Form Of Certificate.

K . of Malta ( after six months ) , Rosas Crucis , Knight Templar Priest . The latter they considered the ne plus ultra of Templary Avith the privilege of occupying the chair , in preference to any other Knight in the absence of the E . G . The Kt . of Malta and Kt . Rosee Crucis they considered chivalric ceremonies , more modern than the K . T . and the K . T . Priest , and did not enforce them for

the latter . The K . T . and K . T . Pt . they professed to trace to Druidical times , evidently the doctrine of the York Rite of H . R . D . M . —K . D . O . S . H ., or Heredom Templars , as they Avere styled , corresponding Avith the rite and doctrine of the Royal Order of Scotland H . R . M . and R . S . Y . C . S . Others state that the intervals between the degrees Avere intended to represent periods in the

history of the Order of St . John , —Adz ., from Jesusalem and Palestine to Rhodes and Malta , this Avas the doctrine of the Band Encampments , & c ., —Avho dated the era of the Priestly Order from 1686—common to England , Ireland , and Scotland , some of Avhom gave all the titles at once and others at intervals . The Knights of the Sepulchre , remembered in our present ritual , viz ., that of

1850 , were united with the Order of St . J ohn , and not Avith the Templars—a fact to be borne in mind by the next revisers . Much of the present confusion arises apparently from the admission of Camps Avorking the separate theories mentioned , first in 17 91 , and again in 1850 . Facts and documentary evidence showing the date , origin , and cause , of these two separate workings—we may say orders—would be very valuable . In this Encampment candidates

Avere not balloted for , but proposed on honour , and admitted if no objectors Avere found ; and in some Encampments of this Rite , the knight Avas received and raised "free of Heredom Kadosh . " It may be mentioned here that at Eastwood and at Bottoms , both places near Todmorden , in Yorkshire , there are York Encampments , and they too have conferred the Priestly Order , Rose Croix , and

other degrees , from time immemorial ; but it is said they style the Rosas Crusis , the ne plus ultra . It is fair to state , that OAving to the documents of the Grand Lodge at York having been conveyed to the Duke of Sussex by Bro . Godfrey Higgins , there are but a feAV stray papers left at York , and in these there is no mention of the Malta and Rosse Crusis ordersbut this Aveighs little against

, the universal testimony of their conferring the latter Order , coupled Avith the fact of its possession by all Encampments of their constitution . It is the fact of the Rosas Crusis having been conferred on the day of Good Friday , that has given rise to the assertion of several Avriters that it is the Easter solemnities of Templars , & c , in Avhich they celebrated the Resurrection . In Craft Masonry , say

they , there is the handicraft brothers represented—the Master ' s degree of one class corresponding Avith the Rose Croix of the other . In the before mentioned degrees there is the knights and preceptors , Avhilst amongst the Templars , the chaplains—of Avhom there never Avas a sufficiency—were admitted by the Latin ritual of the Benedictines . The custom of Councils of thirteen employed by the Templars , Gnostics , and other very ancient bodies , are vol . r . at