Early Royal
Arch Masonic
Apron and Collar
This Royal Arch Apron and Collar
Jewel is hand embroidered with real gold and silver thread on a scarlet velvet
cloth and pictures the Holy Royal Arch. The Keystone is at its apex and
the Ark of the Covenant within the Sanctum Sanctorum, which is Latin
for Holy of Holies. It is most certainly an officers apron
because the jewel of office is suspended from the collar. The scarf, or
collar, once universally used, has been very much abandoned. The
peculiar color of the Royal Arch Degree is red or scarlet, which is symbolic
of fervency and zeal, the characteristics of the Degree. The earliest
known mention of this Degree occurs in a contemporary account of the meeting
of a Lodge, No. 21, at Youghal, in Ireland, in 1743, when the members walked
in procession and the Master was preceded by "the Royal Arch carried by
two Excellent Masters". At one time in England only Past Masters
were eligible for the Degree, and this led to a system called Passing the
Chair, by which a sort of Degree of Past Master was conferred upon Brethren
who had never really served in the chair of the Lodge. The earliest
known record of the Degree being actually conferred in North America is in the
Minutes of Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia, stating that on December 22, 1753,
three Brethren were raised to the Degree of Royal Arch Mason (a facsimile of
this entry is in the Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, volume iv,
page 222), while the earliest records traced in England are of the year 1758,
during which year several Brethren were "raised to the Degree of Royal
Arch" in a Lodge meeting at the Crown at Bristol.
