THE CRAFT FREEMASONRY - Masonic High Council the Mother ...

(1) ‘Court lawfully affirmed’ (i.e., the Lodge constituted and opened).
(2) Roll-call. Absentees fined.
(3) Admission of Entered Apprentices or Fellows of Craft.
(4) Election of Officers (at the Annual Meetings).
(5) Collection of fees, fines.
(6) The Lodge in judgment (as a Court) against offenders.
(7) Money-lending to members (upon security).
This pattern of procedure repeats itself fairly regularly from the 1640s onwards. The routine,
furnishings and equipment may have been very rough-and-ready, but it was from ancient Lodges like
this one that the old traditions stemmed, and when they began to acquire their special character, with
richer symbolism and furnishings, these were the Lodges that laid the pattern of `work’ which later
spread all over the world.
The Ritual of the Royal Arch
Source, Bernard E. Jones’s book, “Freemasons Book of the Royal Arch”, in particular Section 14.
“In the Beginning…”
The earliest reference to a Royal Arch Ritual appears in a French manuscript currently held in the
library at Freemasons’ Hall. It is dated about 1760 and contains a collection of short synopses of the
thirty-five degrees in use at that period. The section concerning the Royal Arch refers to an
underground room supported by nine arches with nine steps leading down to it and opened and closed
by nine knocks. This scenario will be familiar to members of another order. In a lecture on the tracing
board which depicts the room, arches and steps, we are told of the nine brethren who were led by the
true light, the sun, to discover great secrets. Also depicted on the tracing board are a stone with a ring
closing the chamber and a triangular plate of gold bearing the Sacred Name. The stone and ring
suggest that the ritual was Irish in origin as that ritual, even today, has it as a feature. The ritual
represents a date only 16 years after the first mention of the Royal Arch in 1744 and bears a close
relationship to the ritual as it would be if the legend and lectures were removed.
The next reference occurs in a ceremonial from 1766 wherein are found the two mottoes: “We have
found” and “In the beginning was the Word”. The latter of these will be revisited when dealing with the
late 18th century ritual and the 1835 revisions. For the moment it is only necessary to remark that, at
that time, these were the first words on the scroll found by the Sojourners.
In 1769 shortly after the founding of the first Grand Chapter in 1766 there is a minute from the Lodge
of Unanimity, a ‘Moderns’ Lodge, meeting in Wakefield. The minute dated February 22nd 1769 relates
to a special “night” when the Royal Arch was practised. These special nights which very often took
place on a Sunday were a common custom in those days. After listing the names of the seven
members present it lists thirteen “Toasts” or “Sentiments”. The following nine are those from the list
which relate directly to the Royal Arch plus comments as to what they may refer:
- All tha’s gone thro’ t’seven
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