A Lexicon of Freemasonry - The Masonic Trowel

1290 ROY
It seems to me, as the result of a careful examination of the
evidence adduced, that before the year 1740, the essential element
of the Royal Arch constituted a part of the third degree,
and that about that year it was severed from that degree and
transferred to another, by the schismatic body calling itself "the
Grand Lodge of England according to the old Constitutions ."
The Royal Arch in England is at present practised as a fourth
degree, and the possession of the Past Mastership is not, as in
this country, considered as a . necessary qualification for exaltation .
Any worthy Master Mason is now considered as eligible for the
honours of the Royal Arch . The Royal Arch, in that country,
is not considered as " essentially a degree, but the perfection of
the third ."* The time and circumstances of the degree as conferred
in England coincide with the ritual in this country in the
most important particulars . There is, however, an anomaly in
the introduction of Ezra and Nehemiah as the companions of the
three principal officers .
The Royal Arch, as conferred in Ireland, differs very materially
from the degree in England and America . The Irish system
consists of three degrees ; the Excellent, Super Excellent and
Royal Arch, and the Past Master's degree is indispensable as a
qualification for exaltation . The Excellent and Super Excellent
degrees refer to events connected with the legation of Moses .
The events commemorated in the Royal Arch of Ireland refer to
2 Chronicles, chap . xxxiv., and expressly to the 14th verse of
that chapter . "And when they brought out the money that
was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah, the priest,
found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses ." The
date of their degree is, therefore, 624 B.C ., or ninety years
earlier than ours .
In Scotland the era of the legend of the Royal Arch is the
.same as in England and America, but the organization of the
system is very different . The Mark and Past Master, which are
* Freemason's Quart. Rev. 1843, p . 464.