CHAPTER XXII. The Second Meeting of the Grand Council of Ontario-The Open- CHAPTER XXIII. The Third Annual Assembly of the Grand Council of Ontario-A PAGE 177 182 CHAPTER XXIV. The Fourth Annual Assembly of the Grand Council of Ontario- ... CHAPTER XXV. 1.89 The Fifth Annual Assembly of the Grand Council of Ontario— CHAPTER XXVI, 193 The Progress of the Rite-The Proposal to Make the Cryptic De- The Noted Mississippi Plan-The Report on the Subject by the CHAPTER XXVIII. A National Cryptic Convention at Buffalo-The Progress of the 205 211 CHAPTER XXIX. The Ninth Annual Meeting of the Grand Council of Canada- CHAPTER XXX. The Tenth Annual Meeting of the Grand Council of Ontario-A CHAPTER XXXI. 213 215 The Eleventh Annual Assembly of the Grand Council of Canada— CHAPTER XXXII. Twelfth Annual Assembly of the Grand Council of Canada-The 223 CHAPTER XXXIII. The Thirteenth Annual Assembly of the Grand Council of Canada CHAPTER XXXIV. The Fourteenth Annual Session of the Grand Council of Canada- CHAPTER XXXV. The Fifteenth Annual Assembly-The Red Cross Degree and the PAGE 227 232 235 CHAPTER XXXVI. The Sixteenth Annual Assembly-Death of the Grand Master, CHAPTER XXXVII. The Seventeenth Annual Session-Another of the Pioneers of CHAPTER XXXVIII. 242 247 The Outlook for the Cryptic Rite-The Reasons why this and CRYPTIC MASONRY. CHAPTER I. THE RITE AND ITS TITLE-THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM CRYPTIC-THE INCEPTION OF THE SYSTEM-WHERE THE DEGREES CAME FROM, AND THEIR HISTORY. HE term "Cryptic Masonry" is one so little known cutside the pale of our Councils that, before giving a sketch of the History of the Rite in Canada, it may prove of interest not only to the members of the Rite, but also to the Masonic reader and those into whose hand the present writing may fall, to refer to the origin of the degrees and why the term Cryptic is used to denote that part of the Masonic system which is so closely allied to and follows in natural sequence the degree of the Holy Royal Arch. The degrees now conferred in Councils of Royal and Select Masters were claimed and conferred by the Supreme Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, although these degrees existed before even Supreme Councils. Comp. Robert Morris, of Kentucky, was the first to use the title "Cryptic" in designating the Council degrees. The word is derived from the Latin crypticus, meaning subterranean, or concealed, and that from the Greek krupte, which signifies a vault, or subterranean passage. The primitive Christians, we are told in history, exemplified the ceremonials of their secret worship in their earth-covered cells or caves, known as crypto; in like manner the vaults beneath the great cathedrals and churches of the world are known as crypts. The degrees of the Council of Royal and Select Masters may be called "Cryptic Masonry," or " Masonry of the Secret Vault." The degrees comprise those of Royal, Select and Super-excellent Master. There are very few Masonic writers who do not in some way, at greater or shorter length, endeavour to give the history and origin of a Rite, which-introduced on this Continent during the latter part of the eighteenth or beginning of the present century-no doubt was germed into existence by the Masonic enthusiasts of Continental Europe, who were as warmly attached to "side" or "complimentary degrees as many of their modern brethren are on the American Continent. To the Companions in Capitular Masonry, the Cryptic Rite is peculiarly attractive; and the rapid progress it has made, and the interest shown in its interesting and beautiful ceremonials, is satisfactory evidence that it is a Rite which will always be recognized as one of the permanent organizations of the great system of Masonry. Dr. Mackey says that the degrees were beyond doubt honorary or side degrees, belonging to and conferred by Inspectors-General of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Whatever claim they had to these degrees was abandoned by the resolution of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite, passed at a meeting held in Baltimore in 1870. By that action all authority over the Cryptic degrees was given up. The degrees were originally independent of one another, and were no doubt the side degrees of the Rite of Perfection, which in 1761 was brought to this side of the Atlantic by Stephen Morin. The Rite of Perfection was, in the opinion of some, founded in 1753, while others assert that it dates from 1758, when a number of Masons at Paris, France, styling themselves "The Sovereign Princes and Grand Officers of the Grand and Sovereign Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem," formed a new body known as "The Council of Emperors of the East and West." This Council, C. T. McClenachan, the well-known Scottish Rite historian, says, has been ordinarily known as the Rite of Perfection; that consisted of twenty-five degrees, and in 1759 it established a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret at Bordeaux. The following extract from the proceedings of the Supreme Council of the A. and A. Rite, for the Southern jurisdiction, on the 4th December, 1802, shows that the Cryptic Degrees, or "the select Masons of twenty-seven," were included in the Degrees claimed by the A. and A. Rite: "On the 21st of January, 1802, a warrant of Constitution passed the seal of the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem, for the establishment of a Mark Master Masons' Lodge, in the City of Charleston, South Carolina. Besides those degrees which are in regular succession, most of the Inspectors are in possession of a number of detached degrees, given in different parts of the world; and which they gener ally communicate, free of expense, to those brethren who are high enough to understand them, such as 'Select Masons of Twenty-Seven,' and the Royal Arch as given under the Constitution of Dublin, six degrees of Maçonnerie d'Adoption, Compagnon Ecossais, le Maître Ecossais, and le Grand Maître Ecossais, etc., etc., making in the aggregate fifty-three degrees." Charles T. McClenachan, in his History of the Scottish Rite, says: "The Royal and Select Masters' Degrees were side or detached degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. In the Southern States of the Union, the Supreme Council initiated, chartered, and fostered Councils of Royal and Select Masters; and as rapidly as they were self-sustaining they became independent. In this wise the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite has gradually thrown aside the detached degrees, and rarely confers any, except the grades designated in the regular series. The Rite is in amity with Symbolic Grand Lodges, Grand Chapters, Councils of Royal and Select Masters, and Grand Commanderies,-recognizing no other bodies claiming to be Masonic." In 1761 the various Councils, Chapters and Lodges and Consistories of the Rite flourished all over the European Continent; and on the 27th August, 1761, Stephen Morin was empowered, as Inspector-General for the New World, by the Grand Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret, convened at Paris under the presidency of Chaillon de Joinville, Substitute-General of the Order, to introduce or confer the degrees in America. Morin sailed for the West Indies, it is supposed, about the year 1762. In 1769 he was in Kingston, Jamaica. In two old rituals of the Twenty-fourth Degree (Kadosh), in possession of Albert Pike, there is a record stating that he was present at a Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret, held in Kingston, in January of 1769. Pike, in his Historical Inquiry into the Constitutions of 1786, says: "We are not in possession of all the successive deputizations, or their dates, by which the powers of Stephen Morin were transferred and DeputyInspectors created. But there is a record (at Charleston) of the filiation of his powers. We learn from it that 'Stephen Morin, Inspector-General of all the Lodges, Chapters, Councils, and Grand Councils, etc., etc., etc., in all parts of the New World, gave the degree of Grand Deputy InspectorGeneral, etc., etc., etc., to the Brother Francken at Jamaica;' at what date we do not find." There seems to be no doubt that Francken imparted these degrees to Moses Michael Hayes, of Boston, Massachusetts as "a Deputy Inspector-General for North America;" and |