ginally
conferred by Symbolic Lodges as an honorarium or reward bestowed upon
those Brethren who had been found worthy to occupy the Oriental Chair. In
so far it was only a degree of office, and could be obtained only from the
Lodge in which the office had been conferred. At a later period it was
deemed an essential prerequisite to exaltation in the degree of Royal
Arch, and was, for that purpose, conferred on candidates for that
position, while the Royal Arch degree was under the control of the
symbolic Lodges, but still only conferred by the Past Masters of the
Lodge. But subsequently, when the system of Royal Arch Masonry was greatly
enlarged and extended in this country, and chapters were organized
independent of the Grand and symbolic Lodges, these Chapters took with
them the Past Master's degree, and assumed the right of conferring it on
their candidates. Hence arose the anomaly which now exists in American
Masonry, of two degrees bearing the same name, and said to be almost
identical in character, conferred by two different bodies under entirely
different qualifications and for totally different purposes. As was to be
expected, when time had in some degree obliterated the details of history,
each party began to claim for itself the sovereign virtue of legitimacy.
The Past Masters of the Chapters denied the right of the Symbolic Lodges
to confer the degree, and the latter, in their turn, asserted that the
degree, as conferred in the Chapter, was an innovation.

The prevalence of the former doctrine would, of course, tend to deprive
the Symbolic Lodges of a vested right held by them from the most ancient
times--that, namely, of conferring an honorarium on their Masters elect.

On the whole, then, from this view of the surreptitious character of the
Chapter Degree, and supported by the high authority whom I have cited, as
well as by the best usage, I am constrained to believe that the true rule
is, to deny the Chapter, or Virtual Past Masters, the right to install, or
to be present at the installation of the Master of a Symbolic Lodge. A
Past Master may preside over a lodge in the absence of the Master,
provided he is invited to do so by the Senior Warden present. The Second
General Regulation gave the power of presiding, during the absence of the
Master, to the last Past Master present, after the lodge had been
congregated by the Senior Warden; but two years afterwards, the rule was
repealed, and the power of presi