Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ar00101
Copies of THE MASONIC EXAMINER cannot be sold to anyone making personal application to purchase them . The paper will be supplied—by post only—according to written order , accompanied by a remittance of the amount , for the number required , at the rate of THREE HALF-PENCE for each copy . All orders to be addressed to Bro . MATTHEW COOKE , 13 , Harpur Street , Red Lion Square , London , W . C .
Ar00102
© TO ADVERTISERS . All Advertisements in THE MASONIC EXAMINER will he set up in plain type , and no display or ornamental letters will be used . ONE UNIFORM CHARGE of
Sixpence for every ten ( or fractional portion of ten ) words is adopted , from which there will be no reduction whatever . Advertisements intended to appear in the ensuing month ' s issue must reach Bro . Matthew Cooke , accompanied by a cash remittance , at the rate stated above , not later than- the 2 ^ lh . day of the current month , or insertion cannot be guaranteed .
The Ark And Mark Degrees.
THE ARK AND MARK DEGREES .
NO useful purpose or real benefit to Free-Masonry would accrue from an investigation which merely tended io determine the priority of age of either the Ark , or the Mark , degrees , so it will suffice for our present purpose to admit that they were both in existence and commonly worked , —more frequently together than sepaiute , —from , or before , the year 1780 to the year 1 S 13 .
At the latter date , when the Union of the two Grand Lodges took place and a Reformed Rite of English Free-Masonry -was inaugurated , both the Ark and Mark degrees , with many others , -were rejected and since that period have formed no part , or portion , of Free-Masonry as practised under the sanction of the Grand Lodge of England . Indeed the only extraneous degrees -which the Reformed Grand Lodge of England acknowledges and
tolerates are those of Templary . These it does admit and mentions in " The Articles of Union , " in this comprehensive style , "degrees of the Orders of Chivalry , " but however wide the interpretation of this clause may be , there cannot be a moment ' s doubt that neither the Ark , or Mark , degrees have a vestige of a claim to he included in it . Hence , both Ark and Mark are really un-recognised side degrees ; non-essentials in
English Free-Masonry , but pretty adjuncts which brethren , having time , means , and inclination , may harmlessly adopt . For close upon a century past and until the present hour many lodges , especially some in the northern and midland counties , have given both these degrees in a series of four , known as "The "Ark , Mark , Link , and Wressle , " and the charge made for conferring them is thirteenpence halfpenny , from which they have long home the title of "the hangman ' s lot , " derived from the vulgar delusion that the same amount , thirteenpence halfpenny , is the wages of Jack Ketch .
^ Although discarded at the Union neither the Ark or Mark degrees were suffered to fall into total oblivion , but have been conferred , by fits and starts , as side degrees , through the action of zealous brethren and generally without the semblance of any other authority than that derived from personal transmission . Thus , with some few exceptions ' , to be noticed presently , they
have come down to us and been preserved from extinction . Somewhere about 1 S 50 the Mark degree was , again , coming into favour and as the ceremony in "the hangman ' s lot " was and still is , of the most meagre description Bros . Henry George Warren and Hughes took it in hand and re-cast the ritual precisely in the same form in which it now exists . These , and other , brethren dissatisfied without being under some authority first
applied to know if they could work in connection with the English Constitution , but this being found impracticable they then applied to the Grand Chapter of Scotland which body acceded to their request , and several Mark Lodges , —notably one known as the Bon Accord , —were opened and progressed favourably . Sane brethren would have supposed that a legitimate governing body , —working the degree itself , — asked to take the supervision could not have been objected to by anyone . Nor was it until some few years after when it came about in the following
way . A small knot of Conservatives , —which title by-the-by is only a pseudonym for Tory " trimmers " more advanced in their opinions than Whigs and yet fearing to ally themselves with Radicals , — not seeing their way very clearly to preferment , did their best , or their worst ( it matters little which ) , to embarrass Grand Lodge and turn an assembly of legislators into a veritable bear-garden .
For some time this state of things was chronic but at last , after loud boasts of starting an opposition Grand Lodge to receive the euphonious name of the Grand Lodge of Wessex , and finding "that cock wouldn ' t fight , " they took their drubbings regularly and changed their front . This "Observer Party , " worsted in every encounter , their "Grand Lodge Club" a failure , ultimately made a dash at the Mark degree and secured it .
The Bon Accord lodge , chartered by the Grand Chapter of Scotland and to whom it owed its proffered allegiance , held a meeting at which three or four Mark brethren , not in . the secret , were present and were requested to retire ; this they declined to do and then those who were in the secret withdrew into another room and , after less than five minutes ' absence , returned and told the three or four , before mentioned , that they had formed
themselves into an Independent Grand Lodge and the presence of the three or four could be dispensed with . Of course nothing was left them but to go out , and the SELF-STYLED GRAND LODGE OF MARK MASTERS was thus born in 1 S 56 . Now let us turn to the Ark degree . The Grand Council of Rites , sitting at Bath , from which body the original Grand Conclave of Knights Templar , in London ,
was formed in 179 ° , lias always maintained its power in connection with the degree of Ark-Mariner and confers on those brethren who are its members the rank of "Royal Sovereign and Grand Commander of Royal-Ark-Mariners . " Then , as we said before , there are the time immemorial lodges , who give the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ar00101
Copies of THE MASONIC EXAMINER cannot be sold to anyone making personal application to purchase them . The paper will be supplied—by post only—according to written order , accompanied by a remittance of the amount , for the number required , at the rate of THREE HALF-PENCE for each copy . All orders to be addressed to Bro . MATTHEW COOKE , 13 , Harpur Street , Red Lion Square , London , W . C .
Ar00102
© TO ADVERTISERS . All Advertisements in THE MASONIC EXAMINER will he set up in plain type , and no display or ornamental letters will be used . ONE UNIFORM CHARGE of
Sixpence for every ten ( or fractional portion of ten ) words is adopted , from which there will be no reduction whatever . Advertisements intended to appear in the ensuing month ' s issue must reach Bro . Matthew Cooke , accompanied by a cash remittance , at the rate stated above , not later than- the 2 ^ lh . day of the current month , or insertion cannot be guaranteed .
The Ark And Mark Degrees.
THE ARK AND MARK DEGREES .
NO useful purpose or real benefit to Free-Masonry would accrue from an investigation which merely tended io determine the priority of age of either the Ark , or the Mark , degrees , so it will suffice for our present purpose to admit that they were both in existence and commonly worked , —more frequently together than sepaiute , —from , or before , the year 1780 to the year 1 S 13 .
At the latter date , when the Union of the two Grand Lodges took place and a Reformed Rite of English Free-Masonry -was inaugurated , both the Ark and Mark degrees , with many others , -were rejected and since that period have formed no part , or portion , of Free-Masonry as practised under the sanction of the Grand Lodge of England . Indeed the only extraneous degrees -which the Reformed Grand Lodge of England acknowledges and
tolerates are those of Templary . These it does admit and mentions in " The Articles of Union , " in this comprehensive style , "degrees of the Orders of Chivalry , " but however wide the interpretation of this clause may be , there cannot be a moment ' s doubt that neither the Ark , or Mark , degrees have a vestige of a claim to he included in it . Hence , both Ark and Mark are really un-recognised side degrees ; non-essentials in
English Free-Masonry , but pretty adjuncts which brethren , having time , means , and inclination , may harmlessly adopt . For close upon a century past and until the present hour many lodges , especially some in the northern and midland counties , have given both these degrees in a series of four , known as "The "Ark , Mark , Link , and Wressle , " and the charge made for conferring them is thirteenpence halfpenny , from which they have long home the title of "the hangman ' s lot , " derived from the vulgar delusion that the same amount , thirteenpence halfpenny , is the wages of Jack Ketch .
^ Although discarded at the Union neither the Ark or Mark degrees were suffered to fall into total oblivion , but have been conferred , by fits and starts , as side degrees , through the action of zealous brethren and generally without the semblance of any other authority than that derived from personal transmission . Thus , with some few exceptions ' , to be noticed presently , they
have come down to us and been preserved from extinction . Somewhere about 1 S 50 the Mark degree was , again , coming into favour and as the ceremony in "the hangman ' s lot " was and still is , of the most meagre description Bros . Henry George Warren and Hughes took it in hand and re-cast the ritual precisely in the same form in which it now exists . These , and other , brethren dissatisfied without being under some authority first
applied to know if they could work in connection with the English Constitution , but this being found impracticable they then applied to the Grand Chapter of Scotland which body acceded to their request , and several Mark Lodges , —notably one known as the Bon Accord , —were opened and progressed favourably . Sane brethren would have supposed that a legitimate governing body , —working the degree itself , — asked to take the supervision could not have been objected to by anyone . Nor was it until some few years after when it came about in the following
way . A small knot of Conservatives , —which title by-the-by is only a pseudonym for Tory " trimmers " more advanced in their opinions than Whigs and yet fearing to ally themselves with Radicals , — not seeing their way very clearly to preferment , did their best , or their worst ( it matters little which ) , to embarrass Grand Lodge and turn an assembly of legislators into a veritable bear-garden .
For some time this state of things was chronic but at last , after loud boasts of starting an opposition Grand Lodge to receive the euphonious name of the Grand Lodge of Wessex , and finding "that cock wouldn ' t fight , " they took their drubbings regularly and changed their front . This "Observer Party , " worsted in every encounter , their "Grand Lodge Club" a failure , ultimately made a dash at the Mark degree and secured it .
The Bon Accord lodge , chartered by the Grand Chapter of Scotland and to whom it owed its proffered allegiance , held a meeting at which three or four Mark brethren , not in . the secret , were present and were requested to retire ; this they declined to do and then those who were in the secret withdrew into another room and , after less than five minutes ' absence , returned and told the three or four , before mentioned , that they had formed
themselves into an Independent Grand Lodge and the presence of the three or four could be dispensed with . Of course nothing was left them but to go out , and the SELF-STYLED GRAND LODGE OF MARK MASTERS was thus born in 1 S 56 . Now let us turn to the Ark degree . The Grand Council of Rites , sitting at Bath , from which body the original Grand Conclave of Knights Templar , in London ,
was formed in 179 ° , lias always maintained its power in connection with the degree of Ark-Mariner and confers on those brethren who are its members the rank of "Royal Sovereign and Grand Commander of Royal-Ark-Mariners . " Then , as we said before , there are the time immemorial lodges , who give the