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

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTSTEMPLARThe American Modification of the Masonic systemor York Rite, which may with propriety becalled the American ite, is divided into three sections,each section being under an appropriate ju-and are as follows:risdiction,I.Symbolic Degrees. The first three degreesof Freemasonry, namely, those of Entered Apprentice,Fellow Craft, and Master Mason, are known,by way of distinction, as the "symbolic degrees."The term "symbolic"isexclusively confined tothe degrees conferred in a Lodge of the threeprimitive degrees, which Lodge, therefore, whetheropened on the first, the second, or the third degree,isalways referred to as a "symbolic Lodge." In thiscountry the degrees are conferred under the charterof State Grand Lodges. Symbolismis the prevailingcharacteristic of these primitive degrees and it;is because all the science and philosophy and religionof Ancient Craft Masonryis thus concealedfrom the profane but unfolded to the initiates insymbols, that the first three degrees which compriseit are said to be symbolic. Nothing of this kind isto be found inthe degrees above and beyond thethird, if we except the Royal Arch, which was unnaturallytorn from the Master's degree, of whichit, as every Masonic student knows, constituted thecomplement and consummation.II. Capitular Degrees. The degrees conferredunder the charter of an American Royal ArchChapter, which are Mark Master, Past Master,Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason.The capitular degrees are almost altogether foundedon and composed of a series of events in Masonichistory, and as the information intended to be com-83