Who and What are the Royal Arch Masons?

Chapter Capitular Degrees

The preparatory degrees conferred in the Chapter are those of
Mark Master, Past Master, and Most Excellent Master. All are beautiful, interesting, and teach valuable lessons, but the Most Sublime Degree of the Royal Arch is more important than all that precede it. It brings to light many essentials of the Craft contained only in this Most Sublime Degree & explains many Cryptic passages of the first three degrees incomprehensible to the Master Mason. Without a knowledge of these , the Masonic character cannot be complete. It has been said that “the Royal Arch stands as the rainbow of promise of the resurrection; of that which was lost and that which shall be recovered.” The value of Royal Arch Masonry will be justly appreciated by all who are exalted to the Most Sublime Degree, particularly by those who are seeking to complete their Masonic education. It reveals the full light of Ancient Craft Masonry, presents it as a complete system in accordance with the original plan, and confers at last the rights & light of a Master Mason, in fact as well as in name. It truly leads to a fuller understanding of the purposes and spirit of Freemasonry. For the first time the Master Mason can perceive the completeness of the Ancient Craft & understand how all its forms & ceremonies are the preparation for the final goal, the Most Sublime Degree of the Royal Arch Mason.

Mark Master –
The degree of Mark Master teaches us to discharge our several duties punctually and with precision, the duty of assisting a distressed brother is forcibly illustrated. Historically the degree illustrates the process by which the work on the temple accomplished by each craftsman was identified.

Past Master –
The Past Master degree came into being because originally the degree of Royal Arch was conferred by the Symbolic Lodge only on actual Past Masters. This restriction prevented many worthy brethren from receiving the full information of the degrees of Freemasonry. The degree of Past Master was instituted in order to conform to tradition and to make it possible for worthy brethren to receive the Royal Arch degree. The conferring of this degree by a Chapter gives a brother no rights as a Past Master in a Symbolic Lodge unless he has actually served as Master of his Lodge.

Most Excellent Master –
The Most Excellent Master degree dramatizes the historical incidents of the completion and dedication of King Solomon’s Temple. This degree emphasizes the opportunity and obligation of Companions to disseminate light and knowledge to less informed brethren.

Royal Arch Mason –
The Royal Arch Degree is set in a later period in the history of the Jewish People. Events of the objects of the Jewish people were preserved, discovered and restored. This degree is the culmination of Ancient Craft Masonry for here we find that which was lost-the word for which you were given a substitute in the Master Mason degree is imparted to you in solemn and impressive ceremonies. With the recovery of that which was lost, it would seem to the novitiate that his search for light was ended. However, in order that he might better acquire the lessons, a seemingly inverse movement of the Degrees, historically, is set up.

The Royal Arch degree is not native to Scotland, but seems to have been introduced from both Irish and English sources, often Military Lodges, towards the middle of the eighteenth century. The first confirmed reference to a Royal Arch ceremony in a Scottish Lodge is contained within the Minutes of Lodge St. Andrew in Boston Massachusettes which is dated 1753.
Military Lodges introduced many other degrees beyond the Craft, and when the regiments moved on, Lodges in the vicinity sometimes continued to work them. This situation continued until the end of the eighteenth century.

However, the early Secret Societies Acts caused the Grand Lodge of Scotland, in 1800, to issue a warning to its Lodges against the working of any degrees other than those of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason.

Many Lodges heeded the warning and the additional degrees associated with Royal Arch or Templar masonry had to be worked in assemblies separate from the Lodge. The feeling grew amongst the Brethren that these assemblies should be legitimised in some way. A few obtained Charters from the Grand Encampment of Ireland. Others petitioned the Templar Grand Body in England and in 1810, under the patronage of the Duke of Kent, the Royal Grand Conclave of Scotland was chartered and Alexander Deuchar appointed its first Grand Master.

This Royal Grand Conclave was empowered to grant Charters for the conferring of the Knight Templar grades upon those qualified as Royal Arch Masons. Deuchar soon realised that it was unsatisfactory to have first three degrees and the Knight Templar grades under proper control but not the intermediate, qualifying, degrees of the Royal Arch.

In 1815 he convened a special committee, and all bodies in Scotland known to be working the Royal Arch degrees were contacted, with a view to forming a Grand Body to exercise proper control. All three Home Grand Lodges were consulted, so as not to infringe upon their interests. Advice was sought, in particular, from England where the United Grand Lodge of England had recently been formed, and where the status of the Royal Arch degree had been acknowledged, as the completion of the third degree.