THE Royal Arch mason’s clothing (the word comes down from guild custom) includes robes, aprons, sashes, collars, chains, jewels, and, exceptionally, headdresses.
The by‑laws of the Excellent Grand and Royal Chapter, 1766, lay down that the Excellent Grands be clothed in proper Robes, Caps on their Heads, and adorned with proper jewels.‑No Aprons…. That all the Companions wear Aprons (except those appointed to wear robes) and the Aprons shall be all of one sort of fashion.” (For the completion of this by‑law see p. 71.)
The Charter of Compact, 1766, specifies “an apron indented with Crimson, and the Badge properly displayed thereon, and also the indented Ribbon or Sash of this Order.”
The robes worn by the Three Principals are traditional, not of any definite period, and descend from the ancient and world‑wide custom of persons in authority and having ceremonial duties wearing a loose, flowing outer‑dress. Judges, priests, scholastics, etc., have commonly worn such clothing of dignity. It is known that robes were worn in the early chapters, for in May 1777 the minutes of the Grand and Royal Chapter mention a proposal to have a new robe for the Principal (if the fund would admit of it), and in December of the same year Chevalier Ruspini showed drawings of proposed new robes which, with some alterations, were approved.
The colours of Royal Arch clothing take their significance from Biblical texts ‑ ” blue, and purple, and scarlet” (Exodus xxv, 4, and xxvi, i) ‑ but there has been some variation since the earliest Royal Arch days. Before the union of the Grand Chapters the Three Principals wore respectively robes of scarlet, mazarine blue (a deep sky‑blue), and light grey, but nowadays the First Principal wears a robe of scarlet, the emblem of imperial dignity, the Second a robe of purple, the emblem of union (purple being a combination of blue and scarlet), and the Third a robe of blue, indicating universal friendship and benevolence. In Ireland the Principals do not wear robes. In Scotland robes are optional and, when worn, agree with those worn in an English chapter, although, to be precise, the First Principal’s “scarlet” is there called “crimson.” In some American chapters the chief officer wears all four colours of the Jewish High Priest ‑ blue, purple, scarlet, and white linen ‑ the King wears scarlet, and the Scribe purple.
Many theories have been advanced to explain the choice of colours, but nothing more definite can be said than that, in general, the colours agree with those given in the Book of Exodus.
The surplices or vestments of white linen worn by the Sojourners date back at least to 1778, when their use was authorized by the first Grand Chapter; the reference in the printed rules of 1782 is “For the sojourners, surplices.” The Scribe’s surplice may go back to about the same period or rather later and be developed from the alb, a longer linen vestment originating in Greek and Latin days and worn by priests of the Christian Church since, say, the third century. It has been said to be emblematical of the renewal of man in justice and in the holiness of truth.
The Headdress
The headdress was once part of the regular clothing of the Grand Principals. The laws of Grand Chapter, 1796, for example, say that the Z. will wear a turban with a triple crown, the H. an ornamental turban or a plain crown, and the J. a purple Hiera cap with a silver plate in front bearing “Holiness to the Lord” in Hebrew characters engraved thereon. This custom survives in many chapters of the United States of America, in which the High Priest wears a mitre and breastplate, the King a crown and carries a sceptre, the Scribe a turban, the Captain of the Host a cap, and the Principal Sojourner, Royal Arch Captain, and the Captains or Grand Masters of the Veils wear hats or caps.
Many ordinary chapters also used headdresses, for we are told that the Chapter of Hope “for some years was not wealthy enough to indulge in such ornate adornment,” and in 1818 was reported to Grand Chapter for not wearing proper regalia. To‑day the headdress is seldom seen in English chapters. True, St Stephen’s Chapter, Retford, Notts, possesses headdresses, but does not seem to have used them since about 1925. However, headdresses are still worn in the Chapter of St James, No. 2, and in the Bristol chapters and include both crowns and mitres or turbans.
The headdress was not originally a mitre, it is thought, although so shown in some old illustrations. Plate XXV shows mitre‑like headdresses worn by the Principals of the Chapter of Melchizedec (1801‑60) (attached to the Lodge of Antiquity, No. 146, Bolton), and doubtless in a number of chapters the headdress came to be regarded as a mitre after the style of the bishop’s headdress, actually his coronet. Curiously, the word Mitre’ appears to have been associated in the first place with the idea of a thread, and to have signified something tied on or bound on, probably derived from the two wide 壮trings’ always attached to the mitre. In the Middle Ages mitres were of costly material and covered with gems and precious metals, though sometimes they were of simple damask silk or white linen. There is good reason for the opinion that the High Priest’s headdress should be, not a mitre, but a turban mounted on an encircling plate of gold on which is inscribed “Holiness to the Lord.”
The Royal Arch Apron
The original Royal Arch apron could have been nothing more than the Craft apron (as it was for 150 years or so in American masonry) with or without the addition of symbolic decoration, many examples of these elaborate old aprons being on view in Masonic museums. This would apply chiefly to Antients’ practice, however, for we have seen that the Moderns’ were prescribing in 1766 an apron closely resembling that of to‑day. Antient’ masons were proud to wear their aprons displaying Royal Arch symbols in any and every Masonic meeting, but the premier Grand Lodge raised objection early in the 1770s to the wearing of the special Royal Arch apron in the Craft lodges, with the result that in 1773 Grand Chapter decided to “disuse” the Royal Arch apron until Grand Lodge should permit Companions to wear it in the Grand Lodge and in private lodges. But Grand Lodge recognition was not forthcoming (and never has been, to the extent of permitting Royal Arch clothing to be worn in a Craft lodge), and the Royal Arch masons were not long in resuming the Royal Arch apron in their own chapters.
A Companion writing to one living in the country in the year 1795 said that, the R.A. Masons in London wore no Aprons when assembled in such a Chapter,” but little credence should be given to this inasmuch as we have many recorded references to Royal Arch aprons about that period, and as an example may quote a minute of the St James’s Chapter of 1798, proposing “that the Indented Apron to be worn by the Companions of the Chapter should be Red Indent on a Royal Blue Ground, and lined with White Silk,” and, apparently, about the end of the century some change in the Royal Arch apron was officially made, J. Harry Rylands, for example, believing that the original crimson gave way to blue about 1798.
Much could be written about the Antients’ curious old aprons showing Royal Arch symbolic devices. Aprons printed from engraved plates, common in the 1800 period, are far from lacking in beauty, and some of them have been coloured after printing. One or two particular aprons will be noted as examples of the highly ornamental style affected in those days.
An apron worn in an Irish lodge, No. 837, held in His Majesty’s 22nd or Sligo Regiment of Militia, has a semicircular bib or flap trimmed with ribbon, the inside ribbon light blue and the outside red, and on the outside is a narrow black fringe. The flap carries a square and compass in light blue, and on the square is a red‑ribbon rosette. The top of the apron is bound with blue ribbon. The centre ornament of the apron is an arch of red ribbon resting on three strips of black, red, and blue ribbon. Within the arch is worked in red silk a key, and below that a serpent on a rod. Above the key is the letter G. Accompanying the apron was a sash of black silk with a narrow border of red and a short fringe of blue, there being a rosette of blue and red on the shoulder; at the breast was a seven‑pointed star in black sequins, and beneath that the emblems of mortality. The owner was a Knight Templar, and the ornamentation of the apron includes the seven stars and other emblems.
A most elaborately silk‑embroidered apron, also Irish, is of linen worked with silks of many colours by a process known as tambouring, the approximate date being 1820. It possibly belonged to a member of the Lodge of Truth, Belfast, founded in 1817. Included in its emblems are: the arch, from whose keystone hangs the letter ‘G‘; a figure within the arch; many emblems of the Craft, the veils, etc., of the Royal Arch, and devices of some additional degrees. Figures of a Master and his Wardens form a triangle, and the central figure has on his right the Tetragrammaton.
Many old and distinctive aprons are shown in a number of the plates accompanying this present volume.
A Companion’s apron in the English Royal Arch to‑day is of white lambskin, from 14 inches to 16 inches wide and from 12 inches to 14 inches deep. Together with its triangular overlap, it has an indented crimson and purple (dark blue) border not more than 2 inches wide except along the top. In the centre of the overlap is a triangle of white silk within a gilt border, and within the triangle the emblem ‑ three taus united in gilt embroidery; two gold or metal gilt tassels are suspended from beneath the overlap by ribbons. In the aprons of Principals, Present and Past, the silk triangle on the overlap and the backing on ribbons are crimson. The aprons of Provincial and District Grand Officers, etc., have the gilt emblems of office or rank in the centre, within a double circle, in which is inserted the name of the Province or District, or, in the case of London Grand Chapter rank, the word ‘London,’ and in the case of overseas Grand Chapter rank the word 前verseas’; backing and ribbons are of dark blue.
The aprons of Grand Officers and Grand Superintendents have a double indented crimson and purple border 4 inches wide, with the emblem of office embroidered in gilt in the centre within two branches of laurel; the backing and ribbons in this case also are dark blue.
The Sash
English Grand Chapter regulations require all Companions to wear a sash over the left shoulder passing obliquely to the right side, but there is ample evidence of the sash having been worn over the right shoulder in some of the early chapters. Worn over the right shoulder, the sash may possibly hark back to the sword‑belt, but worn over the left to the decorative badge of honour such as would be worn by a court official. From this difference in the method of wearing has arisen a keen controversy on the true origin and meaning of the sash.
Those who believe that the sash was originally a sword‑belt and should, therefore, be hung from the right shoulder so that the sword is conveniently grasped by the right hand have in their mind the ancient craftsmen who rebuilt the walls of the Holy City with sword at side and trowel in hand. They feel that the sash so worn implies a sword, and are inclined to associate it with a knightly degree that may have had a French origin.
A famous Masonic portrait, that of Richard Linnecar, Right Worshipful Master of the Lodge of Unanimity, No. 202, Wakefield, and one of His Majesty’s Coroners for the West Riding of the County of Yorkshire, depicts a notable R.A. mason with his sash worn over the right shoulder. This portrait dates back to the 1770 period. Linnecar was a mason of outstanding quality and a most versatile person ‑ linen draper, wine merchant, postmaster, playwright, coroner, and many other things as well.
In a painting about forty years later of another Royal Arch worthy, this one belonging to an old Whitby lodge, the sash again is shown on the right shoulder, but both of these companions were Modern’ masons, and the possibility must therefore be faced that some Antients’ wore the sash in the reverse position. In some Yorkshire chapters towards the end of the eighteenth century the sash was worn on the right shoulder, and in Ireland today the sash is worn under the coat from the right shoulder to the left hip.
There is an equally strong case for wearing the sash over the left shoulder. The Charter of Compact (1766) says, “every Companion shall wear … the indented Ribbon or Sash of this Order,” but does not explain how it should be worn, but the Grand Chapter’s printed laws of 1778 ordered the “Ribbon to be worn over the left shoulder.” Some students have emphasized that a ribbon (in the Gates MS. of about 1790 it becomes a “large” ribbon) was not a sword support, but rather a sash corresponding to the decoration of a court official of the chamberlain type or to the stole of the church priest and deacon which, right back to ancient days, was worn over the left shoulder, and “in its mystical signification, represented the yoke of Christ.” A Royal Arch MS. of about 1795 says that we wear the Ribbon “as Badges of Honour and Ensigns of our Order.” That is greatly at variance with the sword‑belt idea. It is worth bearing in mind, too, that from time immemorial it has been understood that English masons should assemble without carrying any offensive or defensive weapon and that up to 1813 notices for the Grand Festival (of the English Grand Lodge) invariably contained an injunction that the Brethren appear unarmed. J. Heron Lepper has said that the sword and trowel are displayed in chapter as an incentive to diligence, labour, and patriotism in defending our country, but, as Royal Arch masons, we do not carry either of them in celebrating our mysteries.
English Grand Chapter regulations to‑day require all Companions to wear a crimson‑and‑purple indented sash over the left shoulder, passing obliquely to the right side, with silk fringe at the end, the emblem to be embroidered on a white background. In the aprons of Principals Present and Past the fringe is of gold or metal gilt, and the emblem is on a crimson background. Grand Officers and Grand Superintendents and all other Companions of senior rank wear the same apron as the Principals of chapters, save that the emblem is on a dark blue background.
Collars and Chains
Certain officers ‑ Grand Officers, for example ‑ have had the privilege of wearing collars or chains over quite a long period. During the last century the Grand Superintendents wore chains or collars similar to those of officers of Grand Chapter, and to‑day many more officers share the privilege. The Royal Arch jewel may be worn in a Craft lodge, but not a R.A. collar or chain.
Collars, sashes, and aprons belonging to Royal Arch masonry may not be worn on public occasions, and permission is therefore never given. A dispensation to wear ‘Masonic clothing’ on public occasions does not include permission to wear Royal Arch clothing.
Masonic clothing includes jewels, and these are treated separately in the next section.