The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARRiteThe Latin word ritns, whence we get the Englishrite, signifies an approved usage or custom, or anexternal observance. As a Masonic term, it signifiesa method of conferring Masonic light by a collectionand distribution of degrees. It is, in otherwords, the method and order observed in the governmentof a Masonic system.The original system of Speculative Masonry consistedof the three symbolic degrees. They were atone time the only degrees known to or practiced bythe Craft, called therefore, Ancient Craft Masonry.Hence this was the original Rite or approved usage,and so it continued in England until the year 1813,when at the union of the two Grand Lodges the"Holy Royal Arch" (at one time a part of the Master'sdegree) was declared to be a part of the system;and thus the English, or as it is more commonlycalled, the York Rite was made legitimatelyto consist of four degrees. The abstraction of theRoyal Arch from the Master's degree and its locationas a separate degree, produced that modificationof the York Rite which now exists in England,and should properly be called the Modern YorkRite, to distinguish it from the Ancient York Rite,which consisted of only three degrees. But in theUnited States stillgreater additions have been madeto the Rite through the labors of Webb and otherlecturers, and the influence insensibly exerted onthe Order by the introduction of the Scottish Riteinto this country.On the continent of Europe the organization ofnew systems began at an early period, and by the81