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Article DE RE NON-MASONICA.* ← Page 3 of 3 Article ON THE PRESENT STATE OF ROYAL ARCH MASONRY. Page 1 of 3 →
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De Re Non-Masonica.*
on the fair consideration of thc Craft , in a matter which a less powerful mind , a less conscientious feeling , would have preferred to hide . And after ali , the mysterious three may have paid him a higher compliment hy exclusion than they could have done by election ; for it is questionable whether their approbation mig ht not be deemed virtual disparagement .- —Constitutional , Jan . 2 .
On The Present State Of Royal Arch Masonry.
ON THE PRESENT STATE OF ROYAL ARCH MASONRY .
TO THE EDITOR .
W . MASTER AND E . COMPANION . —In all human affairs , moral and intellectual , a state of transition has ever been one requiring the utmost resources of the wisest of mankind for its management and direction . The history of our religious and political reformations , and of the transition from the scholastic sophistry of the middle ages to the inductive philosophy which ultimately superseded it , are instances of my
proposition . At the present time , we , as Royal Arch Masons , may be said to be m a similar state ; and 1 am induced to submit to my Companions , through the medium of your pages , such observations and suggestions as appear to me to be applicable to our present circumstances ; and to lay before them such a review of our old laws , and recent alterations , as may at least , I trust , enable them to judge of the position in which they actually at this time
are . By the Laws and Regulations of Royal Arch Masons , as revised and amended in Supreme Grand Chapter , 5 th February , 1823 , no particular office in Lodge was required as a qualification for a Companion to hold any office in the Chapter . It was only necessary before he 'Could be exalted , that he should have been a Master Mason for a year , and that then he should in a particular manner obtain , what , until the recent alterationwas his passport to the Royal Arch .
, Having thus obtained the degree and been exalted a Companion of the Royal Arch , emphatically and truly denominated " the Essence of Masonry , " the laws of 1823 placed no other obstacle of the Craft in his way to the hig hest honor of the Chapter . For it is only stipulated by them under head , Private Chapters , page 22 , " that all officers shall be elected annually ; such as are properly acquainted with our Statutes and Constitutions , and who are likely to do honor to our Society , being
most eligible . Three years afterwards , viz ., on the 2 nd March , 1826 , it was resolved in the Supreme Grand Chapter , "that no Companion should be elected to the principal chairs unless he be the actual Master of a Lodge , or a Past Master in a Craft Lodge . " That this restriction of the Laws of 1823 had not been uniformly attended to so recently as 1834 { the actual qualification for exaltation being unaltered , ) appears from a resolution in Supreme Grand Chapter , the resolution of
on May 7 th of that year , referring to and repeating 1826 . —See Quarterly Review , No . 2 , p . 163 . Such , then , appear to have been the regulations up to the period of the promulgation of the Revised Ceremonies in 1835 . For effecting
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
De Re Non-Masonica.*
on the fair consideration of thc Craft , in a matter which a less powerful mind , a less conscientious feeling , would have preferred to hide . And after ali , the mysterious three may have paid him a higher compliment hy exclusion than they could have done by election ; for it is questionable whether their approbation mig ht not be deemed virtual disparagement .- —Constitutional , Jan . 2 .
On The Present State Of Royal Arch Masonry.
ON THE PRESENT STATE OF ROYAL ARCH MASONRY .
TO THE EDITOR .
W . MASTER AND E . COMPANION . —In all human affairs , moral and intellectual , a state of transition has ever been one requiring the utmost resources of the wisest of mankind for its management and direction . The history of our religious and political reformations , and of the transition from the scholastic sophistry of the middle ages to the inductive philosophy which ultimately superseded it , are instances of my
proposition . At the present time , we , as Royal Arch Masons , may be said to be m a similar state ; and 1 am induced to submit to my Companions , through the medium of your pages , such observations and suggestions as appear to me to be applicable to our present circumstances ; and to lay before them such a review of our old laws , and recent alterations , as may at least , I trust , enable them to judge of the position in which they actually at this time
are . By the Laws and Regulations of Royal Arch Masons , as revised and amended in Supreme Grand Chapter , 5 th February , 1823 , no particular office in Lodge was required as a qualification for a Companion to hold any office in the Chapter . It was only necessary before he 'Could be exalted , that he should have been a Master Mason for a year , and that then he should in a particular manner obtain , what , until the recent alterationwas his passport to the Royal Arch .
, Having thus obtained the degree and been exalted a Companion of the Royal Arch , emphatically and truly denominated " the Essence of Masonry , " the laws of 1823 placed no other obstacle of the Craft in his way to the hig hest honor of the Chapter . For it is only stipulated by them under head , Private Chapters , page 22 , " that all officers shall be elected annually ; such as are properly acquainted with our Statutes and Constitutions , and who are likely to do honor to our Society , being
most eligible . Three years afterwards , viz ., on the 2 nd March , 1826 , it was resolved in the Supreme Grand Chapter , "that no Companion should be elected to the principal chairs unless he be the actual Master of a Lodge , or a Past Master in a Craft Lodge . " That this restriction of the Laws of 1823 had not been uniformly attended to so recently as 1834 { the actual qualification for exaltation being unaltered , ) appears from a resolution in Supreme Grand Chapter , the resolution of
on May 7 th of that year , referring to and repeating 1826 . —See Quarterly Review , No . 2 , p . 163 . Such , then , appear to have been the regulations up to the period of the promulgation of the Revised Ceremonies in 1835 . For effecting