Different Masonic Orders

The Holy Royal Arch – that which was lost is now found

    Holy: pertaining to the Temple. In this case the second Temple.

    Arch: the place of the deposition of the genuine secrets of a Master Mason.

    Royal: alluding to the Princes or Elders of Grand Sanhedrin.

And Jerusalem, the Holy city of David, the site of all three Temples. After the destruction of Solomon’s Temple the entire city was laid to waste and fell into decay. It is quite understandable that the actual location of the secret vaults would have been lost to living memory. The discovery of the actual location by the Sojourners and the artifacts therein had to be verified by the rulers of the day. 

The ceremony, which is the recovery of the lost secrets is somewhat dramatised. This is generally agreed to be the completion of the Master Mason Degree. To become a Companion you must be a Master Mason.

The Royal Ark Mariners

The Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Royal Ark Mariner, more commonly known as RAM, has been under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons since 1871 and governed by the Grand Master's Royal Ark Council. However, its early history is obscure. Statutes refer to Grand Lodge being reconstituted in 1772. It is recorded that the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons took possession of the rights to the Grand Lodge of Royal Ark Mariner on 10 June 1884 for just £25.

An Antediluvian Origin

What if our Masonic origins were much earlier? What if Noah was the original subject of the third degree? After all the story goes that he was ‘raised’ in some form by his sons, Shem and Japheth. And two great pillars were constructed to resist destruction by fire and water inside which were placed the Antediluvian knowledge so that they would not be lost forever by the cleansing of the earth by the great flood. These pillars one would be at the entry to a vault preceded by a series of arches. Sounds a familiar story? but with different characters and another time placement. To become a Royal Ark Mariner you need to be Mark Master Mason.

Royal & Select Masters 

A Cryptic Degree

To become a Companion in this Order you have to be a Master Mason, Mark Master Mason and a Companion of the Holy Royal Arch. There are four steps in this order, Select Master, Royal Master, Most Excellent Master and Super Excellent Master. This fills the gap from the Mark to the Royal Arch, remember the secrets were lost for 500 years. So what of Cryptic? A set of clues leading to hidden treasure? The lost word?

The Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of England and Wales and its Districts and Councils Overseas was formally constituted on 29 July 1873 by four Councils chartered just two years earlier by the Grand Council of New York.

They organised themselves into a Sovereign body under the Patronage of the Rev. Canon G.R. Portal, a Past Grand Master of Mark Master Masons, who was Installed as the Grand Master of the Order. By the turn of the century there were twenty seven Councils and a similar number Consecrated by the end of the second world war. The Order then grew rapidly with the number on the Roll at the end of 2013 being over 250 Councils.

The Degrees in the Order - four in total - are often referred to as the 'Cryptic Degrees', and the Order sometimes as 'Cryptic'. The ceremonies complete the Solomonic legend as they prove the essential link between the Degrees of Mark Mason, the Raising in Craft, and The Royal Arch.

Knights Templar 

The full title of this Order is – The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes & Malta, in England and Wales & Provinces overseas.

According to legend, the Knights Templar was founded in 1118 AD to protect pilgrims heading for Jerusalem and the Christian Holy places, where the small band of warrior monks established a headquarters. In the year 1118 AD King Baldwin II granted the Templars quarters on the Temple Mount and this forms the link to the Royal Arch.

Many men, of noble birth, joined the ranks of the Templar Order. Those who were unable to join often gifted the Templars with land and other valuables. Modern Masonic association with these medieval defenders of the Christian Holy places is linked by the ceremony of Installation in which the Candidate takes the part of a Pilgrim who, by symbolically embarking on a Crusade, is elevated to Knighthood.

The earliest reference to modern Masonic Knight Templar activity in England can be found in the minutes of the Chapter of Friendship (Royal Arch) in Portsmouth, dated 1778, where it was worked as an Appendant Degree. In 1791 a Grand Conclave was formed comprising seven ‘Encampments’ with Thomas Dunckerley as Grand Master. By 1873 ‘Grand Conclave’ was now known as ‘Great Priory’, and ‘Encampments’ were now known as ‘Preceptories’.

Prospective Candidates must be a Master Mason, a Royal Arch Mason and Christian.  References to the history of these remains are to be found in the ritual associated with this order.

To this day there are many remains of the fortifications and buildings erected by the knights on the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes and Malta.

The Order of the Allied Masonic Degrees

The vast majority of the ‘additional’ Degrees worked in England in the early part of the nineteenth century originally came under the patronage of Warrants granted by the ‘Antients’, who held that Craft Warrants entitled Lodges to work any Masonic Degree to which they had knowledge and members available who could work it. Upon the formation of the United Grand Lodge various groups of Degrees were gradually organised into separate Orders each with their own governing body.

By the end of that century a large number of unrelated Degrees of no direct interest to any grand body was still being worked in different parts of the country. In the late 1870’s it was agreed by the then Grand Secretaries of the Craft, Mark, and Ancient and Accepted Rite to establish a ‘Grand Council of the Allied Masonic Degrees in England and Wales and the Colonies and Dependencies of the British Crown’. The headquarters would be at Mark Masons’ Hall.

The Order has five Degrees; the Degree of St Lawrence the Martyr; the Degree of the Knights of Constantinople; the Degree of Grand Tilers of Solomon; The Red Cross of Babylon and The Holy Order of the Grand High Priest. Every Candidate must be a Mark Master Mason and a Companion of The Holy Royal Arch.

Red Cross of Constantine

The full name of this order is The Masonic and Military Order of the Red Cross of Constantine and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and St John The Evangelist

Constantine, a Roman, was destined for the college of Emperors but following the death of his father, he was hailed by the Legions in York as Augustus and became the Governor of Britain and Gaul. After several successful battles across the Alps and Italy he eventually established himself as the lawful Emperor of both the East and West and transferred the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium, later to be named after him.

It is said that his conversion to Christianity began one evening after a long day’s march with his army. He believed he saw a sign from heaven; a pillar of light in the form of a special cross. A standard bearing a cross was ordered to be carried before him in the wars. Several Christians in his army came forward and avowed their faith, following which Constantine directed that they should wear on their armour a red cross. Having been successful in battle it is said that Constantine with the help of his chief bishop, Eusebius, opened a Conclave of the Knights of the Order whose members became the bodyguard of their Sovereign.

It seems likely that the Order of the Red Cross of Constantine was being worked in England by 1780. After a number of changes to the organisation, the earliest documented date of the Order in its present form is 1865.

Its outstanding feature is that it is the only Order open to English masons which avowedly sets out to give a Christian interpretation of the Craft and Royal Arch. The degrees which constitute this Order are:-

•     The Knights of the Red Cross of Constantine
•     The Knights of St. John and the Holy Sepulchre

The Knights of the Red Cross of Constantine teach us the well-known story of how Constantine came to be converted to Christianity, but the Lecture contains a most interesting reference to the Roman College of Architects, who are regarded by some Masonic Scholars as the direct ancestors of the Comacine Masons. This degree is a stepping stone to the degree of the Knights of St. John and the Holy Sepulchre.

The ceremonies are solemn, dramatic and of deep mystical significance, but their most striking feature is an attempt to explain the Craft and Royal Arch Ceremonies in a Christian sense.