The Degree Rituals The Supreme Council, 33 ... - Scottish Rite, NMJ

The Degree Rituals
Practice Justice — The Thirtieth Degree
The ritual of the 30° appeared in the Francken Manuscript as the 24° of
the Rite of Perfection, under the grandiose title “Grand Elected Knight of Kadosh
or Knight of the White and Black Eagle.” The Hebrew word Kadosh
was translated as “consecrated, or set apart.” According to Albert Mackey,
the degree originated in France in 1743 and by 1758 had acquired the title
“Grand Elect Knight Kadosh.”
The Francken ritual consisted of 25 manuscript pages. The brief opening
was followed by the reception, which included an address on the history of
Masonry from the time of King Solomon to the Crusades. After the obligation
and a series of admonitions, the candidate was required to ascend and descend
the so-called “Mysterious Ladder” of seven steps. There followed a long history
of the suppression of the Knights Templar and the martyrdom of Grand
Master Jacques DeMolay, which was likened to the murder of Hiram Abif, the
investiture, and a concluding lecture in the form of a catechism.
By the middle of the 19th century three major versions of the 30° ritual
were in use — those of Killian Van Rensselaer, Charles Laffon-Ladebat, and
Albert Pike. In each of these rituals the dramatic elements were much enhanced
from Francken. The candidate was conducted through a succession of
apartments and faced a panel of judges. Melodramatic symbols, such as tombs
and coffins, skulls and skeletons, were introduced. A multiplicity of vows became
more militant. Van Rensselaer took the candidate on a pilgrimage. Pike,
apparently following the lead of Laffon-Ladebat, introduced an indictment of
intolerance and bigotry allegedly practiced by the Roman Catholic Church.
Of course, the end result of all these embellishments was an increase in the
length of the ritual.
An abridgment of the Van Rensselaer ritual apparently was in use in this
jurisdiction at the Union of 1867, which, with adaptations from the Pike ritual,
was approved as the 30° ritual in 1875. The ritual was further revised and
condensed in 1904, and, for the first time, issued separately from the rituals
for the 31° and 32°. Previously, the 30° had been considered part of a trilogy
with the 31° and 32°. Only minor changes were made to the ritual in 1930 and
1938.
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