The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-05-28

system in 1769 BY the foregoing min
| ute it would seem that the degree or
grade of Knight Templar was consid-
cred as being a part of the Royal Arch
grade, or as belonging to that system.
Anonymous.
Whence the ceremony was obtained
/ or Of what it consisted, is a mere mat
ter of conjecture. 1t will be observed
that the Red Cross Order is not named
| in the list of degrees conferred The
records of Kilwinning Lodge, Ireland,
warranted October s, 1873, show that it's
charter was used as the authority for
comforting the Royal Arch, knight
| Templar and Rose CroiX degrees, as
early as 1872; but the Red Cross and
the Rose CroX are two different de-
grees, and should not be confounded.
1t is possible that the degree of
Knight Templar was conferred in nu-
merous instances, in military and pos
sibly other lodges, prior to the end of
the Revolutionary period; but if so,
there is, so far as we are aware, no
| existing credible evidence of that fact,
and even If it were true that such was
the case, the mode and manner in
! which it was done was so irregular in
! the light of modern Masonic teachings,
that the bare record would be of little
value to the Masonic student.
The degrees embraced in the Ameri-
can schedule are those Of Companion of
the Red Cross, Knight Templar and
knight of Malta. That the Red Cross
is not embraced in that of the English
European or Canadian Preceptories,
except that it is permitted in Canada
to communicate 1t in order to qualify
our Canadians Fraters to visit Ameri-
can bodies. This degree has a curious
and unsatisfactory way of appearing
and disappearing in the earlier records
of Templar bodies. 1t is mentioned in
the diploma whichis relied upon to es-
tablish the comforting of the Templar
Degrees by st. Andrews Lodge, at
!, Charleston, South Carolina, in 1885,
Frederic Speed.
Prior to the discovery of this diploma
the Red Cross degree was regarded as
having been manufactured by Webb
and his associates from the degree of
knights of the East or sword of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The degree Is not enumerated among
those conferred upon Brother William
Davis, in st. Andrews Royal Arch
Lodge, now Chapter, at Boston, in 1863.
III 1881 however, tHdl Douy 'Noteu tndl
the knights of the Red Cross, by
Brother Benjamin Hurd, jr., be and
they are hereby permitted to make
their records in the book of the Chap
ter" privilege which was not availed
of. Boston Council was established in
the year 1902, and King Darius Coun-
ell, of Portland, in 1906, and thereafter
the degree seems to have been regular
ly worked.
If the ceremony called Red Cross"
mentioned in the South Carolina diplo-
ma, and vote of st. Andrews chapter
before referred to- was Identical with
that practiced In Boston and King
Darius Councils, and enumerated in
the minutes of the meeting at which
St. Johns Commandery, of Providence,
Rhode Island, was organized, then Ii is
clear that the degree is not the work
of Webb. who was not Knight Temp
lar at the time the permission to record
their proceedings i'm the minute book OF
ST. Andrews Chapter was given. Webb
is said to have had the Templar Or
ders conferred upon him in Philadel-
phia about 1902. 1t is possible that
changes were introduced by Webb, but
the tradition that he was the originator
must yield, as other myths of Masonry
have done, before the researches of the
historians Of Masonry: but before