why do royal arch chapters meet under the warrant of a craft lodge

Under early Masonic practice, particularly within the Antients Grand Lodge, a Craft lodge's warrant was considered sufficient authority for its members to confer any Masonic degree according to ancient custom, including the Royal Arch 1 2. Laurence Dermott maintained in 1772 that all warranted lodges held an inherent right to exercise every degree of the ancient Craft 2.

Because of this principle, early Royal Arch bodies did not hold independent charters; instead, they assembled under the sanction or privilege of an existing Craft lodge's warrant 1 2. Chapters routinely met in the lodge room and operated as an adjunct to the host lodge 1. Early efforts to detach a chapter from its sponsoring Craft lodge could even be met with disciplinary charges for unmasonic conduct 1. Separate warrants for chapters only emerged later as independent Grand Chapters were constituted and established distinct capitular systems 1.

Works cited

From the library. Each claim above is numbered to the work and page it came from.

Albert Gallatin Mackey and William R. Singleton The History of Freemasonry: Its Legends and Traditions, Its Chronological History 2016 · pp. 160-161, 163 Demonstrates the eighteenth-century view in American and English lodges that a Craft lodge warrant inherently authorized the conferring of the Royal Arch degree.; Shows that separating a chapter from its host Craft lodge was initially resisted, with independen

William James Hughan Origin of the English Rite of Freemasonry, Especially in Relation to the Royal Arch Degree 1884 · pp. 103-104, 117-118 Provides historical Irish and English certificates showing Royal Arch bodies operating under the sanction of specific Craft lodge numbers.; Cites Laurence Dermott's explicit 1772 ruling that warranted Craft lodges had the right to practice all degrees of the a

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