THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

the most respectful consideration, has announced a similar doctrine in
one
of his elaborate reports to the Grand Chapter of Arkansas. He does not
consider "that the Past Master's degree, conferred in a chapter,
invests
the recipient with any rank or authority, except within the chapter
itself; that it no ways qualifies or authorizes him to preside in the
chair of a lodge: that a lodge has no legal means of knowing that he
has
received the degree in a chapter: for it is not supposed to know
anything
that takes place there any more than it knows what takes place in a
Lodge
of Perfection, or a Chapter of Knights of the Rose Croix;" and, of
course,
if the Past Masters of a lodge have no such "legal means" of
recognition
of Chapter Masters, they cannot permit them to be present at an
installation.
This is, in fact, no new doctrine. Preston, in his description of the
installation ceremony, says: "The new Master is then conducted to an
adjacent room, where he is regularly installed, and bound to his trust
in
ancient form, in the presence of at least _three installed
Masters_"[89]
And Dr. Oliver, in commenting on this passage, says, "this part of the
ceremony can only be orally communicated, nor can any but _installed_
Masters be present."[90]
And this rule appears to be founded on the principles of reason. There
can
be no doubt, if we carefully examine the history of Masonry in this
country and in England, that the degree of Past Master was originally
conferred by Symbolic Lodges as an honorarium or reward bestowed upon
those Brethren who had been found worthy to occupy the Oriental Chair.
In
so far it was only a degree of office, and could be obtained only from
the
Lodge in which the office had been conferred. At a later period it was
deemed an essential prerequisite to exaltation in the degree of Royal
Arch, and was, for that purpose, conferred on candidates for that
position, while the Royal Arch degree was under the control of the
symbolic Lodges, but still only conferred by the Past Masters of the
Lodge. But subsequently, when the system of Royal Arch Masonry was
greatly
enlarged and extended in this country, and chapters were organized
independent of the Grand and symbolic Lodges, these Chapters took with
them the Past Master's degree, and assumed the right of conferring it
on
their candidates. Hence arose the anomaly which now exists in American
Masonry, of two degrees bearing the same name, and said to be almost
identical in character, conferred by two different bodies under
entirely
different qualifications and for totally different purposes. As was to
be