Priest Deputy Grand High Priest Grand King Grand Scribe Grand Treasurer Grand Secretary Grand Chaplain Grand Captain of the Host Grand Principal Sojourner Grand Royal Arch Captain Grand Master of the Third Veil Grand Master of the Second Veil Grand Master of the First Veil Grand Sentinel
In jurisdictions that have them, there are also District Deputy Grand High Priests appointed by the Grand High Priest to oversee the districts of the jurisdiction as the representative of the Grand High Priest. Grand Representatives are appointed to keep in contact with their counterparts in other jurisdictions.
Grand Chapters also contribute to specific charities which differ from state to state.
General Grand Chapter Many of the Grand Chapters around the world Ambassadors . General Grand Chapter Royal Arch Masons International. Accessed 15 August 2008. are members of an umbrella group called the General Grand Chapter, founded October 24, 1797.General Grand Chapter, Royal Arch Masons International Accessed 15 August 2008. Notable chapters not under this umbrella include the U.S. grand chapters of Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The General Grand Chapter publishes a quarterly magazine called Royal Arch Mason and supports Royal Arch Research Assistance, a charity dedicated to researching CAPD or Central Auditory Processing Disorder.GGCHAPTER'S RARA . Accessed 15 August 2008.Royal Arch Research Assistance
History of the Chapter degrees The exact origins of the four Chapter degrees in its current form as part of the York Rite are unknown.
Mark Master Mason The degree of a Mark Master Mason is seen as an extension of the Fellowcraft Degree. It originated in England, and is believed to have entered the York Rite via immigrants to America from Scotland and Palestine.
The first record of the Mark degree is in 1769, when Thomas Dunckerley, as Provincial Grand Superintendent, conferred the degrees of Mark Mason and Mark Master at a Royal Arch Chapter in Portsmouth, England.Phoenix Masonry Bernard E.Jones, Freemason's Book of the Royal Arch, revised Carr, 1966, retrieved 20th October 2012
In Ireland, the degree of Mark Master Mason is still required to join a Royal Arch Chapter. A Royal Arch Chapter meets as a Mark Lodge, confers the Mark Degree on a candidate making him eligible to become a Royal Arch Mason at a subsequent meeting. A Mark Lodge and a Royal Arch Chapter share the same Warrant within the Irish system.
In Scotland, the Mark Degree is still conferred in a Craft lodge. The degree may also be conferred in a Holy Royal Arch Chapter as a prerequisite for exaltation to the Holy Royal Arch. If a candidate for joining a Scottish Royal Arch Chapter has received the Mark Degree in his Craft Lodge, then he will affiliate to the Mark Lodge belonging to the Chapter before proceeding to the Excellent Master and then Royal Arch Degrees.
Past Master (Virtual) The April 30, 1793 minutes of St. Andrew's Royal Arch Chapter state that the so-called Excellent degree may have become the Past master's degree, and that a similar degree by that name was conferred in 1790 by King Cyrus Chapter in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
The Past master's degree was already in existence by 1797, and appears in a few monitors of the era: it is one of the four degrees in the Webb Monitor (1797) and appears in Jeremy Cross' monitor in 1826.Denslow, Ray and Everett C. Turnbull. History of Royal Arch Masonry Part One. Kessinger. . pp. 93-94.
Most Excellent Master The Most Excellent master's degree is considered American in origin,"Most Excellent Master Degree". Monroe Chapter No. 1, R.A.M. Accessed September 2, 2008. although it has been postulated by Ray Denslow and Turnbull that it was merely a rearrangement of preexisting material.Denslow, Ray and Everett C. Turnbull. History of Royal Arch Masonry Part One. Kessinger. . p. 115. "There has existed, in the Americas, a belief that the degree was fabricated by Webb, Hanmer, and other early American ritualists...but the substance of the degree can be located in other degrees which were being conferred at about the same time it was introduced into this country." They state that the first mention of it by name is when it was conferred on William S. Davis on August 28, 1769, in St. Andrew's Royal Arch Lodge, and that the degrees came from lodges originating from the Irish Constitution.Denslow, Ray and Everett C. Turnbull. History of Royal Arch Masonry Part One. Kessinger. . p. 116.
There was also a "Super Excellent" degree that simply disappeared from the St. Andrew's minutes after December 21, 1797, and it was postulated that it may have become the Most Excellent Master degree, first noted in St. Andrew's minutes on February 21, 1798.Denslow, Ray and Everett C. Turnbull. History of Royal Arch Masonry Part One. Kessinger. . pp. 199-200.
Similarities between this degree and material in the 19° in the Early Grand Rite of Scotland are also enumerated upon, and they conclude that the degree is from that Rite.Denslow, Ray and Everett C. Turnbull. History of Royal Arch Masonry Part One. Kessinger. . p. 116-19.
Royal Arch Mason
Origins and early development As for the degree of Royal Arch Mason, Turnbull and Denslow contend that "It is the most widely known and talked about degree in the Masonic system" because it had been part of the third degree until the formation of the United Grand Lodge of England.Denslow, Ray and Everett C. Turnbull. History of Royal Arch Masonry Part One. Kessinger. . p. 124. Although glimpses of Royal Arch Masonry vocabulary appear in Masonic literature from the 1720s, the first verifiable appearance of Royal Arch Masonry is in Ireland in the 1740s during a Dublin procession. According to Lodge No. 21's records, the “Royal Arch” was carried in a procession by “two excellent Masons” through Youghal, Ireland, on December 27, 1743. However, the oldest known Chapter in the world is Stirling Rock Royal Arch Chapter No 2 in Scotland, which has worked since 1743.
The degree is also mentioned disapprovingly in Dassigny's "A serious and impartial enquiry into the cause of the present decay of Free-masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland" published in Dublin in 1744.Douglas Knoop, "The Genesis of Freemasonry", Manchester University Press, 1947Fifield Dassigny’s “A serious and impartial inquiry into the cause of the present decay of Free-masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland,” published in Dublin in 1744, it is recorded that: 'a certain propagator of a false system some few years ago in this city [Dublin] who imposed upon several very worthy men under a pretense of being Master of the Royal Arch, which he asserted he had brought with him from the city of York; and that the beauties of the Craft did principally consist in the knowledge of this valuable piece of Masonry. However he carried on this scheme for several months and many of the learned and wise were his followers, till at length his fallacious art was discovered by a Brother of probity and wisdom, who had some small space before attained that excellent part of Masonry in London and plainly proved that his doctrine was false.'" Separate notes in this work indicate that the rite was practiced in Dublin, London and York, and described it as an "organis'd body of men who have passed the chair" (i.e. served as the Master of a Craft lodge).Harry Carr, The Relationship between the Craft and the Royal Arch, in Harry Carr's World of Freemasonry, Lewis Masonic, 1984, p 383
In 1749, the Grand Lodge of Ireland issued warrants to Lodges 190 and 198 to establish “Royal Arch Lodges”.A Short History of the Grand Lodge of Ireland by Br. Robert C. Blackburn