Our rite presents drama as distinguished from mere spectacle; induces reflection on the meaning of life and its purpose; illustrates the most besetting passion of mankind, the desire for complete knowledge . . . in short, its phrasing and symbolism are designed to appeal to the spirit and intellect of each one of us.
J. HERON LEPPER
EARLIER sections have shown how an ancient legend has been interwoven with familiar Biblical stories and given dramatic form, but it is very obvious that, in arriving at the present ritual, there has been considerable natural evolution and, finally, quite serious intentional revision. Our knowledge of the exact course of evolution and development must necessarily be somewhat hazy. The R.A. ceremony in, say, the 1750‑60 period presented a legend and a Biblical background much as they are to‑day, but the precise form, the symbolism, and much of the philosophic teaching of to‑day’s ritual ‑ these were absent, and came at first gradually and over a period of years whose history is uncertain. It is known, of course, that revisions following the union of the Grand Chapter, in 1817 and, much more especially, those approved in November 1834, were drastic and brought about a considerable alteration in the form of the ritual. We do not doubt that a great many divergent and conflicting rituals had to be considered, the best elements retained, much omitted, including any manifest Christian allusions, and considerable new matter added, and that in the process some old, curious, and picturesque details were lost for ever.
The fact that the R.A. story was first unfolded in Craft lodges must have meant that during the formative period the Craft influence made itself felt in the building up of the ritual by the adoption of ideas, in the moulding of the ritual phrases, in the choice of officers’ names, in the forms of the early opening and closing ceremonies, and even ‑ and, indeed, especially so ‑ in the nature of the esoteric communications made to Candidates. In spite of the coming of the senior Grand Chapter in 1766, and that of the Antients’ five years later, chapters in the early days tended to please themselves in matters of ritual, and this was especially so where the chapter was actually a fourth degree in lodge working, as it must have been under the Antients’ system for quite a considerable time. The Antients,’ acting under their lodge warrants, had no doubt that they could work almost any rite and any version of it, and must have introduced, in the course of half a century, many variations into the ritual. And there were Moderns’ lodges, also, that must have felt they were a law unto themselves, as to which we may cite Anchor and Hope Lodge, Bolton (constituted in 1732), which delayed applying to the premier Grand Chapter for a chapter warrant until 1785, holding that they were entitled to work what ceremonies they liked!
It has been remarked more than once that the R.A. bears marks of a twofold origin, but it would be just as truthful to say that streams from a number of sources have united to feed its tide of strength. There is the legendary story coming down from a Father of the Church in the fourth century after Christ. There are the Old Testament stories. There is the inspiration some time early in the eighteenth century which led fertile minds, either French or English and probably both, to seize upon and build together this excellent component material. There is the stream of influence, English in its character, that helped to mould the rite in its early days, and there is almost certainly imagination and colour brought in from Ireland, where the R.A. was worked at an early date. The certain borrowings from Craft and perhaps other degrees during the eighteenth century must be remembered, as also the by no means negligible fact that some of the R.A. symbolism has come not only from ecclesiastical sources, but from alchemy, many of whose adepts, men of great learning and culture, entered masonry in the formative period. No printed ritual, not even an irregular one, is known earlier than some time in the 18i0s (there are earlier ones in manuscript), and it is obvious that, as the R.A. as a working degree was at least sixty years old by the year mentioned, many variations and curious additions had come about as a result of the handing down of the by no means simple ritual mostly by word of mouth. It is known that the rite practised by the Grand and Royal Chapter in 1766 resembled the present ceremonial in little more than essentials. Undoubtedly it had a distinctly Christian character: consider for a moment the inclusion of the veils ceremonial, which, supposedly reminiscent of the troublous journeys of the Jews returning from exile, is even more likely to have been derived from the imagery of the veil of separation “rent in twain” by the death of Christ.
All the materials are not available for an orderly discussion of the development of the ritual from its earliest form, but fortunately we are able to give a fair idea of the ceremonial commonly worked preceding the drastic revisions and alterations of the 1830s.
The Earliest R.A Ritual known: Date 1760
The earliest R.A. ritual yet discovered dates from about 1760, and is contained in a French illuminated manuscript included in the HeatonCard collection housed in the library at Freemasons’ Hall, London. The manuscript, which is not by any means an exposure and which, according to J. Heron Lepper, shows signs of direct translation from the English, is a collection of short and fragmentary synopses of some thirty‑five degrees current at the period. The manuscript is entitled Pricis des huits premier Grades, ornis de discours et d’Histoires allegoriques, relatifs au respectable Ordre de la Franc‑Mafonnerie. The manuscript is in the French language and in cipher. In that part of the manuscript relating to a primitive R.A. ceremonial we learn of an underground chamber upheld by nine arches and having nine steps to descend into it and opened and closed by nine knocks. A light shows the way to a subterranean room. In the explaining of the tracing‑board the sun is said to be the true light which served to lead the nine Brethren who discovered great secrets; on the board are depicted nine arches, the vault of an underground chamber, and the nine steps that “served to descend it”; a stone with a ring closing the chamber; a torch which was extinguished by the brilliance of the sun, a feature in R.A. symbolism new to ;. Heron Lepper; a triangular plate of gold, bearing the Sacred Name. The ritual represents a date only sixteen years after the first definite mention of the R.A. (1744) and bears a close analogy to the R.A. Degree as it would be if shorn of legend and lectures. J. Heron Lepper believed the ritual to be a discovery of the first importance, as “proving the genuine antiquity” of the rite. The manuscript refers, in explaining a sign, to a “priest when he says Mass,” a sign formerly given, says J. Heron Lepper, to all R.A. masons. The reference to the stone with a ring rather suggests that the manuscript was originally Irish, for such a stone is even to‑day a feature of that ritual.
A Form of Prayer in 1766
Next, in a ceremonial of the year 1766 referred to by Lionel Vibert, are found two mottoes associated with the degree: “We have found” and “In the beginning was the Word.” This last, the opening words of St John’s Gospel, constituted in the early days the words on the scroll found by the Candidate in the vault, as in the case of some old rituals preserved at Taunton and as in a tracing‑board figured by Dr Oliver; they appear also on seals of, three early lodges of Exeter, No. 39, founded 1732; Bath, No. 41, and Bury, No. 42, both of 1733, the last two lodges being associated with early chapters. All Souls’ Lodge, Tiverton (founded 1767, lapsed 1798), had attached to it for many years a chapter, and there has come down to us a form of prayer used in it, of no particular interest in itself except to indicate that late in the eighteenth century the ritual had a distinctly Devotional atmosphere. Here is the prayer:
Almighty, Wise and Eternal God; we pray thee to bestow thy Favor and Blessing upon us who are now assembled with earnest and zealous Hearts to labor under thy most sublime and sacred Name in thy Divine Works. Give us Grace, we beseech Thee, that we and all our works may be acceptable to thy good Pleasure and endue us with wisdom and Knowledge in thy sacred, Holy and Sublime Truths, that we may instruct Each other therein and at the last obtain admittance into thy Heavenly Kingdom of Everlasting Rest.
Some Yorkshire “Toasts or Sentiments,” 1769
A most unusual minute of a Royal Arch lodge, dated February 22, 1769 (given below in full), affords some hints on the nature of the ceremony worked in Wakefield, Yorkshire, at a date coming close on the heels of the founding of the first Grand Chapter. Our information is derived from John R. Rylands’s “Early Freemasonry in Wakefield,” an important and entertaining paper printed in A.Q.C., vol. lvi, in which many excerpts are reproduced from the records of two Royal Arch lodges or chapters ‑ Unanimity and Wakefield respectively ‑ whose affairs are chronicled in two Royal Arch Journals, one covering the period 1766‑93 and the other 1766‑1844, two chapters which appear to have held joint meetings and over a long period entered their minutes in the same book (or books). The early minutes relate for the most part to the Lodge of Unanimity, a Moderns’ lodge, ‘meeting at the George and Crown Inn, Wakefield, in which lodge the Royal Arch was practised on special “nights,” the first recorded one being on August 30, 1766. At a meeting of February 22, 1769, seven members were present, including Richard Linnecar; their names are set forth, and then follows:
Toasts or Sentiments
All tha’s gone thro’ ye seven
To him that grop’d in ye Dark
The first Man that enter’d ye Arch
To him that first shak’d his Cable
May the Crown of Glory, ye Scepter of
Righteousness & the Staff of
Comfort attend true Masons
To the Memory of him that first move his stones in the Dark
Harmony among all those who have
rec’d the Cord of Love
To the happy Messengers that carried the News
to King Cyrus
The Roy Arch‑Word
May the true beam of inteligence
Enlighten Ever Royal Arch Mason
May we be all adorn’d with a
true internal robe at the last Day
May we live to see our posterity to follow this Example
As the Jewish High Priests put off
their shoes when they enter’d the
Sanctum Sanctorum, so
may every Mason divest
himself of every vice when he
enters this Lodge
Many of these Wakefield toasts are more or less self‑explanatory, but some of them appear to apply only to the Irish R.A. mason. In the early Irish rituals emphasis was laid on the Cord of Amity and the Cord of Love, and one of the toasts above given suggests either a borrowing from the Irish or some natural affinity with the Irish working. Regarding the toast “to him that first shak’d his Cable,” it should be said that, in the Irish ceremony, which is much more realistic in some ways than the English, a cord acts as a lifeline and is a means of signalling from an underground chamber to the Craftsmen above, on whose attention and care the well‑being of their companion within the vault depends. A letter written by the Rev. Jo: Armitage to Richard Linnecar on Christmas Day 1776 contains this passage:
I must content myself with wishing you & the Lodge all the Happiness you can possibly enjoy, & treat myself with a Glass extraordinary to all your Healths, which I shall drink with peculiar Pleasure to all those Wanderers in the Wilderness who have had the honour of sitting in the Chair of Amity & of being presented with the Cord of Love.
Phrases in this letter rather suggest that, in the course of Exaltation, the Candidate was seated in a particular chair and had placed in his hands a cord or something emblematic of the cord of love, this inference being supported by the fact that at a chapter meeting in 1809, over thirty years later, Companion Wice presented to the First Principal for the use of the Wakefield Chapter “a very handsome silken Cord of Amity which was received most thankfully as a token of friendship.”
A Ceremonial Arch, 1810
The Minerva R.A. Chapter, No. 35, Hull, has a curious minute under date January 5, 1810:
A material change and alteration took place in the Chapter this evening, namely the introduction of the Arch with Holiness to the Lord painted in gold letters thereon, in front of the three M.E.’s Grads. The Pedestal and Master’s Level, with appropriate inscriptions in Brass letters thereon, and the Burning Bush within and under the said Arch, being the first introduction of these essential requisities in any Lodge in this part of the United Kingdom from time immemorial.
It will be noted that the minute regards as essential a number of things, including the burning bush, which, in the old days, were not always found in a Moderns’ chapter, but it is possible that some ideas were being borrowed from a travelling military lodge or were introduced by an Irish visitor.
A Late Eighteenth‑century Ritual
A little manuscript book measuring roughly 4 inches wide by 6 inches deep, and containing go pages, of which 79 are filled with faded writing, has been very kindly placed at the author’s disposal by Bruce W. Oliver, of Barnstaple, into whose hands it came in 1949, but it was, at some time in its career, in the possession of Alexander Dalziel, who lived in the North of England. The manuscript appears to have been written towards the close of the eighteenth century, but bears on an early page the words “revised 1830,” and there are, in fact, many alterations, additions, and deletions throughout. The meaning or intention is not everywhere clear, and a few words and initials are difficult to decipher. Many phrases are strongly reminiscent of Craft practice. The ritual is said to be of the North of England, but actually can be regarded as representing one known before 1817 in other, probably many, parts of England. Indeed, it should be said that in essentials it corresponds to some manuscript rituals preserved in the library at Freemasons’ Hall, London, in particular that associated with the name of Captain Thomas Lineolne Barker, R.N. (deposited by G. S. Shepherd‑Jones and believed to relate to the then Chapter of Prudence, No. 41, Ipswich), and that of William Banks, Master of the Free School, Butt Lane, Deptford. Both of these manuscripts give what are undoubtedly pre‑1817 rituals, and so closely do these agree with the North‑country ritual about to be dealt with that it is apparent that they all have come from one original source. So, although the following is taken actually from the North of England manuscript, it may perhaps be regarded as representing in general, and subject to small differences, the ritual common to those pre‑Union chapters more Modern’ than Antient’ in their systems of working.
The forming and opening of the chapter have many points of difference from those of to‑day. To form the chapter the Three Grand Chiefs or Principals are placed in the East, representing the three Keystones of the Arch; the Three Sojourners are in the West; the Scribes E. and N. in the South and North1 respectively. An arch of a square or triangular form is placed in the centre, and under it is the Grand Pedestal. In the East is another Pedestal with the Three Great Lights upon it. All things being duly prepared in the chapter‑room, the Most Excellent Grand Chiefs or Principals, now wearing their respective robes and carrying their sceptres, etc., withdraw with the Companions into an adjoining chamber, where the two Scribes immediately take their places on “each side” of the open door, “which is now tyled.” The Companions range themselves into a double line, two by two, and they then open to the right and left to allow of the Principals’ advancing between the lines and passing into the chapter‑room, where they work a short threefold ceremony, and ceremoniously take their places in front of their respective chairs. On a signal from the First Principal the organist, “being ready in his robes,” enters. Then “the Companions enter in due form,” the organ playing a solemn march. The First Principal then invites them to assist him in opening this Grand and Royal Arch chapter, and in an address says, “This degree is of so sublime a nature that none can be admitted but men of the best character and first respectability; open, liberal, and generous in their sentiments; totally devoid of all heresy, bigotry and false persuasion.”
The opening in chapter is largely a series of questions asked by the First Principal and answered by the Principal Sojourner and other officers. It is the Principal Sojourner’s duty to see that the chapter is properly tiled. He proves it by five knocks. Asked how many officers compose an R.A. chapter, he answers, “nine . . . three Grand Chiefs, two Scribes, three Sojourners, and a janitor.” The Principal Sojourner says that his situation is in the West and his duty to introduce all Sojourners from the Babylonish captivity and such as areable to do the Lord’s work at this grand offering of peace; to report all discoveries that may come to his present knowledge. Companion N. says that his place is in the North and his duty to receive all those Western reports from the Principal Sojourner; communicate them, and see that none approach from the West to disturb the symmetry and harmony of this sublime building. Companion E. says his place is in the South and his duty to receive all those Western reports from Companion N. and communicate the same to the Three Grand Chiefs; to register all records, acts, laws, and transactions for the general good of the chapter; and to see that none approach from the East to disturb the symmetry and harmony of this sublime building. The Three Grand Chiefs are said to be placed in the East to confer with each other, trace the outlines of their work, and to complete the intended building.
J. says his duty is to assist in carrying on the Lord’s work; H. says his duty is to assist in completing that work. J. says he comes from Babylon; H. that he is going to Jerusalem; their purpose is to assist in rebuilding the Temple and endeavouring to obtain the Sacred Word. H. says that the hour is that of a perfect mason. “Then, Companions,” says the First Principal, “it is time for us to commence our labours by endeavouring to celebrate this grand design.” The Three Principals again work a threefold rite. The Principal Sojourner says that the next duty is to respect the decrees of the Most High, render homage to the Great Architect of the Universe, and bend the knee to Him from Whom we received our existence. The First Principal, in a prayer which follows, addresses the Great and Grand Architect of the Universe … at Whose words the Pillars of the Sky were raised and its beauteous arches formed, Whose breath kindled the stars, adorned the moon with its silver rays, and gave the sun its’ resplendent lusfre.. . .
Chapter having been opened by the Principals, the minutes “are read for confirmation,” and the junior Sojourner is sent to prepare and introduce the Candidate. In response to the Principal Sojourner’s challenge the Junior Sojourner or the janitor announces the Candidate as “Brother A.B., a Geometric Master Mason who has regularly gone through all the degrees of Craft Masonry, passed the chair in due course and now wishes to complete his knowledge in masonry by being exalted to the Sublime Degree of a R.A. Mason.” He is admitted on the Word of a Past Master of Arts and Sciences. Three Sojourners from the Babylonish Captivity who had heard the. proclamation of Cyrus, King of Persia, offer their services in the rebuilding of the Holy Temple. They claim to be ‘of their’ own kindred and people and descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We are not of the lineage of that race of traitors who fell away during the siege, who went over to the enemy and basely betrayed their country when their city and country had most need of their assistance, nor of the lower class of people left behind to cultivate the soil … but the offspring of those Princes and Nobles carried into captivity with King Zedekiah. ” The narrative continues on in the way now familiar; the Sojourners are duly provided with the necessary tools to carry out their work of assisting in the rebuilding of the Temple and are instructed in their use.
The drama of making the discoveries is acted in the chapter in full view of the Companions. (Work on the keystones centres at the arch.) The rubbish is cleared away, to reveal a keystone, which is removed by ‘help of the crow’. The suspicion that there is a hollow space below is confirmed, and the Principal Sojourner reports accordingly. The First Principal directs that the Sojourners be “well bound” and provided with lifelines and supplied “with proper refreshment to assist them in their labours.” (The Sojourners each have a glass of wine, and are instructed in the use of the life‑lines.) They now proceed “to pass the Arches which have been formed in the usual way.” On drawing the second keystone they find a roll of parchment containing part of the Holy Law, and on drawing the third they find the pedestal on whose top is a plate of gold in the figure of a ‘O’ and within that, contained in a triangle, are characters beyond their comprehension. The Sojourners make their report “to the Three Grand Chiefs,” and the truth of their great discovery is confirmed by Companion N. (apparently by him alone). The Sojourners, restored to their personal comforts, again report; the Z. then gives an emblematical explanation of the work done and discoveries made by them. To prepare them for the revelation of things yet hidden from them the Z. now offers prayers phrased very much as is the prayer in to‑day’s ritual on the Candidate’s behalf. The Candidate affirms his trust “in God,” the Sojourners advance to the altar, and the Candidate takes his Obligation, referred to “as drawing forth the keystone,” the Obligation having a strong likeness to the Craft Obligation and embodying a penalty clause. Then follows an oration which alludes to the sprig of cassia which bloomed over the grave of him who was truly the most Excellent of all Super-Excellent masons, and who parted with his life because he would not part with his honour. There are references to the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, and to;
death, the grand leveller of all human greatness, drawing his sable curtain round us. And when the last arrow of this, our mortal enemy, hath been despatched and the bow of this mighty conqueror broken by the iron arm of time; and the Angel of the Lord declares that time shall be no more … then shall we receive the reward of our virtue….
Following comes a recital of Biblical history relating to the return of the Jews from exile.
The Candidate, now restored to the light, is next invited to attend to a “description of the pedestal and its glorious contents.” It was of white marble in the form of the altar of incense, a double cube, and from its figure and colour a most perfect emblem of innocence and purity. On the base of this pedestal was the letter ‘G,’ signifying a common name for all masons that are Masters of their business. This double cube was said to be most highly finished, and the work of the great Hiram himself. On the front were inscribed the names of the three M.E. Grand Masters, and below these was the “compound character
[triple-tau] ” (which character is explained as Templum Hierosolymae; see Section 22).
Hence we find that what was there concealed was the Sacred Name or Word itself. On the top was a covering of white satin, the emblem of innocence and purity, fringed with crimson, denoting virtue, constancy, and power; tasselled with gold … the most perfect of all metals as it resists the chemist’s art and the power of fire, being the more pure the more it is tried, and therefore the highest emblem of truth, stability and perfection…. On the top was likewise a plate of Gold wherein was inscribed [etc., etc.]
There follows an explanation of tripartite name; the initials of the Three Grand Masters, S.K.I., H.K.T., and H.A.B., the W.I.; and a reference to the compound character.
Then follows a long charge leading up to a closing reference to the lost word and the circumstances under which it was found‑a word “now reserved for those only who profess themselves students of this Sublime Degree and may we my Brothers Companions preserve its margins pure and undefiled till time shall be no more.”
The chapter is closed in a manner obviously based on the Craft ritual and largely repeating the opening ceremony.
The Ceremonial immediately preceding the 1831 Revisions
Fortunately we are reasonably well informed with regard to later rituals preceding the 1835 revisions.
The following relates in particular to the ceremonial followed in chapters of an Antients’ persuasion, in which, of course, the Candidate must have qualified by ‘passing the chair’ and in so doing would have had his attention particularly directed to the symbolism of the plumb‑line and been taught to regard that line as the criterion of moral rectitude, that he should avoid dissimulation in conversation and action and seek the path that leads to immortality. The Candidate may have passed the chair long previously in his Craft lodge or, if on the evening of his Exaltation, either in his Craft lodge or in a lodge especially opened by the members of the chapter.
The ceremony as outlined below included the passing of the veils, which, however, was not an invariable part of the ceremonial.
Ruling the chapter were three Principal Officers, Z. as Prince, Haggai as Prophet, and Jeshua or Joshua as High Priest, these forming the keystones of the arch; at the base were the three Sojourners, known in some chapters as the Principal, Senior, and Junior Sojourners; Scribe Ezra was at the North side and Scribe Nehemiah on the South side. The Companions, seated as to form (in plan) the sides of an arch, represented the pillars of Solomon’s Temple. In front of the Principals was an altar carrying certain characters. Outside the door was the Janitor, often still called the Tiler.
The opening of the chapter was very different from to‑day’s ceremony and more obviously based upon the opening of a Craft lodge. The various officers subjected to catechism answered for themselves and explained their duties. The Junior Sojourner said that his duties were to guard the first veil and allow none to enter but those who were properly qualified; the Senior Sojourner that his duty was to guard the second veil; and the Principal Sojourner that his was to guard the third. (Such duties in many chapters were carried out by officers known as Captains of the Host or Captains of the Veils, as they often still are in chapters where the veils ceremonyis worked.) Essentially, the opening by the Principals was much as it is to‑day, but in many chapters the esoteric portion was worked in a separate room by the three Principal Officers, who then entered the chapter and, in all likelihood, worked a short completion of the ceremony there.
The Exaltation, now proceeded. The choice of officer to announce the Candidate differed somewhat from chapter to chapter. The Candidate was announced much in the same form as he is to‑day, with the significant addition that he had been duly elected Master of a Lodge of Master Masons, installed in the chair, and entrusted with the grip and word, and with the sign and salutation of a P.M. On admission there was a prayer by the High Priest, Jeshua, in which were many phrases familiar to‑day. Following a long Scripture reading, the Candidate took an Obligation including a peculiar penalty not now present in the R.A. but not unknown in’ some other degrees. The Candidate received an exhortation from the First Principal in terms obviously based on Craft masonry, and which, as in the other old ceremony already described, contained references to the “the sprig of cassia found on the grave of the most excellent of Masons,” the beautiful rose of Sharon,” “the lily of the valley,” and ending with a reference to “death, the grand leveller of all human greatness,” as in the, ritual already given.
Then began the ceremony of passing the veils, treated at some length in a later section, but here briefly summarized so as not unduly to interrupt the story of the Candidate’s progress. The Candidate, prepared much as he is to‑day, was conducted by Scribe Nehemiah with all suitable ceremony to the First Veil, which was guarded by the Junior Sojourner. Here he was made acquainted with the miracle of the burning bush; the Second Veil was suitably guarded, and beyond it he learned of Aaron’s rod that became a serpent; again, with Bible readings and ceremonial, he passed the Third Veil, where there was exemplified the miracle of the leprous hand. Each of these veils had its password. Beyond the Third Veil he learned of the passwords admitting him to the Sanctum Sanctorum. He saw the emblems of the Ark of the Covenant, the tables of stone, the pot of manna, the table of spew bread, the burning incense, and the candlestick with seven branches, and he was now qualified to take his part as a Sojourner in the final drama of discovery, which was much as it now is, although the phrasing was somewhat commonplace by com parison with to‑day’s ritual. In reward for his industry and zeal he was given certain esoteric explanations. (In many chapters, at some later date, he was closely examined or catechized on the details of the ceremony; the catechism was a ‘lecture,’ which in its five sections would take about half an hour to work, but it is likely that, on any one occasion, only a part of the lecture was given.
The closing of the chapter would often be reminiscent of the closing of a Craft lodge, or in some chapters would much resemble that at present in use.
When we compare this old ceremonial with the one following the revisions of the 1830s we realize that in its newer form it has been most drastically rearranged and edited, imperfections of phrasing have been removed and the veils ceremonial abandoned. The long addresses from the Three Principals have been added, and it may be said that in the earlier ceremonial there was, in general, not much material upon which the present lectures could have been based, although their phrasing echoes here and there many things that were found in the earlier rituals.
The Bristol Working
Bristol chapters appear to have worked since their earliest days a most impressive ceremony for which the old manuscript ritual above drawn upon serves as an excellent introduction.
At the opening of chapter the two Scribes act as Outer Guards and test Companions on entering. The D.C. leads in the Principals, and the Scribes then enter and take their places. Following a catechism between the Z. and his fellow‑Principals, the Word is completed, questions are put to the officers and answered by them, and the chapter is declared open. The ballot having proved favourable, the P.S., accompanied by any Companions who so wish, retires to prepare the Candidate in an anteroom‑the chapel‑where the ceremony is directed by the P.S., who is seated at a desk or pedestal near to the door of the chapter. The Candidate, having proved his Craft qualifications, then ‘passes the veils’ ‑ four veils in the Beaufort and some other chapters, but three in others, as in the Royal Clarence Chapter, the white (fourth) veil being there omitted. The Companions return to the chapter, passing through the veils and giving the passwords necessary at each veil and on re‑entering the chapter. Before the Candidate, enters the Principals put on their headgear, Z. a crown, H. a smaller crown, and J. a mitre; in addition, J. wears the traditional breastplate studded with gems.
It should be noted that the full‑size vertical pillars familiar in the old Craft lodges are retained in chapter and that much of the work with the Candidate is framed within those pillars, so adding greatly to the dramatic effectiveness of the ceremony, a feature common to all Bristol working, both Craft and Royal Arch. In its essentials the Exaltation ceremony is the same as elsewhere, but the story is unfolded rather differently, and the ceremony retains many of the features common to Royal Arch masonry prior to the revision of 1835, being more devotional and laying far less emphasis on the geometric aspect of the symbolism. Some of the phrasing of the ritual echoes that known to us in the eighteenth‑century manuscript rituals; thus we are told, for instance, of death, the grand leveller of all human greatness, drawing around us his sable curtains; of the dispatch of the last arrow of our mortal enemy; of the breaking of the bow of the mighty conqueror by the iron arm of Time. The Principals’ lectures introduced at the revision of 1835 and which elsewhere in England commonly conclude the Exaltation ceremony are unknown. The altar stone is east of the arrangement of candles, while west of it and more or less between the pillars is a set‑up of three arch‑stones of massive appearance. The Candidate, still in darkness but in full view of all the Companions, dislodges these stones one by one at a critical point in the development of the story, the janitor entering the chapter and having a duty in connexion with them. Although the ceremonial details are peculiar in many respects to the Bristol working, it is, of course, the essential and familiar Royal Arch story that is demonstrated and the same well‑tried emblematical secrets that are brought to light.
Opening and Closing
It has now been shown that the opening and closing of an R.A. chapter was largely in early days a catechism‑that is, questions and answerson lines already made familiar in the old Craft working and surviving in a modified form in the Craft ritual of to‑day. As already made clear, each officer answered for himself and explained the duty of his office, a practice still in use in Irish, American and some English chapters, inherited from lodges and chapters of the eighteenth century. In the 1820’S the opening ceremony was often a lengthy catechism in the course of which reference might be made to the coming of Haggai from Babylon and the going of Jeshua to Jerusalem to assist in the rebuilding of the Second Temple and also to endeavour to obtain the Sacred Word, this constituting the “Grand Design.”
It was common practice for only the Principals and the Past Principals to be present at the opening, and in an old West‑country record is found the direction that “Agreeable to the new regulations of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter the three Principals only should be present at the opening; the Chapter door secured, the Janitor without.” Again, this particular direction comes from an old Craft custom, and, apart from any conclusion that the chief officers of lodge or chapter were working a ceremony at which ordinary members could not be present, there seems support for the idea that the custom of conducting a higher ceremony in a side‑room may possibly have been dictated by lack of space, the lodge or chapter generally having to make the best use it could of the often limited accommodation offered by an inn.
It is accepted that up to some time in the nineteenth century there was a fairly common custom of opening the chapter in a side‑room, but the propriety of this proceeding was a subject for frequent discussion. Grand Chapter debated resolutions relating to it in 1880, 1893, and 1896, and finally, on May 7, 1902, resolved that “It is expedient that all R.A. Masons be permitted to be present at the Opening Ceremony in Private Chapters.”
Much of what has just been said applied equally to the Closing Ceremony, which frequently took the form of a catechism, even as late as the 1820s, when, however, there was an alternative form of closing almost identical with that now followed. Over a long period there was the custom (now in a great many chapters tending to fall into disuse) of offering the V.S.L. open to Principals and closed to Companions. Probably this has been given many different symbolical explanations, but the simplest is that to the experienced and more enlightened Principal the V.S.L. is an ‘Open book.’ Here we may recall the great reverence in which the Bible was held in those days preceding our first knowledge of any Masonic ritual. Thomas Heywood’s If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, a play dealing with the troubles of Queen Elizabeth I before her accession, was printed in 1605, two years after her death, and in its last scene the Queen is shown entering London and being given a Bible by the Lord Mayor. The way in which she thanks him tells us a great deal:
We thank you all; but first this book I kiss;
Thou art the way to honour; thou to bliss
An English Bible! Thanks, my good Lord Mayor,
You of our body and our soul have care;
This is the jewel that we still love best;
This was our solace when we were distressed.
This book, that hath so long concealed itself,
So long shut up, so long hid, now, lords, see,
We here unclasp [open] for ever it is free.
It is worthy of note, suggests J. Heron Lepper, that the reference to the Bible’s having long laid buried and concealed has supplied imagery to the Irish ritual.
The Revision of 1834-35
Many rituals divergent in their details were in use until the 1830s, when the very necessary revision required to co‑ordinate them and provide a uniform working was carried out and approved. The revision and considerable additions are believed to have been the work chiefly of the Rev. George Adam Browne, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who held and had held important offices in Grand Chapter. Back in May 1832 he acted as First Grand Principal in an emergency, and at that meeting the Marquis of Salisbury, the Marquis of Abercorn, and Lord Monson were exalted by him. At the time he was Provincial Grand Superintendent for Suffolk and Cambridge, a post which, so far as Cambridge was concerned, he had occupied for twenty‑two years. In 1810 he was the First Principal of the Chapter of Plato, and in May 1813 was appointed Grand Orator, an office which has long been obsolete. In 1815 he was Grand Chaplain to the United G.L., and an ode written by him was sung by Mr Bellamy in January 1817 at a Masonic celebration in Freemasons’ Hall, London, on the birthday of the Duke of Sussex, Grand Master, to whom he was at some time chaplain. If the work of recasting and revising the ritual did fall upon him, as seems extremely likely, it fell upon a scholar possessing all the attainments for such a heavy and difficult task.
A committee was appointed by Grand Chapter in February 1834 to take into consideration the ceremonies for the Installation of Principals as well as the various other ceremonies of the Order. Its nine members were the three Grand Principals (the Duke of Sussex, Lord Dundas, and John Ramsbottom) and six distinguished companions, including the Rev. George A. Browne.
This committee reported to Grand Chapter in November 1834 the result of their labours, and it was then resolved “that members of the Grand Chapter be summoned in classes to consider separately such portions of the ceremonies as their qualifications and advancement in the Order and Craft entitle them to participate.” The first of the classes met in a special convocation on November 21, 1834, consisting of highly experienced Companions, and, having had read to it the report duly approved and signed by the Grand First Principal and having received the necessary explanations, then gave its entire and unanimous approval to the revised ceremonies. At this meeting the Rev. G. A. Browne had acted as H., and at a special convocation four days later he presided as J., and the report was submitted to the Excellent Companions present in portions according to their several and respective ranks. It was fully explained, some few amendments made, and the Grand Chapter then unanimously approved and confirmed the arrangements of the several ceremonies as submitted by the special committee to the various classes. It is to be particularly noted that the Companions present at this meeting “then expressed their thanks to the M.E. Companion the Rev. George Adam Browne for his attention to the welfare and interest of the Order.” About six weeks later, on February 4, 1835, a special Chapter of Promulgation was warranted for six months only; it consisted of the existing committee but increased to twenty‑seven members, its duty in general being to work as a chapter of instruction and promulgation and, in particular, to ensure uniformity of practice throughout the Order. The Exaltation ceremony was worked on some Tuesday evenings and the Installation Ceremony on other Tuesdays from May to August of that year (1835), and so seriously did Grand Chapter regard the necessity for this instruction that the Grand Principals were prepared to suggest suspension of any chapter failing in its duty of teaching its members the accepted ritual. In addition, Grand Chapter resolved in November of that year as follows:
Some misconception having arisen as to what are the ceremonies of: our Order it is hereby resolved and declared that the ceremonies adopted and promulgated by special Grand Chapter on the 21st and 25th Nov., 1834, are the ceremonies of our Order which it is the duty of every Chapter to adopt and obey.
The standardized (and recommended but not compulsory) ritual is often referred to as the Sussex ritual, obviously because it had been prepared under the auspices of H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex, First Grand Principal and, for thirty years from 1813, Grand Master in the Craft.
Comparison of to‑day’s ritual with the earliest printed ritual available embodying the 1835 revisions does not disclose important differences, any small changes being a matter of a few insignificant words.
The Sussex ritual is believed to represent what is to‑day called the “Perfect” ritual, versions of which are known as the “Complete,” “Aldersgate,” “Standard,” “Domatic,” etc. As already made clear, the revision eliminated the ceremony of passing the veils, and it is known that this ceremony almost went out of use so far as English chapters are concerned, although it is curious to note that the 1881 edition of The Text Book of Freemasonry (Reeves and Turner, London) still carried the description of the ceremony but not a ritual of it, and remarked that this ceremony is sometimes dispensed with. It will be explained in a later section how the full veils ceremony came to be revived in Bristol about the year 1900. It is known, too, that the standardized ritual represents a revision of passwords, etc., a matter which cannot be pursued in these pages.
The Christian elements included in most of the early divergent rituals were eliminated in the revision of the 1830s, and eliminated, we must suppose, for the sake of harmony and uniformity with long‑established Craft practice. The scroll carrying the first verses of St John, “In the Beginning was the Word . . . ,” became a scroll on which were words taken from the first and third verses of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
The Chapter of Promulgation seems to have been successful so far as London chapters were concerned, but had difficulty in meeting the needs of the country chapters, which often could only bring themselves into line by delegating one or more of their members to travel to London to receive instruction. Thus we know that from the Chapter of Concord, Bolton, now No. 37, an Excellent Companion went to London in August 1835 to learn and obtain the ritual promulgated, the cost of his journey being met by his own and other local chapters. It is known, also, that the Rev. G. A. Browne himself, at the time Grand Superintendent for the County of Suffolk, held a chapter of Principals for instruction in Bury St Edmunds and, the next day, a chapter for the instruction of Companions in general, and it is to be expected that what he did in one centre he and other informed Companions did in others.
In general, though, many country chapters were soon in trouble. The Grand Chapter Regulations of 1823 had made every office open to any R.A. mason; those of 1826 had restricted the chairs to Master Masons who were Installed Masters, a rule often disregarded until the coming of the revised ritual in 1835. The revised ritual confirmed the restriction, with the result that in some country chapters it was impossible to find enough qualified Companions to occupy the Principal chairs; further, as yet there was no printed ritual to which Companions could go for help.
In the years following the revision there was urgent need of a printed edition of the new laws and of the more general and more complete promulgation of the revised ceremonies. A correspondent said in 1839 that there were Taunton chapters where the chairs had never been conferred in an esoteric manner; a few zealous Principals in Somerset obtained the necessary instruction in the Chapter of Promulgation, and from it chapters in Bath, Tiverton, Yeovil, and Taunton had benefited, but in the year 1835 they still had not a single duly Installed Principal. These instances were typical of many.
The Principals’ Lectures
Quite distinct from the early catechisms, then termed lectures, are the addresses or lectures delivered by the Three Principals following an Exaltation. It has already been noted that these lectures are not older than 1835, and this would account for their being unknown in the Irish and American systems, nor are they present in the Bristol ritual, which is credited with preserving a pre‑Union system and an affinity with the Irish working. The lectures as such, although not known until the 1830s, echo phrases and ideas in the efistract of Laws, printed in 1778 and addressed “To all Companions of that Society but more particularly to Initiates.”
The Table Ritual or Catechism
The ritual at table, taking the form of question and answer, is either a survival or the revival of an old Craft custom. That the early R.A. ritual contained many catechisms is beyond question, and it is supposed that some of these crystallized into the present table ritual in the 1830s, being worked now not in the chapter itself, but after refreshment. The method of teaching by means of question and answer goes back into antiquity. The Jews, Greeks, and other peoples used it, and it is from a Greek word that the term comes down to us through the Latin. The method of catechism was employed in English literature in the Middle Ages and even earlier, for about the year 1000 ﾆlfric, Abbot of Evesham, a religious writer and grammarian, wrote his Dialogue, a catechism for imparting religious knowledge. The word was familiar to Shakespeare, whose contemporary, Richard Hooker, said that “for the first introduction of youth to the knowledge of God, the Jews even till this day have their catechisms.” Since Shakespeare’s time a great many books have taken this form, among them being Izaak Walton’s famous Compleat Angler written about 1650. Indeed, in Walton’s day, the very period when the Craft ceremonies were in the course of formulation, the method of imparting religious instruction by the catechism was a subject of keen public interest.
It has been generally held that ritual in the early Craft lodges could not have been much more than a long series of questions and answers, the so‑called lectures, exchanged between the Brethren seated round a table. As the eighteenth century advanced the Craft ceremonies became more colourful and the lectures tended to fall into disuse, but there is no doubt that all through the first three‑quarters of a century of Royal Arch history catechisms were the rule; known as lectures, they recapitulated the ceremonies through which the exaltee had passed, and in a sense tested his knowledge of the symbolic explanations that had been vouchsafed him.
It has been said that the table ritual continues an old Craft custom. It certainly appears that the “pious memory” toast owes something to Craft working, for Browne’s Master‑Key in cipher (1798) gives a First Degree toast in these words: “To the pious memory of the two Saint Johns, those two great parallels in Masonry.”