The Order of Holy Royal Arch Knight Templar Priest - also called the Order of Holy Wisdom - is a Sovereign body, being independently governed by the Grand College from its headquarters at Castlegate House, in Castlegate, York. While it exercises sole authority over thirty-one dependent degrees, it has become particularly renowned from the degree of that name, today universally recognised as an important facet within the broad structure of Freemasonry.
    Upon investigation, the degree of Knight Templar Priest is one that is to be found in various guises and within several Rites during the eighteenth century. While earlier claims have been made it is known to have existed in Ireland in the last two decades of the eighteenth century, where it also to be found as the 41st degree (white mason) in the Early Grand Rite. It was conferred by ‘Union Bands’ which appeared to have emanated from Craft Lodges where Royal Arch Masons combined with their Templar brethren to propagate the degree with the presiding officer being designated as High Priest. This and several other degrees of the Rite were taken to Scotland in 1798. From there they appear to have spread to Newcastle, Bristol, Bath and York. But with no central administration, circumstances conspired to produce a somewhat tenuous existence, resulting in a dearth of reliable records, until well into the nineteenth century.
    From 1812 the degree was possibly conferred within a Union Band or Tabernacle attached to the Royal Kent Encampment at Newcastle-upon-Tyne which eventually came under the authority of the Council of Knights Grand Cross of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem, a body erected at Newcastle in 1845 to assume control. In the period from 1885-1895 the appendant degrees appear to have been collated in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but in spite of intermittent periods of activity by 1893 the Council had begun to languish. In consequence, Henry Hotham, a Yorkshire Freemason, who was the sole surviving member of the Council, being in possession of the requisite authority, proceeded to admit nine Knights into the degree in March 1894. He conferred the rank of Grand or Past High Priest on each of them, the title used by the leader of the Tabernacle in Newcastle at that time. This positive action must have had a conserving effect for within a few years the Newcastle body was invited to submit to the authority of the Grand Council of the Allied Masonic Degrees in London which, at that time, was aggressively seeking to extend its influence by annexing all unattached Orders and Degrees.
    After satisfactory dialogue the Royal Kent Tabernacle acceded to government by the Allied Masonic Degrees and was immediately granted ‘Time Immemorial’ status, together with the right to continue working its various degrees. However, the bulk of these degrees ceded to the Allied Grand Council proved to be quite impractical and inappropriate for the London body to administer or deploy as the majority of them demanded a Templar qualification, a requirement beyond the Allied Grand Council’s recognised jurisdiction.
    Undoubtedly the most significant and pleasing event in the history of the degree took place in October 1922 when C. W. Napier-Clavering, Grand Master of the Allied Masonic Degrees, announced that his Grand Council would henceforth relinquish authority over those Degrees. This declaration was to stimulate the formation of a governing body for the regulation of the Order. In consequence, Napier-Clavering, who had been admitted as a Knight Templar Priest some ten years previously, was installed as the first Grand High Priest at the inauguration of the Grand College which took place in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in May 1924. Interestingly, some years later, in 1931, the Grand Council under his guidance also relinquished control over the Order of the Secret Monitor.

The Degrees

Knight Templar Priest: While the Grand College has authority over thirty-one appendant degrees within the Rite, only one is conferred in extenso; that of Knight Templar Priest (or Order of Holy Wisdom). The Installation of a High Priest of a Tabernacle comprises only a simple ceremony even though it was originally described as the ne plus ultra of Templar Masonry.
    The regulations of the Order stipulate that a candidate for admission must be a regularly installed Master of the Craft, a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar, and to be a subscribing member of each body. The ritual is quite unique in that it is framed around seven ‘pillar’ officers who are seated at individual pillars set in triangular form, each figuratively representing one of the spirits of the Lamb of God which opened the seven seals as described in The Revelation, chapters 6 - 8.
    The candidate is received as a seeker and is conducted to each of the officers, seated at their respective individually coloured pillars, who are vested with a missal of a similar colour containing the scriptural texts relating to that stage in the candidate’s journey. At each pillar he is required to furnish proof of his possession of the pre-requisite degrees, and during this journey he is instructed in the acquisition of certain divine attributes, each of which relates to one of the seven spirits said to have been revealed by the Lamb of God.
    He is then invested with a tunic, mantle and mitre, and brought before the High Priest where, after prayer, he is obligated, constituted and anointed as a Knight Templar Priest. The ‘modes of recognition’ are then communicated and he is invested with the thirty-one appendant degrees which are conferred by name. Most of these are chivalric degrees such as, for example, Knight of Patmos or Philippi, Knight of the Christian Mark, Knight of Eleusis and Knight of Bethany.
    Finally, his attention is drawn to the triangular symbol of the Priestly Order wherein certain crucial letters alluding to the mysteries of the Degree are enshrined.

High Priest

A candidate for election to the office of High Priest must have served the office of VIth or VIIth Pillar for a full year to qualify for Installation into the chair of a Tabernacle. The ritual is woven around Scriptural readings to be found in the second chapter of the book of Hosea, wherein it relates how God offers forgiveness, and a renewal of his covenant with the Children of Israel. The High Priest elect is duly obligated, constituted and anointed within a Board of Installed High Priests; he is then entrusted with the secrets and, after due proclamation, assumes the responsibilities as ruler of his Tabernacle.

The Grand Point

This profound ceremony does not constitute a degree, but can surely be regarded as the pinnacle of the Rite. It can only be conferred at a meeting of Grand College, following a Ceremony of Consecration, or once during a Tabernacle year, when the Grand High Priest alone, his deputy, or the Grand Superintendent of a District, are permitted to celebrate this solemn ritual. The members assemble in triangular form and pledge with solemn prayer their unfailing reverence for the Holy Trinity. They are therein reminded that the elements of which they collectively partake illustrate that the gifts of love, joy and peace, therewith inwardly received and outwardly shared, are emblems of the unity embodied in that outstanding holy Order.
    The regalia is comprised of a mantle of pure white, worn over a tunic having a full-length red cross to the front, together with a mitre bearing a red cross on the front and back. A High Priest has a taller mitre which features a Patriarchal Cross. Grand College Officers are distinguished by a similar mitre bearing crossed crosiers in gilt affixed at the intersection of the lower arm of the cross together with the number of their pillar, or the initials of their respective rank.

The Merits of the Order

Today this Priestly Order continues to flourish and expand, enjoying an international reputation, with over 220 consecrated Tabernacles, grouped into forty-five Districts situated in fifteen countries. It presents itself as an Order imbued with special qualities, a unique degree which has captured and strengthened the interest of many experienced and high-ranking brethren.
    While the mystic number seven is prevalent within the ceremonial, extensive readings from the Old and New Testaments also play an important part. These at first seem voluminous and overwhelming but the discipline of quiet reflection and careful study affords the thinking Freemason an opportunity to evaluate his role within the scheme of life, for the prescience of his destiny will always sustain the man of Faith.

Keith Jackson is a member of most of the recognised Orders within Freemasonry, holding high office in many. He has lectured extensively over many years and is author of the standard work on extra-Craft degrees, Beyond the Craft.