During their conferral of the Holy Royal Arch degree, a chapter makes use of its veils, Hebrew tribal ensigns, and other accoutrements.

There is good reason to believe that the sublime degree of Master Mason, as we now know it, was never intended to be the culmination of the Craft degrees, given its incomplete nature. The ritual of Master Mason’s degree centres around the quest for the Master’s Word and concludes with a story of its loss and substitution pending its rediscovery – a rediscovery made in the Holy Royal Arch degree.

The degree was considered most important in the early years of Freemasonry, following closely on the heels of the Hiramic legend which probably appeared in England around 1725; although many historians have traced the earliest origins of the degree to the Accepted Lodge of the Worshipful Company of Masons in London during the 1600s, or to Ireland late in that century. There is a competing school of thought which suggests that the degree originated in France and was transplanted to England shortly before 1730. Still others believe that it originated in the guild system of the Middle Ages.

Irrespective of the degree’s debated origin, the Holy Royal Arch degree existed as a follow-up to introduce the Second Temple well before the 1751 founding of the so-called ‘Ancients’ Grand Lodge (the “Mother Grand Lodge” from which all current grand lodges in the United States are descended), and was included from the start in the Ancients’ ritual as the fourth degree. The earliest reference to the physical “Royal Arch” was contained in an article in the 10 January 1743 edition of Faulkner’s Dublin Journal, in which it was reported that the Royal Arch was carried in the previous month’s Saint John’s Day Masonic parade by two Excellent Masons in front of the Master of the lodge. The following year, a Dublin physician, Fifield D’Assigny, published A Serious and Impartial Inquiry into the Cause of the Present Decay of Freemasonry in the Kingdom of Ireland in which he refers to the degree and its then-exclusivity to past masters. The degree ceremony is known to have been practiced in England, Scotland, Ireland and France by 1745; and by 1753 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The various versions and segments of the degree were synthesised by Sir Thomas Dunkerley in 1765-1766 into something resembling the modern ritual.

So dogmatic was the Mother Grand Lodge on the subject of the ne plus ultra status of the Holy Royal Arch degree, that in 1813, when the two Grand Lodges in England united, a firm and solemn landmark was adopted and placed in the Articles of Union to guide Freemasons throughout the world forever on this matter: “Pure Ancient Freemasonry consists of but three degrees, viz. that of Entered Apprentice, Fellow craft, and Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.” [emphasis added]. That statement is presumably the origin of the remarks addressed to the candidate at the concluding stage of the exaltation ceremony as it is practised in England: “You may perhaps imagine that you have this day taken a fourth degree in Freemasonry, such however is not the case, it is the Master Masons’ completed.”

The landmark has never been changed; and, to this day, no other degree has been officially recognised by the Mother Grand Lodge. The intent was that every rite, system or additional degree in Freemasonry cannot confer its degree on a Master Mason until he has been exalted as a Holy Royal Arch Mason. Naturally, we feel this is as it should be, because a man is not truly a Master Mason until he receives the Master’s Word and he can only receive it in the Holy Royal Arch. In the United States, this intent has remained in practice within the scheme of orders, rites and bodies collectively known as the “York Rite”. The additional orders – be they subject to petition such as Cryptic Freemasonry (a.k.a. Royal & Select Masters) and the chivalric orders (the Knights Templar) (among others), or exclusive to invitation such as the Allied Masonic Degrees and Red Cross of Constantine (among many others) – are closed to any man who has not been exalted to the supreme degree of Holy Royal Arch Mason.

In 1752, ambulatory or military warrants for lodges were introduced. This was instrumental in placing the supreme degree of Holy Royal Arch Mason on a par with that of Master Mason. Military lodges were greatly responsible for planting Freemasonry in the Colonies and also gave birth to use of the Mark and Royal Arch Degrees in the “New World” of the Americas. Lodge records show that the Holy Royal Arch degree was conferred at Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 on 12 December 1753. George Washington was raised in this lodge on 4 August of the same year.

The degree is sometimes referred to as the “Royal Arch of Zerubbabel” to distinguish it from the 13° of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry , titled “The Royal Arch of Solomon” in the Southern (U.S.) Jurisdiction and in the Jurisdiction of Canada, or “Master of the Ninth Arch” in the Northern (U.S.) Jurisdiction.

The badge of the Holy Royal Arch degree consists of a triple tau (also known as a “tau cross” or “Cross of Saint Anthony”) within a triangle, circumscribed, in turn, by a circle. Together, these elements allow a Royal Arch Freemason to profess his separation from the unholy and profane, his reverence for G-d, and his belief in the future and eternal life.

The tau is the mark described at Ezekiel 9:4, to be placed by an angel on the foreheads of those who mourned the wickedness of the city, in order that the angel of death would forego slaying them. Thus the triple tau is symbolic of the peculiar and more eminent separation of the Holy Royal Arch Freemasons from the profane. The triple tau is constructed of three tau crosses conjoined at their feet. According to the English Royal Arch lecture, “The triple tau forms two right angles on each of the exterior lines, and another at the centre, by their union; for the three angles of each triangle are equal to two right angles.” Within Royal Arch Freemasonry, the Triple Tau began as a monogram of T over H for “Templum Hierosolymae” (Temple of Jerusalem), appearing on the original Charter of Compact for the first Grand Chapter of England and on early Royal Arch jewels and aprons. Here, again, we have Thomas Dunckerley to thank; the monogram’s meaning is evidenced in a letter he penned on 27 January 1792. The T and H lost their serifs and merged into the Triple-Tau sometime in the early 1800s. It has also been noted that the letters are the initials for “Hiram of Tyre”. Also worth noting is that this degree was originally open only to past masters of craft lodges, and the three taus are essentially identical in shape to the three levels borne on the apron of an installed or past master of a lodge under English, Canadian and other jurisdictions (one level on each lower corner, and one on the bib).

The equilateral triangle, or delta, is a symbol of the sacred name of G-d, the pronunciation of which is no longer known to man. In the United States, the delta is usually depicted either in white with a thick red border and red triple-tau, or entirely red with a gold (or sometimes white) triple-tau. In English, Canadian, and some other jurisdictions, the delta's border and the triple-tau are gold, whilst the background colour of the delta denotes the companion's rank: white for companions, red for principals (i.e. the three dais officers) & Past 1st Principals (i.e. Past High Priests), blue for provincial grand chapter officers, and purple for supreme grand lodge officers. The

Finally, the circle, used throughout the United States and many other jurisdictions, is a symbol of the eternal life, which is the great dogma taught by Royal Arch Freemasonry.

Please click here to read articles on the Royal Arch degree from the Grand Chapter of Alberta

For more on the development of the Triple-Tau insignia, see this, see Mendoza, Harry, The Ensigns of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, London: Lewis Masonic (1989) at 85.

Anointed Order of High Priesthood (unnumbered)