own history and historians (_Origin
of the English Rite_, Hughan), except to say that it seems to have
begun about 1738-40, the concensus of opinion differing as to whether
it began in England or on the Continent ("Royal Arch Masonry," by C.P.
Noar, _Manchester Lodge of Research_, vol. iii, 1911-12). Lawrence
Dermott, always alert, had it adopted by the Atholl Grand Lodge about
thirty years before the Grand Lodge of England took it up in 1770-76,
when Thomas Duckerley was appointed to arrange and introduce it.
Dermott held it to be "the very essence of Masonry," and he was not
slow in using it as a club with which to belabor the Moderns; but he
did not originate it, as some imagine, having received the degrees
before he came to London, perhaps in an unsystemized form. Duckerley
was accused of shifting the original Grand Masonic word from the Third
Degree to the Royal Arch, and of substituting another in its stead.
Enough to say that Royal Arch Masonry is authentic Masonry, being a
further elaboration in drama, following the Third Degree, of the spirit
and motif of old Craft Masonry (_History of Freemasonry and Concordant
Orders_, by Hughan and Stillson).

[152] It is interesting to note that the writer of the article on
"Masonry" in the Catholic _Encyclopedia_--an article admirable in many
ways, and for the most part fair--makes much of this point, and rightly
so, albeit his interpretation of it is altogether wrong. He imagines
that the objection to Christian imagery in the ritual was due to enmity
to Christianity. Not so. Masonry was not then, and has never at any
time been, opposed to Christianity, or to any other religion. Far from
it. But Christianity in those days--as, alas, too often now--was
another name for a petty and bigoted sectarianism; and Masonry by its
very genius was, and is, _unsectarian_. Many Masons then were devout
Christians, as they are now--not a few clergymen--but the order itself
is open to men of all faiths, Catholic and Protestant, Hebrew and
Hindu, who confess faith in God; and so it will always remain if it is
true to its principles and history.

[153] As for the chronicle, the one indispensable book to the student
of American Masonry is the _History of Freemasonry and Concordant
Orders_, by W.J. Hughan and H.L. Stillson, aided by one of the ablest
board of contributors ever assembled. It includes a history of Masonry
in all its Rites in North, Central, and South America, with accurate
ac