THE COUNCIL DEGREES ORIGINS OF THE CRYPTIC RITE IN AMERICA

By
Kevin T. Christians
Specialis Procer Lodge #678


The Council Degrees, or Cryptic Rite, are such an inspiring and thought provoking subject that a brief discussion of their origins would seem to be in order before progressing further into the subject. Given the fact that I am not a Masonic Scholar, nor have I ever professed to be one, this project was as much a learning experience for me personally as I trust it is for all of you. Therefore, let us proceed to a brief background of the origins of these Degrees:

As with much of Freemasonry, no one knows for sure but there are several theories. There is a "Baltimore theory," and a "Berlin theory," but the most likely one is the "Scottish Rite theory," and the most interesting is the "Stuart theory."

The Scottish Rite theory is that the Cryptic degrees were invented in France together with the other degrees that were included in the Rite of Perfection, which later were collected into what is today the Scottish Rite, and that the Cryptic degrees were brought to America just like the Scottish Rite degrees by Stephen Morin from France in 1761. When the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the U.S. was organized in 1802 in Charleston, the degrees which are now in the Scottish Rite were organized, while some "detached" degrees, including the Royal and Select degrees, which had previously been given, were now dropped. Some of those who had received these degrees then conferred them on their own and established Councils in the process.

The Stuart theory is interesting and needs some explanation. The Stuart family ruled England starting in 1603, with a break from 1649 to 1660 after Charles I was executed by Parliament under Oliver Cromwell. The last Stuart to reign, James II, was forced to abdicate in 1688. After the Hanoverian family came to the English throne in 1714 with George I, the Stuarts invaded England in 1715 and 1745, by way of Scotland, which supported them, but both attempts failed. The Stuarts and their supporters lived in exile in France, which recognized their claim, and they continued to try to regain their throne for many years with the support of some in England. The Stuart exiles living in France in the early 1700's, sometimes called "Jacobites" from the Latin form of the name for James, were involved in Freemasonry. Some Masonic lodges in France and Italy were made up completely of Jacobites, and the grandson of James II, "Bonnie Prince Charlie" was definitely an active Mason. In 1745, the same year he attempted to invade England, he became the Grand Master of the Masonic Knights Templar, and also formed a Chapter of Rose Croix. The Jacobite Masons considered the death of Hiram Abiff to represent the execution by the English Parliament of Charles I, the father of James II, and the raising of Hiram Abiff to represent the coming restoration to the English throne of the Stuart Kings. The "Royal Master" was the Stuart claimant to the throne, who was called by some the "Pretender" to the throne (at first James II, then his son James III, and then the grandson, Charles), and the secret vault was the place where the Jacobites plotted their return to power. The "Select Masters" were the closest companions of the "Pretender.". The ritual of the Select Master's degree can easily be seen to be that of a secret political movement, if one believes this theory. I choose to endorse the Scottish Rite theory.

The term “Cryptic” is used to denote that part of the Masonic system which is so closely allied to and follows in natural progression the Degree of the Royal Arch. The degrees now conferred in Councils of Royal and Select Masters were claimed and conferred by the Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, although these degrees existed before the establishment of Supreme Councils. The first individual to use the term “Cryptic” to describe the Council Degrees was Companion Robert Morris of Kentucky.
The word is derived from the Latin crypticus, meaning concealed or subterranean, and that from the Greek krupte, which signifies a vault, or subterranean passage. We are told that primitive Christians exemplified the ceremonials of their secret worship in earth covered cells or caves, known as cryptae. Likewise, the vaults beneath the great cathedrals and churches of the world are known simply as crypts. The degrees of the Council of Royal and Select Masters are thus called “Cryptic Masonry”, or “Masonry of the Secret Vault”. The degrees comprise those of Royal, Select, and Super Excellent Master. The degrees should be of particular interest to the Companions of Capitular Masonry, and are today placed in a logical order in the American York Rite.

Dr. Albert Mackey, once the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Charleston, South Carolina, tells us that the Council Degrees were beyond doubt honorary or side degrees, belonging to and conferred by Inspectors-General of the Scottish Rite. Whatever claim the Scottish Rite had on them were abdicated by the Scottish Rite in Baltimore in 1870. A resolution, no doubt, that Albert Pike had a hand in. While Pike was meticulous in his research and preparation, I find it curious that “Uncle Albert” would part with such wonderful degrees had he understood the full ramifications of what he and the Supreme Council were truly parting ways with. Given the fact that in 1850, the Scottish Rite claimed jurisdiction over the Cryptic Degrees, we should examine what influenced this Body to relinquish all claims to the degrees a mere twenty years later.

The degrees were originally independent of one another, and were doubtless the side degrees of the Rite of Perfection. This Rite was brought to America by Stephen Morin in 1762. Morin, a French Mason, was given the title of Inspector General for the new world by the Grand Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret in Paris. After Morin sailed from France to go to the West Indies, his ship was surrounded by British men of war. He was actually held in England for a short period of time before being permitted to continue his journey to the Caribbean. Whether his initial destination was Kingston, Jamaica or another Caribbean port is not known. While in the West Indies, Brother Morin conferred the degrees of the Rite of Perfection on many candidates, as Masonry was not only alive, but was a strong presence in that part of the world. During this period of time, Morin appointed Henry A. Francken a Deputy Inspector of the Rite, and empowered him to proliferate the Rite. The Rite of Perfection consisted of twenty five degrees at that time, in addition to a number of side degrees, giving a total of fifty three in the aggregate. Among these disengaged degrees were “Select Mason of the Twenty-Seven” (eventually Select Master) and “Royal Master”. History shows no connection between these two degrees at the time.

Morin eventually did land in Kingston, and was present at a Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret in 1769. It is sometime subsequent to this that he deputized Francken, although Pike, when reviewing the Constitutions of 1786, stated that he was not in possession of “all the successive deputizations or their dates made by Morin or when deputies were created”. Further evidence seems to point to the fact that Francken communicated these degrees to Moses Michael Hayes of Boston and made him a Deputy Inspector-General for North America. The appointments of Francken and Hayes gave them the authority to appoint others. Whether these appointments made by Morin were actually done in the United States has never been verified or ascertained with any certainty. However, it seems to be a moot point as Francken and Hayes now had the authority to appoint others, and therefore one Moses Cohen was appointed with the same authority. Hayes then appointed Isaac Da Costa as Inspector-General for South Carolina. On Da Costa’s demise, he was succeeded by Joseph Myers. On December 20th, 1767, Francken opened a Lodge of Perfection at Albany, New York on Morin’s authority.

On October 25th, 1762, the Grand Masonic Constitutions were ratified in Berlin and the official copies transmitted to Morin, who acknowledged and accepted them. The Supreme Council, established in Charleston in 1801, was the first body of the Rite by that name that ever existed. This divergence from the history of the Cryptic Rite proper, and the references to the Ancient and Accepted Rite, are necessary as showing the genuineness of the Royal and Select Degrees, and the claims they have as being bona fide side degrees of the Rite of Perfection.

Cohen then journeyed to Jamaica and established a Consistory there. One of its members was Abram Jacobs, who had received a portion of the degrees. One of these degrees was known as the “Select Masons of the Twenty Seven” and of his having received this degree Cohen gave proof in a certificate dated November 9th, 1790, which stated that he had conferred the degrees on Jacobs.

The year 1792 found Jacobs in Savannah, Georgia, having arrived there from Jamaica. While in Jamaica, he had taken a very active part in Masonic matters, especially in regard to the Rite of Perfection. Certain Masons applied to him to establish a Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection, and he conferred degrees on all who desired to receive and, of course, could pay for them. Brother G. Zimmerman was the first applicant and by letter dated May 27th, 1792, applied to Jacobs requesting him to travel to Augusta, Georgia for the purpose of conferring the degrees. Jacobs then left Augusta, not to return until 1800. He was at Savannah on April 17th, 1796 and his diary indicates that he conferred the degree of “Select Masons of the Twenty-Seven” on Brother James Clark. On December 12th, he conferred this degree on six additional Brothers in Washington, Georgia.

In November of 1802, a friend of Jacobs, Emanuel de la Motta, from Charleston, arrived at Savannah where Jacobs conferred the degree on him. The Royal Arch Chapter of South Carolina then claimed that these degrees were conferred in the Grand Lodge of Perfection in 1783 in Charleston, South Carolina. A certificate signed by one M.C. Levy in 1827 is considered authentic evidence of this statement. Moses Clava Levy was of Polish descent, having been born in Krakow and history judges him as a kind and honest man, loving parent and husband. Levy was a member of the Thirty-Third Degree for the Southern Jurisdiction, organized in 1801.

After Jacobs returned to the United States, he settled in Georgia, and there is evidence he conferred the Select Degree while there. There is further evidence that this degree was also conferred in New York in 1808. Meanwhile, Brother Hayes had been active, and had used the authority invested in him by making Joseph M. Myers and Inspector-General for Maryland. In 1788 he organized a Council of the Princes of Jerusalem in at Charleston, South Carolina. A manuscript copy of the ritual of the Select Degree was deposited in the archives of that Council. Experts have determined that the manuscript is authentic beyond any doubt. It is further asserted that he was in possession of the work of the other degrees, as records indicate that about that time a number of Masons residing in Charleston, received them. The Supreme Council in 1802 did not include all the degrees we claim as belonging to the Cryptic Rite. In a circular containing their list, it stated that in addition to the regular degrees, there were “side degrees” known among them as the “Select Masons of the Twenty-Seven”. It is alleged that in 1803 a copy of this ritual was made by J. Billeaud, and that it is a verbatim copy of the Myers ritual which, in 1788, was deposited by Myers in the archives of the Council at Charleston. A significant work, “The History of Masonry in Maryland”, written by Brother Edward Schultz, refers to the Rite and its early history. These manuscripts show that Henry Wilmans, a Pole, who lived in Baltimore about 1790, organized a Lodge of Perfection. One Philip P. Eckel was a member of this lodge. Wilmans died in 1795, but had previously conferred the Select Degree, and perhaps others, on Eckel and Hezekiah Niles.

Jacobs journeyed to New York in 1804, and conferred the degrees on many applicants, among them Thomas Lownds. In 1808 the dispute between Gourgas and Joseph Cerneau commenced over control of the Supreme Council, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction; more importantly, whose version of same was authentic. Lownds sided with Cerneau, and joined forces with him. In so doing, he captured the Royal and Select Degrees, or so Gourgas alleged at the time. Thus, the credit for organizing the first body of the Cryptic Rite must be awarded to Lownds. Among others, he formed the “Columbian Grand Council of Royal Master Masons”. This body accepted into its fold a Council of Select Masters on December 8th, 1821. On January 25th, 1823, Columbian Grand Council constituted themselves a Grand Council for the State, and issued warrants as late as 1827. In 1854 another Grand Council was formed in New York, its members being principally adherents of what was known as the “St. John Grand Lodge”. This Grand Council issued warrants to subordinate Councils, and in 1860 united with “The Columbian”. The records of both these Councils exist today, and have been republished.

A remarkable character now comes into play when discussing this evening’s subject. One Jeremy L. Cross, who was initiated into the Select Degrees by Philip P. Eckel, decided to visit Baltimore, then embark on a tour of the Southern and Western states. While on this tour, he lectured on all the degrees of Freemasonry, even conferring degrees, including the “high grade” or “haute” degrees. It has been implied that this was not purely out of brotherly love, but that it was a quite profitable trade as well. Cross also conferred the Cryptic Degrees on a number of Royal Arch Companions in Windsor, Vermont, issued a warrant for them to open a Council, and then wrote to his mentor, Eckel, for his authority to do so. Eckel and his friend Hezekiah Niles evidently sought each others’ council, for in Cross’ papers, found posthumously, was the authorization to confer the degrees and grant warrants for Councils. Some Masonic scholars have openly challenged the authenticity of these papers.

In 1815 in New Hampshire, and 1817 in Boston, Councils of Royal Masters were formed, albeit without warrants. The members of these bodies received the Select Degree from Cross and merged the two degrees, but it was years later that many of Cross’ Select Councils adopted the Royal Degree as part of their structure. Grand Councils were formed at various dates in the several states, and ultimately a National Convention of Royal and Select Masters was held in Buffalo in 1877 at which Most Illustrious Companions Daniel Spry and J. Ross Robertson were present on behalf of Canada, delegates from the Grand Council of that jurisdiction. Most Illustrious Companion Josiah H. Drummond of Maine presided over the deliberations of the convention. The state of the Rite was discussed, but no definite action was taken. In 1880 another convention of a similar character representing nineteen Grand Councils, met in Detroit Michigan. At this Convention, The General Grand Council of the United States was formed.

Let us then consider that since 1818, Councils of Royal and Select Masters began organizing throughout the United States. We should not contemplate that any assertions made that this was accomplished without episodes of difficulty have merit.
We should, however, regard as significant the several problems that existed during the middle of the nineteenth century.

The Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite had been formed from the Lodges of Perfection in 1801. The Degrees of Royal and Select Master were still considered “side degrees” of that Rite. After Cross had organized Councils of Royal and Select Masters, and the organization met with general approval, the Scottish Rite began forming identical bodies. These Scottish Rite Councils were not anchored to the Rite, but were cast off to fend for themselves after they had achieved proficiency. It should also be considered that individuals continued to communicate these degrees indiscriminately during this period. Another barrier to the orderly formation of Councils was caused by the Morgan episode and the anti-Masonic feeling it engendered in the United States from 1828 through 1845. A number of Masonic organizations went underground during this period and many never recuperated. Even though the Morgan affair primarily affected Northern Councils, the Civil War resulted in the dissolution of a number of the Southern Councils and Grand Councils. Where Grand Royal Arch Chapters endured through these events, they assumed control of the Council Degrees until Grand Councils could be reorganized. This is true with the exception of Virginia and West Virginia, where the Council Degrees to this day operate under the authority of those states’ Grand Chapters.

Despite various problems, Councils of Royal and Select Masters continued to form throughout the country, and in time, united into Grand Councils. During the decisive period of the middle nineteenth century, Councils of both Jeremy Cross and those of the Scottish Rite origin united and created Grand Councils without incident.

During the early nineteenth century, the Cryptic degrees were conferred in a number of Chapters of Royal Arch Masons. In 1853, the General Grand Chapter voted to abandon any rights or authority over these degrees, with the aforementioned exceptions of the two state Grand Chapters, Virginia and West Virginia. The Supreme Council (Southern Jurisdiction) by edict relinquished any claim to the Cryptic Degrees in 1870.

We should now consider the conclusions of Dr. Albert Gallatin Mackey, 33°, of Charleston, South Carolina. Mackey’s conclusions were not the result of brash or irrational thinking; on the contrary, Mackey’s opinions are the stuff of well thought out concepts supported not only by logic but by his peers. Speaking to origins of the Degrees, Mackey stated:

1) The degrees of Royal and Select Master were originally brought to this country by an Inspector-General of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, in the year 1788, deposited by him in the archives, and placed under the control of the Council of the Princes of Jerusalem, which was organized in the city of Charleston, South Carolina in that year.
2) These degrees were first conferred in Charleston by the Council Princes of Jerusalem as “detached degrees” or what in more modern phrase would be called ‘side degrees’ of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
3) They were disseminated over the whole country by agents or representatives of this Rite, who conferred them on any qualified person(s) whom they pleased to select, but always with the administration of a pledge of allegiance to the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
4) Charters were granted by these agents of the Supreme Council for the establishment of Councils of Royal and Select Masters, in different states, which Councils subsequently united in the formation of State Grand Councils, and threw off their allegiance to the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. I do not believe that charters were ever granted immediately and directly by the Supreme Council. I think that they were always issued in its name by its agents, who were empowered to do so by a general warrant. Thus I have been enabled to trace the original Councils of Alabama to the action of John Barker, who was an authorized agent of the Supreme Council. Perhaps more work was done in this way by Jeremy L. Cross, under the same claim, than by any other man in the United States.

Mackey goes on to state: “In this manner the control of these degrees has been gradually but permanently taken from the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, and they have now become a constituent part of what is beginning to be called the American Rite, to which, indeed, they properly belong, since they are absolutely necessary for the proper illustration of the Royal Arch Degree”. And, “The Inspectors-General of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, at least in the Southern Council, still claim, although they very seldom exercise it, the right to confer these degrees on qualified persons, and it can hardly be denied that Royal and Select Masters, so made, would be legal and regular. To doubt it would be to throw suspicion on the legality of every Council and every Select Master of the present day, since they derive their existence from founders originally made in this way by Inspectors-General. If the fountain is defiled, we can hardly expect that the streams that flow from it should be pure”.
“This connection of the degrees of Royal and Select Master with the Ancient and Accepted Rite will readily account for the resemblance which is found in these degrees, in phraseology and symbolism, to that Rite. Their legends, however, assimilate them more closely to the Royal Arch of the York and American Rites, than to the corresponding Knights of the Ninth Arch of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. Hence, in making them the eighth and ninth degrees of the American Rite, it must be admitted that Masonic ritualists have put them in the right place”.

It must be stated emphatically that not all the evidence and research elicited herein is beyond dispute by some noteworthy Masonic scholars and authors. Their arguments, however, are for another time and perhaps a subsequent review of the subject matter by the members of this Lodge. I will not grant recognition of their arguments here. I will, however, attempt to summarize what has been stated so far.

1) The term “Cryptic” was first used by Rob Morris, an influential Mason in the 1800s.
2) The Degrees of Cryptic Masonry are the Royal Master and Select Master. Their roots can be traced to the Rite of Perfection Degrees, and eventually traced to France. They are sometimes referred to as the Degrees of Preservation.
3) The Super Excellent Master Degree’s exact history is unknown. It was not listed as a side degree of European Masonry in a catalog of over 700 known degrees which was published in the nineteenth century. The earliest account of its conferral was on December 2nd, 1817when Columbian Council of Royal Masters in New York City opened a Lodge of Super Excellent Masters. In the ensuing years, a number of Councils conferred this degree, while other Councils strongly objected to it having a place in the Cryptic system. The degree is one of the most dramatic and impressive in all Freemasonry and is especially significant in that it is the only degree based directly upon the destruction of the Temple of Solomon. It is well placed within the York Rite system as it prepares the candidate historically for the Order of the Red Cross which immediately follows in the Commandery Orders. Some insist that while it is an extremely important degree, it is technically not a Cryptic degree.
4) Key figures in the Rite include Jeremy Ladd Cross, James Cushman, from Maine and Connecticut, who was a grand lecturer and established many Councils. John Barker, from South Carolina, a student of Cross who was active in establishing Councils; Philip Eckel, who hailed from Germany and gave Cross the authority to confer and spread the degrees.
5) The first meeting of the General Grand Council was held in Denver in 1883, after forming in 1880 and being ratified in 1881.

I would be remiss in my discussion of this subject if I did not include some brief history of Cryptic Masonry in Iowa.

When Royal Arch Masonry was introduced into Iowa, the Council Degrees were also introduced and conferred in the Chapters. When the action of the General Grand Chapter to abdicate authority over the Council Degrees was taken, measures were adopted to introduce the Council system. The Grand Master of the Grand Council of Illinois authorized several Iowa masons, among them an interesting man named Theodore S. Parvin, to heal Companions irregularly made in Chapters. He also granted dispensation for a Council in Iowa, to which the Grand Council of Illinois granted a charter on September 26th, 1856. He also granted a dispensation for a second Council, and it was extended to the session in 1856, when, a dispensation for a third Council having been issued, charters were granted to two Councils on October 1st, 1856. Delegates from these three Councils met January 2nd, 1857, and organized on that day the Grand Council of Iowa. It went on with apparent prosperity, increasing the number of its subordinates to nineteen, besides three in another jurisdiction, until 1878, when it consolidated with the Grand Chapter and in the language of the then Grand Recorder, “closed the record of the Grand Council of the State of Iowa for the present”.

It met twice in 1857. Its proceedings were published annually, except that those for 1859 and 1860 were published in one pamphlet, as well as those for 1865 and 1866. In 1872, a title page, introduction and index for a volume were published, and in 1878 a title page and introduction for a volume, embracing the whole proceedings, with an index from1873 to 1878 were also published. The proceedings of 1857, 1858, 1865, 1866, and 1869 have been reprinted. The Grand Council of Iowa, of course, is its own entity again but the historical interest of these actions should not be ignored.

As to the subject of Brother T.S. Parvin, the undersigned could devote several pages of this paper to his legacy and still not do him justice; however, this is a subject for another time, and, perhaps, another paper from a member of this Lodge. His legacy would be best served by someone more intimately familiar with the details of his life, and for the Masonic Award that bears his name. I am confident that there is at least one member of this Lodge who is qualified to write about him.

In closing, the undersigned would like to stress that certain details pertaining to ritual in these degrees have been intentionally omitted from this paper. Not knowing at the time of writing what Masons would be in attendance at its initial reading, the author must be cognizant of the fact that not all Masons have received the Council Degrees, and therefore, the cherished details of their secrets should not be disclosed here. I would state, however, that this paper should not only serve to enrich our knowledge of the history of these degrees, but to subject the uninitiated with a thirst to receive the same.

Respectfully submitted,


Kevin T. Christians
Junior Warden
Specialis Procer Lodge #678
Des Moines, Iowa

Presented October 29, 2010 at a Festive Board of the Lodge