Royal Arch Masonry

Royal Arch 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 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.
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.
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, 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	Past Master	Most Excellent Master	Royal Arch Mason
Master	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 are members of an umbrella group called the General Grand Chapter, founded October 24, 1797. 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.

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.
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 and appears in Jeremy Cross' monitor in 1826.

''Most Excellent Master''

The Most Excellent master's degree is considered American in origin, although it has been postulated by Ray Denslow and Turnbull that it was merely a rearrangement of preexisting material. 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.
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.
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.

''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. 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. 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".
In 1749, the Grand Lodge of Ireland issued warrants to Lodges 190 and 198 to establish “Royal Arch Lodges”.
From Ireland, the Royal Arch spread to England, where it fueled the rivalry between the two Craft grand lodges in existence at that time. In 1717 the original Premier Grand Lodge of England had been formed in London to govern Craft Freemasonry in England. From 1751, its claim to represent the whole of English Craft Freemasonry was contested by the Antient Grand Lodge of England. In the ensuing debate, the newer grand lodge became known as the "Antients", while the older was referred to as the "Moderns". In 1746, Laurence Dermott, later the Grand Secretary of the "Antients", had been accepted into a Royal Arch Chapter in Dublin, which at that time was open only to those who had previously served as master of a Craft lodge. He regarded the Royal Arch as the fourth degree of Craft Masonry. Under his influence, the "Antients" championed the Royal Arch degree in England, while it was met with hostility in the "Moderns". At the beginning of the 19th century, when the "Antients" and the "Moderns" moved from rivalry towards union, the role and purpose of the Royal Arch became a sticking point. The "Antients" viewed the Royal Arch as a fourth degree of Craft Freemasonry and worked it as part of the Craft ceremonies, while the "Moderns" held that Craft Freemasonry consisted of three degrees only and that the Royal Arch was at the most an extension of the third degree which was to be administered separately. When the "Antients" and "Moderns" merged in 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England, this was possible only after reaching a compromise on the role and purpose of Royal Arch Masonry. After the union, the "Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch" would be fully recognized by the United Grand Lodge, but become a separate order with all Craft Lodges permitted to work the ceremony. In its Book of Constitutions, the United Grand Lodge of England declared that "...pure Antient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz. those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch." In 1823, the United Grand Lodge of England allowed Master Masons to join Holy Royal Arch Chapters without having previously passed through the chair of a Craft lodge. In Freemasonry in Scotland, a candidate for the Royal Arch must also be a Mark Master Mason, a degree which can be conferred within a Royal Arch Chapter if required.