The Holy Royal Arch of Jerusalem is regarded in England as the completion of the third degree and its importance is recognized in most masonic jurisdictions. It has been suggested that it was born in France as one of many degrees fabricated there after Craft Freemasonry had arrived from England.

The Royal Arch in embryo may be sought in many early documents; quite early in the 18th C. there are indications that there was something beyond the third degree, possibly a secret knowledge imparted only to Masters. 

A reference of 1725 to the first Chapter of St John links up with 'Deputations' to constitute lodges at Exeter, Bath and Bury in 1732, each containing the motto in Greek, 'In the beginning was the Word'. The 'Rule ofThree' is mentioned in an exposure of 1723 and in the GrahamMS. of 1726 'a trible voice' is required before the theoretical and practical parts of Masonry can be disclosed.

It is believed that the oldest Royal Arch Chapter is Stirling Rock No.2 of Scotland. George Draffen (in The Triple Tau, 1955) believes the year claimed for the first recorded conferment of the degree in Stirling -1743- to be correct and the chapter is listed as having existed since that year. Also in that year, in information given to the Portuguese Inquisition by John Coustos, there are details which may be recognized as 'early Royal Arch'.

The oldest Royal Arch Minute in existence is that of 1753 when three brethren of the lodge now known as Fredericksburg No.4, Virginia, are shown to have been 'raised to the Degree of Royal Arch Mason'.

The Antients' Grand Lodge appears to have been enthusiastic about the Royal Arch from its beginnings in 1751 and it was practised in its Craft lodges without let or hindrance. Dermott stated in later years that he had himself taken the degree in Ireland in 1746. There was, however, no Antients' Grand Chapter as such; its 'Royal Arch' rules were dealt with in Grand Lodge and continued to be incorporated in its Craft regulations right up to the
Union of the Antients with the Moderns in 1813.

The premier Grand Lodge, on the other hand, was at first somewhat reluctant to accord recognition to the Royal Arch. In 1759 its Grand Secretary wrote very firmly that 'Our Society is neither Arch, Royal Arch or Antient' and in 1767 that 'the Royal Arch is a Society we do not acknowledge'. This is doubly curious since he, Samuel Spencer, had joined the Order in 1766, and in the same year was signed the Charter of Compact which constituted the (Moderns') Grand Chapter! (A. R Hewitt's excellent paper 'The Supreme Grand Chapter ofEngland', published in 1966 and also reprinted in AQC 78, gives very full details of this period.)

After the Union in the Craft steps were taken to achieve a merger of the Royal Arch elements of the Moderns and Antients and this as happily effected in 1817, since when English chapters have been 'attached' to Craft lodges, taking the same numbers and precedence on the roll (regardless of their true ages). An exception had to be made for a few English chapters located in Scotland; one is in fact still at work under the Scottish Grand Chapter of 1817 but the remainder gradually disappeared, the last in 1861.

A ritual for the Exaltation ceremony was 'approved by the Duke of Sussex, Grand Master Z' in 1834 and is preserved in the library at Freemasons' Hall, but -as in the Craft- the publication by Claret of a printed formulary led the way in due course to a wide range of London and Provincial rituals. Some ofthe better-known ofthese are the Aldersgate, Domatic, Complete, Taylors', Metropolitan, Warwickshire, Sussex, Oxford and Stafford-shire; the two first-named are taught in long-established 'Chapters of Improvement/Instruction '.

Scottish Royal Arch history is rather too complicated to be retailed here. When the Grand Chapter was formed in 1817 there were chapters at work which had been chartered from London and Dublin; there were chapters which had long been in existence in connexion with Craft lodges; there were some which held Charters from the (Templar) Royal Grand Conclave of Scotland, and there were some-relatively new-which were conferring the degree without any authority at alI. The Scottish system now controls, under chapter Warrants, the Mark and Excellent Master's degrees which are pre-requisites to the Royal Arch itself.

It also charters separately, but 'attached' to Royal Arch chapters, lodges and councils working the Royal Ark Mariner and Babylonish Pass degrees and councils working the Cryptic degrees. The Royal Arch ceremony itself is not very different from that practised in England. A very noticeable administrative difference is that the Grand Chapter is wholly separate from the Grand Lodge, operating from a different headquarters and with
quite different rulers and officers.

In Ireland, although the chapters are 'attached' to and bear the same numbers as Craft lodges, and the Craft Grand Secretary is also the Grand Registrar of the Royal Arch, there any similarity with England ends. The Grand Chapter, dating from 1829, was formed from no fewer than fifty-three existing chapters which had come into being in various ways. The ruler, the Grand King, is quite separately elected. Above all, the ceremony relates to the repair of the TempIe at an earlier date than Zerubbabel's rebuilding and the three chief officers of a chapter represent King Josiah, Hilkiah and Shaphan (2 Chronic1es, 34). 

The candidate must, before admission to the Royal Arch, become a Mark Master in a lodge opened under the chapter Warrant. Within the chapter itself is the ceremony of 'passing the veils'.