The "High" Mason and
the "Higher" Degrees
by
By Bro. Melvin M. Johnson,
Past Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts
This article appear in
The Master Mason - June 1924
Last Modified:
March 22, 2014
How often we hear some 32d Mason spoken of as a "high"
Mason. How frequently officers of Masonic bodies other than
Symbolic Freemasonry are spoken of in terms exalting them above
even Grand Masters of Grand Lodges. In laudatory introduction
how constantly the Sovereign Grand Commander of a Supreme
Council, or the Grand Master of the Grand Encampment, or the
General Grand Council, or the General Grand High Priest is said to
occupy the "highest office in the gift of Freemasonry.
Not a bit of this is true. All such statements are due to ignorance,
misconception or arrogance. All of them do grievous harm to the
cause of Freemasonry both without and within the Craft. Let us
consider the true facts.
Prior to 1717, assertions to the contrary notwithstanding, there
were no officers in Freemasonry of any rank or station whatsoever,
outside of the particular lodges. In 1717, for the first time, there
was organized a Grand Lodge and elected a Grand Master.
Anthony Sayer was then, in London, chosen the first Grand Master
of Masons the world has ever known. When the office was created,
its occupant was given prerogatives. That is to say, he was
regarded in Freemasonry as a king or emperor was regarded in
civil political life. He was the seat of authority. In him resided all
the powers which were not by the nature of the organization vested
in the Grand Lodge or the particular lodges. The limitations upon
his authority were those imposed by the Constitutions and the
ancient usages and customs of the Craft.
But the world was changing and with it changed the ideas of the
Fraternity. More and more his prerogatives have been curtailed in
many jurisdictions by peaceful yet revolutionary legislation. None
of them has been wrested from the Grand Masters by duress, as the
Barons curtailed the power of King John when they made him sign
the Magna Charta. They have been absorbed from time to time by
the Grand Lodges, just as by the development of civil government
in England, Parliament and the people have sometimes by retail,
sometimes by wholesale, limited the power of the King and taken
over his authority. In most jurisdictions the Grand Master retains
most of the pristine prerogatives of the office. In a few he has
become a purely constitutional officer with no prerogatives
whatever. This latter condition is the very infrequent exception and
by no means the rule.
No other grand officer in Freemasonry today has any prerogatives.
Each one of them is strictly a constitutional officer deriving his
sole power and authority, his rank and title, from the constitutional
and statutory legislation of the body which has chosen him as its
presiding officer. No other than a Grand Master has the attributes
of kingship. None other is the successor of a king or a predecessor
having kingly status save one, which by tradition, though probably
not in fact, descends from civil or Masonic royalty. And in that one
instance the Emperor, once the source and seat of authority,
abrogated and divested himself and any single successor of all
prerogatives by granting a constitution vesting all authority in a
Council, the members of which thereafter have shared in common
all the power which, tradition asserts, once resided in the Emperor.
In all Freemasonry, nowadays, the only officer at the head of any
grand body who can in fact or by tradition lay Claim to any
authority, except that granted to him by the enacted laws of that
grand body, is the Grand Master of Masons.
There is no General Grand Lodge, no General Grand Master. Each
Grand Master is the highest Masonic officer in his Jurisdiction. He
has no superior. In the states and countries of the world where
legitimate Grand Lodges exist, there is not a Freemason of any
degree, rank or station who is not subject to some Grand Lodge
and living under the reign of some Grand Master, save only the
Grand Masters themselves.
The Grand Lodges are in supreme, absolute, independent,
unlimited and sovereign control of what is known as Symbolic
Freemasonry, now divided into the degrees of Entered Apprentice,
Fellow Craft and Master Mason. One, the Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania exercises a quasi-control over the ritualistic degree of
Past Master. (All of course, control the qualification of an actual
Master.) The only limit upon the utter supremacy of the Grand
Lodges is that they shall not depart front the Landmarks. This
limitation is due only to the fact that if they depart from the
Landmarks they cease to be Masonic. To illustrate, if a railroad
corporation should dispose of all its rails, its rights of way, and its
rolling stock, and should manufacture shoes, it would cease to be a
railroad, whatever it might call itself.
There is a surprising amount of ignorance as to other degrees
known as Masonic. Let us, therefore, review the other bodies
generally admitted in the United States to be Masonic. One
American Grand Lodge clearly defines this in its Constitution as
follows:
Whereas, this Grand Lodge recognizes no degrees of Masonry
except those conferred under the regulations of the GRAND
LODGES of the various States and Territories of the United States
and the Governments throughout the world; and, whereas, it admits
the following-named organizations to be regular and duly
constituted Masonic Bodies, namely:
The General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States; The
Grand Royal Arch Chapters of the several States and Territories of
the United States, and the Royal Arch Chapters and other Bodies
under their jurisdiction; The General Grand Council of Royal and
Select Masters of the United States; The Grand Councils of Royal
and Select Masters of the several States and Territories of the
United States, and the Councils under their jurisdiction; The Grand
Encampment of the United States; The Grand Commanderies of
the several States and Territories of the United States, and the
Commanderies under their jurisdiction; The Supreme Councils of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Northern and
Southern jurisdiction of the United States, and the various Bodies
under their Jurisdiction;
Therefore, any Mason admitted into any other Orders, as Masonic,
is acting un-masonically, and for such conduct shall be liable to be
expelled from all the rights and privileges of Masonry, and shall be
ineligible to membership or office in any Lodge or in this Grand
Lodge.
The Chapters, Councils and Commanderies confer the degrees
commonly grouped under the name of "York Rite." This is a
misnomer. The "York Rite" has no connection with York. It is
sometimes, and more properly, called the "American Rite."
No one may take any of these degrees unless he be first a regular
Master Mason in good standing.
A Master Mason may apply to a Royal Arch Chapter and, if
elected, receive four degrees known as the capitulary degrees, the
principal of which is Royal Arch Mason. The capitulary degrees in
America grew from a first appearance shortly after 1750, when
lodge charters were borrowed as authority. In a few decades these
degrees came to be worked in Chapters and a grand body, now the
General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, was
organized in 1797.
A Royal Arch Mason may apply to a Council for the cryptic
degrees, Royal, Select and Super-Excellent Master. These made
their appearance in America about 1783, but it was nearly a
century before their crystalization as now known, under the
jurisdiction of Grand Councils, seventeen of which organized a
General Grand Council in 1880.
One who has the cryptic degrees (and, indeed in many
jurisdictions, one who has only the capitulary degrees) may apply
for the three Commandery degrees, the principal of which is that of
Knight Templar. Like the Royal Arch, this degree first appeared in
America under the sanction of lodge charters, toward the end of the
eighteenth century. The first Grand Commandery was organized
probably in 1797, and the Grand Encampment of the United States
in 1816.
Turning to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, we find
another misnomer, for it did not come from Scotland. About 1762
Morin brought to America something which has since developed
into what we now know as the Scottish Rite. This had years of
catalepsy but came to life and strength and now consists of what
are known as the 4th to 33rd degrees, inclusive. They are under the
entire control of two hierarchies known as the Southern and
Northern Supreme Councils, 33d, of the United States.
A Master Mason may apply to the Scottish Rite for its degrees up
to the 32nd, through successive stages. No applications are
received for the 33rd degree. Thirty-second degree brethren who
are chosen by the active members of the Supreme Council, the
hierarchy, are granted the 33rd degree, as an honorarium. From
those who are honorary members of the 33rd degree vacancies in
the active membership are filled by the surviving actives.
Such being the "set up" of the modern system of Masonic degrees,
it will be seen that Symbolic (Blue Lodge) Masonry existed long
before Chapters, Councils, Commanderies, Consistories or
Supreme Councils were dreamed of. While the degrees conferred
in these bodies are colloquially known as "higher" degrees, in
reality they are nothing of the kind. They might more properly be
called collateral or appendant. One of the greatest of Masonic
jurists was R. W. Brother Albert G. Mackey, M. D., Grand
Secretary and Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of South
Carolina; Secretary General of the Supreme Council, 33d,
Southern jurisdiction; author of many Masonic works on history
and jurisprudence. He called all other than Entered Apprentice,
Fellow Craft and Master Mason "subsidiary." He said:
We repeat, that the Scotch Rite is not antagonistic to the York Rite,
but is subsidiary to it. And we are not willing to rest the truth or
value of this assertion in our own unsupported authority. Dr.
Frederick Dalcho, one of the leading members of the Scotch Rite
in this country, in an address delivered as far back as the year
1803, before the Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection, at
Charleston, thus defined the relations between the two Rites:
"The Sublime Masons view the Symbolic system with reverence,
as forming a test of the character and capacity of the initiated."
"Other degrees, indeed, there are above and beyond these. They
are, however, but illustrative and explanatory, and, by Masonic
students, may be, and often are, very advantageously cultivated,
for the purposes of laudable curiosity and intellectual
improvement."
There were Masters and Grand Masters years before any one had
invented or fabricated the ornamental, instructive and honorary
degrees conferred by bodies presided over in these later years by
High Priests, Eminent and Puissant Commanders, etc. No one can
take any other Masonic degrees unless he has first received those
of the symbolic or so-called "Blue" Lodge. The Degrees of Entered
Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason are fundamental. And
the organized governing body of the Blue Lodge can deal
Masonically with all Masons within its territorial jurisdiction.
While the Grand Lodge cannot govern the other bodies, it is
nevertheless the supreme authority of each jurisdiction. It is the
Grand Lodges who have determined that other bodies are or are
not Masonic. Grand Lodge recognition has been in the past, as it
must be in the future, the final test. No other Masonic body could
live if there were not Third Degree Masons from whom to receive
applications.
On the other hand, the Grand Lodge alone may expel from
Masonry. The phrase, "expelled from Masonry," means just what it
says. It is not expulsion from the First or Second, Third or Thirty-
third Degree. Expulsion from Masonry is Masonic death.
M. W. Josiah H. Drummond (Grand Master of Maine, 1860-62)
when he was M. P. Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme
Council, 33d, Northern Masonic jurisdiction, reported in an annual
address to that body a decision that:
All expulsion or suspension from all Masonic rights, for any cause
whatever, by the lodge, in accordance with the laws of the Grand
Lodge of the jurisdiction, deprives the one expelled or suspended
of all rights in all Bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, until
he shall be legally restored.
He explained:
Our degrees (those of the Scottish Rite) are founded on those of the
Blue Lodge. We have no jurisdiction over those. When the
foundation is destroyed, the structure falls with it.
That body in any jurisdiction which can give or take away Masonic
life is the supreme body of that jurisdiction. Its Grand Master is the
highest Masonic officer in that jurisdiction.
M.W. Sereno D. Nickerson, a lifelong student and exponent of
Masonry and holder of all its degrees, said in 1901, speaking in
Grand Lodge:
Until within the last one hundred years there was not anything but
the Three Degrees. The lodges conferring those degrees form the
great body of the Fraternity. They have a right to say what shall be
put upon the top of that organization; they have a right, and they
are the only authorities which have a right, to say what is Masonry
and what is not, because they are the basis, the foundation, of the
whole Fraternity. Because a few brethren in France one hundred
years ago established other organizations, that is no reason why we
should submit to be reckoned as an inferior organization - it is no
reason why we should call those higher and better and nobler
bodies. Ours is the organization, and the lodges of the state should
adhere to their power and their control over all fundamental
matters that concern the Fraternity.
I recollect distinctly at one of our Feasts of St. John, only a few
years ago, Brother Gardner, whom you will remember as one of
our best Grand Masters, and after his Grand Mastership a judge of
our Supreme Court - a brother who had received all the degrees
and all the honors of Masonry - I heard him say, at the Feast of St.
John, "All other organizations are but excrescences on the body of
Masonry. The Grand Lodge, composed of the Masters and
Wardens of the lodges, is the representative of the whole
Fraternity, and those who are connected with that organization
should maintain the strength and the power which fairly belong to
them."
The word "excrescences" was doubtless intended without sinister
meaning.
The San Francisco "Mercury" said in 1865:
It is on the superstructure of the lower degrees that the whole
fabric of Freemasonry rests. There is a right vested in the Entered
Apprentice that no legislation can deprive him of. All Masonic
authority is derived from Blue Masonry, as on this branch the
higher grades must depend for the material of which their bodies
are composed. It is a contradiction in terms to call the Chapter,
etc., the highest branches of the Order. It is not the fact - these are
merely appendant to the first, or central point, the Blue, and they
must move in harmony with the central power, or their course will
be arrested, and they must come to a sudden stop.
The Chapters and other branches of the Institution are indebted to
the Blue branch for life, for vitality, for food and nourishment,
otherwise they could not exist. This position cannot be denied, but
must be admitted by all. So true is this that the highest branches of
Freemasonry, so called, have only an existence by permission of
the Blue. If at any time it was deemed beneficial or necessary to
the harmony or existence of Freemasonry, to abolish the Chapter
and other degrees, the authority to do so certainly rests in the
Grand Lodge, which represents Blue Masonry. The authority to
confer the Arch and other degrees came first from the lodges,
subsequently the authority was transferred to, or delegated to the
Grand Lodge.
The power which creates can destroy - this is a fixed axiom - and
as the Chapters and other degrees were created by those who were
in the possession of the Blue degrees, so they can either by
legislation or non-affiliation, put a period in the existence of these
appendant degrees. Each Grand Lodge, if the members wish it, can
absolve the connection within its jurisdiction, or it may be done by
the common consent of all the Grand Lodges, and thus at one and
the same time abolish those degrees throughout the world.
It is not, of course, desired that such should be the case. Nobody
wants to see the destruction of so good a thing; but the above is
only written to show that the governing power in Freemasonry is in
the Grand Lodges or Blue Lodges, and not in Chapters or
Encampments.
When the great struggle came between the
legitimate Supreme
Councils and Cerneauism, it was settled by the Grand Lodges of
this Country. Those brethren who were active in the Northern and
Southern Supreme Councils sought the support of the Grand
Lodges. And it was the recognition accorded by Grand Lodges
which determined the question. It was then well and truly said that:
The Freemason in Masonic matters has pledged his allegiance to
the Craft which made him a Mason, and must take his guidance
from its Grand Lodge in Masonic matters.
In 1882 an unusually able committee on which were Charles Levi
Woodbury (Corresponding Grand Secretary, 1862-68, Deputy
Grand Master, 1869-1871, Active 33d, serving continuously as
Chairman of the Committee on Jurisprudence of the Supreme
Council from 1868, and as its Puissant Lieutenant Grand
Commander from 1879 until his death in 1898) and William
Sewall Gardner (Grand Master 1869-1871, Most Eminent Grand
Master of the Grand Encampment of the United States, Knights
Templar, 1868-1871, first Commander-in-Chief of Massachusetts
Consistory, Active 33d, Justice Massachusetts Superior Court
1875-1885 and Supreme Judicial Court 1885 until his death in
1888), in an exhaustive report, which was adopted by the Grand
Lodge of Massachusetts, said in part:
What are Masonic institutions other than the Grand Lodges? They
are understood to be regular and duly constituted organizations for
the practice of Masonic mysteries, built upon the basis of the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masonry, admitting none to initiation
who are not already initiated into Masonry under the auspices of a
regular Grand Lodge, who are eligible to membership only whilst
they retain their Masonic character in such Grand Lodges, and who
forfeit it when expelled from such Grand Lodges. The Grand
Lodge does not charter them, regulate their ritual, or prescribe their
legislation. So far as they are a Chapter, an Encampment, or a
Council, they are independent Bodies. Because they are
independent the Grand Lodge must consider whether the allegiance
they ask from the Fraternity will be injurious to that due to itself as
the sovereign representative of the Fraternity.
The Grand Lodge acts upon such independent bodies as one nation
acts on another, by treaties of fraternity and peace, or by declaring
non-intercourse, or by absolute embargo; but on the members of
these bodies within its jurisdiction it acts directly with all the
power of the whole of Free and Accepted Masonry of the
jurisdiction.
It is only by the tacit or direct consent of the Grand Lodge that
such independent bodies are permitted to seek for initiates or to
make proselytes among the lodges of its jurisdiction, or that any
Mason in its allegiance is permitted to enter or remain in the ranks
of such a Body. When that is cut off such a body must die.
It is an old and sound doctrine that there is no Mason within the
boundary of the State who is not within the jurisdiction of the
Grand Lodge, and amenable to it for his conduct.
The Committee on Jurisprudence of the Grand Lodge of New
Hampshire should also be quoted:
The Grand Lodge was created as the sole governing body and
power of the Craft in all things Masonic. It was deemed to have
absolute control over the Fraternity. The Landmarks were a
guaranty that it would not trample upon their rights. They were to
be observed as the Magna Charta, but all other powers and
prerogatives were ceded to and vested in the Grand Lodge. No
limit was set upon its authority. No line of separation was drawn
between Craft Masons as such, and as adherents to the higher
degrees then rapidly increasing but by universal consent, in
obedience to the imperative demand, full power and authority was
lodged in the governing body.
We hope that the power of the Grand Lodge is full and complete in
all things Masonic. Those who differ from this proposition do not
deny its authority so far as appertains to the first three degrees, but
they claim it extends no further, or in other words that the Grand
Lodge cannot inquire into what is done beyond the Blue Lodge.
This is a doctrine which answers itself. Can it be claimed that the
ceremonies of symbolic Masonry can be used anywhere, except by
the authority of the Grand Lodge? Would any Mason for an instant
say that he could exhibit the signs of Craft Masonry in a lodge of
Odd Fellows or other confraternity, and if he should do so, be
would not be answerable to the Grand Lodge? And what is the
difference so far as violation of the regulations is concerned
between exhibiting them in an Odd Fellows lodge, and some
degree of a so-called Scotch Rite not sanctioned by the Grand
Lodge? Can any body of men owing allegiance to the Grand Lodge
practice any part of the ceremonies of the Blue Lodge degrees
anywhere or under any circumstances except by the permission of
the Grand Lodge? Is it not clear that everything symbolic is within
the control of this Grand Body? Are there any within the lines of
the Fraternity who construe their obligations in a way to permit
them to exhibit the Master's sign, for instance, anywhere or under
any circumstances, except those occasions well understood by the
Craft? If so, the sooner such are separated from us the better for the
Institution. No system or rite is Masonic unless founded upon
symbolic degrees. All claim to be built upon the Blue Lodge as a
basis and such has always been the understanding. In all the
degrees, and arrangements into what are termed rites, the symbolic
degrees have been the cornerstone. It follows that no rite Masonic
can be practised without the sanction either express or implied of
the Grand Lodge. And we hold it to be sound law that the authority
of the Grand Lodge is complete over the members of its obedience
in the use, practice, or teaching of any rite or degree, containing
any part, sign, work or symbol of any kind as a Masonic ceremony
belonging to Craft Masonry.
The Committee presented the following resolutions, which were
unanimously adopted:
Resolved, That this Grand Lodge declares its understanding of the
law in relation to its powers and authority over the Craft within its
jurisdiction to be:
First: That it is the supreme authority in Masonry.
Second: That it has the power to determine what Masonry is.
Third: That it has the power to decide what Masonic bodies are
regular, wherein symbolic Masonry is used, shown, or made a part
of the ceremonies.
Fourth: That it has the power and authority to prohibit the Masons
of its obedience from practising as Masonic any other rites than
those which it declares to be Masonic; and from using any of its
esoteric ceremonies as Masonic ceremonies in any other body than
those it shall hold to be Masonic.
A writer in "The American Tyler," in 1902, gives his views as
follows:
The highest position which can be reached in Ancient Craft or
original Masonry is that of Grand Master of a Grand Lodge, and
such a one need only have three degrees to be unmentionably
higher in rank than is the Sovereign Grand Commander of the
Supreme Council itself, should he not have attained to a Grand
Mastership.
"I look upon this Grand Lodge," said an eminent lawyer, Grand
Master, and holder of all Masonic degrees, "as the head of
Masonry in this Commonwealth, and the Grand Master as the head
of the Grand Lodge."
When, therefore, the Grand Master is officially present at any
Masonic function whatever within the limits controlled by his
Grand Lodge, he is the ranking Masonic officer present and must
be received and accommodated accordingly. He is the "highest"
officer there is in Freemasonry.
There is, of course, a clear distinction between his official and
personal attendance. The Grand Master of a State cannot attend a
lodge within his State while it is open on the First, Second or Third
Degree, without being Grand Master, but it is possible that he
could not attend a Chapter, for instance, at all. Within the
Symbolic Lodge he is never shorn of his prerogatives, but he might
not be able to pass the Sentinel of a Commandery, and, if he did,
he could not take the chair at will. If he is entitled to enter these
other bodies, it is by virtue of the practices of those bodies. But it
is otherwise when the Grand Master as such is invited to attend.
Then it is not the humble brother who enters, but it is the head of
the supreme Masonic body of the jurisdiction who enters in his
official capacity and garb. Then no other Mason outranks him. He
takes precedence over all. No matter who else is there received, the
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge must be received last.
Individually, personality has then no consideration. The Grand
Master, as such, within his territorial jurisdiction and in a Masonic
body rises for no man, salutes no man except at his own will and
pleasure. When others rise to him, he may rise in courteous
acknowledgement. When others salute him, he may return the
salute.
Wherever the Grand Master may be within his territorial
jurisdiction, whether in Blue Lodge, Council, Consistory or
elsewhere, he is never divested of that distinguishing characteristic
of highest rank which permits him, for such cause as to him alone
seems sufficient, to "suspend a brother, or a lodge."
This high prerogative to suspend a brother from the rights and
privileges of Masonry, thereby unseating him from all bodies of all
rites, resides in no other Masonic authority whatever except the
Grand Lodge itself. This prerogative may be exercised within or
without a tyled door wherever and whenever the Grand Master
comes to knowledge of sufficiently grave "dereliction of duty, or
other un-Masonic conduct."
On the other hand, great as is the authority of the Most Eminent
Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of
the United States, and exalted as is his station, he could not enter
the youngest lodge covered with his official chapeau.
There is much misconception about this, not only in the minds of
the profane, but of some brethren.
Because the degrees of the Scottish Rite have numbers which are
arithmetically higher than the degree of Master Mason, many deem
them to be higher in authority and power. True, the rungs of a
ladder are higher in altitude as one climbs upward, but the higher
he climbs the less is his security of station. The topmost rung may
give one a greater vision, but he cannot stand there at all unless the
ladder itself rests upon solid ground. Even that against which the
top of the ladder rests must itself acquire the strength to support the
weight of the ladder and its climber front its first attachment to the
solid earth. The workmen who gild the dome of the State House
and the foreman supervising their work are not higher in station in
life than the governor whose office is upon the lower floor; merely
higher in altitude. One who climbs the ladder of degrees of the
Scottish or York Rites must get a greater vision if he has eyes
which can see, yet he has in no wise attained a more exalted station
in the Fraternity.
Masonic bodies other than those of Symbolic Masonry and their
future prosperity are seriously threatened by those who make from
within an occasional mistaken assertion of superiority. It hurts the
cause when responsible officers of bodies proclaim to great
audiences that some General Grand High Priest or Commander is
occupying the highest Masonic office in the world.
Comparisons are always odious, the more so when they are not
true.
I entertain the deepest feelings of respect and affection for those
who now occupy those great offices. Their predecessors, too, have
usually been and are well worthy of the highest Masonic office iii
the world, and most of them have held it, but for an officer in the
Scottish Rite, for instance, to declare that any office therein is
greater than to be Grand Master of a Grand Lodge is not only to
voice that which is untrue, but is an affront to every Grand Lodge
in the world. To hear such a declaration openly made and to
remain silent justifies the accusation sometimes made, that the
Supreme Councils and the General Grand Bodies are arrogating to
themselves a superiority which they do not possess, a dignity
which has never been conferred upon them, a power which they
should not claim, an authority which never has and never can
reside within them. It behooves us of these misnamed "higher"
degrees to humble ourselves lest such degrees are justly attacked
and, perchance, brought to destruction. We are not now haughty
and arrogant, but will become so if we permit ourselves to feed
upon such pabulum.
If these views are wrong, they are at least in good company, for
they are in perfect accord with the views expressed by Mackey and
Drummond and Pike and others of our great leaders. Evidently
they are entertained in the birthplace of speculative Freemasonry,
where the Prince of Wales or some other prince of the blood royal
has for many, many years served as Grand Master though never at
the head of other branches of the Craft. I think I appreciate to the
full the great honor of holding all the degrees of legitimate
Freemasonry, but if I am supposed to regard any of them as higher
than my standing in the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, then I
misconceive Freemasonry and should prefer to be classed as
hostile to them instead of a most ardent and loyal supporter. It is,
indeed, my great love for them, my high regard for those who
dominate them, my belief in their opportunities, my appreciation of
their accomplishment, and my consequent desire that they be not
misunderstood which prompts the earnestness with which these
views are expressed.
To see how so great a Mason as Pike realized the dangers of such
self-glorification of the holders of degrees conferred outside of the
"Blue" Lodge, it is only necessary to read his prophecy in Volume
III of the Bulletin of the Southern Supreme Council, 33d, No. 3
(Misprinted No. 2), page 646, written in March, 1878, after he had
served for a long time as Most Puissant Sovereign Grand
Commander of that great Council.
It may be too late to change a common terminology. But, however,
we may refer to this ancillary or appendant degrees, let us not
make the mistake of pretending that a 33d Mason is "higher" than a
Master Mason, much less the Master of a lodge. Let us by our
conduct and our speech always acknowledge the Grand Master of
Masons in his own Jurisdiction to be the highest officer the
Masonic world has ever known or ever can know.
From this there flow certain rules concerning visitation by a Grand
Master, which it may be worth while to state, viz:
1. Within a particular lodge of his own jurisdiction, the Grand
Master is always such and cannot divest himself of his rank and
station. He should always be received accordingly.
2. In any other body, admitted by his Grand Lodge to be Masonic,
the person who happens to be Grand Master for the time being,
may attend in his personal capacity according to his rank which he
may hold therein and (with immaterial exceptions) without other
privileges or duties.
3. In any body not of Symbolic Freemasonry but admitted by his
Grand Lodge to be Masonic and meeting within his Jurisdiction,
the Grand Master may, if thereunto invited, attend in his official
capacity and regalia of office, in which case he takes precedence
over all present, though without thereby acquiring authority, to
exercise any official function pertaining to that body.
4. Outside of the territorial jurisdiction of his Grand Lodge while
in Masonic bodies not chartered by it, a Grand Master receives
only such recognition as may be accorded him through fraternal
comity.
5. In practice, comity requires Grand Lodges and their particular
Lodges to accord to a visiting foreign Grand Master the honors of
his station. If more than one foreign Grand Master be present, it
has been the invariable practice to receive them in order
appertaining to the seniority of their respective jurisdictions, the
senior being received last.
6. An officer of an admittedly Masonic body not of Symbolic
Freemasonry is entitled to receive within Symbolic Lodges and
Grand Lodges only such fraternal courtesies as they may see fit to
accord him as a distinguished visitor or guest.
Having attempted to demonstrate that there are no degrees beyond
Master Mason which are higher than that degree in rank or in
authority, it ought to be noted in conclusion that there is one sense
in which the other degrees of the York and Scottish Rites may
properly be called higher. When a pupil goes through the grades of
school and college, one after another, passing out of one which
taught things which he has sufficiently mastered, it may be said of
him that he is going into higher grades. There is an analogy in
Freemasonry. He who does not regard the degrees beyond Master
Mason as merely a qualification for the Shrine, who does not look
upon the degrees as merely spectacular or a means of spending a
pleasant evening, who really absorbs their principles and is a
student of what they have to teach, will really find higher degrees .
He will benefit thereby and gain a breadth of vision and an insight
into the deeper things of life which he probably could not get from
the Symbolic Degrees alone. If in this respect the degrees beyond
Master Mason are regarded as higher, the use of that word is
justified. It is not in this restricted sense, however, that the words
"High Mason" and "Higher Mason" are commonly used or
understood.
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